John Brennan (1820 - 1882)

Born Jun 1820 in Cahirciveen, Kerry, Ireland

Husband of Johanna (Sullivan) Brennan — married before Oct 1851 in Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Died 5 Jul 1882 at age 62 in San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Biography

This biography was auto-generated by a GEDCOM import.^[1] It's a rough draft and needs to be edited.

Name

Name: John /Brennan/

Given Name: John

Surname: Brennan^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]}

Birth

Birth:

Date: Jun 1820

Place: Cahirciveen, Kerry, Ireland^{[10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

Note: #BI760

Burial

Burial:

Date: 1917

Place: Holy Cross Cem., San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Note: #XI760

Event

Event: Naturalization Papers

Type: Arrival

Date: 13 Jun 1845

Place: New York County, New York, USA

Event:

Type: Departure

Date: 1845

Place: Possibly Liverpool

Event: Arrived via Panama

Type: Arrival

Date: 3 Dec 1852

Place: San Francisco, California

Event:

Type: Departure

Place: Liverpool

Residence

Residence:

Date: 1880

Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States^[17]

Residence: The court approved his application for naturalization.

Date: 9 Nov 1852

Place: California, United States^[18]

Residence:

Date: 1876

Place: San Francisco^[19]

Residence:

Date: 1878

Place: Grayson^[20]

Residence:

Date: 1866

Place: San Francisco^[21]

Residence: This is the only record we have been able to find in Mass.

Date: 1850

Place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts^[22]

Residence:

Date: 1870

Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States^[23]

Residence:

Date: 1863

Place: California^[24]

Occupation

Occupation: Worked as a Mason on Fort Point

Date: 1859

Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

Note

Note: #NI760

Sources

1. ↑ Brennan-827 was created by Ken Ryan through the import of kensancestors.ged on Apr 27, 2014. This comment and citation can be deleted after the biography has been edited and primary sources are included.
2. ↑ Source: #S554 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=irstax&h=2467662&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Residence date: 1863 Residence place: California
3. ↑ Source: #S662 Page: Year: 1870; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: M593_; Page: ; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,7163::12273875 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1870usfedcen&h=12273875&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1870 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
4. ↑ Source: #S665 Page: Year: 1850; Census Place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_314; Page: 205B; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,8054::10130176 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1850usfedcenancestry&h=10130176&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1850 Residence place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts
5. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=6077204&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1866 Residence place: San Francisco
6. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=2988197&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1878 Residence place: Grayson
7. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=5968802&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1819 Birth place: Residence date: 1876 Residence place: San Francisco
8. ↑ Source: #S492 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=usnatindex_awap&h=3413111&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: Jun 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: Residence place: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont
9. ↑ Source: #S658 Page: Year: 1880; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: 84; Family History Film: 1254084; Page: 281C; Enumeration District: 92; Image: 0565. Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,6742::16117881 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1880usfedcen&h=16117881&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1821 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1880 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
10. ↑ Source: #S662 Page: Year: 1870; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: M593_; Page: ; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,7163::12273875 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1870usfedcen&h=12273875&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1870 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
11. ↑ Source: #S665 Page: Year: 1850; Census Place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_314; Page: 205B; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,8054::10130176 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1850usfedcenancestry&h=10130176&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1850 Residence place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts
12. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=6077204&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1866 Residence place: San Francisco
13. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=2988197&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1878 Residence place: Grayson
14. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=5968802&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1819 Birth place: Residence date: 1876 Residence place: San Francisco
15. ↑ Source: #S492 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=usnatindex_awap&h=3413111&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: Jun 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: Residence place: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont
16. ↑ Source: #S658 Page: Year: 1880; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: 84; Family History Film: 1254084; Page: 281C; Enumeration District: 92; Image: 0565. Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,6742::16117881 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1880usfedcen&h=16117881&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1821 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1880 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
17. ↑ Source: #S658 Page: Year: 1880; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: 84; Family History Film: 1254084; Page: 281C; Enumeration District: 92; Image: 0565. Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,6742::16117881 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1880usfedcen&h=16117881&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1821 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1880 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
18. ↑ Source: #S492 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=usnatindex_awap&h=3413111&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: Jun 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: Residence place: Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont
19. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=5968802&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1819 Birth place: Residence date: 1876 Residence place: San Francisco
20. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=2988197&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1878 Residence place: Grayson
21. ↑ Source: #S512 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=cagreatregisters&h=6077204&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Residence date: 1866 Residence place: San Francisco
22. ↑ Source: #S665 Page: Year: 1850; Census Place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts; Roll: M432_314; Page: 205B; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,8054::10130176 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1850usfedcenancestry&h=10130176&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1850 Residence place: Lawrence, Essex, Massachusetts
23. ↑ Source: #S662 Page: Year: 1870; Census Place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California; Roll: M593_; Page: ; Image: . Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Reference: 1,7163::12273875 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=1870usfedcen&h=12273875&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Birth date: abt 1820 Birth place: Ireland Residence date: 1870 Residence place: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, California, United States
24. ↑ Source: #S554 Note: http://trees.ancestry.com/rd?f=sse&db=irstax&h=2467662&ti=0&indiv=try&gss=pt Data: Text: Residence date: 1863 Residence place: California

