While researching a previous post about the Cronin family (This native land of mine – a journey), I came across three news articles that I think are worth documenting. The stories all involve Will and Susan (Burke) Cronin of Minden, Nebraska, my wife’s maternal great grandparents, and mention three of their five children – Cleo, Leo and Billy (William Burke Cronin).
This post is about an amazing photograph that captures William Cronin Sr. (left) embarking on a three-month journey back to his homeland, Ireland, with his son and fellow farmers from Minden, Nebraska. Based on the newspaper article below, I believe the photograph was taken, as their friends wished them “bon voyage” at the Minden train station upon their departure.
In previous posts, I have chronicled the journey of my daughter’s maternal 3rd great grandparents, William Sr. and Kate (Crowley) Cronin, as they made their way from Ireland to Massachusetts and eventually to Nebraska (Drought, prairie fires, blizzards and hailstorms). I next wrote a story that explored the lives of Kate and William’s children, the next generation of Cronin’s (7N 15W 25/36).
In 1908, William Cronin traveled to Ireland and England with his son William Jr., Charlie McCarthy, Robert J. Cranwell, and Thomas Cavanaugh. The manifest for the steamer Lusitania notes that they sailed home from Queenstown, Ireland on September 6th and arrived in New York City on September 11th. The only Englishman in the troupe, Robert Cranwell, visited family in England and later arrived in New York City aboard the Lusitania on October 30th.
Who is who in the photograph (L to R)? My revised guess is: William Sr. (63), William Jr.(24), McCarthy (54), Cavanaugh (48), and Cranwell (58). Your guess is as good as mine – what do you think?
(Article Right – Minden News 7 August 1908)
Minden Courier – 30 July 1908
Minden News – 20 October 1908
Prior to returning to Nebraska, William and his son visited his sister and sister’s nephew Tim Crowley. Crowley was married to Catherine (Burke) and lived in Lynn, Massachusetts. It was there that William Jr. met his bride to be, Susie Burke. They married in 1910 and resided for a short period in Lynn before moving to the Cronin family farm in Minden.
My 6th great grandfather Elijah Atwood was born in 1725 in Barnstable, Massachusetts, the son of Isaac, and Mehitable (Grey). In 1754, he married Anna Goodspeed in Haddam, Connecticut. They had one child during their marriage, John Atwood (1755-1829). Elijah died in 1806, having lived for 81 years.
Anna Goodspeed was born in 1734, in Barnstable, Massachusetts, the daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (Smith). Anna died in April 1774. Elijah married Mary Kelly in November 1774.
Elijah served in the 1st Regiment of the Connecticut Continental Line in Captain Judson’s 8th Company. His son John served in the 1st Regiment in Captain Holmes’ 2nd Company.
What prompted this post was not simply Elijah’s service during the Revolutionary War, but the house he lived in during his final years. It was a former schoolhouse that in the winter session of 1773-1774 had a teacher by the name of Nathan Hale, the Connecticut patriot and hero of the Revolutionary War! The building is a historic site and can be visited today, alas, it is known not as the Atwood House, but as the Nathan Hale Schoolhouse.
This building was used as a school until 1799 (originally built in 1750), when another larger one was purchased, at which time Captain Elijah Atwood purchased the original schoolhouse and removed it to the north some one hundred yards, to a place just south of the old burying ground, and, by adding a little to it, converted it Into a dwelling house. He lived in it until his death in 1816; from that time until 1899 his descendants had always occupied it. In 1899, one hundred years after it came into the Atwood family, Judge Julius Atwood presented the building to the Connecticut Society Sons of the Revolution. Connecticut (CT) (Source (edited): CT Sons of the American Revolution)
Nathan Hale was an intelligent, engaging, athletic, ambitious and dutiful schoolmaster in New London, Connecticut, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. When news of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached New London on April 22, 1775, Hale reportedly declared: “Let us march immediately and never lay down our arms until we obtain our Independence.” He joined the Seventh Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army as a lieutenant. Hale left camp on September 12 posing as a schoolmaster looking for work. He took a circuitous path to British-held Long Island, where he gathered information on the enemy’s numbers and positions. On the night of September 21, he was discovered on his way back to the American lines and captured. Before his execution he delivered a stirring address including the words, “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” (Source: The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati) Left: Statue – Nathan Hale (back) Frederick W. MacMonnies (1863-1937)
Comments, corrections and suggestions appreciated.
One of my many 6th paternal grandparents were Abraham and Hannah Jaquith. Abraham was born in December 1701, in Woburn, Massachusetts and died in January 1790 in Billerica, Massachusetts having lived 88 years. Abraham married Hannah Farley on January 1736 and together they had five children.
The Jaquith’s (originally Jacques) were French Huguenots who first fled France sometime before 1628, stayed in Cornwall, England, and are believed to have returned temporarily to France before departing for British America in 1643.
The house that Abraham and Hannah Jaquith lived in, also known as the Farley Garrison house, in Billerica, Massachusetts was originally built in about 1724 and is one of the oldest surviving colonial era houses America. The home remained in the Farley/Jaquith family’s possession for 12 generations!
In 2000, the house was dismantled piece by piece, stored, and moved to Gilmanton, N.H. where it was masterfully rebuilt. While it is often noted (+ often repeated) that the home was built in 1665, architectural analysis determined it was constructed about 1724. However, it is likely that the home contains elements of the original Farley home that served as a “garrison house” during King Philip’s War of 1676. (Note: in 2013, the house and other buildings on the 12 acre property were listed for sale at $ 14.95 million.)
Below are several stories and videos about the relocation of the home to New Hampshire, where it is still standing after over 297 years! Remarkable!
