52 Ancestors. Week 35: Unforgettable: The forgotten brother.

Growing up, I knew my grandmother’s sisters. My grandmother was Gertrude Elizabeth McDonough Rogers and her sisters were known to me as Aunt Katherine and Aunt Lou (OK, I know they are great-Aunts, but that’s what we called them).

 

It was only years later (after my grandmother and Aunts had passed), that I located an obituary for my g.grandmother, Mary Doris McDonough that indicates that there was another sibling – her son, John McDonough still alive in 1951 and living in New Bedford, Massachusetts. [1]  As my Mom and I were both interested in family history, I asked my mom about her uncle, John McDonough.  She had never heard of him.

 

It was years later that I found out from my 2^nd cousin, Judy (granddaughter of Katherine McDonough O’Connor), that she had heard that "one day at about the age 16, John left the house to get a pack of cigarettes and never came back."  She had heard her mother say that he moved to Massachusetts. Everyone seems to have lost contact with him and he was forgotten.

 

As I started compiling my family history, I located his birth and baptism at St. Mary Church, Greenwich, Connecticut. [2]  According to the church record, John James McDonough was born 29 November 1893 and baptized 3 December 1893 (the official birth certificate says he was born 18 November 1893 and that is the date that John James uses throughout his life).

 

So where did John James go? I found his WW1 Draft Card from 1917 and he is living in New York City working as a chauffeur for a “Mrs. Woodcock” on Coney Island. [3] He says he has wife, but no name is given and he claims a “dependent” exemption from the draft.

 

 

 

Apparently he was less than truthful as he didn’t marry until 1919, when he married Mae (or Mary) Charlotte Frank, daughter of Gus Frank and Mary Even on 4 Feb 1919 in Manhattan, New York City. His parents are given as Frank McDonough and Mary Doris.[4]

 

From there, he is found in the 1920 Federal census with his wife, Mary C. living as “boarders” in Manhattan, NYC and his still working as a chauffeur. [5]

 

 

 

John J. McDonough and his wife disappear until 1940. They are not found in the 1925 NY State census and the 1930 census in New York, Massachusetts, or Rhode Island (or anywhere else for that matter), but they do show up on the 1940 Federal census for Newport, Rhode Island as John James McDonough and  Mary C. There are apparently no children as none are listed and he is unemployed. Their address in 1935 is given as South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. [6]

 

John James McDonough died on 2 February 1942 in Burrillville, Providence, Rhode Island of Pulmonary Tuberculosis and had last worked in 1938. [7] His wife Mary Frank is still alive at this time and his parents Frank McDonagh and Mary Doris are identified on the death certificate. He is buried in the St. Columba Cemetery in Middletown, Rhode Island. He had no children and none of his family even knew he had died. He now has a Find-A-Grave entry that connects him with his siblings and parents (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/213469734/john-james-mcdonough), although there is no photo of the grave (if one exists) yet.

 

 

 

John James, the forgotten brother, died 9 years before his mother, Mary Doris McDonough. Even in her 1951 obituary, John James McDonough’s siblings thought he was still alive. Despite whatever happened to cause him to leave home and his siblings, he is now restored to the family and will no longer be forgotten.

 

 

[1] “Mrs. Mary McDonough.” Greenwich Library clipping. Greenwich Times (Greenwich, Connecticut), September 7, 1951.

[2] St. Mary Church, “Baptism Register,” p.157, “Joanneum Jacobum,” baptism  3 December 1893, born 29 November 1893; Parish archive, Greenwich, Connecticut.

[3] United States World War 1 Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” images, Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6482/ : accessed 20 July 2020), card John James McDonough, serial no. 123, New York City, New York.

[4] “New York City Marriages, 1829-1940,” database,

FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2143225 : accessed 21 May 2020), Entry for John James McDonough - May Charlotte Frank, 4 Feb 1919; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York, FHL microfilm 1,643,254.

[5] 1920 U.S. census, New York County, New York, Manhattan Borough, p. 8A, dwelling 22, family 182, line 19, ED 1070, John McDonough household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6061/ : accessed 26 June 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T625 roll 1213, Image 15/43.

[6] 1940 U.S. census, Newport County, Rhode Island, Newport, p. 61B, house 396, line 45, ED 3-37, John J.McDonough household; digital image, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/2442/ : accessed 26 June 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T627 roll 3760, image 45/47.