• Source: S492 Abbreviation: U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) Title: U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors in partnership with the following organizations: Anchorage Genealogical SocietyCalifornia State Genealogic Reference: 1,1629::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Repository: R2 Name: Ancestry.com Address: Ancestry.com CONT http://www.Ancestry.com Name: Ancestry.com Address 1: http://www.Ancestry.com
• Source: S512 Abbreviation: California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898 Title: California, Voter Registers, 1866-1898 Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data - Great Registers, 1866–1898. Microfilm, 185 rolls. California State Library, Sacramento, California..Original data: Great Registers, 1866–1898. Microfilm, 185 rolls. Ca Reference: 1,2221::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Source: S554 Abbreviation: U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918 Title: U.S. IRS Tax Assessment Lists, 1862-1918 Author: Ancestry.com Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2008.Original data - National Archives (NARA) microfilm series: M603, M754-M771, M773-M777, M779-M780, M782, M784, M787-M789, M791-M793, M795, M1631, M1775-M1776, T227, T1208-T1209. For comp Reference: 1,1264::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Source: S658 Abbreviation: 1880 United States Federal Census Title: 1880 United States Federal Census Author: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Publication: - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. 1880 U.S. Census Index provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints à Copyright 1999 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. All use is subject to the limited use license and Reference: 1,6742::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Source: S662 Abbreviation: 1870 United States Federal Census Title: 1870 United States Federal Census Author: Ancestry.com Publication: - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2003. - 1870. United States. Ninth Census of the United States, 1870. Washington, D.C. National Archives and Records Administration. M593, RG29, 1,761 rolls. Minnesota. Minnesota Census Schedules for 1870. Reference: 1,7163::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Source: S665 Abbreviation: 1850 United States Federal Census Title: 1850 United States Federal Census Author: Ancestry.com Publication: - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2005. - United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Seventh Census of the United States, 1850. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1850. M432, 1,009 rolls.: United States of Reference: 1,8054::0 Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y
• Source: S719 Abbreviation: Public Member Trees Title: Public Member Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. Repository: #R2 Paranthetical: Y Page: Ancestry Family Trees Quality or Certainty of Data: 3 Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=1309529&pid=760

Notes

Note BI760Both Naturalization records state he was born at Scariff, County Kerry, Ireland, on or about the ... day of June in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty

