Someone's Family - Patrick & Johanna LYONS - 1820
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Someone's Family - Patrick & Johanna LYONS - 1820
Came to NY about 1840 @ 20 yrs. of age.
Robert Hudson Bowell/Smith has death certificate of "Grandma Lyons".
Johanna Mullen married ? times; Carbry, Quinn, Lyons. Everybody she married she married in Chicago.
MEMOIRS of Elsie Johanna Smith: (granddaughter) as written
"Johanna Mullen was born in Ireland about 1820. In 1840 she came to N.Y. It took six weeks on a ship.
Then she went to Chicago. It was a country village. The streets followed the river. Every one kept a cow & the streets followed the cow paths.
About 1850 she married John Carbry, a school master. Johanna and her first husband John Carbry had squatted on a small piece of land and built their house. Today that piece of land is the site of the Chicago Court House. There was born Margaret and Thomas. In summer John worked on the prairie west of Chicago putting up hay. One night he did not come home. Next morning a neighbor brought him home in his wagon, dead. He had stopped and taken a glass of buttermilk from a woman along the way. It must have been Ptomaine poison. That winter Thomas died of Diphtheria, a dread disease at the time. Johanna owed a grocery bill when her first husband died. She did the family wash for the grocer for many years at 25 cents a wash to pay the grocery bill.
Then there was a scourge of Small pox. People died in the streets and were hauled away & buried. Johanna knew that the Pox taken from a cow protected humans from Small Pox. She procured some & went about vaccinating who ever would submit to it. Those who were vaccinated didn't get Small Pox.
Eventually Johanna met Wm Quinn, a light hearted young Irish man. They married and he went out to the prairie west of Chicago to work in the hay fields. There was a finished stack of hay and Wm was at the top. He jumped off and was impaled on a pitch fork standing at the bottom. He lived 9 days. The next Apr. 3rd (1856) my mother Mary Johanna Quinn was born. When my mother was grown there was another epidemic of Small Pox, & as she had been vaccinated , went about caring for the victims.
Johanna kept boarders. Men working on the streets, and cared for her two little girls (Margaret Carbry & Mary Quinn). One morning Johanna was walking to church. She met 2 neighbors. One said Mrs. Quinn meet my neighbor Mrs. Quinn The 2 Mrs. Quinns discovered they were the oldest and the youngest sisters of a family of 12, Johanna and Bridget. Bridget had a little baby girl Nellie Quinn and her husband had been Kelley. So the 2 widows went to living together & kept boarders, caring for their 3 young children. Then Bridget married Jim Powers, a grand person who was always so kind to Mary. They had a large family and were very happy.
Johanna worked in a laundry every day & Margaret, the oldest of the children, watched the little ones and helped. Margaret had no schooling until she was 17. Then she started studying. A neighbor who had been a teacher and had a brilliant mind tutored Margaret and she kept on until she rec'd her diploma to teach school. Margaret taught country school 40 years.
Mary (Quinn) never went to school but was self educated. She had as much education as an 8th grader.
Some years later a family moved across the road. They had 3 children, one blind. Then they had a pair of twins and mother and babies died leaving the 3 children. Johanna took them in, cured Katies eyes and Mothered them.
Then Johanna married Pat Lyons, father of the three children she had taken in. He was lazy & mean and beat Johanna & Mary when ever he wished. Pat Lyons kept on Johanna to sell the home place and she finally sold it for $80. It is worth many millions today (Court House). They built a small house out on Archer Avenue. Born to them were Patrick, William, & Bridget. They lived on Archer Avenue in 1871. They lived on S. side of alley and directly across the alley lived Mrs. Oleary, a heavy drinker who owned a cow. The cow barn was on the North side of the alley so when she tried to milk the cow she kicked the lantern over & started the straw a fire. The fire traveled North and burned Chicago. Grandmother's house (Johanna's) was spared but the cow and Mrs. Oleary's house were burned. My mother (Mary Quinn) was working in a hotel uptown. About 2 a.m. they called the girls and they escaped in their night clothes. They were herded out to the lake front. It was cold & raining and they had to stay in their night clothes as all their belongings were burned. There were large trucks of clothing and everything imaginable hauled out to the lake & burned (where it continued to burn). They would not let any of the shivering girls have any of it but my mother (Mary Quinn) was never afraid of anyone so she dashed in and snatched a shawl to keep her warm. I (Elsie) could always smell burned wood on it years later, although mother washed it often. The city fathers brought black coffee sweetened with dark brown sugar and dry bread for them to eat. Mother could never stand brown sugar. They finally migrated to Iowa where Pat (Lyons) farmed. When Wm (Lyons) died Johanna and Pat (Lyons) came to S. Dak. and kept house for Pat Jr. where they always made their home. Pat Lyons Jr. won a homestead in the Rosebud Ind. (indian) reservation drawing in Chas Mix Co., S. Dak. He lived there many years & did well. Johanna Lyons, his mother, kept house for him until her late 80 yrs. Pat sold his holdings and went to the Sacramento Valley and bought a farm where he intended spending his old age. There was something crooked in the irrigation project and he lost every cent. He started again N. of Sioux City, Iowa and married and did well. He died about 1940. Bridget finally married a red haired Irish man John Delaney to whom were born 5 daughters; Mary, Johanna, Loretta, Margaret & Regina.
