As you travel through the pages of this book you will wander along the path two families took on their journey From Ireland to Ivesdale. When Joseph Cain and Julia Donovan married Then There Were Twelve children and the unique stories of growing up in this large family. This book continues by opening a Pandora's Box of Memories wherein you'll find short stories about Fruitcake Evangelism, Life Before Electricity, the Last Baby, the Ringy-Dingy Days of Liz and Tess, and many other interesting memoirs.
From Ireland to Ivesdale
And Then There Were Twelve MemoriesBy Paul CainAuthorHouse
Copyright © 2009 Paul Cain
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4490-1222-9Chapter One
From Ireland to Ivesdale By Mike Cain
In the middle of the 19th century the potato famine in Ireland resulted in the immigration of many families to the United States. Two families, the Cain's and the Donovan's, took divergent paths which would eventually lead them to Colfax Township in Illinois and the small town of Ivesdale which was often referred to as "Little Ireland." It appears that the Cain family arrived in the United States, possibly through New Orleans and traveled up the Mississippi River before settling in LaSalle County in Illinois. The Donovans are thought to have come through Canada into New York and later settled in Hillsdale County in Michigan. Eventually, an interest in farming brought descendents of both families to Ivesdale where Joseph Cain and Julia Donovan met and were married on September 3,1912. The following section provides a brief history of the Cain and Donovan families.
The Cain Families
Thomas Cain (1819-1897) By Pat Clark
Thomas Cain and Bridget Finn were the parents of James Thomas Cain and five other children. The family oral history suggests three brothers emigrated from Ireland, possibly from the area of Claremorris, County Mayo.
In his naturalization proceeding, Thomas Cain reports that he came to the United States in 1850. There is oral history to suggest that he spent some time in the south before settling in northern Illinois. There are records from a telegraph company in LaSalle County, Illinois listing Thomas Cain as a worker on Mississippi to Illinois projects.
Thomas Cain met and married Bridget Finn about the time that he purchased a lot in Peru, LaSalle County, Illinois on August 23, 1854. Bridget Finn was born on July 4, 1827. She immigrated with her family during the potato famines around 1845.
The baptism of their second child, James Thomas Cain born on September 8, 1855 is among the first recorded at St. Patrick's Church in LaSalle. James had five brothers and sisters including Austin, Thomas, Mary Ann, Patrick Henry, and Sarah Agnes.
The family appears in the 1870 Census south of Peru near Lostant in Richland Township, LaSalle County. Thomas and Bridget are listed living in a residence with five children. Austin is gone from the family by this census. There is documentation from a probate court proceeding that he died of drowning in adolescence and oral history suggests that he drowned in the Illinois River which runs through Peru.
Thomas is listed in the 1870 census with the occupation of farmer and the birthplace of Ireland. There is no value indicated for Real Estate in the Census although he reports $370 in Personal Property.
Thomas and family moved to Champaign County, Illinois and purchased 160 acres of land in Colfax Township in 1874. Thomas and the family appear living in the same residence in the 1880 Census of Colfax Township. Champaign County naturalization records indicate that Thomas became a citizen of the United States on September 27, 1880.
Bridget died at the age of 67 in 1895. Thomas died at the age of 78 on March 22,1897 in Philo, Champaign County at the home of his son, Patrick. Both are interred in the family plot in St. Joseph's Cemetery, Sadorus Township, Champaign County.
James Thomas Cain (1855-1927) By Pat Clark
The second child of Thomas Cain and Bridget Finn, James Thomas Cain was born on September 8, 1855 in Peru, Illinois. He had five brothers and sisters including Austin, Thomas, Mary Ann, Patrick Henry, and Sarah Agnes.
The family left Peru sometime after 1860 and appears in the 1870 census of Richland Township near Lostant in LaSalle County, Illinois. In 1875, James' father purchased land and moved the family to Colfax Township, Champaign County, Illinois.
Later, James purchased and cleared a 180 acre farm near his father. He married Mary Carroll on January 2, 1882 at St. Joseph's Church. The daughter of Irish immigrants, Benard and Margaret Carroll, Mary Carroll was also born in Peru, Illinois on January 11, 1858.
James and Mary had six children including Francis, Lucy, Joseph, Vincent, Margaret, and Mary Myrtle.
Called "Dandy Jim" by his friends, J.T. was active in his community serving on local township and school boards. He was appointed the first Grand Knight of the local chapter of the Knights of Columbus.
James T. died of Bright's Disease on November 27, 1927 at the age of 72 years. Mary died on October 30,1946 at the age of 88 years. They are both interred in St. Joseph Cemetery.