Note NI760Between 1754 and 1841 the population of Ireland increased four fold from around 2 million to 8.2 million. This increase was concentrated in the years 1780 to 1830, and overwelmingly effected the poorest, labouring classes. The fact that marriage ages were traditionaly young, leading to large families, and the subdivision of holdings enforced by the Penal Laws permitted increasing numbers to marry and stay on the land, caused a continually poorer standard of living. During the Napoleonic wars prices were rising, encouraging larger families. Lower infant mortality and these rising prices made it possible for individuals to subsist on smaller holdings. A natural disaster was in the making.1. (Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland)

Opportunities at home were being effected by the Napoleonic wars up until 1814 and then a dramatic and immediate economic slump took place. Every strata of life was effected as prices fell catastrophically, major industries collapsed, investment and growth stagnated, and unemployment and destitution became widespread, with the hardest hit being the Irish Catholics. Since opportunities in general were hard to come by and in many cases religious prejudices stratafied work and society, families had to make decisions that would break them apart forever. 2 (Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland)

During the year 1820 in the town of Cahersiveen nestled in the County of Kerry, were green hills fade into emerald green ocean, a family of Brennan's added another to their household. We know his name to be John Brennan, but we do not know his parents or siblings. We don't know of his childhood or living conditions, but can only surmise from other sources what it must have been like to have been born during this time period. In 1821 the potato crop failed, as it had in 1816-1818 and grain harvests were destroyed by bad weather. Smallpox and typhus killed over 50,000 people, leading to starvation and deteriating conditions. Throughout the early 1830's cholera swept through the poorest classes and the potato crops failed again, and if that wasn't enough recored snow buried the cottages and cattle froze to death in the fields. During 1840-44 the potato crops partly failed three more times causing many Irish Catholics to feel as if God had abandoned them.1. (Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland)

On or about June 13, 1845 John landed in the harbor of New York having made the trip, for we suppose, many of the above reasons. Between 1845 and 1855, almost 1.5 million people embarked for the United States. ( Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland). As was the case of so many other of his kinsmen, he made his way to Boston, Mass. and settled into one of the Irish communities that had been growing since the early 1800's.

In 1845 a previously unknown blight hit without warning on the Emerald Isle,destroying potatoes so rapidly "that terror was spread throughout the countryside." (Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland) We can imagine the conversations in the Irish Boston communities about the terrible conditions those who were left must be enduring. And it didn't get any better, by 1846, blight had been coming and going, causing one crop failure after another until between 1.1 and 1.5 million people died of starvation and famine-related diseases. (Clans and Families of Ireland, The Heritage and Heraldry of Irish Clans and Families, John Grenham, Forward by Donal Begeley, Chief Herald of Ireland)

If the Irish in their homeland were suffering, which caused many to emigrate to the United States, then they must have met with ever increasing standards of living and prosperity. Stories reaching Ireland talked about the great wages the lads were making. Since daily wages for a common laborer ranged from sixpence to one shilling sixpence for carpenters in Ireland, Boston did indeed offer much higher wages.... and in dollars, not potatos. "They came expecting better wages and got them. But Mercilessly linked to these fine dollars was the price system, a ruthless monster which devoured the fruits of Irishmen's labor before they could gather them. The 'pratties' and milk were gone from their garden; the garden itself was gone; and there was no room for the pig in Dock Square".(The Many Voices of Boston, A Historical Anthology, 1630-1975, Howard Mumford Johns & Bessie Zaban Johns, An Atlantic Monthly Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, Boston 1975.) To combat prices, families banded together in communal living, sending all their sons, nephews, parents, daughters out into the market to work and share their increase. Women found the Boston community open to them in two main areas, sewing and domestics. The gentry of Boston welcomed the conditions and made good use of it by hiring young Irish women to work as domestics at wages that were far lower than what had been considered appropriate in the past. And the Irish were willing to work for those wages because of economic necessity.

By the year 1846 there must have been enough skrimping and saving however, to allow enough extra cash to be accumulated to send money home. "The firm of Thayer and Warren Begins to sell prepaid passages from Ireland that Bostonians may purchase for their relatives. (Boston, A Chronological & Documentary History, 1602-1970, Compiled and Edited by George J. Lankevich, Oceana Publications, Inc. 1974) In the Naturalization papers of John Brennan, James Brennan signes as a character witness for John. Who is James Brennan? Since John's first son will be named James in 1857, could John's character reference be an older brother, father, uncle? At present we don't know.

