John Byrne (1835 - 1913)

Born 20 Aug 1835 in Castlerea, Roscommon, Ireland

Husband of Mary (Browne) Byrne — married 19 Oct 1865 in St.John Evangelist Cath Ch., Baltimore, MD, USA

Descendants

Died 17 Feb 1913 at age 77 in Gale TWP, Trempealeau Co., WI, USA

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Biography

John Byrne was born in Ireland on either the fifteenth or twentieth of August in 1835. (His tombstone says he was born in 1836.) Family tradition holds that he was from County Roscommon. The 1900 U.S. census shows he immigrated to the United States in 1862 and had been in this country for thirty-eight years. As of 1930, had not been natualized. According to Marie, a granddaughter, he may have been born on Aug 20, not Aug 15, and as per his death certificate (based on information provided by his eldest daughter, Mary Frances Byrne). His tombstone has the fifteenth as his birth day. The death date of Feb. 27 is from the death certificate. The date of Feb. 18 is on his tombstone. According to Maude, his granddaughter, he immigrated with a sister who supposedly married a man with the last name of Hunt. This sister and her husband first lived in Hunterdon County, New Jersey and later moved, with John, to Wisconsin around 1870/1871. John met and married Mary Brown(e) in Baltimore/Maryland on 19 October 1865. They were married in St.John the Evangelist Church in Baltimore. Their five oldest, living, children were born in Baltimore. Thomas, the fifth, was born in 1875. Two girls, Bridget and Catherine, were born between 1868 (Margaret) and 1874 (John Patrick), but they both died a few days after birth. Since the other children were born in Wisconsin, the family move must have happened around 1876 or 1877. His son's obituary in the LaCrosse Tribune states that the family moved to Wisconsin in November of 1877. Maude Byrne Feeney said that the family “took the train from Baltimore to Cleveland where they purchased a wagon and team of horses for the trip to Gale Township in Wisconsin. They first settled in the Tamarack area there and went to church in Pine Creek.” This trip information is confirmed by John's daughter, Bessie. who related that the family traveled to Cleveland where they bought wagons and horses to make the rest of the trip to Wisconsin. Bessie said that they made the trip with the John Hunt family (see above) and the Tim Mack family. One or both were some kind of relative to the Byrnes. They all first settled in the upper Tamarack area of Gale TWP (southwest of Ettrick). Later on, in 1879, the Byrne’s and Hunts moved to Crystal Valley where they bought farms about a mile apart. The Mack’s moved to the south of Ettrick. Mary Mack married Vilas Cram. The trip to Wisconsin may have been with the Mack family, but probably not with the Hunts since the youngest Hunt daughter, born in 1871, was born in Wisconsin. Crystal Valley is in the northeast part of Gale Township. On the 1900 census, John and Mary are listed along with four of their nine children, John, Willie, Bernard, and Elizabeth. By 1910, John was sixty-five years old, and Mary was sixty-six and the census shows them, and oldest child Mary, living in Galesville (village). Their son John Patrick took over the Crystal Valley Farm. John died in Galesville on Feb 18, 1913. He was buried in Ettrick Cemetery on March 3, 1913. An obituary was found in the Galesville Republican for John Byrne. It says John was born in Kilaster (Castlerea, County Roscommon). The 1880 US census index has a mispelling of the surname. It was incorrectly read and entered as “BYANA”. The 1870 census for Baltimore shows a John Burns and family which is a very close match for the Wisconsin John Byrne: John Burns (age 40, b.Ire); Mary Burns (age 30); James (age 3); Mary (age 4); Margaret (age 4/12). John was a laborer. The names and ages of the children are a perfect match. The building in which they lived seems to have been a large apartment/tennement for a hundred people. John and Mary seem to have shared an apartment (?) with a William and Mary Burns who had a daughter, Mary, (age 2). One might assume that William was probably a relative of John’s.

Sources

• 1870 US Census, Baltimore, MD, USA
• 1880, 1900 US Census, Gale TWP, Trempealeau Co., WI, USA
• Wisconsin Death Certificates
• Find-A-Grave memorial #76799670.