[7] “Rhode Island Deaths and Burials, 1802-1950,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F8H5-48K : accessed 21 May 2020), certificate of death image, John James McDonough, 2 Feb 1942, no. 42-23, citing “Rhode Island Department of Public Health, Division off Vital Statistics.”

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Troublesome.

 

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Troublesome.  

Abraham Morehouse was a very bad boy. He was a land speculator, land grabber, forger, debtor, a bigamist, and fugitive from New York justice.

 Abraham Morehouse, born about 1767, was the youngest son of Col. Andrew Morehouse of Dutchess County, New York. Col. Morehouse of the 3^rd Regimenmt of the Dutchess County Militia, was a well known proprieter of the Morehouse Taven on the Fishkill-Hopewell Road in what is now South Dover, Dutchess County near the Connecticut State boundary. His Tavern was frequented by General George Washington (where he wrote several letters in 1780-1781) and other important commanders of the American Revolution.

 In January of 1789, Abraham Morehouse ran afoul of the law in New York City. He was indicted on two charges of forging a bond and for uttering and publishing the bond, knowing that it was forged. In 1789, a guilty verdict meant the hangman’s noose. Abraham seemed to be brimming with confidence as he defended himself at the trial and even published a document of the trial. [1] He was only half successful as he was acquitted of the first charge, but not the second and, in May 1789, was sentenced to be executed. [2]

 

 

Of course, this must of horrified his father, a patriot of the recently won War against England. Hearing of the news, old Col. Andrew Morehouse wrote a letter to the President of the newly formed United States of America, his Excellency George Washington, dated 29 May 1789, calling on his past association with the General during the War, and to plead for his son’s life: “My youngest son, a promising youth of twenty three now lies under the sentence of Death on the City of Newyork & will be executed in the 5^th of June unless mercy can be extended, he was convicted of a Certain forgery, and many peopl thinks unjustly but whether that is the case or not, I do not know, but Your Excellency must be sensible that Guilty or Inocent his dying so shamefull a death must bring an Irreperable disgrace upon me and my family.” [3] No response was located in Washington’s papers, but on 6 June 1789, the Governor of New York (the esteemed George Clinton, friend of Washington and also associate of Morehouse during the War), announced that he “has been pleased to grant a respite, of one month, to Abraham Morehouse…who were to have been executed yesterday.” [4].

 Apparently no execution took place, but really not learning from the event, Abraham Morehouse again ran into the law. By 1797, Col. Morehouse and his family had moved from South Dover to Johnstown, Montgomery Co., NY. In the meantime, Abraham Morehouse had married an Abigail Youngs (about 1790) and had two sons, Andrew and George Youngs. But in New York City he was a wanted man and the Court ordered the Sheriffs of Montogomery County to find him.

 By 1798, Abraham Morehouse was some forty thousand dollars in debt (which is a LOT of money in 1797!) to an Edmund Prior. Abraham apparently did not show up in Court or respond to the Court order, but in 1796, he was found to be in the possession of some 50,000 acres of land granted to him in the new territory of Kentucky (recently split from Virginia). It was probably after this run-in with the Courts that he abandoned his wife and children and left New York and headed to Kentucky to engage in land speculation.

 It was in Kentucky that Abraham Morehouse met up with the land speculator, the Baron de Bastrop (not his real name and he was NOT a Baron). Morehouse purchased an interest from Bastrop in the Spanish Land “grant” in the Ouachita Valley, Louisiana (but no monetary documents exist) and was contracted to induce immigrants to settle the area.  Apparently he was only partially successful in fulfilling this contract while engaging in further land speculation in Ouachita and defaulting on loans, leaving a legacy of Louisiana Court cases. An extensive and scholarly treatment of these complex land grabs is described in detail in Mitchell and Calhoun (1939). [5]

 

Abraham wasn’t done yet! While still married to Abigail Youngs back in old New York, Abraham Morehouse, passed himself as a widower and married Eleanor Hook in 1799 at Fort Miró, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana and had several children by her. [6] Eleanor had no knowledge that his wife was still alive until about 1804. At the time of his 2^nd marriage he had also passed himself off as a Colonel (but he had no military service and probably took that title from his father). DeWitt Clinton, who was largely responsible for the Eire Canal,  upon visiting Johnson Hall in Johnstown, New York in 1810 describes Morehouse as “a complete villain, who was pardoned when under sentence of death. He is now in the Orleans Territory, a member of their legislature, and worth $200,000.” [7]

Abraham Morehouse passed away about October 1813 in the Mississippi Territory. [8] 

 

 

After hearing this, both Abigail and her sons, Andrew and George, came to Ouachita to claim Abraham’s lands along with Eleanor and her heirs, which resulted in lengthy court cases lasting over 30 years. In the final court case, widely reported in the press in 1846, the court decided to split the claims between the two wives’ heirs. [9].