"March-April 1847, Boston sends four ships of provisions to aid famine victims in Ireland". 8

"December of 1847, a building boom is under way but wages fall due to the presence of cheap Irish labor." 9

"Tossed in the swell of impersonal economic currents, the Irish remained but shabbily equipped to meet the multifarious problems imposed upon them by urban life. Rising prices, ruthless factory exploitation, and unemployment caused 'the wreck and ruin that came upon the Irish race in the foreign land!' In the new society 'one in a hundred may live and prosper, and stand to be looked at as a living monument or...prosperity, but ninety-nine in a hundred are lost, never to be heard of.'" (Boston, A Chronological & Documentary History, 1602-1970, Compiled and Edited by George J. Lankevich, Oceana Publications, 1974)

" Spring of 1849. Boston send 151 ship loads of prospectors to California." " June-November 1849. Boston suffers an epidemic of Asiatic cholera that kills 1000 citizens". 10

" 1850. Over a quarter of a million people live in the Boston area. The city has over 46,000 Irish among its 138,788 residents (46.7% foreign born) and over hold the 11,000 school children are foreign born." 11

Alphabetical Index to the Townlands and Towns of Ireland: Poor Law Poor Law Maps Town County Baroney Parish Union Electorial ----- ----- ------ ------ ------ ----------- ------- 80,98 Scariff Kerry Iveragh Bromond Cahersiveen Emlagh

Naturalization Record from Circuit Court , Boston, Mass. 4 Nov 1852. U.S. Circuit Court, Mass. Vol 4, Page No. 327A: United States of America. To the Honorable..... Respectfully represents John Brennan of Boston in said District, Laborer an alien, and a free white person, that he was born at Scariff, County Kerry, Ireland, on or about the ... day of June in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and twenty and is now about thirty-two years of age; that he arrived at New York in the District of New York in the United States of America, on or about the thirtenth day of June in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred forty five. John Brennan United States of America, Massachusetts District, to wit: City of Boston Nov. 4, 1852. We William Nolan, James Brennan both of said Boston and both citizens of said United States, severally depose and say, that we have known John Brennan the foregoing Petitioner, for five years last past, during which time he has resided in said Boston and has conducted himself and behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America, and well disposed towards the good order and happines of the same. William Nolan James Brennan ---------------------------------------------------------- I, John Brennan do solemnly swear, that I do absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign Prince, Potentate, State, or Sovereignty whatsoever.. particularly to Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britian and Ireland, whose subject I have heretofore been; and that I will support the Constitution of the United States of America.. So Help Me God. John Brennan ----------------------------------------------------------- District of Massachusetts, to wit: AT a Circuit Court of the United States, begun and holden at said Boston, on the fifteenth day of Oct. in the year of our Lord 1852, to wit, on the Ninth day of Nov. A.D., 1852, the said John Brennan was admitted to become a citizen of the United States of America; and the Court ordered, that record thereof be made accordingly.

HISTORY: 1852 CAME BY WAY OF ISTHMUS OF PANAMA TO SAN FRANCISCO; HISTORY OF STANISLAUS COUNTY; PAGE 1098 From: Passanger Lists - San Francisco, 1851-1852: Ship: California Type: Steamer From: Panama Arrived: December 3, 1851. Captain: R. L. Whiting Passage: 17 days, 11 hours (running time) from Panama, via Acapulco, Mexico, San Diego, California and Monterey California. A total of 31 hours for detention at Acapulco, San Diego and Monterey.

