Daniel McCarthy (1799-1862), and Abigail Barry (1808-1882) emigrated from Mallow, County Cork, Ireland. My mother’s historical records indicate that two sisters of Daniel died at sea on their way to Canada in 1838 – just before the great hunger in Ireland. Another sister stayed in Kingston and married a Dunn from the Baltimore area.
Daniel had been an overseer of an estate in Ireland. Previous ancestors had tried unsuccessfully to make a life in Spain. Daniel and Abigail came to Canada in 1838, the year Owen was born, settling near the Douro boundary, moving to the present homestead near Keene in 1839. They took over 200 acres granted by the Crown – acres that were rocky and covered in bush, some swampy as they were near the Indian river that flowed through Keene. However, the land was arable and the McCarthys set out to clear it and make a home there. My Mom, on a tape recorded in March 1982, said it was her understanding that Daniel, Abigail, and baby Owen, moved their possessions to Keene on a wagon. Perched on top were two boats, with an ox attached to the wagon.
Their first priority was to build some sort of shelter until the log house was ready. This was in the form of a shanty near the Indian River. Legend has it that Mrs. McCarthy cried and wanted to return to Ireland immediately. The Knox family from Villiers helped them. They built a log house that is still in existence at the McCarthy farm, about two kilometers east of Keene on the road between Keene and Hastings.
D. Gayle Nelson in her book, Forest to Farm: Early Days in Otonabee, 2000, describes Keene as it was in 1839. It had three taverns. Roger Bates had built a stone tannery near the mill on the Indian River. There was a school in Keene and one at S.S.#2 Allandale Mills (Lang). A carding mill and shingle mill just opened on the river (and would come to be known as Hope’s Mill). A five-shilling fine was levied on anyone crossing the bridge in Keene at a speed faster than a walk, perhaps a comment on the condition of the structure. (See page 356 of the Nelson book for additional detail on the times in Otonabee)
Daniel is said to have subscribed to the London Times, and the Dublin Free Press. He brought a Gaelic bible with him and wrote letters on behalf of any illiterate neighbours.
He and John Grier were instrumental in having funds collected to build a Catholic church in Keene, walking to Kingston with a petition to have such a church built. The church was built in 1856 on land donated by Squire Carr, a Protestant. It was a frame and plaster building built by Donald McIntyre, that was bricked later in 1883. The McCarthy family donated some of the wood for the construction. The church was heated by a box stove and lit by coal oil lamps. There were sheds for horses at the back of the church. The first pews were privately owned and some parishioners brought their own chairs. Daniel took turns with other men, sleeping in the church on occasion after it opened in 1856, in order to protect it from the Cavan Blazers, an anti-Catholic group.
The brochure for the 125th anniversary of the church in 1981 noted that before there was a church, parishioners, including Daniel McCarthy, walked to Mass in Peterborough, a distance of about 15 miles each way. At the anniversary celebration in the Keene Arena, my Mom and Dad cut the anniversary cake after Mass. At the end of the brochure there is a statement: “Our thanks to Mrs. Earl (Ferne) Doris and the Chancery Office for this historical record.”
Daniel and Abigail had seven children:
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Owen, 1838 -1886, aged 48, father of Vince and others. He was the only one to stay in Ontario. There is a photo of 19-year old Owen in 1857 with a brother. Owen never attended school.
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Ellen, 1840, married a Michael Liddy in Buffalo. Their offspring visited the McCarthy farm in the 1940s, and were reported to be big-framed people who “overflowed the chairs” on which they were seated.
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Elizabeth, 1839. Bess married a Mr. Browne of Buffalo. One of their children was Sister St. Ephrian of Buffalo.
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Daniel, 1847, was believed to have moved to Kansas City, and is rumoured to have campaigned to be mayor.
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Mary, 1847, a twin to Daniel, married a German-American in Boston.
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Patrick, also married an American. No information seems to be available. He may have gone to Michigan.
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John, 1845 – 1917, died at the age of 71. He is believed to have had red hair. He was given his father’s Gaelic bible and a share of the farm with Owen. He sold his share of the farm to Owen and moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1867 at the end of the Civil War, to go into the lumbering business. The 1870 census in Stillwater lists him being 25, his wife Anna, 20 and a baby, Daniel J, aged one.
The Stillwater Gazette of January 10, 1917, has his death notice on page 9. It notes that he married a Miss McGoldrick and “in the early’70s Mr. McCarthy was engaged in the meat market business in Stillwater. Later he logged on the St. Croix River. He was postmaster of Stillwater under Grover Cleveland’s administration; was a candidate for sheriff on the Democratic ticket, and was the candidate of his party for representative to the legislature. In later years he followed the occupation of timber cruiser, making long trips to the south, west, and to Mexico as well as cruising in our own northern woods”. He was a stockholder of two lumber companies. The article also states that: “… he was a widely read man and he had a faculty of retaining the essentials of what he read; he was a charming conversationalist and what he said was always interesting”. John was a member of the Elks, the Knights of Columbus and the Ancient Order of Hibernias. He died in Seattle while he was spending winter on the west coast. He was buried from his home at 713 South Third Street, Stillwater. He is buried in St. Michaels Cemetery there. He had three children: Charlie of Stillwater, Edward, and a daughter, Mrs. Guerin of Hinckley, Minnesota (who later was a secretary to R. B. Bennett in Calgary before he became Prime Minister of Canada).
When Daniel died in 1862 the farm was left to sons Owen, 24, and John, 17. The census of 1871 shows that Mrs. Abigail McCarthy, aged 63, was living in the log house with her daughter, Mary, aged 22. Owen, 33, was living in his new frame house – the current McCarthy house – with his bride of six years, Isobel Daly.
The following was one of the verses of an In Memoriam poem by A. Graham, published when Abigail died:
Her feeling mind it could not rest,
When she knew any one distressed,
Few, few indeed she’s left behind,
With such a feeling loving mind.
When Abigail died at 74 in 1882, all her children, with the exception of Owen, were living in the United States. It should not be surprising that if one were able to leave all behind in Ireland and cross the ocean in a slow ship, taking over six weeks to arrive, that one could easily move to what appeared to be greener pastures in western Canada or south of the border, the more usual choice. The majority of our family members moved to the States in the 1800s and early 1900s – so the “brain drain” people speak of today is nothing new.
