Those who followed our “Our Irish Roots” hunt for the Keenan connection to the Thomas McDonough family may remember that our eventual success hinged on having one of our Keenans divulge in a 1926 letter that Mary Ann Keenan (1814-1897) was both a sister of my ggg-gf Hugh Keenan (1799-1879) AND a cousin of a wealthy Sarah Connolly whom she had lived with in Pittsburgh. In tracking down Sarah Connolly (1821-1899), we discovered that indeed our Mary Ann Keenan was living with Sarah and husband Martin Connolly in the 1870 Pittsburgh census.
That led to extensive conversations with Steven Connolly, who had carefully documented the life of his 2nd great uncle Martin (1814-1874), a very well-to-do Pittsburgh baker/grocer. Taking into account Steven’s previous efforts to identify Sarah Connolly’s maiden name, we were together able to deduce for certain that it was McDonough, and that Sarah Connolly was a daughter of Hugh McDonough (ca. 1790-ca. 1843), and granddaughter of our Thomas McDonough (ca. 1750-1828). Sarah’s father, Hugh McDonough, was brother and brother-in-law of my gggg-grandmother Alvy McDonough (ca. 1778-aft. 1830) and my gggg-grandfather John Keenan (1775-aft 1830), the parents of my Mary Ann Keenan.
Check the Thomas McDonough Family Tree in “Our Irish Roots” Appendix V, and you will readily see how MaryAnn Keenan and Sarah Connolly were first cousins.
Steven and I had lengthy conversations about members and associates of Martin Connolly’s family who were enumerated in the 1850 Pittsburgh. PA census. Listed there were some McDonough household members: Hugh McDonough (baker, born PA, age 22) , George McDonough (baker, born IRE, age 22), and Rebecca McDonough (born PA, age 51).
I have already commented on the life of Sarah Connolly’s mother, Rebecca McDonough, in my post of 12/5/2017. Steven has identified the George McDonough as a relative of a Connolly-associated McDonough family, not ours, which arrived in the U.S. during the 1840s.
I was very fortunate to get a good lead on the person whom I believe to be the young 1850 baker Hugh McDonough by my chance reading of the 1897 Pennsylvania will of Sarah Connolly, who died in 1899. Therein she states: “[Item] 12 – To Sadie, Francis Rebecca, and Mary McDonough, daughters of my brother Hugh, I give five hundred dollars each.” So it’s reasonable to assume that the 22 year-old Hugh in 1850 was most likely the one who was Sarah’s brother.
In the 1860 Rock Island, Illinois census, there is a Hugh McDonough, age 31, born PA, journeyman baker, with wife Bridget, born Ireland 1830, with children whose names very closely match those mentioned in Sarah Connolly’s will. Given the children’s ages and birthplaces, this family arrived in Illinois between 1854 and 1857.
The children and/or wife of this 1860 Rock Island, IL Hugh McDonough are in the 1870, 1880, Illinois censuses, and 1880-1910 Rock Island city directory and newspaper reports, but, with one single exception, Hugh is not.
What I did find for the post-1860 whereabouts of our 1850 census Hugh are Civil War service/enlistment records showing that he was born Greene Co., PA ca. Oct 1828. An 1887 record from the U.S. National Homes for Volunteer Soldiers, Leavenworth, KS shows a Hugh McDonough, born PA ca. 1829, who enlisted ca. 11-30-1861 at Central City, CO Territory into Co. K of the 1st Colorado Cavalry, and later 1-1-1864 at Ft. Lyon, CO Territory into Co. A of the 1st Colorado Cavalry. He was discharged in Oct 1865 at Denver, CO and subsequently was living in El Paso TX . “.Status: single; religion: Catholic, Occupation: Baker.” Most significantly, his nearest relative is listed as “brother James McDonough, Jacksonville, Oregon.”
I was really fascinated that this guy was in the Colorado Cavalry for most of the War. I had no idea Colorado was even in the Civil War, but apparently the Union found it necessary to station troops there in the newly formed Territory to prevent the Confederates from getting their hands on gold and silver that had been mined there. The cavalry units saw quite a bit of war action, but mostly against Indians. One of the companies of 1st Colorado Cavalry (not Hugh’s) was responsible for the infamous Sand Creek (Chivington) Massacre in 1864.
We do know for certain that the above Colorado Union soldier was the Hugh McDonough described by Sarah Connolly as heir in her will because it’s a known fact that our McDonoughs were in Greene Co., PA in the 1820s, and their brother James McDonough (1826-1901) relocated to Jacksonville, Oregon in 1851-52.
What we cannot be absolutely certain of, however, is if the Colorado soldier was the same Hugh McDonough with wife and children who was in the 1860 Rock Island, IL census. It certainly does appear that he was that person and left his family and joined the military at the outbreak of the Civil War. It is possible that the family did not know where he was for many years, but then he briefly resurfaced in Illinois. Bridget McDonough is listed simply as widow in both the 1870 and 1880 census, and also in the Rock Island, IL City Directory from 1882-85. But, in 1888, a Hugh McDonough shows up in Rock Island City Directory at exactly the same address as for the 1882-85 “widow.” In 1888, he is residing there with Daisy—no mention of Bridget. “Daisy” is the nickname for Mary C. McDonough, the youngest McDonough child listed in 1860 census. Thereafter, from 1892 to her death in 1899, Bridget McDonough is listed in the Rock Island City Directory as (wid of Hugh).
During the post-Civil War period, the only other Hugh McDonough finding we could discover was his presence periodically 1887-1897 in the US Hospital for Disabled Veterans, Leavenworth, KS. On 8 Jul 1889, he filed for a veteran’s pension – as invalid- “eye problems.” This Hugh McDonough’s vintage 1890 US Civil War pension file (Colorado) for the appropriate Colorado military units show that he deceased Oct 12 1897. There is a gravesite that we believe to be that of Hugh at the Colorado State Veterans Cemetery/ (Homelake Cemetery, Soldiers and Sailors Home Cemetery) in Monte Vista, Rio Grande County, CO.
Bridget McDonough died in Rock Island, IL in 1899. By tracking her child Frances Rebecca, I discovered that Bridget’s maiden name was McCaffery. The McDonough children, whose names totally synch with those in Sarah Connolly’s will, lived in Illinois for a while after their mother died, became nurses, and eventually ended up in Pasadena, CA, where newlywed Francis Rebecca McDonough was in Sep 1914 brutally shot in a very bizarre and sensational murder-suicide episode.
Connecting suspect Hugh McDonough from Pittsburgh to Rock Island, IL is problematic because I can find no record whatsoever of his marriage or his pre-1860 whereabouts after the 1850 census. Other than the children’s names in the Pennsylvania Connolly will, the only Pittsburgh connection I have been able to find to the Rock Island McDonough family is a 1903 Rock Island newspaper report that two of the daughters (Mary and Frances) were in Pittsburgh “visiting relatives.”
