Week 11: "Large Family" #52Ancestors

This week’s prompt was an easy one for me: the largest family I have in my tree is the Quinlan-Fitzgibbon family: thirteen children! [1] 

 John J. Quinlan was my husband’s 2nd great-grandfather and one of the few of Irish in our tree whose parentage and birthplace are known. We’ve even discovered his family in the 1851 Irish census despite the fact that most of the pre-1901 Irish census records were burned in the infamous Four Courts fire of 1922.[2]

While we haven’t yet determined exactly when John came to the US, we know he was in Illinois in 1860 and that he served in the Civil War in the 104th Illinois Infantry. [3] In 1864, John married sixteen-year-old Catherine Fitzgibbon (yet another child-bride on my husband’s side of the family).[4] Catherine was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to Irish parents, but moved with her family to Illinois when she was about eight.[5]

 John and Catherine had their first child, my husband’s great-grandmother Mary, in 1866 and proceeded to have twelve more children over the next 33 years. YIKES! I guess because she started young, Catherine was “only” 45 when their youngest child was born. This is an amazing level of fecundity. Most of the children survived into adulthood and only five pre-deceased their mother who died in 1927.[6]

 Like their father, most of the sons grew up to work for a railroad and two died from tragic railroad accidents.[7] The daughters mostly grew up to be wives and homemakers. The exception was the youngest daughter, Ellen (“Nell”) Quinlan. And, boy, was she an exception.

Nell left the family home in rural Labette County, Kansas, to go to Kansas City when she was only 16. She married her first husband, Paul Donnelly, a year after moving to KC, but apparently on the condition that she be allowed to attend college.[8] In 1909, Nell graduated from Lindenwood College (now Lindenwood University) in St. Charles, Missouri, with her degree in Domestic Science and Housekeeping.[9]

Nell’s real claim to fame was the dress-making company she and Paul founded: the Donnelly Garment Company. Talk about the quintessential rags-to-riches story! Nell started out making dresses at home and by 1931 her company had sales of $3.5 million and over 1,000 employees.[10] By 1953, her company was the largest manufacturer of women’s clothing in the world.[11] Nell died in 1991 at 102 years old, surviving all her twelve siblings by more than 32 years. 

 Nell’s life was not only one of being a successful business woman, but also one with a potential career-killing scandal involving a forbidden romance, a love-child that was not her husband’s, and a kidnapping that made the newspapers across the U.S. For more on Nell’s incredible story, check out www.nellydon.com and, if you are in the Kansas City area, a musical based on her life story is currently playing at the MTH Theater in Crown Center through the end of March (tickets are available through the above website). Local KC actress Ashley Pankow stars as Nell.

[1] I suspect that there might have been other children who died in early infancy.

[2] Josephine Masterson, County Cork, Ireland, a Collection of 1851 Census Records (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001); image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 17 March 2019).

[3] “Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934,” images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 March 2019), John Quinlan and Kate Quinlan (Co. I, 104thIll. Inf.) imaged index card; citing Records of the Department of Veteran affairs, 1773-2007, Record Group Number: 15, Series Title: U.S., Civil War Pension Index, General Index to Pension Files, T288 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives [n.d.]), no roll number cited.

[4] Illinois, Marshall County, marriage license, John Quinlan-Kate Fitzibbons (1864); copy obtained by author on 8 April 2017 from Illinois Regional Archives Depository (IRAD), Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois.

[5] 1850 U.S. Census, Bristol County, Massachusetts, population schedule, Fall River township, p. 108B (stamped), dwelling 1039, family 1760, Catherine Fitzgibbon in household of John Fitzgibbon; image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 18 March 2019); citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 308. 

[6] Kansas State Board of Health, Division of Vital Statistics, death certificate #250 3101 (1928), Kate Quinlan; Office of Vital Statistics, Topeka, Kansas; copy in possession of author.

[7] “Jno. J. Quinlan, obituary, Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 29 January 1921, p. 8, col. 1; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 August 2015). “Fearful Death in Katy Wreck: J.M. Quinlan, Brakeman on an Extra Freight, Cremated in a Wreck in the Katy Yards at Muskogee Last Night,” The Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 10 February 1909, p. 1, col. 1-4; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 4 August 2014).

 [8] “Quinlan-Donnelly,”Parsons (Kansas) Daily Sun, 20 June 1906, p. 1, col. 3; digital image, Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : accessed 25 August 2015).

[9] Lindenwood College, Lindenleaves, 1909, vol. 3 (St. Charles, Missouri: Published by the Students of Lindenwood College); images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 August 2015). I am sure you will be gratified to learn that Lindenwood no longer has such a course of study. In addition to standard STEM course, Business and Pre-whatevermedicalyoucanthinkof, Lindenwood offers a BA in “Game Design,” a BS in “Fashion Business and Entrepreneurship,” and a degree in Musical Theatre. 

[10] Kimberly Harper, “Nell Donnelly Reed (1889-1991),” “Historic Missourians,” The State Historical Society of Missouri (https://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/r/reed/index.html : accessed 18 March 2019). 

[11] Ibid.

Nell Quinlan Donnelly Reed from her 1909 yearbook. Lindenwood College, Lindenleaves, 1909, vol. 3 (St. Charles, Missouri: Published by the Students of Lindenwood College); images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 25 August 2015), image 22.

John J. and Catherine (Fitzgibbon) Quinlan [I think she looks pretty damn good for having had 13 children!]