Written and told by Helen Kavanaugh Tobbe (1905-2002) and transcribed by
her youngest child, Kate Tobbe Ptak
A note from Kate: My grandfather, William Patrick
Kavanaugh (WP), was a prominent businessman in the 1900s until his death in 1932. He owned and operated
five fish houses in Bay City, MI and along the Lake Huron western coastline as far north as Alpena, MI. He
processed and sold fish locally and to fish markets as far away as Chicago and the Fulton Fish Market in New York City.
This blog series talks about a girl’s life growing up in Bay
City beginning in the 1900s, as seen through the eyes of Helen Kavanaugh Tobbe or Mudi (a variation of grandma, loosely based
on the German term for grandmother). Mudi was the first-born child of William and Helen Callahan Kavanaugh
(Nellie). Mudi was our mother. It is an introduction to her father.
Following that a new series of blogs will be published that cover the life and times of her father in more detail.
PART 1: 1870 TO 1904 - Setting the stage
Both
of my father's parents were dead before I came of an age to know them. Mother's parents, Bridget and Dennis
Callahan lived on Monroe Street, one block away from our home. Grandpa Callahan was in the draying business.
He hauled goods. He had two horses and a dray (like a moving van today). Grandma always
said she never got $40.00 saved up for a luxury item that one of the damned horses didn't die! Grandpa
Callahan was also a stone mason. He helped build their parish church, St. James. The
school was for students in grades one through twelve. It was the first accredited High School in Michigan. Grandpa
Callahan died when Jr. and I were about in 4th grade.
Photo: 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. Grandma
Callahan had a sister, MaryAnn, who married Tim Lynch. They had a son called Jim. Jim
had two children, a son, Tim, and a daughter, Marguerite, who was about ten years older than I. Marguerite
married Bill Pulte. So that's how Pat Pulte, one of their children, belongs to the Kavanaugh Clan.
Aunt Aggie was Grandma Callahan's first cousin. She married a man named Hannon.
She was a widow as long as I can remember. She had two daughters, Aggie and Caddie.
When Aggie was a young woman, she went to work in Detroit. Her boss bought some stock
for her in a new motorcar company, called General Motors. She continued to invest in that company and ended
up a millionaire. She never married and lived in Detroit with her sister. Caddie was
artistic. Among other ventures, she painted ceramic pieces and even had her own kiln. I
used to visit them with Norge and Bill when the boys were little. One morning, Norge was up early with
Caddie. He asked for "Popsies", his favorite cereal. Caddie decided to take him to the store to find his special
cereal. They spent all morning going from store to store, Caddie asking for Popsies at each store - but
no one seemed to carry that brand of cereal - later she found out that Norge didn't know the correct name for the cereal.
WP was born in Guelph, Canada in 1870. His father, Peter Kavanaugh, died and
was buried there. When WP was about 6 years old, the family moved to Bay City Michigan.
WP's
mother, Mary Ellen Kelly Kavanaugh, re-married to Fred Simon, in 1883, when WP was about 13 years old. WP
did not get along with his step-father. He moved out of the home at the age of 14 and began finding jobs.
In 1886 at the age of 16, WP met and hooked up with Sol Richardson who was in the fish business. WP's
first job with Sol was peddling fish in a basket. WP grew into the business, bought out Sol and further developed the business.
He was well established by 1905, when I was born. He had fish houses in the thumb of
the state, and up north as far as Tawas. He later extended up to Alpena. WP had four
tugboats: the Helen K., the Junior. K., the Margaret K., and the Shasta. There was a hatch in the back of the tugs into which
the fish were loaded. The boats' cabins were small.
Nellie was
born and raised in Bay City. She was one of thirteen children. TB [tuberculosis] killed
two of her siblings while they were just children. By the time I was old enough to know my relatives, only seven or eight
of the thirteen had survived.
Photo: Kavanaugh family files. Nellie is standing on the right side and Molly is
next to her, facing her brother. She was a phone operator as was her sister, Mollie. The
operators got to know the businessmen of the town, joking and so on with them when asked to place a call. When Molly got to
know W.P. through connecting his business calls, she connected him to her younger sister Nellie; as it turned out –
for life.
___________________________________________________________________________________
My brother Bill and I have printed two books about the Kavanaugh Family in Bay City and are working
on a revision of the second book as we have discovered more details about his business. Copies of the first two books can
be viewed at the Bay County Historical Society Museum.
THE KAVANAUGHS: A FAMILY ALBUM
Written and printed by Bill Tobbe and Kate Tobbe Ptak, September 2003
WILLIAM PATRICK
KAVANAUGH: HIS LIFE AND TIMES Written and printed by Bill Tobbe and Kate Tobbe Ptak. 2024
