The Last Residence of John Horan

December 4, 2012 must be a lucky number combination. Our last stop after St John’s cemetery and and an impromptu invitation inside Michael Doran’s residence then took us onto more investigation back on the other side of town before we headed home. We return to concluding our research (for now) of Great Grandfather 3 John Horan and family. This house is 484 Beach St. in Fall River. We had attempted to locate the residences of John and Catherine Horan over the years by pinpointing their addresses in Fall River in the 1800’s. As mentioned in a prior entry, our previous trip in November was a bit futile as the number addresses from hundred+ year documents didn’t easily match up to today’s street addresses. Tenements built for the thousands of factory workers back then are in amazingly decent shape today and appear to still be multiple family residences, but obviously revising the building numeration made the task of identification a great challenge. However, we had another small sucess in the late afternoon. This nicely maintained little blue house was the last home we found belonging to Mark Shay and Ellen Horan Shay, the only daughter of John and Catherine. Perhaps GGF 3 John Horan moved here after his wife passed away in 1894. The family seemed to reside around Beach St and within blocks of this neighborhood. William J, his eldest son who is also buried beside his parents, also moved in with his father and the Shays in his later years and died in 1910. Daughter Ellen and her husband Mark, a Fall River police officer, certainly took great responsibility in caring for Ellen’s passing family members. I’ve not yet located where Ellen and Mark were laid to rest, but hopefully we’ll find the location soon.

Our main short term research goal is complete. We found our first Irish ancestors who escaped during a time of unimaginable strife of famine and sociopolitical upheaval in Ireland. John and Catherine Horan established a new foundation for their American Horan family to thrive. We want our children to have a sense of pride and accomplishment in their genealogical history that we all arrived to this country as immigrants and worked hard to achieve a great future. Revisiting the past and placing our feet in the same steps as our ancestors five generations later will hopefully preserve a legacy long forgotten.

Irish Proverb


Tada gan iarracht


Meaning: Nothing without effort

Uncle Michael J Doran (1860-1952)

We have to step out of order a bit, our Sunday afternoon was full of twists and turns.  After contemplating whether to hold onto this story or not, I decided to insert this as an unexpected surprise of our Sunday afternoon.  Read on and hope you enjoy the sidetrip.  If you are confused after this entry, refer back to the entry DISCLAIMER.  This is the beauty of a blog;  things happen. If this unconventional genealogy project bothers your formally educated senses, click out now J ……

After our succesful trip to St  John’s cemetery concluded, we drove up Broadway to see if we could locate the last home we found on record as the residence for the Horan-Shay family.  We’d come to Fall River the month prior but had trouble finding the exact buildings that matched street addresses from documents over a hundred years old. Driving in circles and pointing cameras out of car windows at private residences isn’t one of the safest weekend activities we suggest!  As we headed across town on Broadway, a sign caught my eye and we pulled over quickly. We’d inadvertently found the original home of another family member we knew of, but had not yet pursued.   This was the grand home of Uncle Michael J Doran.  He was the brother of Mary Ann Doran, wife of George F. Horan.  George Horan and Mary Ann Doran are great grandparents of my husband, Peter.   The photo above was submitted by Uncle Bill Horan/Aunt Mary Hawes.  ( left to right:  George R. Horan (son) , Mary Ann (Doran) Horan, Catherine Horan (daughter), George H. Horan, Dorothy (Donaghy) Horan, Michael J Doran).  We think our grandfather, Thomas Horan (son), husband of Dorothy, is likely the one taking this family picture.  Someone correct me, but this is the home on Broadway in Fall River three generations of Horans resided*.   More will be posted on this era of the Horan descendants soon....

(*Cousin John Horan in Virginia has kindly noted this is not the home he resided in with his parents, George and Agnes and his grandparents. It is another block away on Broadway. This is likely the rear of the Doran/Boule Funeral Home, which we show below. Also, he adds that Cousin Clare Horan Brady's son purchased the family home after Aunt Catherine passed in the 1990's and still has ownership today. Thank you, John!).

