Dennis E. Donahue (1859-1925)

Dennis Edward or “Edmund” DONAHUE , my great x 2 grandfather, was born on November 19, 1860 into an Irish immigrant family in Ripon, Fond du lac, Wisconsin (USA). He was among the first generation of the Donahue family to be born and raised in America, and his birth coincided with the beginning of the American Civil War. This was a tumultuous time in America and surely was filled with both hope and anxiety for the immigrant Donahue family. Both of Dennis Edward’s parents, Dennis and Julia, were born in Ireland and were of the illiterate working class. They came west from Massachusetts where they landed in part of a major land grab that followed the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (1851) between the USA government and the Dakota people. The Donahues were part of the first major wave of immigrants seeking the promise of fertile land in a time when Minnesota was pressured into civil war (1/7th of the state’s population were conscripted), and when the Dakota wars intensified violent relations between starving and displaced local indigenous Dakota people and immigrant settlers. During these tensions, the Donahue family settled on a farm in Olmstead, Minnesota near the Mississippi river, which became the family estate. The grandparents, Michael & Eliza Donahue, came over from Ireland afterwards and lived with their family, all farming together in a tightly knit Irish-American community.

Building an Irish-American Farming Family

Dennis Edward was the youngest in a family of 6 children born in America, which included four sisters and a brother: Elizabeth Higgins (born 1851 in Mass., died 1887 in Olmstead MN.), Margaret (born 1852 in Mass.), Mary (born 1854 in Mass.), Michael (born 1856 in Canada/Wisconsin), Julia McElgunn (born February 1858 in Wisconsin- died October 18, 1950 in New Westminster BC, Can.).

The Donahue family’s land in Olmsted was an estate of 200 acres. It is listed on several historical maps of the area- 1896 (below), 1914, and even after Dennis E.’s  death (as an estate in his name) in 1928. Looking at the map, many familiar Irish names emerge, and it is worth noting the phenomenon of clannish immigrant farming in the area, where 24% of High Forest’s community were Irish (see the Post Bulletin for reference on this Irish immigrant community). As one of these new Irish American farmers determined to profit and not simply move to St. Pauls city, Dennis Edward helped his father as as farm laborer. He worked as a farm hand, learning from his father’s efforts to work the American soil with the aim of owning his own farm.

When he was 27 years old (1886) he married Hannah Catherine Sullivan (b. March 11, 1864), the daughter of another Irish immigrant couple: Edward Sullivan and Winnifred Ann Murphy who lived on a nearby farm. They likely had many things in common and their parents probably knew one another, possibly even moving west in the same wave of Irish.

Dennis Edward and Hannah followed in their parents’ footsteps, creating a stable farming home together and raising a large family. To the left is a section of the 1896 Olmstead County map- made one year after Dennis E. & Hannah’s marriage. It shows the Donahue properties (which I’ve outlined in red) and related land (through marriage). Near the top is Dennis Edward‘s large farm, with his father, Dennis‘ plot south from there and his grandfather, Michael‘s smaller farm further south.

Looking at the county map, it is easy to see how close the local farming community was. The farm lot to the east of Dennis senior belonged to the Thomas family. Anna Donahue, Dennis E.’s first child married into this family. To the top right of the map are the McElgunns, whose family Julia, Dennis E.’s youngest sister married into. The Sullivan family, Dennis E’s wife’s family, owned several lots (outlined in yellow) nearby.

Dennis E. and Hannah had 12 children, although two daughters died young and were buried with their parents somewhere in Olmstead.  The ten children that they raised together became successful and all went to school. This was likely driven by the fact that the grandparents had never seen an education in their native Ireland.  Their eldest daughter, Anna Thomas (b. 1888), became a milliner. Their second and third children, Agnes (b. 1889) and Elizabeth (b. 1890) both became school teachers and likely taught at the two schools nearby the Donahue farm (see map above). Their son, Dennis (b. 1892) was an automobile mechanic.

Dennis E. was also doing well enough on his farm to hire farm hands and house servants of Swedish & German descent who would have been more recent immigrants to Minnesota (3rd wave) to aid himself and wife Hannah in managing the land alongside a large family (as can be seen above on the 1900 Federal Census). I attribute this first introduction to Europeans as potentially the spark for Dennis E.‘s 5th child’s (my great grandfather Edward) initial interest in his future wife who came from a Danish immigrant family. Prior to this it is evident that the Donahues remained with other Irish immigrant families.

The Donahue family remained on the land while others moved on after the first world war (* I hope to research who in the family was involved in the world wars). In the 1920 census Dennis E. and Hannah are still housing their three youngest children- Charley (18), Harold (14) and Ellen (12), the two youngest both attending school. They must have felt tired as they were continuing to farm and were now ages 60 and 55. Five years later, on August 9, 1925, Dennis E. died and left the estate to his family. 

Hannah moved in with her daughters Agnes and Ellen after she was left a widow. According to the census of 1930 (above), they rented a home at #10 11th Ave. SW for $50/month. Agnes (30) & Ellen (23) both worked and earned the rent and Frances Fitzpatrick (11) would have likely been looked after by her grandmother Hannah. This living situation likely persisted for some time as Hannah’s death record shows that she lived to be nearly 100, passing away in 1963.