While in Chicago Mary Johanna Quinn. (Dau). of Johanna & William Quinn) had Typhoid Fever & when she recovered she went to Clearwater, Iowa to work and live with a family. Then she met and married Joel Smith, my father. The story to that is: Mary B. had climbed a tree to get more fruit. She slipped and while falling caught her foot in a crotch in the tree. She was hanging upside down with her dress around her head yelling for help. One Joel Smith, fishing in nearby lake heard her cries, rowed ashore and got her down. They had two children, Elsie Johanna and Lewis William Smith.
1880 - Census Place Burr Oak, Winnefred, Iowa
Patrick Lyons Self B Male B 56 (1824) IRE Farmer IRE IRE
Johanna Lyons Wife B Female B 50 (1830) IRE Keeping House IRE IRE
Margrett Lyons (Carbry?) Dau S Female B 27 (1853) NY NOTE: TEACHING SCHOOL IRE IRE
Kate Lyons Dau S Female B 24 (1856) IL Teaching School IRE IRE
Patrick Lyons Son S Male B 19 (1861) IL Works On Farm IRE IRE
William Lyons Son S Male B 17 (1863) IL Works On Farm IRE IRE
Bridget Lyons Dau Female B 15 (1865) IL At Home IRE IRE
Johanna (Mullen)Carbry/Quinn/Lyons died Jan 20, 1920, about 100 years old. All of her nieces and nephews knew her as "Gramm Lyons". I believe her tombstone reads just that. She is buried somewhere in Lake County South Dakota.
Robert Hudson Bowell/Smith has death certificate of "Grandma Lyons".
Johanna Mullen married ? times; Carbry, Quinn, Lyons. Everybody she married she married in Chicago.
MEMOIRS of Elsie Johanna Smith: (granddaughter) as written
"Johanna Mullen was born in Ireland about 1820. In 1840 she came to N.Y. It took six weeks on a ship.
Then she went to Chicago. It was a country village. The streets followed the river. Every one kept a cow & the streets followed the cow paths.
About 1850 she married John Carbry, a school master. Johanna and her first husband John Carbry had squatted on a small piece of land and built their house. Today that piece of land is the site of the Chicago Court House. There was born Margaret and Thomas. In summer John worked on the prairie west of Chicago putting up hay. One night he did not come home. Next morning a neighbor brought him home in his wagon, dead. He had stopped and taken a glass of buttermilk from a woman along the way. It must have been Ptomaine poison. That winter Thomas died of Diphtheria, a dread disease at the time. Johanna owed a grocery bill when her first husband died. She did the family wash for the grocer for many years at 25 cents a wash to pay the grocery bill.
Then there was a scourge of Small pox. People died in the streets and were hauled away & buried. Johanna knew that the Pox taken from a cow protected humans from Small Pox. She procured some & went about vaccinating who ever would submit to it. Those who were vaccinated didn't get Small Pox.
Eventually Johanna met Wm Quinn, a light hearted young Irish man. They married and he went out to the prairie west of Chicago to work in the hay fields. There was a finished stack of hay and Wm was at the top. He jumped off and was impaled on a pitch fork standing at the bottom. He lived 9 days. The next Apr. 3rd (1856) my mother Mary Johanna Quinn was born. When my mother was grown there was another epidemic of Small Pox, & as she had been vaccinated , went about caring for the victims.
Johanna kept boarders. Men working on the streets, and cared for her two little girls (Margaret Carbry & Mary Quinn). One morning Johanna was walking to church. She met 2 neighbors. One said Mrs. Quinn meet my neighbor Mrs. Quinn The 2 Mrs. Quinns discovered they were the oldest and the youngest sisters of a family of 12, Johanna and Bridget. Bridget had a little baby girl Nellie Quinn and her husband had been Kelley. So the 2 widows went to living together & kept boarders, caring for their 3 young children. Then Bridget married Jim Powers, a grand person who was always so kind to Mary. They had a large family and were very happy.
