Edward Donahue (1893-1970)

Edward Donahue of the second generation of American-born Donahues and my first Canadian Donahue immigrant.  A difficult man to track down, I have successfully found record of his early life in Minnesota and his move to Saskatchewan, Canada. My father met Edward (his grandfather) once as a child and recollects that he moved around for work (with the train? one possible reason for the difficulty in tracing him). He also remembered that he played the fiddle and that he was a heavy drinker. There are many gaps in my knowledge of the Donahues in Canada and I am keen on meeting others who might have a relation.

I have gathered from several different American cenuses that Edward was born in April of 1893, in Olmstead, Minnesota where his family had settled on a farm at least 30 years prior. They must have been doing well enough on the farm as they have a servant, Edward Koverleska (age 43 from Germany), and a boarder, Gurt Mattson (age 34 from Sweden)- both who are listed as farm labourers.

Edward looks to have been the 5th in a family of 10 children to parents Dennis Edward Donahue and Hannah Sullivan, although the 1910 federal census reveals that there were originally 12 (2 had died). There was the first child, Anna E. (born in 1888), the second, Agnes (1889), the third was Elizabeth (1890), the fourth was Dennis Jr.(1892), then Edward, and Florance (1895), Hannah (1899), Charles Francis (1901), Harold J. (1904), and finally the youngest, Ellen C. (1906). All were born in Minnesota and lived the life of a farming family where their grandparents from both sides also owned acreage nearby.

Edward Donahue helped on the farm alongside his father when he finished school as a teenager, as the 1910 census (right) reveals. His older siblings all lived at home but worked beyond the farm: his sister Anna was a milliner at a shop in town, Agnes & Elizabeth were teachers in the local school, and his older brother Dennis worked as an engineer. The younger ones all still attended school. It appears that Edward was possibly planning to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps and continue to farm, while his other siblings joined the professional world.

Moving North to Canada

On April 9, 1913 (only 3 years later), Edward suddenly made his way up to the Canadian border. I don’t know of the reason for this, yet I have the border crossing document from North Portal, Saskatchewan.

On this document, “Ed”‘s birth date is estimated to be two years earlier (he says he is 22 when he’s actually 20) and his birthplace matches up as Minnesota. I am sure this is my Edward Donahue from the information given and the province he is headed to. His destination is a place called Milestone and has $45.00 with him for travel costs, etc. I’ve looked into the community of Milestone and found that it is considered to be the “bread basket of the world”, where agriculture is the base of the community. This would make sense to Edward as he was working on the family farm previously and likely learning how he could eventually run his own agricultural project. Milestone was a relatively new community at the time: it had only been incorporated in 1906 (7 years prior) and the farm land and laboring opportunities were likely advertised in the prairies south of the border.

After this arrival, Edward may or may not have tried to lease or purchase land in Milestone. In any case, he ended up in nearby Carmichael, where he worked as a farm laborer.  The year 1916 saw Edward as a single man trying to earn enough money and experience to make it on his own as a farmer in the future.   He was a naturalized citizen (as of 1913), although on the census he states that he arrived in 1909- a discrepancy at this point.

Marriage to a Rasmussen

Some time within the next three years, Edward would have met and married a woman named Clara RASMUSSEN who was the first generation of North Americans in her family from Denmark. I have not found the couple’s marriage record and am still on the hunt for this.

The couple’s  first child, my grandfather Dennis Edward Donahue (named for his father and grandfather), was born in Carmichael. Four other children would follow:  Donald Joseph Francis Donahue (born September 26, 1920), Vernon Charles Donahue (October 17, 1922, Gull Lake, Sask.), Florance Mary Clark (born September 22, 1924) and Alice Evangeline Murphy (born April 7, 1925).

After their children’s dates of birth I have no other record of Edward or Clara beyond rough death dates. This research is ongoing. Their children all had families of their own.

Donald married a woman named Gay and they had 5 children together.

Dennis, my grandfather, had four children in Windsor Ontario.

Vernon lived in Taber, Alberta with his wife Dorothy and 5 children.

Alice married a man named James Murphy on April 23, 1947 in Moosejaw and they had 4 children.

Florance married Roy Clark and had 3 children with him.

All of the children of Edward and Clara are now deceased, and I look to their descendants to fill in the many gaps on the Donahue family in Canada.