James T. Cain and Mary Carroll Cain From the book Once Upon a Time and Other Short Stories by May Cain Loomis
Grandpa Cain in 1925
Grandpa Cain was a short stocky man with an iron gray mustache and iron gray hair. He was retired from farming and lived in Ivesdale across from the school. He was a great hero to his grandchildren because he had the key to the door of the school and no one, not even the teachers, could go into the school until Grandpa unlocked the door.
Grandpa Cain had a coin purse with nickels and when a grandchild visited him Grandpa gave the child a nickel. All the children knew the supply of nickels could never run out and there would always be nickels in the coin purse.
My Dad, Pop Cain, left me with my grandmother while he went down town and Grandpa gave me the usual nickel. I was sitting on the front step waiting for my Dad to come for me with the nickel held tightly in my hand. The nickel fell from my hand and rolled under the step. The next time I visited my grandmother she told me Grandpa had found my nickel and he gave it to me. I wondered how Grandpa found my nickel because it was under the step.
Grandma Cain
Grandma was small and wore her sparse white hair in a bun. She wore calico or gingham dresses with a bib apron. On Sunday she wore a black dress, hat and coat as she had been a widow for many years and black was proper for a widow.
When a grandchild stopped to visit, she gave him or her a quarter to buy cookies with the admonishment, "Go to Cavanaugh's so you won't have to cross the street; you might be hit by a car."
The living room at Grandma's had three rockers and she spent much of her time rocking by the window and watching the outdoors. The visiting grandchild could sit in the rocker and visit or sit on the porch under Grandma's watchful eye.
The Cain's - "Square With the World" By Patricia Julia Jackson
My paternal great grandparents, Bridget Finn and Thomas Cain, were famine immigrants from Ireland. They came to this country in the mid 1800's, when many other Irish and German immigrated. They met in Peru, Illinois, where they both settled after they arrived. The first information I have is when their son, my grandfather, worked with Irish laborers to dig a canal from the Joliet River to Lake Michigan in Illinois.
When the canal was finished, word came that there were land grants available in Central Illinois. Joliet State Prison came looking for prison guards, and there was work available in the coalmines. There were many coal mines in Illinois at that time; most of them now shut down. My grandfather chose the land grant. This was low swampy land and would have to be drained before it could be farmed. Laying tubular tile deep underground drained the water. This tile drained into a deep ditch that ran beside the road. I don't know what pattern was used for the tile. I remember my father would dig and replace tiles that had become broken. He knew there was broken tile when water stood on the ground rather than draining.
The land grant was part of the Homestead Act and required farming the land and building a house on the land. So Grandfather got the land grant, drained the land, and farmed the land. He married Mary Carroll from Joliet, Ill., built a house, and had a family. I respect all the hard work that went into this endeavor even though I have written it down in only three lines. I also must congratulate you, grandfather, for choosing the land grant over prison guard or coal miner. My father, who was born in this house in 1888, was his oldest child. They had five more living children. I know that there were children who did not survive. This was late 1800's in a rural area. The infant survival rate was far less than 100%.
Champaign County, Illinois, where I grew up, became prosperous farm country. The principle crop at that time was corn. There was also wheat and oats, used mainly for cattle feed. Soybeans, raised in Japan, were introduced in the 1920's. Now soybeans are at least half the crop. The land, as I remember, was very flat. The roads were straight, went north, south, east or west, no curvy stuff. The houses were built "square with the world" which meant they faced one direction squarely. There was something "right" about building a house like this. The land was all cultivated with a few pastures, no wooded areas. There were a few hedges along the fields, and people had trees in their yards, but now even these are gone.
I remember both Irish and German communities in the area. In the past, they had not mixed, nor did they trust each other. I think wheels and engines began the change, and World War II finished it off. Today I doubt that it matters a whit to anyone, German or Irish, who cares?
After some years went by, Grandfather's family became too large for the house he had built, so he built a larger one on the same property. He purchased more farmland in the following years. As he got older he moved to a smaller house in the nearby town, and my mother and father moved into the big house. The rest of their children, including me, were born in that house, except for my youngest sister Sheila, who was born in a hospital. The original small house was left on the property and used as a shed. The shed was haunted. There was someone watching when my sisters and I played there. We said it was one of Grandma's stillborn babies and didn't think much about the "watcher".
Grandfather died the year I was born, so I do not remember him. I remember Grandma well. She was very thin, had a small head with wispy gray hair which she wore in a knot at the nape of her neck. She spent most of her time sitting by the window in her rocking chair with her prayer book and rosary beads in her lap. She wore black from the time her husband died until she died, which was almost twenty years. She even wore black housedresses. The only color I saw on her clothing was white lace collars, which she wore on every dress. Her aprons had a bit of color. Grandma was a very important person in my life. I interpreted her silence as acceptance. She will get a story of her own later.
Pop and his two brothers dropped out of school when they were able to help on the farm. The girls, Lucy, Margaret, and Myrtle finished high school, took the county teacher's exam and became teachers in the one-room country schools that dotted the farm country at that time.
