Preface to History of the Harrington (Causkie) Family The following document is a re-typing of the original family history of Daniel E. Harrington, of Saratoga Springs NY. I have typed it just as the original document was, with spelling and grammar idiosyncrasies unchanged. The original also did not have any paragraphing until the 1933 addendum. The document I have is a mimeograph of the original that my great grandfather, the author, left with his will. There is some evidence of some attempt, in my great-grandfather's handwriting, to correct spelling and grammar errors on the mimeographed copy. Most of these efforts I included unless they further muddled the already "twisty" sentences ! My grandfather, the youngest and longest-lived of the 9 original children of Daniel, had this in his papers at his death. I had seen it as a child but did not really read it carefully until 1981, the year my grandfather died. I was intrigued not only by the wonderful story, but by what he had left out, so truly, this is the key to my past twenty years of doing family history research. Recently I have discovered an edited version that just leaves out so much of the flavor of the original that I wanted to make the original available to anyone who was interested in it.
He apprenticed with Tim, went to an art school in Springfield Mass, and then moved to Saratoga Springs NY to ply his trade. He stayed in the business for 76 years, taking eight years off to be the Postmaster (1914-1922) in Saratoga Springs, and in 1912 served as a delegate to the National Democractic Convention. He was commissioned to erect several public monuments including a monument to Irishman Daniel E. Morgan, a sharpshooter at the Battle of Saratoga, as well as a monument at the Newtown Battlefield near Elmira to honor General Sullivan, who fought with Montgomery. My mother said he was a dignified old gentleman when she was a little girl, but the household was full of the raucous laughter of his 5 sons when they were living at home. He loved Whittier's poems and knew "The Last Leaf" by heart, and liked to sit in front of the radio with his pipe and listen to "Amos n Andy". My mother was his favorite grandchild. My great grandfather was regaled with stories about the voyage from Ireland throughout his life in East Dorset, North Adams, Springfield and Saratoga Springs by his father who died in 1880 in Springfield and his Uncle Tim, who made a fortune supplying marble to the great old Victorian hotels in Saratoga Springs in the 1870s and died a "gentleman" in 1909. When Dan E. tells their story, one can hear the cadences of the stories he heard from his father and uncle. Enjoy. - JoAnne Boyd
A History of the Harrington (Causkie) family. My father John Harrington was born in the parish of Eyries, Castletown, Bere Haven, County of Cork Ireland on the 21st. day of June 1819. His father John Harrington as near as my information goes was a native of Castletown proper. My father's mother was a Murphy and she was a native of Castletown also. As all the old families had nick names so one of the same name could be seperated from the other is why I mention the Harrington (Causkie) as the old clan [he later crossed out "clan" and wrote "famley"-jb] name that they bore. In like manner the Murphies on the maternal side had their nick name which I am glad to have preserved and they were Murphy(Mahiesh). As far as I can aver the Harringtons had lived about this part of Ireland for a long period of years. My great grandfather also bore the name of John and had several brothers two of them Daniel and Cornelius being pressed into the military service in the wars between England and France in the last part of the eighteenth century and both loosing their lives in the conflict. His wife was an O'Sullivan a scion of the ancient family of the great O'Sullivan Bere whose castle the town took its name from, and the old fort of the family "Dun Boy" stood on a point of land within the Island called Bere Island in Bantry Bay. This island by the way was the birth place of my own mother, and her name also was Mary Harrington but of another tribe ["tribe" is crossed out and "famley" replaces it] of Harringtons known as Harrington (Kebugh) so much for the paternal as well as the maternal side of my forbears. My grand fathers wife died in Ireland about 1830 leaving three children two boys and one girl, my father then being the oldest and about eleven years. A second marriage took place in a few years, this time to a Harrington of whose family I have no history except that she came fro the adjoining county Kerry and her name was Margaret Harrington, she had two children Mary and Daniel who came to this country with her after my grand father had preceded her with my [page2] my father and his brother Timothy. More will be said later on about this voyage. However they landed in Quebec Can. in the month of June 1837, leaving Ireland, or rather leaving their home on St.Patricks day of that year. After they had secured a home in the land of the free and the home of the brave