The Doran family name is and was a prominent name in Fall River society. Michael Doran was a successful business owner who had a department store at 235-237 South Main St in downtown Fall River. As was the fate of many, he lost everything in the Great Depression by 1930. Mary Ann and George took in their brother after his loss. His department store building is still standing ( a national drugstore chain operates on the street level) with his name inscription. (photo by Marc Belanger, 2007)

                                              

We parked in front of Boule Funeral Home at 615 Broadway and as I frantically searched through research notes about this property, the current business owner had seen us pointing and examining the façade and approached our car to greet us. What a wonderful introduction we had as we sheepishly rolled our window down and identified ourselves as descendants of the original homeowner, Michael Doran. Mr. Thomas Wilkinson is the director/owner of the Boule Funeral Home and was so gracious and excited to meet us as well. He joked he thought we might be insurance inspectors or something and perhaps he should inquire about our curiosity! He invited us inside for a quick tour as he had been working on restoring Michael Doran’s home and was equally fascinated by our family research project.

The Boule Funeral Home kept the property in excellent condition all these years.  Mr. Wilkinson has been keen to restore as much as he could to the home’s original character. Some things he showed me were removal of heavy damask draperies applied to the front windows and once the mitered cornices were removed, the found original gilded carved valances were still intact above the windows.  Much of the carvings, timber, stained glass and fixtures were still intact. This property and the house next door were built as identical twins. Michael Doran took his home to another level and added many more architectural details like the front columns and so many more interior upgrades.  A Doran genealogical tree notes Michael J Doran III married Catherine McFarlane in 1910, but she died in 1922.  Not yet sure when he purchased his Broadway residence, but he supposedly live alone with several servants on staff in this grand house.

This is a mahogany mantle installed by Michael Doran and had his initials carved and gilded into the face. When the Boules took occupancy, they apparently attempted to alter the “D” to a “B”. If you look closely at the letter,  can see where the change was made.  At least they left the overall fine workmanship alone!

Mr Wilkinson was so kind to take the time to give a brief tour of the property---unexpected and surprisingly, a Viewing was in progress while this conversation took place!  On a side note, he did know members of the Horan family in Fall River who had passed away and Boule handled a few of their burial arrangements decades ago.  He invited us to return again and would take us upstairs to view the rest of the house.  He did ask if we knew of any photos of Uncle Michael Doran existed in the family.  We have one which Uncle Bill Horan kindly sent us. If anyone else reading this blog happens to know of any further documents or photos of Uncle Michael, please contact me. Mr Wilkinson said he would love to have something of Michael Doran to display in this home they preserved so nicely all these years.

Irish Proverb



I scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine.

Meaning: People live in each other's shelter.

Looking for 3rd Great-Grandparents John and Catherine Horan

We managed another quick trip to Fall River on a beautifully clear, somewhat windy Sunday afternoon in early December.  I’d written the offices of St. Patrick’s cemetery hoping the final resting place of John and Catherine Horan might be on record with one of the several Irish Catholic cemeteries in Fall River.  Prior to 1890, burial records for many Irish immigrants were sparse or poorly maintained, but I’d found their death records and knew the original family plot had to be somewhere in Fall River.  How exciting to receive a large packet of records for all known Horan family members from St. Patrick’s that week.  One of the smallest and oldest Catholic cemeteries in Fall River, St. John’s, had closed in the early part of the century and was open to the public only one day a week for just a few hours. St. John’s church was one of the first Catholic churches in Fall River. When it was consumed by fire, the larger St. Mary's Cathedral was built upon the same site.  As the Irish Catholic immigration grew in the boom years of Fall River, so did their places of consecration and community establishments.  John and Catherine were indeed listed with the old church records.  We headed back to Fall River asap that weekend to walk the grounds and find our elusive ancestors before the winter snow set in and delay our quest to find our first immigrant ancestors.

St John’s cemetery is surprisingly well-maintained by the Church, given the age and forgotten families long laid to rest here. Our children, Sydney, Christopher and Colin have embraced this family history project with much enthusiasm and are now quite experienced at our ground strategy. We each walk row by row of an area and read and decipher the markers, hoping we'll be the one who finds the family name.  It has been a great lesson for the children in investigation as well as understanding respect, honor and reflection of our ancestors.  12 yr old daughter, Sydney, won accolades this day for finding her 4th Great-Grandparents John and Catherine Horan.  Though small and not particularly crowded, St John’s has many headstones that have fallen or weathered and the type is unreadable. It was a bit sad to think these deteriorated headstones had gone unvisited by family members like us who had no idea where their ancestors had been lain to rest. It was a surprise and emotionally moving to see the first Horan monument was quite large and prominent in its position near this old tree.  Likely quite a lovely position in the springtime when the tree is in full bloom.  

