Great-Grandma Anna Morgan

Anna Morgan was born on the 20th of September 1846 in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England. Her parents were Patrick Morgan and Katherine (Kitty) McAlpine. She is listed on the English Census record of 1861 living with her parents and sisters Mary, 17, and Margaret, 6. At the tender age of 16, Anna married an Irish immigrant, John O'Malley, on September 13, 1863 at the Catholic Chapel on Oxford St., Wolverhampton. Her father, Patrick Moughan (sic) is listed on the marriage record. Her first three daughters were born here: Mary in 1864, Catherine in 1866, and Sarah in 1867.

During the family's stay in England, a special visitor came to Wolverhampton. In 1866, Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria arrived to celebrate the unveiling of a statue of her late husband, Prince Albert. The town square was arrayed in bunting with seating for the queen's entourage and special guests, and a portico erected for Her Majesty's comfort. As usual, she was dressed in black as she continued to mourn her great personal loss. I like to think that my working-class family was able to catch a glimpse of the proceedings and be a part of the excitement.

Two years later, in 1868, Anna, her husband, the three girls, sister Margaret and her parents climbed aboard the Clara Wheeler for the lengthy and uncomfortable trip across the Atlantic to the New World. I wonder who introduced the idea to embark on such a life-changing voyage. Was it John's idea? Maybe Patrick wanted a go of it before he got any older? Was Ann excited or too weary after having three babies in three years to care? Or was this the plan all along? We will likely never know.

Clara Wheeler

In June, the ship landed at Castle Garden, New York, where the passengers were processed. The Williamsburgh area of Brooklyn became the O'Malley's first stop where they lived until about 1874. Daughters Elizabeth and Margaret, and son John were born here. Sadly, daughter Catherine died of croup in 1869. She was buried in Brooklyn. Between the crowded conditions in the tenement they shared with ten other families, the multiple pregnancies, and the loss of her second child, it was a bumpy beginning to Anna's life in America.

According to the 1875 Minnesota State Census, the O'Malley family had relocated and was living next door to Patrick and Katherine Morgan in Winona. Anna was pregnant again with her seventh child, Kathryn. Then came Ann, Charles, Grace, and finally, May, my grandmother. Her only sons, John and Charles, died as young children. After the death of the boys, they adopted a Norwegian child named 'Johnny' and he, too, died young. John O'Malley would have no sons to carry on the family name.

Anna's next move would be her last. In the spring of 1878, the family took up residence at the homestead they had applied for in Murray County, Minnesota. There they would build a home and farm the land for the rest of Anna's life. I located a story written by a farmer's wife living somewhere in the Midwest called "Farm Wife, 1900" (at www.eyewitnesstohistory.com). The anonymous author describes her typical day on the farm. This is a paraphrased and edited account:
'Up at 4 a.m., start the kitchen fire, sweep the floors, cook breakfast for husband and children, milk the cows, turn the cattle and cows to pasture, fetch water from the spring for the sheep and horse,
feed the pigs and chickens, tend to the children, clean the kitchen, do the churning, hoe out the garden weeds, eat a cold dinner, rest, sow a flower bed, repair a fence, get supper, water the horse, milk the cows, round up the animals for the night, feed chickens and pigs, eat supper, clean up, bed.'
And she only had two children! The idyllic notion of life on a rural farm doesn't match the work that it took to keep body-and-soul together while making a living without the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing or electricity. Not to mention the dreadful Midwest winters. The hard truth of my ancestors' lives leaves me to wonder if I could have been as successful as a mother and farm wife as dear Anna.

O'Malley Homestead 2010

Death Record

Anna Morgan O'Malley

The family farm was sold in May 1903. One month later, Anna died in a Minneapolis hospital of septicemia after stepping on a rusty nail at the farm. She was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Currie, Murray County. After a lifetime filled with difficult work and the death of five of her thirteen children (not all of their names are known), Anna did not live long enough to enjoy the fruits of retirement and a quieter, more peaceful life. God Bless you, Grandma Anna.

Kiss Me, I'm Irish

My maternal great-grandfather, John O'Malley, along with his wife, children, and his wife's parents, arrived at Castle Garden, New York, in 1868. He died a widower, alone in a city far from the land he farmed in Minnesota, and farther still from his homeland, Ireland. I am his great-granddaughter and this is his story.

