Martin and Mary had five children;
Richard born about
1825,
Ann born about 1830,
Winifred born March 31, 1831,
Patrick born March 17, 1832
(and rightfully named for St. Patrick) and
Mary born May 3, 1840.
There most likely were
a few other children who did not survive into adulthood.
Each of these children and their
descendants are outlined on their own web page within this website. You may jump ahead
to those pages by using the hyperlink on their names. Or you may read this page until
the end of the story on Martin and Mary, where a link will then take you to the top of
the page for the first child, Richard, at the end of his page, a link to the top of Anna
Powers Glasheen, and so on thru all five children.
Research performed by the Clare Heritage Centre at
Corofin, County Clare in Ireland only found one possible record related to the Powers
family. On May 3, 1840 a Martin Powers had a daughter named Mary baptized at St. Mary's
Church in the Parish of Ogonnelloe. The priest listed the family as residing at
Bealkelly, the same area where the Cox family lived. Mary’s baptismal sponsors or
godparents are listed as Daniel Clancy and Margaret Kenna.
Patrick Cox, an older brother of Mary Cox Powers, also
immigrated to the United States around 1850. His wife and several children are found
living in the small town of Chicopee, Massachusetts in the 1850 Census. One of Martin’s
daughters, Winifred Powers, aged 18, is also living with them. One can only assume, that
Patrick Cox had enough money to leave his family in a safe home and pay rent, while he
went ahead to Wisconsin to purchase land and build a suitable home to protect the family
from Wisconsin’s harsh winters.
It is possible that Martin and his family also stayed in
Massachusetts those first few years in the United States. Martin and his family do not
show up in Wisconsin records until the 1860 Census, when they are found in Buchanan
township of Outagamie County.
We do know that at least two of Martin’s children, did
remain in Massachusetts for several years. Richard Powers married Margaret Noonan at
what was then known as St. Matthews Catholic Church (now Holy Name of Jesus Catholic
Church) in Chicopee, Massachusetts on November 4, 1855 by Rev W. A. Blenkinsop. The
church marriage records (pictured here) list the witness names of Daniel Curtis and Ann Powers. The
local civic records list Richard Powers aged 28 as a laborer, residing in Chicopee, son
of Martin Powers. Margaret, her last name spelled in the Civic record as Noona, aged 26, daughter of
Martin Noona, also a resident of Chicopee, the first marriage for both.
Less
than a year later on August 6, 1856, Winifred Powers married Daniel Ryan in Chicopee,
Massachusetts. Their church records could not be found but the civil record lists they
were married by the same priest, Rev W. A. Blenkinsop and lists Daniel Ryan as aged 29, a laborer born
in Ireland son of Michael Ryan and Winifred, aged 26, born in Ireland, daughter of
Martin Powers. Daniel and Winifred would become prominent citizens of the Fox Valley
area, as their son Thomas H. Ryan would become the first person from the Kaukauna area
to graduate from The University of Wisconsin in 1891 and later would become the first
Municipal Judge of Outagamie County.
Thomas H. Ryan also is listed as the author of “The
History of Outagamie County” published in 1911. This book at over 1200 pages is still
today one of the finest documents of the History of Outagamie county and includes
several hundred biographies of many of the original settlers and distinguished citizens
of that county. Unfortunately, he did not include the Powers family biography other than a brief
mention within his own biography.
He also wrote a small booklet entitled “The History of
the Town of Buchanan and its Pioneers”. It was never really published so the exact date
is unknown, (estimated to be written in 1942) but copies of it can be found in the
Appleton and Kaukauna Public Libraries.
In that document, Thomas Ryan describes his own
early life and that of his parents;
“The writer’s parents, Daniel and Winifred Ryan, shortly
after their marriage in Chicopee, Massachusetts, came to Buchanan in the autumn of 1857.