 

 

 

Despite all of his shenanigans, the parish of Morehouse in northern Louisiana was named for Abraham Morehouse and the largest city in Morehouse Parish is Bastrop.

 

[1]  Morhouse, Abraham, The First Trial of A. Morhouse, for forgery. Written by Himself. New York, 1789 in the Evans Early American Imprint Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. https://name.umdl.umich.edu/N17047.0001.001.

[2] “Supreme Court,” Daily Advertiser, (New York, New York), 11 May, 1789, Vol. V, issue 1316, page 2.

[3] George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence: Andrew Morehouse to George Washington. 1789, Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https.www.loc.gov/item/mgw436404.

[4] “Excellency; Governor;Abraham Morehouse,” New-York Daily Gazette, (New York, New York) 6 Jun 1789, Issue 138, p. 546.

[5] Jennie O’Kelly Mitchell and Robert Dabney Calhoun, “The Marquis de Maison Rouge, The Baron de Bastrop, and Colonel Abraham Morehouse, Three Ouachita Valley Soldiers of Fortune. The Maison Rouge and Bastrop Land ‘Grant,’” Louisiana Historical Quarterly, XX (1937), especially  369-462.

[6] Ibid, p. 454-456.

[7] “Obituaries.” New York Weekly Museum, (New York, New York), 16 October 1813, Vol. 2, Issue 24, p. 95.

[8] William W. Cambell. The Life and Writing of De Witt Clinton, (New York: Barker & Scribner, 1849), p. 200.

[9] “Important Land Suit,” New York Herald, 20 January 1846, p. 3, col. 2

 

52 Ancestors: SMALL. A small amount of time in the United States.

 

52 Ancestors: SMALL. A small amount of time in the United States.

John McDonough came from Ireland on the ship SS Republic and arrived at the Port of Boston, Massachusetts on 2 September 1904 with his family (1). Just four weeks later he was dead, leaving a widow and at least 12 children.  He was about 60 years old and the cause of death was cerebral apoplexy.

 

According the ship manifest, John and his family were going to his daughter in New York City, a Mrs. John Ireland. John McDonough also had three living siblings in the United States, all in Greenwich, Connecticut: Frank McDonough (my g.grandfather), James McDonough, and Annie McDonough McSweeney. Another sibling, Eliza McDonough Cullen, died in 1894 in Greenwich. He also had a brother, Patrick McDonough, who remained in Ireland. His brother James would suffer a tragic accident on the RR tracks in Greenwich just a year later.

 

John McDonough died on 10 October 1904 (although his death is recorded in the Family Bible

as “John McDonagh, brother of Frank McDonagh, died October 24, 1904”) in Brooklyn, New York and his parents on the death certificate were John McDonough and Lizzie Brady (2); the same parents as given for his siblings in America and Ireland. There is no birth or baptism record for John McDonough found in Ireland, but his siblings were all born in Clonbroney Parish, County Longford, around the village of Ballinalee, so it is likely he was also born there, probably about 1848 or 1849. Clonbroney Parish records started after 1848, so if he were born there, he would not have been recorded in the parish records.

 

It’s not clear why he and his brother remained in Ireland, while all of his America-bound siblings came in the mid-1880s, nor why he chose to come to America at this time. He had been living in nearby Templemichael Parish, where he married Marie Quinn and where his children were born. He was also enumerated there in the 1901 Ireland census. [3]

 

It is tragic that he died so soon after coming to America. Fortunately, his widow did have an older, married daughter already living in Brooklyn, and McDonough siblings not far away in Connecticut. He and his wife are buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. Although his time here in this country was small, he left numerous children who went on with their lives in their new country.

 

[1] “Massachusetts, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1963,” database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/8745/: accessed 12 February 2020) entry for SS Republic, stamped page 66, lines 3-10, John McDonagh, 2 September 1904; citing NARA microfilm publication T843, roll 76.

[2] Certificate of Death, State of New York, City of New York, #20033, John McDonough, 10 Oct 1904.

[3] 1901 Census of Ireland, County Longford, Templemichael, Cloonahard, digital image, National Archives of Ireland (http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/), house 3, John McDonagh.