In Waucoma & Lawlor, Iowa
Burns
The Burnses are the precursors of the
Doyle part of our family. The first Burnses I have any knowledge of are
Owen Burns and Catherine Brennan Burns who were born in the early years
of the nineteenth century in a little village in Ulster. (Although Monaghan
is situated in the northern part of Ireland it is part of the Irish Republic.)
Both were born in the parish of Maghleracloon (pronounced mara cloon'), County Monaghan and married in 1835. They came to the United States in 1838, just before the first of the tragic potato famines in Ireland.
In the Burn's family history written early this century, there is brief mention of Owen's family. His mother's maiden name was Cassidy; Owen Burns's father was one of 10 children, most of whom died of TB. Even before the potatoes failed, lives were hard in Ireland.
Catherine Brennan Burns (great-great-great) was born in the parish Magheracloon, County Monaghan in 1814, married Owen in 1835, and died Christmas Day, 1889. Owen Burns was born April 1810, County Monaghan, parish of Magherogloon and died in 1885, north of the family homestead north of Waucoma, IA. It is interesting that Owen Burns, our great grandmother's grandfather on her father's side and Patrick Casey, her grandfather on her mother's side were born within two years of each other in the same county in Ireland, but Patrick lived 30 years longer.
Our great-grand-mother Agnes Burns Doyle, was the fifth of 13 children born to James Burns (Byrnes) and Catherine Casey Burns. James Burns (great-great grandfather) was born in County Monaghan in February 1837, and emigrated to Ohio with his parents at the age of one (1838). The family first settled near Sandusky. In 1852, they came overland and settled in Fayette County near Waucoma, Iowa.
James Burns had one brother and three sisters.
Both Catherine Casey Burns and James Burns are buried in Lawlor, IA.
Historical note:
Tom Fitzsimmons has e-mailed Kathleen and me from Ireland with information about his great-grandmother, grandmother, and father. Tom's grandfather Edward Fitzsimmons, married Kathryn Burnes from Waucoma, around 1890. Kathryn (Catherine on baptismal certificate) was born in 1869 and died of TB in Minneapolis in 1898. Her children (Claude and a daughter who also died) were raised by a Mrs. M. A. Burns, in Lawlor. Tom says this M. A. Burns was Kathryn's mother. If so, she could easily have been the wife of James Burns's brother. Kathryn Burns was two years older than our great-grandmother Mary Agnes Burns (Doyle). They could have been cousins, and probably were.
There is a photo of Dad around 1923, with his
mother, Kathleen, her mother Agnes Doyle, and her mother (Dad's Great Grandmother,
Catherine Casey Burns). A conversation with Uncle John makes me think it
was taken in East Davenport somewhere, although because of the setting,
I had at first thought it was taken in Waucoma.
Caseys
Patrick Casey was the father of Catherine Casey
who married James Burns. He is our great-great-great grandfather: the grandfather
of Agnes Burns Doyle, the great-grandfather of our grandmother Kathleen
and her Doyle brothers and sisters. He was an obviously vigorous man who
lived to the ripe age of 103! He was born on March 17, 1812 in County Monaghan
and died June 4, 1915. Good to know there are some longevity genes in the
family. . . He married in Massachusetts at an early age and in 1854 came
west in a prairie schooner and purchased a farm in Chickasaw County, Iowa.
He fathered 7 children.
We have a photo of Darrell, Conan, Larry, and Kathleen Doyle, surrounding their great grandfather--probably taken around 1902, as Conan was an infant. Darrell Doyle's wife, Naoma, generously donated this photo. Copies are available.
Mary Agnes Naoma was the 5th child of James and Catherine Burns. She was the second child to live, as three older children died as babies. Agnes's brothers & sisters were:
Margaret Burns married Martin Qually and had
2 children, Kenneth and Virginia. Kathleen Doyle went to Mitchell, S. Dakota
to visit them as a young girl.
Beatrice and Raymond never married, and their
mother, Catherine, stayed with them and died in Avon, SD, in 1924, and
is buried in Lawlor, IA. (James Burns d. 1910).
There is a photo of Agnes Doyle, her sisters Margaret, Srs. Huberta and Carmella, picking grapefruit. This was during a visit they made to Phoenix, AZ to their brother, "Uncle Will" Burns.
Picture below taken in the summer of 1923 (when Dad a year and a half) or summer '24 when he was 2 and 1/2 with his great grandmother Catherine Casey Burns. Dad's grandmother Agnes would have been 52 or 3; no birthdate on Catherine here. (She may have been born at least by 1848. Her first child 1866--therefore possibly about 75 in this pic.)
