Michael Dunn was a Kildare man, the fourth son of Laurence and
Mary Connelly Dunn. But he was the first of their offspring, and
perhaps of the extended Dunn family, to break with the Old World
and strike out for the new only a few years after Ireland's Great
Famine ended. It was said that he took his father's horse and
sold it to buy passage to America, but that tale has been told
too often about too many in the family that it borders on family
legend.
The territory of Michael's birth in August 1836 straddled the
Grand Canal in the townland of Derrymullen, civil parish of Kilmeague,
Barony of Great Connell, County of Kildare, Province of Leinster,
some 30 miles west of Dublin, but still within the orbit of the
capital. It was just beyond the Pale.
In the 5th Century, St. Brigid founded an order of holy women
nearby on the huge plain called the Curragh. Centuries later,
Kildare became the ancestral home of the Fitzgeralds, who were
granted their lands after the Norman invasion. The Fitzgeralds
were powerful during the Middle Ages but lost status in the early
16th Century when "Silken Thomas," misinformed by his
enemies that his father the earl had been put to death in London,
turned against the English king. Eventually, Thomas and five uncles
were executed. Besides the Fitzgeralds, other prominent 18th Century
Kildare families were the Aylmers, Wogans, Eustaces, Connollys,
and Wellesleys. These names were familiar to Michael's family
who had lived locally for at least several generations, perhaps
much longer, as farmers, turfmen, and boatmen on the Grand Canal
that wound east through the flat green countryside to the capital.
The waterway had been completed as far as nearby Robertstown in
1784 to help serve the growing country whose population had ballooned
then to nearly six million.
Michael's great grandparents were Edward and Catherine Dunn, both
born in the middle 1700s, about 100 years after Irish Catholics
lost in battle to the notorious Oliver Cromwell. For Catholics,
one loss had followed another: first, the battle; then their lands;
and then their rights. England imposed Penal Laws on Ireland in
1703 to keep Catholics in social and political bondage. For scores
of years, it worked. But during the later 1700s, finally, Catholic
relief measures met some success and a Catholic middle class was
developing.
Edward and Catherine Dunn had raised their children in that time,
while the canal was building, threading through the boggy landscape
near the Hill of Allen, which was the home in ancient times of
the legendary Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors called
the Fianna. Local story, which persisted into the 1830s, said
that Fionn had buried a treasure in the Hill. The Dunns' church,
the Catholic church at Allen, was known as The Leap because it
was built on the place where Fionn had landed when, with a mighty
bound, he had jumped off the Hill of Allen. Both the Hill and
the canal were prominent features of the local landscape.
The Dunns' home was in Mylerstown, part of Robertstown, which
sidled up to the canal. Near the close of the 18th Century, several
of the Dunn children had married, but daughter Margaret, at least,
was still single and at home, and Edward had set aside money for
her dowry -- 20 to 50 pounds, depending on how well the match
pleased parental interests. Edward laid down those terms for Margaret
when, evidently ill or injured, he wrote his will on November
19, 1798. He directed that several of his children -- Daniel,
Mary, and Elizabeth Hayes -- should receive only a shilling and
a penny, probably because they already had received their shares.
Daughter Honora Logan, her father said, should get a rood of a
turf bank, adjoining the shoemaker's portion. All else, by Edward's
dictate, was to go to his wife and sons Laurence and George "share
and share alike" but reserving business decisions to Catherine,
suggesting great faith in her judgement without giving any clues
to the nature of the "business." Edward, evidently unable
to write his name, signed the will with an X, his mark. It is
not known when or how he died, whether by the infirmities of old
age or something else altogether.
