McGowan, Martin

Notes:

Biography:
Martin McGowan and Mary Coyne were married in 1846 at the Roman Catholic church in Islandeady, a small village on the road between Castlebar and Westport in County Mayo, Ireland. Church records list Patrick McGowan and Bridget Chambers as the witnesses. Patrick was, no doubt, Martin's brother, and Bridget was probably Mary's married sister or a close friend.
The McGowan's in the Islandeady and Castlebar area at that time were tenant farmers, raising potatos to pay for the rent on the land and to feed their families. For most people in western Ireland, potatos were the primary and often the only food. The average family farm was so tiny that potatoes were the only crop that would suffice to feed a family. When the crops were good, an adult man might eat 14 pounds of potatoes each day. But the potatoes that year were rotting in the field.
Potato blight had been discovered the previous fall of 1845. It is a water mold that is thought to have originated in South America and was brought to Ireland on potatoes used to feed passengers on Clipper ships from the US. That year, it affected only a portion of the crop and most people had enough food to get through the winter. But by the time Martin and Mary were married, the blight had ruined nearly the entire crop across the whole of Ireland and wiped it out in County Mayo. The goverment reacted by importing large quantities of corn from the US. For those who could afford it, corn meal was a poor substitute for potatoes. It was hard to cook, difficult to digest, and caused diarrhea. Most of all, it lacked the belly-filling bulk of the potato. It also lacked Vitamin C, which led to scurvy, a condition previously unknown in Ireland due to the normal consumption of potatoes rich in Vitamin C. Out of necessity, the Irish grew accustomed to the corn meal. But by June 1846 supplies were exhausted and starvation became widespread.
The following spring after two years of blight, many people chose to eat the seeds they had for food rather than trust that they would grow. Ironically, there was no blight that year, but neither were there any crops. As a Dr. Daly reported from Newport in May 1847, without enough food the weakened population became easy targets for disease:
'Fever, dysentery and diarrhoea are greatly on the increase, beginning with vomiting, pains, headache very intense; coming to a cnsis in about seven days, relapsing again once or twice, from which death occurred through mere debility or diarrhoea, caused and kept up by bad food, principally Indian meal, supplied to them in small quanitities, and which they invariably swallow after only a few minutes boiling and sometimes cold and raw. The greatest mortality is among the labourers, men and women, on public roads, in cold, wet, boggy hills'.
Without crops, tenent farmers were unable to pay the rent on their lands. In the beginning, many landlords were compassionate and reduced rents. Others were not so kind. Sir Roger Plamer owned 90,000 acres in the area, and might very well have been the McGowan's landlord. The local newspaper, The Telegraph, reported how:
at Islandeady his 'crowbar invincibles', pulled down several houses, and drove forth the unfortunate inmates to sleep in the adjoining fields. On Thursday we witnessed the wretched creatures endeavouring to root out the timber of the houses, with the intention of constructing some sort of sheds to screen their children from the heavy rain falling at the time. The pitiless pelting storm has continued ever since, and if they have survived its severity, they must be more than human beings'.
The potato failed again in 1848 and there was partial failure in 1849, but by that time Martin and Mary had escaped to Canada. By 1851 when their first child was born in Canada, estimates are that one million Irish people had died and another million had emigrated.
Martin and Mary would have made the Atlantic crossing in 1847 on a ship like the 'Elizabeth and Sarah'. It sailed from Killala for Quebec with 276 passengers. By the end of the voyage, 8 weeks later, 42 persons had died due to overcrowding, lack of food and water and unsanitary conditions.

Martin married Coyne, Mary 11 Apr 1846, Islandeady, Mayo, Ireland. Mary was born 15 Jan 1829, Crossmolina, Mayo, Connacht, Ireland; died 12 Dec 1906, Finch, Stormont, Ontario, Canada. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Immigration: Abt 1882
• 1900 Census: 1900, Laurium, Houghton, Michigan, USA
• Obituary: 17 Nov 1921; Kaukauna Times

Notes:

Biography:
In 1899, Peter and Michael McGowan moved their families from Wisconsin to the village of Laurium at the northwestern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Copper mining was booming, and Laurium was growing rapidly from a population of just 1200 in 1890 to over 10,000 by 1916.
There they built The Imperial Hotel at the corner of Lake Linden Avenue and Hecla Street in the center of the business district. In the Polk City Directory of 1900, Peter is listed as the proprietor of the hotel and Michael as the bartender. It was a substantial hotel with three floors and many guest rooms. From the 1910 US census, it appears that Peter may have sold the hotel by that time because Michael was then working as a motorman on a streetcar and Peter is listed as having "his own money." In any case, the hotel burned to the ground in 1913 during a many months long mining strike that brought substantial violence and unrest to Laurium. Today the area is a vacant lot with a billboard. You can view a small photo of The Imperial on the last page of the town's brochure covering the historic district: http://www.laurium.info/Laurium/Laurium-Historic-District-Tour-2008.pdf.
About a block away, the McGowan's also built a huge two-story gabled house at 460 Kearsarge Street (the house still exists today and you can see a photo of it from the street on Google Maps). Peter died of spinal cancer in 1917 and Michael a few years later in 1921. Their wives, Bridget and Mary Wall, and Michael's two daughters, Lillian and Stella, continued to live in the house until after Lillian married Rudolph Chatel in 1927. On the cusp of the Great Depression, the entire family moved to an apartment on Maple Square Avenue in Chicago. In 1930, Rudolph was working as an accountant for a utility company and Stella McGowan as a typist for an insurance company.

1900 Census:
Peter Mcgowan
Bridget Mcgowan
Lilian Mcgowan
Michael Mcgowan
Mary Mcgowan

Obituary:
See Image

Michael married Wall, Mary 27 Nov 1896, Askeaton, Brown, Wisconsin, USA. Mary (daughter of Wall, Richard and Kane, Margaret) was born 15 May 1868, Holland, Brown, Wisconsin, USA; died 13 Jan 1938, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA; was buried , St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery, Askeaton, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Immigration: Abt 1881
• 1900 Census: 1900, Laurium, Houghton, Michigan, USA
• Obituary: 7 Dec 1917; Kaukauna Times

Notes:

Biography:
In 1899, Peter and Michael McGowan moved their families from Wisconsin to the village of Laurium at the northwestern tip of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Copper mining was booming, and Laurium was growing rapidly from a population of just 1200 in 1890 to over 10,000 by 1916.
There they built The Imperial Hotel at the corner of Lake Linden Avenue and Hecla Street in the center of the business district. In the Polk City Directory of 1900, Peter is listed as the proprietor of the hotel and Michael as the bartender. It was a substantial hotel with three floors and many guest rooms. From the 1910 US census, it appears that Peter may have sold the hotel by that time because Michael was then working as a motorman on a streetcar and Peter is listed as having "his own money." In any case, the hotel burned to the ground in 1913 during a many months long mining strike that brought substantial violence and unrest to Laurium. Today the area is a vacant lot with a billboard. You can view a small photo of The Imperial on the last page of the town's brochure covering the historic district: http://www.laurium.info/Laurium/Laurium-Historic-District-Tour-2008.pdf.
About a block away, the McGowan's also built a huge two-story gabled house at 460 Kearsarge Street (the house still exists today and you can see a photo of it from the street on Google Maps). Peter died of spinal cancer in 1917 and Michael a few years later in 1921. Their wives, Bridget and Mary Wall, and Michael's two daughters, Lillian and Stella, continued to live in the house until after Lillian married Rudolph Chatel in 1927. On the cusp of the Great Depression, the entire family moved to an apartment on Maple Square Avenue in Chicago. In 1930, Rudolph was working as an accountant for a utility company and Stella McGowan as a typist for an insurance company.

1900 Census:
Peter McGowan 38
Bridget McGowan 33
Michael McGowan 38
Mary McGowan 31
Lilian McGowan 1

Obituary:
See image Askeaton Peter McGowan Kaukauna Times 12/7/1917 1 Obituary
Note ; Obit mentions survived by father but that should be brother Michael with whom he shares a headstone with (possibly a twin?)

Peter married Wall, Bridget Abt 1885. Bridget (daughter of Wall, Richard and Kane, Margaret) was born 28 May 1866, Holland, Brown, Wisconsin, USA; died 7 Mar 1963, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, USA; was buried , St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery, Askeaton, Wisconsin, USA. [Group Sheet]