The two eldest sons are buried with their parents. Their one daughter, Ellen and her husband, Mark Shay, likely cared for the aging Horans and ultimately erected the fine family marker here.  We said a prayer for our ancestors and reflected for a moment on the place we stood. We finally found our first immigrant grandfather from County Galway and his family more than 100 years later.

*IHS - Greek orthography for ‘Jesus’, Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus, saviour of mankind) or In Hoc Signo [Vince] (In this sign, conquer (www.historyfromheadstones.com; Irish gravestone inscriptions).


Irish Proverb

Is maith an scéalaí an aimsir.
Translation: Time is a good story teller.

The Oath-1874

Today was a great discovery day.  Some incredibly important documents arrived today:

This is John Horan’s petition for U.S. citizenship requested from the National Archives.  He applied for naturalization in October 1872 and was approved and took his oath in Boston on November 28, 1874.   See his signature at the bottom of the certificate.  The certificate also confirms another point to be investigated. John Horan first arrived in New York before Fall River.  Some clues indicate John and Catherine may have lived in New York before relocating to Fall River. 

 

Also discovered today were the death certificates for John and Catherine Horan and their eldest son,
William.  Some important facts were uncovered by review of these documents.

 

·         John Horan’s parents are listed as John Horan and Ann Madden.  This is a major breakthrough to uncover the generation prior to the initial US immigration. 

·         John Horan died in 1905 at age 71 from hepatic congestion (liver).

·         Catherine O’Neil Horan died in 1894 at age 56 from pneumonia.

·         William J. (son) died in 1920 at age 50 from nephritis (inflamed kidneys)

William never married. In later years, William and his father John lived with Ellen Horan Shay, the only daughter of John and Catherine.  Mark Shay, Ellen’s husband was a police officer.  The family continued to reside together on Beach Street.

Irish Proverb

Tús maith, leath na hoibre.
Meaning: A good start is half the work.

A Man of Courage is Also Full of Faith. (Cicero)

The church is clearly part of our lives and especially during John Horan’s transition to a new land, the church was the one true anchor in a man’s life.  We recently took a day trip to Fall River to see if we could find out a bit more of where the family may have circulated. Here’s a little bit about their church and some final resting places we documented:

The photos below are St. Mary’s Cathedral (left) and St. Patrick’s Church (right).  St Mary’s Cathedral predecessor was St. John the Baptist, a small wooden chapel erected in 1836.   After 1850, construction began on St. Mary’s on St. John’s original site.  The cemetery from St John's on Brightman Street has been located and identified as the final resting place of John and Catherine Horan and two sons.  It is a small, predominantly Irish cemetery with limited record availability kept by St. Patrick’s Cemetery. I have spoken to the office and submitted a formal request for files.  I will post the file information when I receive it. We are also scheduling a trip to visit the St. John's gravesite as well.  Access to St John’s Cemetery is restricted so we will plan accordingly in the next week and hope for the best. 

This is St Patrick’s Church which we attempted to visit last weekend.  We found the cemetery but had trouble locating the church.  We discovered why after we returned home.  St. Patrick’s was merged with two other churches churches in 2002 and the trio are united under the name Good Shepherd Parish.  

  

We have many family members in St. Patrick’s cemetery. The cemetery is located at 2233 Robeson St.   The Dorans and Horans and more extended family surnames from the tree rest here.  We took some time to document the locations of some.  We arrived too close to closing to search for more family but will likely return soon.  As a side note, it was a touching moment for us and our children to see the final resting places of our ancestors for the very first time. Gone but not forgotten....

 This is George and Mary Ann Horan—Generation 2.  Son of John and Catherine Horan-Gen 1.  George H. Horan-Gen 2 is my husband’s great grandfather.  