The year he made his will though was a crucial one for oppressed
Irish Catholics, coming on the heels of a decade of political
ferment kindled by the American and French revolutions. Indeed,
Napoleon Bonaparte was sweeping across Europe and the Americans
had begun their grand governmental experiment. It was during this
democratic mood in 1793 that Irish Catholics secured the vote,
providing they had a 40-shilling freehold. Importantly, in 1791,
the radical mood had spawned an organization called The United
Irishmen, formed under Theobald Wolfe Tone to press for rights
in Ireland and was roiling the traditional sectarian factions
of Irish society, as scholar Kevin Whelan explores in his book,
The Tree of Liberty. Tone was a Kildare man whose brother, Matthew,
a coffin-maker, lived in Prosperous, not far from the Hill of
Allen and the canal. Prosperous was a planned industrial community
optimistically named and developed by an Englishman who had founded
a linen business there in the 1780s. The remarkable Sir Edward
Fitzgerald of Kildare also took a leading role in the new organization
and was its only leader with real military experience, gained
in the American war. The United Irishmen quickened the latent
political consciousness of the Irish people. At the same time,
constitutional reform became controversial. In the spring of '98,
it all culminated in a massive but ill-fated rebellion which sputtered
for months, abetted by rumors of an armed invasion from France
that would help the people overthrow the English tyrant. In that
summer of chaos, about 30,000 people died.
The rebellion's fate likely was sealed in March when traitors
to the United Irishmen gave information that enabled the British
to break into a high-level rebel meeting in Dublin and arrest
several of its leaders. Fitzgerald, however, had missed the appointment
and gone into hiding for weeks. In late May, he too was betrayed.
Only days before the rebellion was set to begin, Fitzgerald was
cornered and grievously wounded in the room where he was lodging.
For days afterwards, he languished in jail as the rising began,
and he finally died in early June.
County Kildare played an enormous role in the rising because of
its location, just west of Dublin, and its rebel sons who led
the United cause for the county -- men like William Aylmer of
the Painstown Aylmers, near Kilcock. It was in Kildare that the
United Irishmen -- nearly 12,000 locals -- were perhaps best organized.
Suspecting as much, the British targeted the county after the
rebel leaders' arrests in Dublin. The military mounted a brutal
campaign to disarm the people; their tactics included floggings,
pitch caps, half-hangings, torture, and the burning of homes and
churches. The savagery cost the Kildare rebel organization many
fearful members; 10,000 arms were surrendered. But it also provoked
the people to action -- when the rebellion finally ignited, Kildare
saw the first sparks.
The rising in Prosperous is detailed in a history of the town
called Prosperous, A Village of Vision, in Thomas Pakenham's account
of The Year of Liberty, and in Sir Richard Musgrave's loyalist
accounts. The town's Catholics had been goaded by an overzealous
militiaman named Swayne, who by late May was the lone officer
in the county who was still seeking arms from the people by threat,
intimidation, and punishment. Swayne had moved forces into the
old mill in Prosperous to quell any signs of trouble and swept
the area to confiscate weapons. In one search, he and his troops
ripped open all of the feather beds in Healy's Ostelry as they
looked for hidden arms. Swayne was a Protestant who tortured local
Catholics by "picketing;" and the picketings in Prosperous
had become notorious. Pickets were sharp pointed stakes upon which
the victim was forced to stand until he gave information. Swayne
had burst into Sunday mass in the town that spring and warned
the people to give up their arms. "If you don't have it done,"
he growled at the priest, "I'll pour boiling lead down your
throat." By experience, the Catholics had learned to take
Swayne's threats seriously. Within days, he burned down their
church and fifteen houses and arrested a dozen men. The people
feared he would torture his prisoners, as had been done at nearby
Athy, and perhaps execute them. Indeed, a ballad written later
described Swayne's reputation:
"For those monsters of oppression and dark dishonour reign
In that district long abandoned to the tyrant rule of Swayne."
So when the Irish rose around Prosperous in the early morning
darkness on May 24, they pursued the vicious Swayne. The rebels
swung into action aiming to burn the militia's temporary barracks.
On the wooded banks of the canal, near the 18th lock, a crowd
of them gathered, about 500, mostly farmers and former mill workers
armed with crude pikes, knives, pitchforks, scythes, and perhaps
a few guns. Their leaders included a man named Dunn of the Clane
Yeomanry who often provided information. Other participants named
later in official papers included Andrew Farrell, who was the
son of Daniel Farrell of Hely's Bridge, and a Patrick Farrel [sic].
After dark, the rebels moved to Swayne's barracks where, facing
volleys of gunfire, they torched the military quarters with burning
furze. Swayne was cornered in his room and killed. His body was
dragged out into the street and burned in a barrel of tar. When
the fleeing militiamen took refuge in the former mill, the townspeople
burned it to the ground, too. Casualties were put at seventy loyalists
and nine rebels, including a daring Irish woman named Ruth Hackett
who, armed with a mattress as a shield, carried blazing furze
through the line of gunfire to the rebels until she was shot dead.