They purchased Lot 7 of Section 24, the deed of which was recorded April 7, 1858, in
Vol. 20 D., Page 79, Outagamie County records. This 80 acre tract was covered by white
and red oak, hard and soft maple, beech, birch, hickory, basswood, elm, cherry and
ironwood. Many of the trees, particularly the white oak, from the ground to the first
limb measured twenty to fifty feet. Some of the stumps measured five feet in diameter.
Mr. Ryan cut down these trees with an axe. He and Mrs. Ryan, with a cross-cut saw, sawed
them into logs and with a yoke of oxen, rolled them together into piles. They then piled
limbs and branches thereon and burned the piles. Corroborative of their statement, I
myself, have seen our farm stumps which measured five feet in diameter, also white and
red oak fence rails 15 feet in length without a knot and split as straight as a line.
On Lot 8, Section 24, which father purchased in 1875,
were hundreds of large hard maples, interspersed by basswood, oak, elm, beech, ironwood
and cherry. These maples measured from two to four feet in diameter. Annually for years
we made gallons of maple syrup and enough maple sugar to supply us for the coming year.
As a lad 8 years old I helped two of my brothers, who
were older than I, saw basswood trees, some of which were four feet in diameter on the
stump, into headings. I recall our making a canoe out of a hollow basswood log which
easily held two of us. The white and red oak were of similar dimensions. These were cut
into bolts and sold to the hub and spoke factory at Kaukauna. I mention this because the
timber on our land was no different that that of our neighbors…”
To continue with this well written visual of what the
area was like for many of our Irish, Dutch and German settlers that came to the Fox
River Valley area in the 1850’s, Thomas H. Ryan writes;
“On the whole, Buchanan should be classed as hard
woodland. No better timber of its kind can be found anywhere.
Its goes without saying that the land which was so
prolific in mighty and extraordinary trees could not be other than fertile soil. The
soil rests upon Trenton and Galena limestone. Adjacent to the river it is sedimentary
red clay; a short distance from the river, the clay is interspersed by muck and alluvium
deposits. There is little sand or gravel soil.
Buchanan is well drained; Range 18E by Robert’s Creek
and Mud Creek and their tributaries; Range 19E by a tributary of Plum Creek, the source
of which is in Section 32 on the county boundary line between Outagamie and Calumet
Counties. From this point it flows northeasterly, leaving the county in Section 16 and
emptying into Plum Creek in Section 10. Plum Creek itself is in Brown County.”
Add
more pages 8-10
The Irish settlers of Buchanan were not all actuated by
the same motive. (Speaking of the reason that the Dutch had come to the area) Some came
to work on the government canal, the construction of which was begun in 1851 and
completed in 1855; others, to acquire good land cheap. Denied the privilege of owning
land in Ireland, they were land hungry. They wanted a part of mother earth which they
could call their own. Those who came to work on the canal, upon completion of the
project, purchased land with their earnings; the others, with their savings from
employment in the eastern states. None came directly from Ireland. They had been
employed on farms and in cotton and other factories in the eastern states. They came
west to Green Bay by way of the Great Lakes, and from that point took up land. The exact
date of arrival in Buchanan of each settler cannot be established. Undoubtedly, many
took possession of and cleared land under an oral agreement or land contract which was
never recorded. The date of the recorded deeds in many instances, may not be correct as
to the year of the arrival of the grantee.
He goes on to list the dates recorded in Outagamie
County records of the many families who settled in the area. I have further trimmed the
list to those families related to the Powers, Cox or Ryan’s families.