and purchased a modest home in the town of Dorset, Vt. they sent for the family left at home, consisting of my fathers own sister Hannah and the second wife of grand-father with her two babies boy and girl spoken of heretofore. The struggles of my father and his brother Timothy will be recorded as best I can after word of mouth repetition on more than one occasion to me when I was amere boy by my father also after manhood by my uncle Timothy with whom I lived as a young man he often often went over the long and pathetic story covering their first experiences in America from Quebec to Stratford Vermont about three hundred miles on foot or by row boat whenever such a mode of convenience presented its self to their good luck. My Grandfather was a large man and as I learned a man of considerable more ability than one would expect to find among the pesant class in Ireland at that time, he was interested in copper mining in the environs of his native town, which has always been known as center for this mineral, and for that purpose he set sail for America. The prospective place was Stratford Vt. where copper mining had been attempted at or about this time. How he came to know this place I am unable to state, but however this was the place he had in view, During the three months voyage over in the unsanitary sailing ship in which they took passage what more natural thing could happen than what did take place, the Ship Fever so called had spread through the hapless immigrants so more than one half of them were sick many dying before they reached the "Grand Banks" [page 3]
It was an every day occurrence to see from one to three corpses commited to the deep long before those unhappy voyagers sighted land. Among those on the sick list was the youngest boy Timothy as my father being then in his eighteenth year and had seen more or less of shipping in the town in Ireland, Castletown Bere, a place then and long since noted for its fine harbor and for more than two centuries a rendezvous for the British Navy, he like all young fellows new the yards and could ply the oars like a real sailor, this kept him about the deck a god deel thus saving perhaps his health on the trip over, not so his brother, for at the time the ship made quarantine below Quebec all hopes of saving Timothy's life had been given up by the doctors in charge. Now hundreds of Irish emmigrants were being burried in the mud trenches on the shore of the St. Lawrence and as my grand-father was an eye witness to this during the week he waited for a final decision on his boys condition, and when the word came to him that it was no use waiting longer, he asked for and received the permission to dig his boys grave high up and away from the water so that at some future date he could claim and give his son a more respectable resting place. Now be it remembered that as those fever patients died they were secretly intered by night and under full authority of the port officials, so that their relatives had so such thing as a right to private burial, with this in view the grave spoken of was prepared for one who never occupied it. My grandfather now set out for Stratford Vt. fortunately he had enough to pay for his passage via. boat on the river to Montreal, then by stage to the nearest point on Lake Champlain, boat again to Burlington, and then as best he could to his final destination, this took about seven days. He went to work at once in the mine. [page 4] as an expert, and had charge of same until the company finally abandoned it as unprofitable. Every day he looked for at least John his oldest boy to show up, as when he left Quebec he was to wait there and later report to his father about the burial of his brother, as time came for the Doctors prediction to be fulfilled, there came a change for the better in the patient, and to make a long story short, he after three weeks was let ashore and received into a boarding house in which formly received his father and brother, kept by a noble hearted Irishman, Thomas McGrath. My father in the mean time had gone out into the country and got a job making pot-ash, a product used in those days for commercial purposes. The job was handled entirely by native Frenchmen and of course English was unknown to them as a mode of communication, this did not interfeer in the least with my father as his best art of communicating was in the mother tongue; Gaelic, so as I often heard him say he got on ver comfortably, as he redily acquired the necessary method of work. Those hardy fellows living more in the woods than in the more refined city fashion, lived accordingly, pea-soup and raw pork, or more raw than cooked my father said was largely their bill of fare. He put in in all about three weeks at this work, and made several trips into Quebec after news of his brother, his final trip was rewarded with finding his brother at the boarding house spoken of,he had been there almost the full week and had began his first business venture in America, the good man spoken of and some kind hearted Irish laborers, boarders