The rebels, under Dunn, then turned to Downings House in a search
for landlord's agent Henry Stamer, who allegedly had mistreated
local tenants and had gone into hiding that night disguised as
a dairy maid, in the home of Mrs. Bonynge. Local tradition says
that Stamer hid in the cellar of an outbuilding (which became
known as Stamer's Vault), but a cook told the rebels where to
find him. Stamer was piked to death and the mansion was burned
to the ground after the Bonynges were allowed to leave. Elsewhere,
Brewer, the Englishman who had founded Prosperous' mill, was killed
by axe, and some loyalist troops quartered privately around Prosperous
were rounded up and executed.
Local accounts hailed the Battle of Prosperous as "the first
military exploit of the United Irishmen." Afterwards, its
leaders scattered, but the town history noted that "long
after the rebellion had been extinguished elsewhere, they continued
to hold out in the open field for a longer period than any other
given group."
It is not known whether Edward Dunn of Mylerstown or any of his
family took part that night, but the timing of his will raises
questions about whether Edward's poor health somehow was linked
to the notorious battle near his home that was part of the failed
national insurrection. The available record so far has neither
answered the question nor yielded the date of Edward's death.
Whether or not he or his sons or daughters took part, like many
Catholics in that community, they surely had to wrestle with the
question of joining the United Irishmen. Each family had to follow
its conscience and its heart.
It was months, even years, before the events of '98 had spun themselves
out. Minor skirmishes continued in outlying areas. Trials and
executions of the leaders followed. Matthew Tone was hanged. Wolfe
Tone was captured and faced trial and execution but he slit his
own throat and died a week later. It was said that he had used
a razor blade left behind when his brother went to the gallows.
One group of rebel prisoners made a deal with the government,
and many of them were sentenced to be transported out of the country.
The loyalists' losses in the rebellion were compensated. The lot
of the Irish people otherwise included continued unemployment,
rising rents, and, soon, a poor harvest in many areas which threatened
famine. In a politically controversial position, Britain's top
representative in Ireland, Cornwallis, the veteran of the American
Revolution, generally advocated conciliatory measures toward the
people, a policy he thought would help Britain maintain control.
In this position though, he met great opposition. And, finally,
Britain passed the Act of Union. The Irish Parliament voted itself
out of existence. The Act became official on Jan. 1, 1801.
Early in the new century, in 1803, Edward Dunn's son Laurence,
then 28, leased his brother's business on the Grand Canal for
eight years. Their transaction was recorded at the Registry of
Deeds in Dublin; the document says that George Dunn turned over
his business to Laurence; their brother Daniel signed as a witness.
Included was part of a turf bank, boat No. 267, called the Lunden,
and "the bay horse that plies or draws the same," along
with various tackle and appurtenances. Laurence was identified
as a farmer and boatman; George was listed as a boatman; Daniel
was a turfman who signed his own name. But the document does not
say what Laurence paid for his new enterprise. Since Laurence's
son Laurence was born the following year, the father obviously
was making provision for his young family by leasing the canal
business that must have carted turf to Dublin.
Little more is known about the canalman's life or family. In addition
to the son who was his namesake, Laurence and his wife, Mary,
certainly had a son named Edward. Since Ireland's population was
exploding at that time, most probably there were a number of other
children. Sons Laurence and Edward named each other years later
as godparent for their children.The baptismal records of Laurence's
and Edward's children name other Dunns as well, suggesting their
siblings may have been called Sally, Esther, Mary, George, and
Patt.
When the canalman's oldest children were young, Ireland experienced
an economic boom. Scholar Whelan defines the period of prosperity
as 1780 to 1815. Indeed, the country's agricultural production
rose enormously even though it had a poor reputation in Europe.
Historian Kevin O'Neill calls Ireland's farm productivity during
this time a "conundrum" and a great untold and unexplained
story of European history. But when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo
in 1815, Europe's agriculture revived and Ireland's fell on hard
times. Afterwards, a potato called the lumper assumed even greater
prominence in the people's diet. At the same time, coastal fishing
declined and the kelp industry disappeared. In the north though,
Belfast's linen industry burgeoned, undermining the cottage spinning
and weaving which helped the Irish people to survive. While it
did not particularly influence affairs in Kildare, Belfast's growth
had a devastating impact on the northern counties. The people
depended on the potato, which Irishmen often consumed at the rate
of fourteen pounds a day. As Whelan says, "they forgot oatmeal."