Irish Tenant Farmer Eviction

John O'Malley was born in Ireland, probably in Cork county, in about 1838. His parents were John & Johanna. The first document placing him in a specific location is the 1851 English Census where he is living with his parents, sister Ellen, and Ann Bradly, lodger, in Liverpool, Lancashire. As we learned in school, the blight of the potato crop in Ireland left millions of Irish to starve, die of disease, or emigrate during the mid-19th century. Across the Irish Sea, Liverpool was a busy port city, with work on the docks for unskilled laborers like many poor farmers escaping the famine. The 1861 English census lists a young John O'Malley as a lodger with the occupation of baker; his parents lived nearby. Two years later, John was living in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, where he married Ann Moughan/Morgan on the 13th of September, 1863, at the Catholic Chapel on Oxford Street. Here he worked as an iron brazier. The couple began a family that would grow to 13 children with only 8 living by 1900.

The Irish immigrants who chose to go to England found employment in the expanding industrial centers such as Wolverhampton. Creating and improving the transport infrastructure in the area allowed for enough work for both the local population and the new arrivals.

Before they left Wolverhampton, the family experienced an exceptional event; an 1866 visit from Her Royal Majesty Queen Victoria on the occasion of the unveiling of a statue of her late, beloved consort, Prince Albert. Here is an image of the festivities with the Queen, in her black mourning attire, standing under the portico where she appears to be involved in a Knighting Ceremony.


In 1868, the family emigrated to America aboard the good ship Clara Wheeler, landing at Castle Garden, New York. The passenger list includes John, his wife Ann, children Mary, Catherine, and Sarah, Ann's parents Patrick and Catherine Morgan, and their daughter Margaret. Williamsburg, Brooklyn became their first home where the O'Malleys shared accommodation with ten other families. John worked as a moulder, according to the 1870 Federal Census. In 1872, John O'Malley completed a Letter of Intent to become a United States citizen at the New York Court of Common Pleas.

America was attractive to Irish immigrants for a number of reasons. Opportunity for success was a prime factor. In 1862, the Homestead Act was passed to attract farmers to unsettled land in the Midwest, and the rise of the railroads made the trip faster, easier, and safer. This Act was intended to "secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain", but the free land came at a price. There was a charge to file the original application. Once the family acquired the property, the expenses added up quickly. There were building materials, tools, and farm implements to buy; cattle, horses, chickens, and swine to procure along with food and shelter for the animals; kitchen ware, bedding, and seeds for planting to purchase. Settling the prairie was not for the faint-hearted or unmotivated. The entire family would be needed to make the eventual ownership of the land a reality. My O'Malley ancestors were hardworking folks who fashioned a new life for themselves despite the frigid winters and erratic nature of farming in Minnesota.

Testament of Claimant

By 1875, the Morgan's and O'Malley's had relocated to Winona, Minnesota. Under the Homestead Act, John was granted 74 acres of land in Murray County in the southwestern part of the state. Here the family lived and worked the land until a Final Certificate of Land Ownership was granted in August 1884. His final oath of citizenship was taken only two months prior, in June 1884. So, by August, the requisite five years of residency, improvement of the land, and final affidavit was complete. To secure his farm, John O'Malley testified, "Built house and commenced actual residence therein April 15 1878. House is 16x16 feet, one story high with shed 10x16 feet, shingle roof, board floor with doors and windows, stable, well, and about 32 acres of breaking (grew crops for six seasons), worth $250". The testimony of two witnesses, David Stafford, Hardware Merchant, and D.H. Evans, Farmer & Machine Agent, verified these facts.
His American dream came true.

John O'Malley

In 1903, John's wife Ann died from complications of an infection received when she stepped on a rusty nail. She died at a Minneapolis hospital, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery, Currie, Murray, Minnesota. The farm was sold and John moved yet again, across the country to the Portland, Oregon area. Ann's niece, Margaret May Dooney, and her brother-in-law Thomas Malloy lived nearby, but all of his daughters lived elsewhere. It is a mystery why he did not move closer to one of his children. According to census records, he lived alone and died in 1920 of angina pectoris. He was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Portland.

May my great-grandfather Rest in Peace.

Rose City Cemetery