Daniel McCarthy

Daniel, 1872 -1919 (son of Owen McCarthy and Isabel Daly)

Daniel was a big man, and married Maggie Kennaley who died in 1963. Maggie is remembered as having a terrific personality. She used to sing and play the piano to liven things up at her brother’s saloon. Mick Kennaley ran the Victoria House Hotel at the southwest corner of the main intersection in Keene until he died at age 87 in 1947. Mick ran a stagecoach from Keene to Peterborough in earlier times, and brought the mail to several post offices including Hiawatha. He was also tax collector in Otonabee as well as a barber.

Fern Doris said she remembered that Dan and Maggie used to keep milk and cheese cool by putting them in a pail and dropping it down a well into a cool spring.

Daniel and Maggie had eight children:

1. Joseph died in Cambria in 1918, during World War I, after developing meningitis from a wound. He is buried at Etapes, France. Fern Doris remembered him picking her up and swinging her around in the air before he left for the war.
2. Isabella remained single and worked in Buffalo as a bookkeeper. The oldest girl in both Vince’s and Daniel’s families was named after Isobel Daly.
3. Michael took over the farm opposite Stewart Nelson’s farm. He loved to sing and lived in a small log house until he died in 1965. Mike had a reputation as a storyteller at social events in the community. He was quarantined along with Fern Doris and her siblings during the small pox epidemic, and regaled them with wonderful stories.
4. James, 1905-71, married Thressa Claridge, 1907 – 2001, and lived in Keene in a house that was later moved to Lang Century Village where it can be seen today as an inn. He was a banker and township clerk, keeping excellent books. He joined the army in World War II and I remember him hitch-hiking home to Keene. Several of his children held very responsible positions in banks. Thressa celebrated her 90th birthday on November 7, 2000 at a party at Elmhirst’s resort.

   James and Thressa had eight children:

   • Joseph Edward (Ted), 1930-2001
   • Mary Abigail, 1931-2001
   • Gwendolyne Anne, 1936
   • James Claridge (Jim), 1937
   • Donald Michael, 1939 – 2009
   • Pauline Thressa, 1941
   • Kathryn Joanne (Kate), 1953, married to Jim Loucks
   • Margaret Jane Christine, 1951
5. Mabel, who played the organ and piano, married Clint McGee of Stirling, and then moved to Whitby. They had four children.
6. Peggy Margaret, 1910 -1976, was a nurse who served in World War II and then at St. Joseph Hospital in Peterborough.  She was married to Bill Garvey of Peterborough.
7. Catherine, – 1975, was also a nurse who served as night nurse to Robert “Sam” McLaughlin, the founder of General Motors Canada.  She was married to John Barton and lived in Whitby.
8. Owen, 1915 – 1973. The youngest child was only four and the only child to live with his mother after his father Daniel was killed. He married Martha Cybulski in Kingston.

Daniel died on July 5, 1919, aged 47, when the team bolted and he fell off the rake in a field by Plunkett’s corner. Vince saw the dust rising from the field. Then Mabel, Dan’s young daughter ran into the house calling, “Papa’s hurt !”. Vince ran out followed by Gene, 13 and my mother, Fern, 11, who found their uncle lying in a gully. He was lifted onto a wagon and taken to the doctor in Keene where he died.

After Dan was killed, the family split up. Four-year-old Owen stayed with his mother. The rest of the children went to other families. Jim was already working in the bank in Keene. Catherine stayed with Mick Kennaley. Mabel went to Stirling to her aunt Josie’s home and Isobel continued working as a secretary in Buffalo.

Dan’s widow, Maggie re-married. Her second husband was a much younger man, P. J. Barnes, a banker in Millbrook.