The potato was an available foodstuff while the Irish family's
effort went to pay the rent twice a year.
Reliable as it was, the potato crop was not immune to failure;
it happened twice in the decade after 1815. During that period,
in a strangling economy, the secret agrarian societies increased
their activity, with sporadic incidents of violence. The times
reminded some worried Britons of the volatile political situation
of the 1790s, before the rising of '98, according to author Robert
Kee. Those British fears were fulfilled in a way when the 1820s
culminated with a spectacular political success for Catholics.
Attorney Daniel O'Connell of an old Kerry family had organized
the Catholic underclass, pressed for, and won Catholic Emancipation
in 1829. It meant the end of the hated Penal Laws. Catholics could
now hold high office though the fearful British immediately increased
the property requirement for voting to ten pounds. While O'Connell's
success had little practical effect on most people, still, he
had wrested change by legal means from a system that tried to
avoid it. He had demonstrated that Catholics could achieve change
by peaceful means through organizing. It was a great moral victory,
appreciated by the Irish people and stunning to the Anglos. O'Connell
also had won a contested seat in Parliament. In the following
years, confirmed in his strategy, the new leader of the people
bent his energies to repeal of the Union, culminating in the early
1840s with "monster meetings" around the island that
drew hundreds of thousands of Irish and intimidated the British
officials.
Undoubtedly, the Dunns, who were Catholics, welcomed these developments,
but family matters also preoccupied them during this time as their
children came of marriageable age. Laurence and Mary's son Laurence
married Mary Connelly on January 5, 1830, recorded at the church
at Allen. Witnesses to the marriage were Patt Dunn, perhaps his
brother, and Mary Logan (was she a daughter of Honora Logan who
had inherited the patch of bog next to the shoemaker's?). The
young Laurence and Mary very soon went to live in Derrymullen,
not far from Allenwood Cross and the canal, and not far from his
parents in Mylerstown. The elder Laurence Dunn, the canalman,
is listed there in the Tithe Applotment records which valued Irish
property for the purposes of determining what the landholders,
Catholics included, had to pay in support of the official church
of England. Laurence, then advanced in age, held 30 acres and
15 perches; six acres were top quality land; fourteen acres were
second-level lands; and the rest were fourth-level parcels. Laurence
paid 1 pound 18 shillings a year for the Protestants' church.
As Catholics' farms went, Laurence's was a sizable holding; the
list showed it was among the largest in his neighborhood. He also
had a tenant -- Martin Cunningham -- nearby on a small plot. Cunningham
was probably a cottier.
By the summer of 1834, the younger Laurence and Mary had three
sons -- John, Patt, and a new child, Laurence. That year, just
before Christmas, the elder Laurence Dunn, the canal man, then
59, died. He was buried at old Allen cemetery. His son Edward
erected a stone whose inscription memorializes his "beloved
father." His son Laurence took down the family bible and
entered a record of his father's death on Dec. 20, just as he
had entered his children's births and the family's deaths, and
kept a treasured copy of his grandfather Edward's will.
Not quite two years later, Laurence and Mary had a fourth son;
they named him Michael. He was born on August 26, 1836, in Derrymullen,
and when he was baptized, his father's brother Edward Dunn and
Judy Kennedy were listed in the church ledger as his godparents.
Two years later, Mary Connelly Dunn's father died. The record
of his death in the family bible though did not disclose his name,
identifying him only as "Mary's father." The births
of four more children to Laurence and Mary followed: Mary, in
1839; Edward in 1842; George in 1845; and Catherine in July 1850.
When Michael was nearly five years old, on June 24, 1841, Edward,
his uncle and godfather who then lived in nearby Killeagh, married
Eleanor Walsh of the same townland. Standing up for the couple
were James Walsh and Garrett Farrell. Farrell was a close friend
of both Edward and Laurence Dunn; three decades later, his niece
became Michael Dunn's second wife in the U.S. Edward and Ellen's
ten children, born over the next 18 years, were Mary, who arrived
the next year; Laurence, 1843; Patrick, 1844; Catherine, 1846;
Anne, 1848; Ellen, 1850; Margaret, 1852; Thomas, 1854; Rose Anna,
1856; and Alicia, 1860.
