Picture of W.P. in his first car - a Jackson, made in Jackson, MI.  Source: Kavanaugh Family Files

Last month was the last of Mudi's Memoirs. The first ones related to her life growing up in Bay City, and the last one focused on her father, W.P. Kavanaugh, his prominent role in the fish industry in Bay City, Saginaw Bay, and Lake Huron. W.P. was a savvy businessman, an entrepreneur, and an active conservationist, focused on the best conditions for fish in the rivers, bays, and lakes. For the next few months, I will be writing more about W. P. himself. This first installment introduces him based on his family history.

Peter Kavanaugh, our great-grandfather, immigrated to Canada from Fetherd-on-Sea, a small fishing village near Wexford City, County Wexford, Ireland, when he was just a baby. Census records show that he was born in Fetherd-on-Sea in 1835, but the next two sons, twins, were born in Glengarry, Ontario in 1836(1). This was a decade before the Great Potato Famine that caused many poor Irish families to migrate from their homeland to survive.

Genealogical facts are from research done by cousin John V. Kavanaugh and his wife Donna (Jones) Kavanaugh.  Source: Kavanaugh Family Files 

A little Google research informed us that during the 1830s there was already unrest and rioting in Ireland due to oppressive English rule that caused hardship for Irish families. Two examples are the Land Tenure System (2) which restricted poor Irish farmers from using the subsistence farming practices they had practiced for generations, and a tithe imposed on Irish Catholics to support Protestant churches (3). Thomas, Peter’s father, may have moved his family to Canada for these reasons.

At that time, fishermen were hired to work in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland as itinerant cod fishermen for a year or two then they returned home to Ireland. As conditions in Ireland became worse, many stayed in Canada. There was a lot of traveling between the southeastern coastline of Ireland and Canadian shores (4).

There was no record of the family’s migration since Canada and Ireland were both part of the English Empire at that time. Ships’ captains within the English Empire were not required to provide passenger logs until 1865(5), so we have no good indication of what kind of ship brought them to Canada and no information on departure or destination ports. We think that the family moved to Canada on a fishing vessel.

Peter met and married Mary Ellen Kelly, who was born in Ontario in 1846. They were married in 1866. Peter was 31 and Mary Ellen was 20 years old when they married. Their first child, James, was born in 1866. Margaret Ann followed in 1868, and then William Patrick, our grandfather (Will and later W.P.), was born in 1870. William John was born in 1873, and then Mary Isabella in 1875. 

Picture: 1870 Potrait of Mary Eleen Kavanaugh. Source: Kavanaugh Family Files 

When Peter died in Ontario in 1876, Mary Ellen was left at age 30 with five children, ages 1 through 10. Will was six years old. In 1883, in Bay City, she married Robert Simons, a widower with two children of his own. By then, the children were seventeen years old to eight years old, Will was thirteen. Mary Ellen was thirty-seven. We do not presently know much about Robert Simons or the ages of his children, but this was the situation when Will left home at fourteen, in 1884. He started working as a laborer wherever he could find employment.

According to our family files, in 1886, when he was 16, Will began to work for Sol Richardson, who ran a commercial fish market. We were told that Will’s first job with Sol was selling smoked fish from a cart to markets and restaurants. Sol became his mentor and substitute father figure. Thus, W.P. (as he was beginning to be known) worked his way up from selling from a cart to acquiring the business from Sol (who, we were told, retired). I will go into more detail about the development of his business in my next blog.

In 1904, W.P.’s older brother, James, died. That year also marks the time that W.P. began to make changes in his personal life. At the age of 34, he married 

Helen Marie (Nellie) Callahan, who was 21 years old. She was one of 13 children born to Dennis and Bridgit (Ryan) Callahan. Nellie and her older sister, Mollie, worked as telephone operators. The operators got to know the businessmen of the town, as they connected their calls. When Mollie got to know W.P. through connecting his business calls, she connected him to her younger sister Nellie - as it turned out - for life.

Picture: W.P. and Nellie taken at the time of their wedding.  Source: Kavanaugh Family Files.  

By 1912, W.P. and Nellie had four children, built a new home at 242 N. Madison Avenue, and bought the family’s first car, a Jackson, which was built nearby in Jackson, MI.

W.P. was active in civic affairs. He served on the Board of Estimates and the Board of Commerce. He was affiliated with the Elks, the Knights of Columbus, and the Country Club. Nellie and W.P. were active members of St. James Parish and sent all their children to St. James School. St. James was a grade 1 through 12 school. In 1873, St. James was the only English Language Co-ed Catholic School in Bay City at the time, including the High School. No one has disputed its claim to be the oldest co-educational parochial High School in the United States (6).

 

Sources:

1 1851 CENSUS OF CANADA EAST, CANADA WEST, NEW BRUNSWICK AND NOVA SCOTIA

2 MARQUETTE LAW REVIEW VOLUME 76 ISSUE 2 WINTER 1993 ARTICLE 6 1993 THE LAND-TENURE SYSTEM IN IRELAND: A FATAL REGIME CYNTHIA E. SMITH, PP 5-6

3 HTTPS://EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/TITHE_WAR#BACKGROUND

4 HTTPS://WWW.HERITAGE.NF.CA/ARTICLES/SOCIETY/IRISH-MIGRATION.PHP#:~:TEXT=THE%20MAJORITY%20OF%20MIGRANTS%20INITIALLY,PERMANENTLY%20IN%20NEWFOUNDLAND%20AND%20LABRADOR.&TEXT=MOST%20IRISH%20IMMIGRANTS%20TO%20NEWFOUNDLAND,HALF%20OF%20THE%20COLONY'S%20POPULATION.

5 HTTPS://LIBRARY-ARCHIVES.CANADA.CA/ENG/COLLECTION/RESEARCH-HELP/GENEALOGY-FAMILY-HISTORY/IMMIGRATION/PAGES/PASSENGER-BRITISH-REGIME.ASPX

6 OUR LEGACY: THE WORK OF ELIZABETH SETON’S MUSTARD SEED. PG 3 AN ARTICLE IN THE INTERCOM QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY, SUMMER 2014