Johanna worked in a laundry every day & Margaret, the oldest of the children, watched the little ones and helped. Margaret had no schooling until she was 17. Then she started studying. A neighbor who had been a teacher and had a brilliant mind tutored Margaret and she kept on until she rec'd her diploma to teach school. Margaret taught country school 40 years.
Mary (Quinn) never went to school but was self educated. She had as much education as an 8th grader.
Some years later a family moved across the road. They had 3 children, one blind. Then they had a pair of twins and mother and babies died leaving the 3 children. Johanna took them in, cured Katies eyes and Mothered them.
Then Johanna married Pat Lyons, father of the three children she had taken in. He was lazy & mean and beat Johanna & Mary when ever he wished. Pat Lyons kept on Johanna to sell the home place and she finally sold it for $80. It is worth many millions today (Court House). They built a small house out on Archer Avenue. Born to them were Patrick, William, & Bridget. They lived on Archer Avenue in 1871. They lived on S. side of alley and directly across the alley lived Mrs. Oleary, a heavy drinker who owned a cow. The cow barn was on the North side of the alley so when she tried to milk the cow she kicked the lantern over & started the straw a fire. The fire traveled North and burned Chicago. Grandmother's house (Johanna's) was spared but the cow and Mrs. Oleary's house were burned. My mother (Mary Quinn) was working in a hotel uptown. About 2 a.m. they called the girls and they escaped in their night clothes. They were herded out to the lake front. It was cold & raining and they had to stay in their night clothes as all their belongings were burned. There were large trucks of clothing and everything imaginable hauled out to the lake & burned (where it continued to burn). They would not let any of the shivering girls have any of it but my mother (Mary Quinn) was never afraid of anyone so she dashed in and snatched a shawl to keep her warm. I (Elsie) could always smell burned wood on it years later, although mother washed it often. The city fathers brought black coffee sweetened with dark brown sugar and dry bread for them to eat. Mother could never stand brown sugar. They finally migrated to Iowa where Pat (Lyons) farmed. When Wm (Lyons) died Johanna and Pat (Lyons) came to S. Dak. and kept house for Pat Jr. where they always made their home. Pat Lyons Jr. won a homestead in the Rosebud Ind. (indian) reservation drawing in Chas Mix Co., S. Dak. He lived there many years & did well. Johanna Lyons, his mother, kept house for him until her late 80 yrs. Pat sold his holdings and went to the Sacramento Valley and bought a farm where he intended spending his old age. There was something crooked in the irrigation project and he lost every cent. He started again N. of Sioux City, Iowa and married and did well. He died about 1940. Bridget finally married a red haired Irish man John Delaney to whom were born 5 daughters; Mary, Johanna, Loretta, Margaret & Regina.
While in Chicago Mary Johanna Quinn. (Dau). of Johanna & William Quinn) had Typhoid Fever & when she recovered she went to Clearwater, Iowa to work and live with a family. Then she met and married Joel Smith, my father. The story to that is: Mary B. had climbed a tree to get more fruit. She slipped and while falling caught her foot in a crotch in the tree. She was hanging upside down with her dress around her head yelling for help. One Joel Smith, fishing in nearby lake heard her cries, rowed ashore and got her down. They had two children, Elsie Johanna and Lewis William Smith.
1880 - Census Place Burr Oak, Winnefred, Iowa
Patrick Lyons Self B Male B 56 (1824) IRE Farmer IRE IRE
Johanna Lyons Wife B Female B 50 (1830) IRE Keeping House IRE IRE
Margrett Lyons (Carbry?) Dau S Female B 27 (1853) NY NOTE: TEACHING SCHOOL IRE IRE
Kate Lyons Dau S Female B 24 (1856) IL Teaching School IRE IRE
Patrick Lyons Son S Male B 19 (1861) IL Works On Farm IRE IRE
William Lyons Son S Male B 17 (1863) IL Works On Farm IRE IRE
Bridget Lyons Dau Female B 15 (1865) IL At Home IRE IRE
Johanna (Mullen)Carbry/Quinn/Lyons died Jan 20, 1920, about 100 years old. All of her nieces and nephews knew her as "Gramm Lyons". I believe her tombstone reads just that. She is buried somewhere in Lake County South Dakota.