By the 1840s, much of the land in Kildare had been turned from
potato farming to pasturage, according to James G. Ryan's book,
Irish Records. Thus, the people of the county rode out the famine
far better than the populations to the north and west. Proximity
to Dublin's commercial activity also helped them through the time.
Kildare's population of 114,000 in 1841 dropped to 96,000 a decade
later near the end of the famine. "Of the difference, about
14,000 died and the remainder emigrated," Ryan said. In contrast,
County Galway's population of 442,000 in 1841 fell by 100,000
during the same period; nearly 75,000 of them died during the
famine years.
When Richard Griffith valued property in Kildare in the late 1840s,
as he did throughout the country around that time, Michael's father
Laurence Dunn, then nearing 50 with seven children, was still
living in Derrymullen. His oldest son was about 18, Michael was
about 13, and the family was not yet complete -- daughter Catherine
was born in 1850. Laurence leased his property -- house, offices,
and land -- from Sir Gerald G. Aylmer, whose family had settled
in Kildare after the invasion and whose ancestor had been tutor
to Lady Jane Grey before she became a princess of England. The
Aylmers had forfeited their estates to Cromwell in the mid 1600s,
but later recovered much of their property. In the late 1600s,
the Donadea Castle branch of the family received the estate of
Allen, 9,000 acres in Kildare, and 1,600 more in Sligo. In the
rising of '98, an Aylmer had succeeded Edward Fitzgerald as leader
of the Kildare rebels after Fitzgerald's arrest.
Griffith's mid-century valuation shows that Michael's father leased
14 acres, 1 rood, 30 perch, and it was valued altogether at 6
pounds, 15 shillings. Nearly all of the value was in the land,
rather than in the buildings. Sir Gerald owned most of the surrounding
property, although the Grand Canal leased out some and a Patrick
Callan had several tenants. Of the townland's 23 tenants, a woman
named Margaret Cribben, also a lessee of Sir Gerald's, had substantial
holdings. One of the tenants was the Irish Amelioration Society
which leased charcoal sheds and bog. In fact, Griffith described
much of the local property as bogland.
In 1854, Michael's grandmother, Mary Dunn, 79, died and was laid
to rest next to her husband Lawrence in the cemetery in the shadow
of the Hill of Allen.
It is hard to know what spurred Michael to start thinking about
America, but surely he was doing so by the mid-1850s. His parents,
obviously, were not very well off, though many others in the townland,
judging by Griffith's information, had less. Michael had three
older brothers, all of them quite content, it must be surmised,
to stay put, since that's what they did. Elizabeth Dunne of Carbury
(not far from Derrymullen), the young woman who Michael married
soon after he arrived in America, apparently emigrated before
him, in 1857, so perhaps by going he was following his heart.
On the other hand, it is not known whether he knew Elizabeth in
their homeland or met her in America, or even whether she was
somehow related. Carbury, however, was only a few miles northwest
of the Dunns' townland. Perhaps Michael had friends who planned
to leave for America or already had left and, prospects being
what they were at home, he decided that America offered opportunity.
When he was 21, Michael pursued want he wanted. In May 1858, he
said farewell to his family, left Derrymullen, and landed in New
York City 45 days later. His port of embarkation and the ship
that provided his passage remain unidentified. From New York City,
he apparently went very soon to Troy, 150 miles north on the Hudson
River across from the state capital. It was there that he married
Elizabeth a year later at St. Joseph's Church in south Troy. Michael
found a job at an iron works where he remained for years while
his family grew. Son Laurence was born in 1862; James in 1864;
George in '66; Elizabeth in '68; Michael in '69.
Around that time, Michael's cousin, Laurence Dunn, the oldest
son of Edward and Ellen Walsh Dunn, landed in Troy. Perhaps Michael
had encouraged his move and offered to help him out. Whatever
the case, Laurence, 29, contracted typhoid fever in the summer
of 1872 and died. Michael saw to his young cousin's funeral and
burial in Troy and was named to handle Laurence's small estate,
whose records document their relationship. Laurence was still
single; and he was the only one of his siblings to emigrate. In
the 1850s, his younger brother Patrick apparently had died in
Kildare and had been buried with his Dunn grandparents in Allen
graveyard. Now, Edward and Ellen had lost two of their three sons,
one far from home.