Pop had eyes like blue fire, shaggy eyebrows, and thick dark hair. Pop's two brothers, Vince and Frank looked like him. There was Spanish mix from the time the Spanish occupied Ireland. I expect there were other mixtures we don't know about. I typed the name Cain into a terminal at the base of the statue of liberty. It came back with Irish, English, Spanish and French. I was not surprised.
The Cains are the family I grew up with. We had many cousins who were our favorite people. We attended events and celebrated with each other. Sometimes we went to the same school. The Cain family was like the land, straightforward, honest, and "square with the world". It was truly a good family.
The Donovan Families
MICHAEL DONOVAN (1795-1873) By Pat Clark
Michael Donovan may be the earliest immigrant of the Irish ancestors in the Cain/Donovan family line. Much of what we know about him comes from his obituary and published local histories that include biographies of his sons, John and Joseph.
Michael Donovan was born on September 25, 1795. Although there is some indication that the family may have been Scots/Irish, his birthplace is indicated to be Ireland in census documents. He may have traveled from Ireland with his parents given that he was apparently less than 17 years old at the time of immigration.
Michael served as a Lieutenant in the War of 1812 according to his obituary. The biography of his son, John Wallace, indicates that Michael served in the British military.
Michael probably came to the area of New York and the Erie Canal from Canada. He appears as head of household in the 1820 Census of Onondaga County, New York along with three others. His son, John's biography indicates that Michael and his wife, Harriet Graves, had eight children including Samuel Kingston before she passed away in 1837.
Michael and the family moved westward after Harriet's death. They stayed near Toledo, Ohio for a time where his son, Joseph Wesley was born in 1839 as the first child of Michael and his second wife, Rhoda Chambers. He arrived in Hillsdale County, Michigan with his family by the 1840 census and began to homestead on land near North Adams in Moscow Township. He and Rhoda had seven more children and remained in the area until her death in 1864.
At the age of 74, Michael married Maranda Townsend on March 22, 1870. He sold/gave the homestead to his sons and moved with Maranda just up the road to Hanover, in Jackson County, Michigan. He died there in 1873 of Congestive Chills (Malaria).
Michael is interred next to Rhoda in the Northlawn Cemetery, North Adams, Michigan. He was apparently a religious person, being a Methodist Exhorter and belonging to the Secret Order of Masons throughout his life. He raised no less than 16 children and married no fewer than three wives.
One of his 10 sons, John Wallace was elected Justice of the Peace in Hillsdale County and then served as a State legislator and judge in Livingston County, Missouri. Another son, Joseph Wesley became a prominent defense attorney and was elected to three terms as Circuit Court Judge in Detroit, Michigan. Joseph also published two well known texts on trial procedure. And, Samuel Kingston Donovan was among the founding fathers of the communities of Three Oaks, Michigan and Ivesdale, Illinois before dying suddenly of a burst appendix at the age of forty-two.
SAMUEL KINGSTON DONOVAN (1829-1872) By Pat Clark
Father of Thomas Edward Donovan, Samuel Kingston Donovan was born in the State of New York on September 20, 1829. The third child of Michael Donovan and Harriet Graves, Samuel lived with the family in Oneida and Onondaga Counties before moving west in the late 1830's.
The family settled in Hillsdale County, Michigan by the 1840 census. By the time of the 1850 census, S.K. had left home and appears in Division 10 of Berrien County, Michigan living in the household of Moses and Henry Chamberlain along with 10 other people. The residence was built along a sidetrack of the Michigan Central Railroad and Samuel and the others were working for the Chamberlains clearing forest to supply wood for the railroad which was being completed to Chicago at that time.
The marriage of Samuel Kingston Donovan and Ellen Gallivan took place on October 30, 1856 in the same place, referred to as Terricope at the time. Ellen Gallivan was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland on April 10, 1830. She emigrated with her parents, Thomas Gallivan and Margaret Ferriter and 12 other children during the potato famines in 1845.
Samuel built and ran a larger hotel on the site of the original railroad side track in 1854. He was elected the first Treasurer of Three Oaks Township in 1856. Ellen's first child, Harriet, was born on June 26, 1858. The family left Three Oaks to move to Champaign County, Illinois shortly after the end of the Civil War.
Samuel purchased a lot in the town of Norrie in Champaign County on October 2, 1865. He and Ellen's brother, Patrick Gallivan, who worked for the Wabash Railroad began purchasing large parcels of land south of the new track which connected the east with the west for the first time at a place that would soon be called, Ivesdale. He and Pat Gallivan became proprietors of the general store. S.K. divided the land south of the railroad track into lots and began building and selling houses to families coming to settle in the new farming community. (Continues...)
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