| Date |
Name |
Location |
Map # |
|
October 1, 1856 |
John Cox |
Section 28 |
1 |
|
October 1, 1856 |
John Glasheen |
Section 28 |
2 |
|
October 16, 1856 |
Michael Finnegan |
Section 20 |
3 |
|
December 20, 1856
|
Maurice Ringrose |
Section 32, Range 18E |
4 |
|
April 7, 1858 |
Daniel Ryan |
Section 24, Range 18E |
5 |
|
March 7, 1863 |
John Rohan |
Section 28 |
6 |
|
April 9, 1865 |
Michael Maloney |
Section 29 |
7 |
|
September 1, 1865 |
Henry Heardon |
Section 29 |
8 |
|
May 30, 1866 |
Edward Glasheen |
Section 29 |
9 |
|
October 6, 1866 |
Patrick Powers |
Section 33 |
10 |
|
October 31, 1868 |
John O’Connell |
Section 29 |
11 |
|
June 23, 1869 |
John Powers |
Section 19 |
12 |
|
August 30, 1870 |
James Keating |
Section 30 |
13 |
|
July 21, 1871 |
Daniel Clune |
Section 32 |
14 |
|
April 4, 1878 |
Richard Powers
|
Section 28 |
15 |
All of the
above are in Range 19E excepted Ringrose and Ryan as noted.
I have taken an 1890 Plat map and numbered each of the above as to their approximate
location.
This second map, the area west (to the left) of the above map, shows
Daniel Ryan's land.
Martin
Powers eldest son Richard Powers and his wife Margaret are found in Buchanan in the 1860
Census living next door to his parents. By now, his wife Margaret had given birth to
three children, Sarah Ann Powers, born March 3, 1857; John Powers born May 15, 1858 and
Mary Powers born in Oct 24, 1858. Ann Powers, Richard’s sister and Martin’s eldest
daughter is listed living with Richard and his new family, which is strange in that Ann
most probably married Thomas Glasheen in 1859 and is also listed living with him with
one child in the 1860 Census, also a few doors away from her father.
Richard &
Margaret Powers and his descendants are outlined on their web page at:
Richard & Margaret (Noonan) Powers
Martin and
Mary’s youngest two children, Patrick and Mary are living with them. Winifred and Daniel
Ryan are living just a ways west, in what is now called Combined Locks, the current
Buchanan Road would have cut through Daniel Ryan’s fields. In the map above,
#A.
Anna Powers
married Thomas Glasheen probably sometime in 1859. He was born in Ireland about 1820,
and most likely was the youngest of three brothers of a John Glasheen, the other two
brothers being John Glasheen born about 1815 and Edward Glasheen born about 1817, both
which also settled in the Holland town area.
Thomas and
Anna would raise their family on an 80 acre farm Thomas purchased ????? adjoining the
Powers farm and across the road from the original Rohan farm in Section 28.
Thomas and
Anna and their descendants are outlined on their web page;
Thomas & Anna (Powers) Glasheen.
About 1861
Patrick Powers, Martin’s youngest son married Catherine Finnel, she was born about 1829
in Ireland, the daughter of ?
Patrick
appears to be the first of the family to actually own any land in the area. On October
6, 1866 he purchased 40 acres of land in Section 33 of Range 19E, Which today would be
the North East corner of County Road CE and Haen Rd. (See #10 in the above map)
Patrick and
Catherine and their descendants are outlined on their web page;
Patrick & Catharine (Finnel) Powers.
By the 1870
Census, it appears that Martin Powers must have passed on. Mary is listed living with
her son Patrick and his family, now aged 80 years old. She is not found in the 1880
Census, so it is assumed she died between 1870-1880. No death records, church burial
records or tombstones have been found at any of the local churches and cemeteries in the
area for either Martin or Mary.
THIS
REMAINS ONE OF MY GOALS - TO FIND SOME EVIDENCE AND DATES OF DEATH FOR BOTH MARTIN AND
MARY POWERS.
In 1874
Martin’s youngest daughter Mary, married Patrick Coyle on November 4th.
Patrick Coyle was born in County Meath, Ireland about 1840. The new Mr. & Mrs. Coyle set
up housekeeping in Menasha, where Patrick worked as a day laborer. Their descendants are
outlined on their web page; Patrick & Mary (Powers) Coyle.