New Year's 1873 began auspiciously for the Michael Dunns with
the birth that day of their sixth child, a daughter they named
Mary. Barely a week later though, Elizabeth, 33, was dead. The
child lived only days longer. Michael became a widower with five
children under 11 years old. A year later, news came from Ireland
of Michael's father's death on January 20. Sometime during this
sad cycle of birth and death, perhaps impressed with the fleeting
quality of life, Michael took out the prized family bible he had
brought to America and started entering the records of his and
his children's lives. In an impressive script, he put down the
dates of his and Elizabeth's departures from Ireland, their marriage,
the births of their children, and Elizabeth's death, along with
baby Mary's. For decades afterwards, Michael noted the big events
in his and his children's lives as his father had done before
him in the same bible, which contained entries before Michael's
birth. Michael also owned a prayer book which contained the terms
of the 1798 will of his great grandfather Edward Dunn and named
Edward's and Catherine's children.
At some point, Michael's younger brothers, George (called the
"Fuzzler," which was thought to be a shortened version
of Fusiliers, an Irish military unit) and Edward, and his sister
Mary came to America. The brothers hovered near New York City,
and Mary settled in Orange, New Jersey. There must have been contact
among the Dunn siblings though because eighteen months after Elizabeth's
death, Michael married again at St. John's Church in Orange. He
was 38. His bride was Catherine (Kate) Walsh, who was 28. The
site of the marriage suggests that Mary Dunn may have had a role
in her brother's match.
Kate was the daughter of Walter and Anne Farrell Walsh, who had
married at Clane, near Prosperous in Kildare, on September 20,
1840. At the time of Kate's marriage, her family lived in Brockagh,
near Derrymullen. Kate's mother, Anne, was the daughter of James
and Catherine Farrell, and Anne had at least three brothers, one
of them Garrett Farrell who had stood up for Edward Dunne when
he married Ellen Walsh some thirty years earlier. Garrett Farrell,
too, had married a Walsh (Anne), but the relationships among Ellen,
Anne, and Walter Walsh are a mystery. Likewise, nothing is known
about Walter's parents and siblings. Walter and Anne had seven
children: two sons, Oliver and William, and daughters Rose, Catherine,
Mary, a second Catherine (probably the first died as a baby),
and Anne. Kate's brother Oliver had come to America and settled
in Connecticut. Her sister Rose also had emigrated, married a
Clinton, and settled in Troy, apparently before Kate's marriage;
Rose, however, died young. (During the 1920s, one of her descendants
became mayor of Troy.) Michael's and Kate's parents evidently
knew each other in Kildare since Anne Farrell Walsh conveyed Dunn
family news in the letters she sent to America after 1876. Kate's
father, however, is not mentioned in any of those letters and
therefore may have died some while before they were written.
After their wedding, Michael brought Kate home to Troy. Over the
next sixteen years, they had eight children: Ann, John, Catherine,
Mary, Walter, Edward, Rose, and Thomas (who died soon after birth).
In the 1880s, Michael moved his growing family to 500 Second Street,
corner of Tyler, one of the tall, narrow, flat-faced brick buildings
in the south part of the city a few blocks from the river, and
he opened a grocery business there on the first floor. At the
same time, he and Kate became citizens of the United States. As
their children reached an age that they could help in the store,
one handled accounts, another made deliveries, and so on. Kate
helped out sometimes too behind the counter which was laden with
cookies and candy, jars of olives with pimentos, and cheeses and
meats.
The business prospered, even though the river occasionally overflowed
and Michael gave credit in the store. Allowing his customers to
run accounts evidently made Michael uncomfortable at times. When
the priest from St. Joseph's came to see him about going to church
more often, he said if he did, he'd only have to meet the gazes
of the neighbors who owed him money. Michael and Kate occasionally
sent money home to Ireland to Kate's mother, whose circumstances
-- relayed in her letters -- were strapped. Eventually, Michael
bought up some of the properties around him and the family acquired
a large square-shaped piano. The Dunns also had a dog, a St. Bernard,
at least for a while. Some people referred to Michael as Old Smokey
for a reason lost to present time, although it possibly stemmed
from the nickname of the national heavyweight prizefighting champion
of 1853, John 'Old Smoke' Morrissey of Tipperary, who arrived
in Troy as a child. (Kevin Kenny, The American Irish / A History)
As he aged, Michael was a robust, genial-looking fellow with a
round face, white hair, and astute eyes.