The 1,058-ton steamship California sailed from New York to open what was to become America's most famous ocean steamship line- the Pacific Mail. At first she carried only a few passengers, although she was fitted out to accommodate some 200. Her purpose was to voyage around South America. Britain had just conceded our right to the Oregon border, a right whose earliest claim was based on the voyage of the sailing ship Columbia a half century before. Mexico had ceded to us the great area of California in a war won with the substantial aid of ex-merchant ships pressed into service. Our manifest destiny to rule the Continent from Atlantic to Pacific had become a reality. An alert Congress realized the need of water communications and offered a mail subsidy to stimulate the organization of a ship line to link the East Coast with Panama and Panama with the West Coast.

The California, built of sturdy live oak, maneuvered the difficult Straits of Magellan many times and headed north. On one of these voyages, having left in October or November of 1850 and arriving in December of 1851, was John Brennan an immigrant from Ireland. We assume he took passage out of Boston but at this writing have no proof other than the fact that the California made regular runs between the East and West Coasts. We pick up John on the Captains Log from Panama.

We can imagine her coming up the West Coast, the white band around her hull giving her a modern appearance for the time. A much abbreviated clipper bow with an almost horizontal bowsprit set her apart from the sleek clippers just reaching their prime at this period. She had a smokestack and paddle boxes, square sales rigged on the fore and main with a large fore and aft sail on the mizzen. As was customary, a gigantic United States flag hung from the mizzen yard. A burgee with the name "California" in lareg letters on white flew from the top of the mizzenmast.

On her first voyage, when she reached Panama, crowds gathered and besieged the officers for passage to San Francisco. The discovery of gold, vast gold deposits, in California had been the talk of the East Coast. We can assume that this fever continued for many years and was still prevelent in 1851. The gold fever must have hummed and buzzed through every cubic inch of her 225 by 31 by 18 foot hull. Fabulous prices had been paid for her cabins, and many gladly accepted passage with no sleeping facilities. Each time she reached San Francisco the same senerio was played out. The California's anchor chain rattled and splashed into the blue harbor depths. With bated breath her passangers swarmed ashore. John Brennan among them. Many headed directly for the gold fields to make there fortune and raise their futures above those of there fathers or kinsmen.

We don't know how John faired on his voyage but we can draw from the experiences of others who made passage around this same time. Most complained bitterly about conditions on sailing ships and steamers. Several reported their ships ran out of food and water and had to be aided by passing vessels. In several cases, the passengers signed petitions or resolutions condeming the captains and owners of their ships. One passenger wrote: "The passangers were fed like hogs..... Some of the hard bread was of good quality, some moldy, and much of it was infested with black bugs burrowing into it like woodchucks in a sandbank. ...the pork was worse. Worms know what is palatable and take good care not to get into such pork barrels..."

If John made this journey first from the East Coast to Panama and then from Panama to San Francisco he would have met many men and women on the way who had seen the elephant. It took three days journey by land to go from coast to coast. They would have passed construction crews at work building a railroad, which would not be completed until 1855 and would only take 3 hours to make the same journey. "Some travelers never reached the port; numerous reports told of brigands who attacked from the jungle darkness, robbing, stabbing, overturning boats. The hundreds who came ashore from the riverboats found that Americans had taken over there as well, turning the swampy port into a western boom town with crowded streets, hotels, bards and gambling dens. However one may have liked or disliked this area, for most Americans, the sixty-mile isthmus was the indispensable link with the States - the fastest and safest travel route and , of supreme importance, the place of transshipment for all business and personal mail. "Panama City was jammed not only with those eager to get home but also with hundreds of men (and a few women) waiting to board steamers and sailing ships that would take them to San Francisco. The two sharpley different crowds- those who had seen the elephant and those expecting to find El Dorado- encountered each other in that steamy, jungled country, halfway between East and West Coast. ... Frequently the steamships sailed north with one thousand passengers pressed into space designed for a maximum of six hundred. The chance to be one of those hundreds required standing in line at a ticke office, 'sweating, panting, pushing, snarling' and then waiting three or even five weeks before boarding one of the overbooked ships."

