The Arrival in Quebec

The Henry, Keenan and McGee families left Ireland long before the famine. Each arrived around 1830 in Quebec.

A couple of decades earlier, the British had defeated the French and took control of Quebec. They wished to anglicize the countryside. They offered Irish and Scots farmers free land and free passage to Quebec. I'm sure they did not tell them that it was often -35C in the winter. The settlers were allowed to speak their own language, own land, and have their own priests and ministers.

James Henry(1807-1888) who is our gggrandfather seems to have come from Sligo. Possibly, Rhue Tubbercurry, Sligo Ireland. His parents were Thomas Henry and Catherine Fehily. He was not married when he arrived. I believe his parents stayed in Ireland

John Keenan(1797-1888) and Catherine McGee Keenan(1797-1833) are our ggggrandparents. They may be from Tyrone. They came to Quebec around 1831 or 1832 with three children: Susanna(our gggrandmother 1825-1905), James and Francis. Shortly after they arrived in 1833, Catherine died in Levis, Quebec. in 1833 there was a terrible typhoid epidemic that killed many newly arrived settlers who were crowded in dense settlements near Quebec City. Many of these settlers fled south to the countryside. In 1835 John Keenan married another widow, Jane Gratton who has arrived from IRL with her children.

I am not sure when or how the Henry family and Keenan families connected with each other

Life in Quebec

They each moved to an area south of Quebec City called Lotbienere County. During this time they lived in the areas outside of the towns of Inverness, Ste Agathe and Ste Sylvestre. John Keenan was both a farmer and a school teacher. His family lived in Ste Sylvestre Township. James Henry bought and sold land and was a farmer. His family had a large farm at Campbell Corners, which is outside the town of Inverness. The first time I visited the area, I was impressed by how much it looked like parts of western IRL. Very green, rolling hills and stone fences left since the time of these early settlers.

However life was very difficult. Most families were given small plots of land. Maybe 3 or 4 hectacres. It was all forested and rocky. So to farm families had to clear the forest and remove rocks. The land was very hilly. Travel was difficult. Roads had hills of 12-17%. There was a lot of violence in daily life. Steve Cameron whose ancestors lived there with ours has written 3 books which recount about 30 different murders over the years 1830-1880. The source of the violence was often 3 things: drinking, questions of land ownership and religious rivalry between factions of Orangemen(Protestant Irish group) and Ribbonmen(Catholic Irish group).

Only one story in my family has lasted from this era. In 1840 Susanna Keenan was 15; James Henry was 33. The story is that Susanna was forced into marriage that she didnt want. She went to the Catholic priest, Fr. James Nelligan, and tried to get him to intervene. His words to her were "obey your parents". So Susanna Keenan and James Henry were married in Ste Sylvestre Church in 1840. They live most of their live in a large log cabin near the town of Inverness. Susanna had 14 children. The first at the age of 15 the last at the age of 45.

Departure to the Massachusetts

One of the failures in the British plan to change the countryside is that they gave too little land to the settlers who often large families like James and Susanna. When it came time for the children to receive land and start families there was not enough land to provide for them. Also in this time 2 other things happened. To the south in the US the industrial revolution was underway. Second a railroad was built connecting this area with Quebec with Boston. As a result families began to leave Quebec for the US.

In 1869, James and Susanna sent their oldest son(29) to the Boston area to establish a new home. His name was John. I have not found the cause but John died while he was on this journey. His body was brought back to Quebec and is buried near Ste Sylvestre. At the time of his death Susanna was pregnant with her last child. They named him John.

In 1872 the entire family along with many of Susanna's bothers and father traveled south and started a new live outside of Boston. James and Susanna settled in a town named East Medway (Millis, today). Many of the family members worked in shoe factories. James maintained a farm. In September of 1878 the families farm house was struck by lightning and burned to the ground. One of their children, Michael wrote narrative poems. I included 2 of his poems. One tells of how deeply he missed Quebec and the other tells of the burning of the house.

Departure for Chicago

Another of the Henry children was James Jr. In 1886 he married Elizabeth Malone. In 1888 his father James Sr. dies. and in 1891 our grandmother, Mary Henry is born in East Medway Massachusetts

Six months after she is born her family moves to Chicago. The family legend is that the 1893 Worlds Fair, the Colombian Exposition, is about to start and it offers a lot of business opportunities. James does start a tavern but it is no where near the site of the fair. It is in the Bridgeport neighborhood which is made of mostly Irish immigrants at this time. Susanna Keenan Henry comes with the family to Chicago and lives above the tavern until she dies in 1905. She is buried in an unmarked grave 3 miles from my house. In many ways she was the the foundation of our family. She leaves IRL at 7. Her mother dies as 9. Her father remarries at 10. She is forced into marriage at 15. She has 14 children in a 30yr period. Her oldest son dies as she's about to give birth. She moves to Massachusetts. Her house burns down. Her husband dies. And she is moved to Chicago at the age of 67.

Post Script

In 1916 my grandmother marries Robert ODonnell. The ODonnells and Foxs came to Chicago from Ireland in 1850 as part of the immigration from the famine. Thats another story!!

In 1927 Robert was killed in the line of duty as a fireman in Chicago. My father(Jack Sr) was 4 yrs old at the time.

I am the eldest son of Jack and Irene ODonnell. My wife, Nancy and I are both retired secondary school teachers with 2 sons who live in California and New Orleans. We have one grandchild in California