An 1886 letter from his mother-in-law Anne Farrell Walsh brought
the news of Michael's mother's death. About that time, the struggling
Anne Walsh, then in her 70s, finally gave in to pressure from
her children in America and emigrated along with her bachelor
son, William, whose health was not good. Perhaps William's health
finally gave her reason to take the step she had rejected so many
times; or maybe it was the punishing economics of the time which
caused her to leave. She spent the last ten years of her life
in America where she moved in with Michael and Kate in the late
1880s. Anne Farrell Walsh died in April 1897 and was buried in
Troy's St. Mary's Cemetery, though in Kildare she had wanted to
rest with her parents in Downings graveyard, a half mile or so
from Prosperous.
Also emigrating in their time were at least a half dozen of Michael's
nephews, the sons of his brothers John and Patrick. Most of them
stayed around New York City and several of them, brothers, ran
a saloon; over time, the branches of the family in upstate New
York and in New Jersey lost contact.
Into the new century, when his children took husbands and wives,
Michael dutifully recorded each of their weddings in the family
bible that had been his father's.
Michael was still running his store when World War I broke out.
A number of his children lived nearby in houses that he owned;
some brought their young families to live above the store with
Michael and Kate when the Hudson River flooded over or some other
misfortune struck. Michael, it seems, had an open-door policy
when it came to bids for aid. He also had taken care of various
Irish immigrant newcomers who arrived periodically at the store
because they were told Michael Dunn would help them find work.
One of these new arrivals was a young man named Barnes from Donegal,
smart as a whip with a national scholar's prize in math to prove
it, whose mother had packed him off to America rather than see
her son teach in a school for English children. Michael took the
young immigrant to an outlying farm for his first job in America,
but not before young Annie Dunn had spied the newcomer, liked
what she saw, and set her cap for him, successfully it turned
out.
Michael presided over domestic and business life there at Second
and Tyler Streets in South Troy and provided for his large family.
It must have been no small feeling of accomplishment for a man
born in another time, the fourth son of a Derrymullen farmer.
Michael Dunn died on January 10, 1916, in Troy; Kate died the
following year.
A set of letters from Anne Farrell Walsh to her family in America,
written during the 1870s and '80s, was handed down through their
son Edward's family. Michael left his bible to his son James,
a lover of books, who evidently passed it to his nephew, James,
a physician, who took it to Virginia, but who willingly shared
its secrets when asked to do so in the 1970s by Michael's son
Walter's granddaughter who used the family information in both
the Dunn bible and the Walsh letters to find Dunn cousins in the
early 1990s in County Kildare (the descendants of Edward and Ellen
Walsh Dunn), to learn the family's story, and to visit Laurence
and Mary Dunn's resting place under a tilted, moss-covered stone
in old Allen graveyard. It's likely that Edward and Catherine
Dunn are buried there as well, though no stone says so.
Like Fionn mac Cumhaill, the legendary hero of his Kildare childhood,
Michael had taken a great leap from the Hill of Allen to an altogether
different place. In doing so, he had safeguarded not only the
present and the future but also the past.
The Dunn Line: County Kildare to Troy
Edward and Catherine Dunn (born middle 1700s),
Children: Elizabeth, Daniel, Catherine, Mary, Honora, Laurence,
George, Margaret
Laurence and Mary ___ Dunn
Children: Laurence, Edward, _____
Laurence and Mary Connelly Dunn
Children: John, Patrick, Laurence, Michael, Edward, Mary, George,
Catherine
Michael (immigrant ancestor, born August 1836) and
1. Elizabeth Dunne Dunn
Children: Laurence, James, George, Elizabeth, Michael, Mary
2. Catherine Walsh Dunne
Children: Ann, John, Catherine, Mary, Walter, Edward, Rose,
Thomas
Walter and Mary Maloney Dunn
Children: Jane Frances, Walter Charles
Walter and Frances Allen Dunn
Children: Mary Lee, Jane, Norma, Patricia
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