By the spring of 1850 competition among steamboats, freighters and packers would drive prices down, easing the risks of the small merchants and the living expenses of the miners. Fortunetly for John, prices had eased by the time he came to California and he came at the highest production time for gold. Estimates of 1848 ran about 5,000 to million, with similar imprecision for 1849; million to million. Whatever the actual numbers, the fact was that California boomed on gold, with production reaching a more accurate total of million in 1852. (8)

Newspapers trumpeted successes, they were reported and exaggerated by miners, packers and gamblers moving from one mining camp to another. The would-be miners who landed in San Francisco, like John, scattered throughout both the northern and southern mines, for they could take a boat upriver to Stockton, Sacramento City or the newest river port, the booming town of Marysville at the mouth of the Yuba River. From these centers, wagon and pack-mule trails led into the hills and to the many mining camps.

But what about there stay in San Francisco? On September 27, 1850 the San Francisco Evening Picayune commented on the moral condition of the city. "Drinking, gambling, debauchery far from being frowned upon have been patronized by men who in any other country would not risk their reputation by even the suspicion of contact with such scenes... Bawdyhouses, if they have not been licensed, have been placed under no legal restraints and have been permitted to occupy the most conspicuous and central parts of the city."

For the thousands of men who had spent five or six months confined to the narrow decks, stuffy, seasick cabins and steerage of sailing ships and steamers there were uncommon challenges waiting them. John landed at San Francisco soft, uncallused and unready for the work of miners that would prove comparable to the sweaty toil of the Irish laborers who had dug canals across New York, Ohio and other states. Digging was the constant and endless task that faced every miner. Digging on a river bar in sand, gravel and rocks, between massive boulders, some of which had to be pushed aside.

The Oregon Spectator reported that by the end of 1848 "almost the entire male population has gone gold digging in California." Though this newspaper's estimate was exaggerated in tune with the excitement, the number of Oregonians in California could not have been fewer than 4,000; most of them ending up in the Trinity River mines in northern California. The very place that John Brennan mined. How he came to mine here is lost in the records, if he mined in different areas it is also lost. The only thing we do know is that his son James A. Brennan was born in Weaverville, Trinity Co., in 1857

San Francisco was the New York of the Pacific: "The great place of the western continent, the heart, the brain, the focus, the main spring, the pinnacle, the extremity, the no more beyond of the New World."*

Lived on White St.

HISTORY: WORKED ON SFO FORT IN 1859; HISTORY OF STANISLAUS COUNTY; PAGE 1098

 !CIVIL ROCORDS: 1868 MOVED TO GRAYSON PER COUNTY RECORDS

HISTORY: Working for the Spring Valley Water Company in San Francisco

Worked at Fort Point.. Was called Costillio De San Jaquin, only brick fort west of Mississippi.

HISTORY: Disinherited son James A. because he married out of faith

 !BIRTH: FAMILY BIBLE INDICATES HIM BORN 1820, CAHIRCIVEEN, KERRY, IRELAND

 !MARRIAGE: COUNTY HISTORY STATES MARRIED, BOSTON, SUFFOLK, MASS 1850

 !VOTING RECORDS STANISLAUS CO. 1878 GIVE AGE AS 58 NATURALIZED 9 NOV 1852 MASS.

Moved from Laurel Hill Cemetery. After the fire of 1906 the cemetery had its own water supply and Firemens Fund wanted

 !DEATH: CEMETARY RECORDS; HOLY CROSS CEMETARY, COLMA, CA.;756-2060 (415); SECTION J, ROW 17, AREA 9, PLOT 3, GRAVE 9; 5 JULY 1882

DATE 1845

PLAC Ireland

PLAC USA

DATE 3 Dec 1851

PLAC San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

DATE Oct. 1851

PLAC Panama City, Panama, Panama

PLAC USA

Note XI760Confirmed by visitation to the cemetery in 1980. K. Ryan