This is the family location for the Dorans, Mary Ann’s family and prominent family in Fall River:

An Irish Proverb

Maireann croí éadrom i bhfad.
A light heart lives long.

A Disclaimer

Now that we’ve set the table for this family research project, I will add the following disclaimer to all entries going forward:

• There is no neat and tidy way to communicate a genealogy project. The research results come in no particular order, can often be spectacularly boring to decipher, and waiting to publish information until a formal order of events can be compiled can cost you dearly in the end. Time waits for no one. 

•  “My stories are 97% accurate. Who cares about the other 4 %”  (Uncle Bill Horan, New Bedford)

We think it is more important to share significant information we are uncovering now rather than wait.  This type of random investigative work takes on a life of its own and sharing it as best as we can, often speed overtakes accuracy.  Translation:  Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.   If you are a certified genealogist, prefer academic order in research projects, or are an admitted Type A personality, stop here.  You should click out of this blog now.  I’ll get back to you in a few years after I’ve input the database for the entire multi-generational, cross-continent genealogical family tree project J
   

An Irish Proverb

An áit a bhuil do chroí is ann a thabharfas do chosa thú.

Your feet will bring you to where your heart is.

John Horan—The First Generation

John Horan was born in Galway, Ireland in 1827.  He immigrated to the United States in 1845 during the peak years of the Great Famine emigration out of Ireland.  Fall River, Massachusetts held significant appeal to the large numbers of immigrants seeking work and a new life in America.  During the growth of the industrial textile mills, Fall River boasted over 100 textile mills and employed an estimated 35,000 people.  The town population peaked in the 1920’s well over 120,000 people.  2010 census population figures show Fall River has about 88,000 residents.

About 1850 John Horan married Catherine O’Neil.  Together they had six children.   John Horan’s occupation is listed as a laborer (per Uncle Bill Horan, he recalls the family said John Horan was a fisherman) while Catherine stayed home to care for her family.  As was typical during this era, many of the children worked in the mills and were employed at Globe Textile Mills and American Print Works, two of the largest of the factories (photos posted below).  Meager wages meant long hours and mill families often worked together at the same factories to support the household.

Photos from Ambrose F. Keeley Library/the Information Center of B.M.C. Durfee High School

The family was listed in the US Census of 1880 and 1900 as residing on Beach Street.  This south end section of town was built to house the thousands of immigrant workers who flooded the factories.   Tenements would be built in three-story multiple levels to house the growing labor force and their families.  The years John Horan arrived and established his family and livelihood is important from a historical aspect. The fact that he overcame the adversities of two, maybe three countries (Ireland, United States and possibly England before embarking for America) should give us all a moment of reflection. Where you are at this moment in your own life and that of your children is built upon the courage, hard work and sheer will to survive from John Horan and his descendants.  

The Horan-Doran family tree by Jim McCarthy is available. Send a message if you would like a copy. The image below is from the research I am building on specifically the John Horans.  He is at the top of this Horan tree and is the first immigrant to arrive in the United States in 1845, hence he is our marker for Generation 1.   I have found more vital information on John and Catherine Horan and will do another post regarding them at a later date.  If you are a family member, your ancestors descend from John and Catherine and one of his six children.  Lastly, a minor correction to the Horan-Doran family tree file. The eldest son, John William, is not listed.  He shows up on earlier US census data but not not later,  which might mean he left the home for work while the rest of the family remained on Beach St.  William J., as he was called, died after his father in 1910 and is buried alongside his parents and one of his brothers who died young.   (--I reposted the tree image. Days after this was completed, more documents were found and John Horan's parents in Ireland were identified. I have added them to the image below.) 

Click the article link below to learn more on the Irish immigration to Fall River with photos from the old neighborhood. Use your browsers back button to return to this blog when you're done:

Fall River's Irish Fled Famine for Land of Opportunity - article from the Herald News, February 26, 2003, p. 12, with an additional article "Robert Irving Was City's First Irish Immigrant."


Here is the US Federal Census –Year 1880 .  John Horan and the family are listed in lines 3-10.   They lived on Beach Street in a couple residences until John Horan’s death in 1905.



An Irish Proverb

Is gaire cabhair Dé ná an doras.
God's help is nearer than the door.