The next generation of Donahues

What happened to their children after the deaths of Dennis E. & Hannah? It seems that several children retired in California as they aged (from Death records), and most had families of their own. Research on this continues and input from descendants will help this story unfold.

Anna E. Donahue (b. Nov. 1888), the family milliner, married a man named Christopher Thomas who grew up on the farm next to her grandfather’s. They had a large family together of at least 7 children who have been listed on the 1930 Federal Census: Anna Kathleen (b. 1915), Etta Marie (b. 1916), Jasmina R. (b. 1918), Rachel (b. 1919), Frances Emily (b. 1921), Christopher J. (b. 1923) and Paul (b. 1929). They ran a farm together in Olmstead (see my blog entry about this family).

Agnes J. Donahue (b. 12 Feb. 1889, MN) started out on her own sometime before 1920. On the census record of that year, she is living with her younger sister Florence (21) and another lodger named Martha King (22). Her age is confusing on census records- on this and following censuses she is listed as 10 years younger than what her age was listed as earlier. Despite this I am sure it is the same Agnes.  In 1920 she works as a clerk in a local hardware store, and her sister and roommate are nurses. They all live together in an apartment on 16th st. in Minneapolis.

In the following decade, her father passed away and she alongside her younger sister Ellen and niece Frances Fitzpatrick moved in with their mother (1930). Soon after she would have married a man named Frank Fogerty and had 3 children: Marie (b. 1931), Patsy (b. 1932), and Frances (b. 1933). Agnes died in Riverside California on September 24, 1981.

Elizabeth V. Snyder (b. September 14, 1889) married John R. Snyder and had at least 3 children with him: Donna Jean Snyder, Robert Snyder, and Mary Ireane Snyder (b. 1924). According to the 1925 Iowa State census, the family lived in Waterloo, Black Hawk, Iowa and had only been there for 6 months. They lodged with another family called the Prescotts in a place that they rented for $32/month.

Elizabeth’s death record shows that she lived to be 93 years old. She died in Hennepin, MN on October 31, 1982.

Dennis Donahue jr. (b. November 25, 1891) was listed as an engineer in Federal censuses as a young man. In 1930, the Federal census shows that he works as an auto mechanic in a garage in Rochester MN. He is listed as a World War 1 veteran and is now married to a woman named Frances Anna Hines, also from Olmstead. He and his family rent a house for $40/month. Dennis had 4 children that I know of: Duane F. (b. 1923, lived in Richmond, California), Harold (b. 1925 lived in Daly City), Lorraine McCausland (b. 1926 lived in Pinole California) and Dean Richard Donahue (b. Sept 28, 1927. Lived in El Sobrante, California, married Doris Caffey Small. d. Oct 10, 2010).

Dennis died at age 81, in Richmond, Contra Costa, California on February 1, 1973 and his obituary gives greater colour to what I have gleaned from censuses, including that he had 6 grandchildren.

Edward Donahue, my great grandfather, moved north to Canada as his aunt Julia McElgunn had done prior.

Hannah Donahue (b. April 1899) married a farm laborer named Mike Fitzpatrick and had a daughter with him called Francine (b. 1919). The Fitzpatrick family farm was near the Donahue farm when Hannah was growing up and the families likely knew each other. On the 1920 federal census, the family lived in Rochester, MN and rented a suite in a home from an elderly widow who also lived there. Strangely, I have not found Hannah or Mike on the 1930 census, but their daughter lived with her grandmother Hannah and aunts Ellen and Agnes.  I am not sure if this means that her mother had passed away, but it is likely so as Mike lived until 1952.

Florence Marie Donahue (b. May 19, 1899) lived with her sister and roommate in 1920 in the city of Minneapolis and worked as a nurse. She married a man with the last name Hansen, although I have no other record of them or the children they may have had together. She died in Los Angeles on February 18, 1949 at age 49.

Charles Francis Donahue (b. 1901) died at the young age of 36 in Nicolet, MN on May 14, 1936. He is buried in St. Bridget’s cemetery, in Pleasant Grove, Olmstead, MN.

Harold Thomas Donahue (b. March 14, 1904) married a woman named Mildred and they had at least 2 children that I know of: June Donahue (b. 1932) and Larry Donahue (b. 1947). In his brother Denis’ obituary he is listed as living in Canada. His family needs further research, although it appears that he may have died in St. Paul, Ramsay, Minnesota on November 3, 1998 at the age of 98.

Ellen C. Kramer (b. 1906) lived with her mother after her father passed away. During that time she was a lab worker in a medical clinic. Like her older sister, Florence, she was clearly drawn to medicine. She must have married and had children later on, but I have yet to have found record of this. My reason for believing that she had a family is the inscription on her headstone which reads “mother”. A listing on the Minnesota cemetery inscription list could likely be her. If so, she was buried in St. Bridget’s cemetery as her brother Charles had been. She is listed on her brother Denis’ obituary as residing in Rochester, Minnesota.