John McDermott and
Margaret Rourke
Patrick McDermott
born 17 Mar 1842 in Ireland
John McDermott
born 1845 in Ireland
Michael McDermott
born 15 June 1846 in County Leitrim, Ireland
Francis (Frank) McDermott
born 24 Mar 1849 near Melbourne, Quebec
Mary McDermott
born 20 Apr 1851 near Leeds, Ontario, Canada
Annie McDermott
born 21 June 1854 in Ontario, Canada
John McDermott and
Mary Neagle
Bryan McDermott
born 2 Mar 1856 near Stratford, Ontario
Thomas McDermott
born 11 July 1857 near Waterloo, Ontario
Catherine “Kitty”
McDermott born 15 Mar 1859 in Ontario Canada
Joseph McDermott
born 11 Jul 1862 near Kinkora, Ontario
Margaret “Maggie”
McDermott born 4 Mar 1864 near Kinkora, Ontario
The 1851 Canadian census shows
John living in Melbourne, Sherbrooke County, Quebec with his wife, Margaret,
and children Patrick, John, Michael, Francis, and baby Mary. The family
reported their religion as Roman Catholic, and John is working as a laborer.[4] The family moved from Quebec to Ontario
between 1849 and 1851. John and Margaret
had one more child, Annie, in Ontario before Margaret died in Canada,[5] probably from disease or
childbirth. She was only about thirty-five years old when she died, leaving
John with six young children ranging in age from a baby to age thirteen.
John soon married Mary Neagle, who was also born
in Ireland. They had five children Bryan, Thomas, Catherine (Kitty), Joseph,
and Margaret. By 1862, John and Mary lived in a one-story log home in Perth,
Ontario, Canada West with seven children.[6]
Sometimes, large families would hire their children out to have fewer mouths to
feed and to provide additional income to the family. By 1862, Michael and John
Jr. were living away from home. Michael eventually became a blacksmith, so he
was probably working somewhere as an apprentice. John Jr. was living with James
Madden’s family in Perth.[7] The Maddens, McDermotts, and Madoches would
eventually be neighbors in Wisconsin, and Maggie McDermott married Jerry Madden.
John’s second wife, Mary, died and was buried in
Port Huron, likely between spring 1865 and 1867 when the family moved to
Wisconsin.[8] Mary Neagle McDermott was
in her late forties when she died.
John never remarried but continued working as a
farmer and raising the children with everyone working together. The McDermotts
were enumerated in Forestville, Door County, in the 1870 and 1875 census years.
In the 1870 census, John is listed as a farmer who is unable to read or write.
Mary and her siblings attended school.[9]
John McDermott went through the process to become
a United States citizen.
He immigrated to the United States, arriving at Port Huron, Saint Clair County,
Michigan in May 1864. Four years later, he made a declaration of intention at
the circuit court of St. Clair County, Michigan on 30 Apr 1868. He applied for
final citizenship in Door County circuit court on 17 Feb 1874
stating that he had lived in the state of Wisconsin for at least one year and
the United States for five years.[10]
John McDermott purchased one hundred twenty acres
in section 11 and section 14 of Forestville on 20 Nov 1875 under the 1862
Homestead Act.[11]
The land was swampy and “poor” according to surveyors, with swamps, two
streams, and hemlock, cedar, sugar, and birch trees. John owned land of his
own, never to be taken from him or his heirs, and he made certain of the land
staying in the family in his will when he wrote,
“It
is one of the conditions of this will that said Bryan McDermott is not to or
shall not during his lifetime sell, dispose of, or convey my said homestead,
herein described, to any person except to some one of his brothers or sisters,
or to some one of his half brothers or half sisters.”[12]
Mary Anne McDermott was born into poverty in
Quebec, Canada and moved with her family to Ontario, Canada while still a
toddler. Her mother died when she was about four years old. Her father
remarried and had five more children. The blended family moved to the United
States when Mary was about thirteen years old. Her stepmother died in the mid-
to late-1870s while the family was still living in Port Huron, Michigan. Her
father, John, next moved the family to Door County, Wisconsin where Mary spent
the next ten years attending school and caring for her family.
In June 1880, John McDermott was living in the
Forestville Township with six of his eleven children and listed as a farmer.[13] The census taker noted
that John had consumption or tuberculosis. “Tuberculosis seemed to consume
people from within with its symptoms of bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long
relentless wasting.”[14]
The disease was prevalent in Europe in the 1800s, causing one of every seven
deaths. The disease needs dark, damp, and poorly ventilated facilities to be
transmitted. At least ninety percent of people who were infected with the
disease did not develop symptoms. The disease spread easily when an infected
individual coughed, sneezed, or talked and could lie dormant for decades before
flaring up and killing the victim.
