Rosemary K. Nunnally writes about her family, the Dunnigans and their Lowell Irish story. What's your story? Be a guest blogger as Rosemary has. Keep your family's story alive!
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| Balbriggan |
According to Lewis's Topographical Directory of Ireland,
from 1837, Balbriggan was “a sea-port,
market, and post-village, and a chapelry, in the county of Dublin, containing 3,016
inhabitants. The inhabitants are partly employed in the fishery, but
principally in the manufacture of cotton; there are two large factories.”
Perhaps it was the connection with cotton mills that brought
the Dunnigan family from famine stricken Ballbriggan, Ireland to Lowell, MA. Teenagers Margaret and Alisa Dunnigan came to
Lowell and worked in the mills. Their
mother Margaret Dunnigan, age 38, along with her children Mary age 12, Philip
9, John 7, Jane 4 and Stephen 3 arrived in Boston on the ship Macedonia on September
20, 1848 and joined the elder girls. Though Philip Dunnigan is listed on the
death and marriage records of the children, I did not find reference to him in
Lowell and Margaret did not have more children. Perhaps he died in Ireland
prompting the family’s emigration.
The family settled on Market Street and a few years later
moved to Salem Street. They lived as the other Irish immigrants of the time. They worked as mill hands and in the leather
industry as curriers. Eleven year old
Philip died of cholera in 1849. Young
Jane died from typhoid fever in 1855.
As the children got older they married at St. Patrick’s
Church. Fr. John O’Brien married John
Dunnigan to Jane F. Jewett in February of 1864. He also married Margaret
Dunnigan to William Sullivan, a baker, in December of 1865. Mary Dunnigan wed
Michael Garrity and Alisa married Frank Kelly.
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| USS Albatross |
The Civil War began and called many Lowell men to war. John Dunnigan was 20 years old and working as
a currier. The naval ship USS Albatross came to the port of Boston for repairs
in 1862. John enlisted for one year as a
landsman on July 24 aboard the Albatross. He was described as 5 feet, 7 inches tall with
a fair complexion, hazel eyes and brown hair. He was discharged the following
July 1863 as an ordinary seaman.
Stephen Dunnigan left his job as an operative in the mill
and enlisted in the army on April 18, 1864. He was nineteen years old. He was
in Company A of the 6th Regiment of Massachusetts Infantry. Records show he was promoted to corporal on
July 1, 1865. He served another year and
mustered out on July 6, 1866 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Following their service in the War of the Rebellion, the
brothers returned to Lowell. Stephen continued to live with his mother on the
corner of Salem and Clark Streets. He
worked at the Merrimack Print Works. At
age 25, Stephen died on the 27th of August in 1873. His death record listed the cause of death as
an accident. An article in the Lowell
Daily Citizen and News on August 28th reported on the tragic
circumstances of his death. Stephen was
at home sick with a cough. His mother brought him the bottle of cough balm from
the closet. Stephen drank a heavy dose
and immediately felt a burning sensation and exclaimed to his mother that he
was poisoned. In her haste, his mother
had grabbed the wrong bottle from the closet and that bottle contained bug
poison. A doctor was called but Stephen
lingered for an hour and died. The
newspaper reported that young Dunnigan had served acceptably in the 6th
and 30th Mass. Regiments during the rebellion, after which he
entered the naval service, in which he continued for some time. Among his
companions, he was greatly esteemed.
Stephen was buried in the “Catholic Ground’, St. Patrick’s, in Yard 1 and
later in 1879 had a headstone provided for deceased Civil War Veterans. In 1886 Stephen’s mother was receiving his
Civil War pension.
After his war service, John became a naturalized citizen in
Superior Court in Lowell on October 30, 1864.
The Lowell City Directories in 1868 and 1870
show John Dun
nigan worked as a currier at the corner of
Willie and Broadway.
His house was
diagonally across the North Common at 34 Common Ave.
He may have walked across the Common on his
way back and forth to work.
In the
latter 1870’s John moved his family to Salem, MA for a few years. By 1880 he
was back in Lowell living on Hancock Ave.
John died from consumption in June of 1882.
His obituary in the Lowell Weekly Sun stated
he was a respected citizen.
“He was in
the navy under Farragut in the late war and was on the Albatross when she ran
by Port Hudson, lashed to the Hartford, and always exhibited great bravery
while in the service.”
His funeral was
attended by members of Post 42, G.A.R. and six fellow veterans were the
bearers.
John was buried in the Catholic
cemetery, presumably in the family plot.
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| St Patrick Cemetery |
Following John’s death, his widow Jane Dunnigan was to
receive his pension as a Navy Widow by the Act of June 27, 1890. Jane would receive $8.00 a month and an
additional $2.00 a month for each child under the age of sixteen. She filed a lot of paperwork to explain how
she used the name Jane F. when she was christened “Philomene Jane Jewett” and
also had to prove that her daughter was Alicia and not “Eliza”. She had to show that her husband’s middle name
was Thomas though he did not use it and he died of consumption caused by
disease contracted in the Naval Service and not resulting from bad habits. One of her witnesses was her brother-in-law
Michael Garrity. Jane died in 1904 and
is buried in the family grave at St. Patrick’s, though her name is not on the
headstone.
The matriarch of the family, Margaret Dunnigan, lived to a fine
old age of 86. She died in Woburn at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Frank
Kelly, in May of 1893. She was interred in
the Catholic cemetery, St. Patrick’s in Lowell.
Margaret’s death record revealed her Irish parents were Joseph Fadigan
and Eliza Hay.