John McDermott died in 1880 from tuberculosis. At
least two of the youngest McDermott children died from tuberculosis. Kitty
McDermott Schraw died in 1901. Joseph McDermott died in 1922. Perhaps, Mary
Neagle died from the disease.
Because of the long, slow wasting nature of
tuberculosis, John had time to leave a will and detailed life story for his
obituary. John McDermott died at home about two months after the census on
Sunday, August 15, 1880 at the age of about 65 years. He was buried in the
Catholic cemetery in Algoma, Kewaunee County, Wisconsin.[15]
“On
Sunday evening, 15 Aug 1880 John McDermott died at his home at about 65 years.
He was born in County Leitrim, Ireland and immigrated to Canada in 1847 where
he remained for several years. He immigrated to Port Huron, Michigan in the
spring of 1865 and stayed there for two years. His second wife, Mary, was
buried in Port Huron. He immigrated to Wisconsin in about 1868 and lived in
Forestville until his death. Seven of his ten children were single when he
died.”[16]
John McDermott’s last will and testament was
written 17 June 1880 in Forestville, Door County, just a few days after the
census taker visited. Bryan McDermott, the oldest son of John with Mary Neagle,
submitted the last will and testament of John McDermott in court on 2 Nov 1880.[17]
John arranged the payment of all of his debts and bequeathed his homestead to
his son, Bryan McDermott. Additionally, Michael, Ann, Thomas, Catherine,
Joseph, and Margaret McDermott were to each receive a sum of fifty dollars
each, one child each year getting fifty dollars, starting with the oldest. A
restriction was added that Bryan McDermott could not in his lifetime “encumber”
the property for any amount more than one hundred dollars.[18] Plat maps from later
years show that several of John’s children owned portions of the property.[19]
[1] Digital History, “The
Irish Potato Famine,”
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm : site
updated 19 Oct 2013,
[2] “Deaths, McDermott,” Weekly
Expositor Independent, 26 Oct 1888.
[3] Quebec, Vital and Church Records
(Drouin Collection), 1621-1967. Ancestry.com:
accessed 18 Oct 2013.
[4] 1851 Census of Canada East, Melbourne,
Sherbrooke, Canada East; district 11, page 21 (printed), John McDermott family;
digital images, Ancestry.com, :accessed 8 May 2013.
[5] “Deaths, McDermott,” ibid.
[6] 1861 Census Canada. Ellice
Township, Perth, Ontario; ED 3, 46, lines 38-46, John McDermott family; digital
images, Ancestry.com: accessed 8 May
2013.
[7] Ibid,
ED 3, 28, lines 29-31, James Madden family; digital images, Ancestry.com
:accessed 9 May 2013.
[8] “Deaths, McDermott,” ibid.
[9] 1870 US Census, Door County,
Wisconsin, population schedule, p 20 (stamped), lines 1-8, digital images, Ancestry.com : accessed 2 Sep 2013.
[10]“Wisconsin, Door County,
Petitions for Naturalization 1893-1903,” vol. 1 p 85.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-1971-30059-5612-7?cc=2046887&wc=MMB6-VVG:262014055
accessed 5 Aug 2013.
[11] Wisconsin, General Land
Office Records, Bureau of Land Management, US Department of the Interior.
www.glorecords.blm.gov. Entry for John McDermott. Volume 178, 380.
[12] McDermott, John. Last Will and
Testament. Probate file in my possession from Registrar of Probate, Door
County, Wisconsin.
.
[13] 1880 US Census, Door County,
Wisconsin, population schedule, index and images, FamilySearch
(https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MN4R-4VZ : accessed 05 Sep 2013), John
McDermott 1880. Forestville, Door, Wisconsin.
[14]Rudy Schmidt, “Rudy's List of Archaic Medical
Terms: Consumption,” Antiquus Morbus, http://www.antiquusmorbus.com/english/englishc.htm
:accessed 19 Oct 2013.
[15] “Local Jottings,” Algoma Record Herald, 26 Aug 1880.
[16] “Deaths, McDermott,” ibid.
[17] “Legal,” Door
County Advocate, 14 Oct 1880, 3.
[18] Door County, Wisconsin Probate
File, copies from Registrar in Probate. Eugene Madoche and John McDermott.
[19] Randall and Williams, Illustrated
atlas of Door County, Wisconsin, Randall and Williams, 1899, Union and Clay
Banks, http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.IllAtlasDoorCo :
accessed 19 Oct 2013; Hixson, W. W. & Co. Plat Book of Door County, Wisconsin. (Wisconsin: W.W. Hixson &
Co, 1923) http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/WI.PlatBookDoor23 : accessed
19 Oct 2013.