of his, had made up a purse and started Timothy in business, selling candies and oranges around the docks, so that when his brother arived he had about seven dollars, while the brother John had the sum of eight english shillings for his three weeks work making pot-ash. In a few days they started for Vermont, the name to them ment no more [page 5] than any other place on the map of the Western Continent. Vermont finally became the home of the family for forty five years in all, leaving the Greene Mountain state in 1872 settling in North Adams, Mass. for eight years and thence in April 1880 Springfield, Mass. became the home of the family. My father died Dec. 13, 1882 at the home in Springfield, my mother passing away April 27, 1903 also in Springfield. My fathers first wife being a native Vermonter Sarah Lucina Potter they were married in 1844 I have not the date. Of this union there was five children Catherine, born Mar. 23rd. 1845. Hanora born June 16, 1846. Mary born May 25, 1849.Ellen born Apr. 11, 1850. Timothy born Aug. 22, 1852. The mothe of these children died on the 10th. October 1853, and whose grave stone can be found in the old Dorset cemetery, where after a long period of years unknown to me just where my father's first wife's grave was located I in one of my periodical visits to Vermont located the grave. My father and mother was united in marriage March 8th. 1854, at Chicopee Mass. (then called Cabot Ville) by the Rev. William Blinkensop as at this time there was no priest in Springfield. Right away they proceded to Dorset Vt. where the children of the first marriage were living under the care of relatives. Nine children was born to this union, five boys and four girls, of the boys the writer is the only one living at this date 1930 the girls all are still alive making their home in the city of Springfield, Mass. Description is given in the fore part of this memorandum of the paternal side of the family and their struggle in the New World, but as to my mother I have not related her lonesome struggles upon ariving in Boston in the early [page 6] summer of 1848. She first went to Lowell with a cousin for a few days, and as the cry was every man for himself, this cousin started for his final home Springfield Mass. leaving my mother all alone to shift for her self, she followed either with him or a day or two after, ariving in Springfield and walking to her mothers sister a Mrs. Murphy at the place where she spent the first five years of her life working in a cotton mill or until her marriage to my father. March 6th. 1933. It is now three years since I started this history of the Harrington family, since then many sad events have happened, the greatest grief came to me in the passing so sudden on the fore-noon of January 28th 1932 of my darling life partner, this loss to the famly does not grow less as the time passes, especially to me, as for many days it seemed as though her foot steps were about the home, and every time I went into her room it seemed she should be either there or buisy as was her usual custom at her house work. Two sisters have passed on, first Sarah the wife of W.J. Quilty of Springfield Mass. died Feb. 21st..1930 and Julia passed within a year after, so much for my Harringtons. My wife was Margaret Fitzgerald born in the house No. 100 State Street Saratoga Springs from which home she became united in marriage with me, on the 3rd day of Sept. 1884 we lived there and our two oldest children John and Margaret were born there, on April 1st. 1887 we took up our residence at 15 Van-Dorn Street Saratoga Springs and have lived there continuously since. This home has seen many hours of gladness, and some also of grief two of our children died here Charles at the age of one year and two days and Catherine. Charles died May. 7, 1893, and Catherine born [last page, unnumbered on letterhead paper from his monument business] Mar. 14th.1894 and died Aug. 10, 1894. My other seven children have been married, I mean all but Margaret who has always been her mothers help to lean on, and now that I am of course nearing the time when I must cease work as well as other things, it is but a few days ago that I made my first will which I intend it to be my last, It is my hope that the construction of said will may be satisfactory to all who are concerned therein, as I know my daughter Margaret who like the writer never hungered for money, and she if when she has to make a will I have full confidence that she will do what is right and justifiable with all. I am filing these leafs away with the will, and some day it may be read by my children. I think this covers enough of my intended writen matters pertaining to the Harrington family so I will say "Finis" [signed Daniel E. Harrington]
Other notes: Just looking at my stuff and my family was right next door to James McGuigan in the 1840 census and I specifically remember my mom's cousin Bob saying that my great grandfather went back to Dorset to visit with the Carneys and Crowleys regularly during the early part of the century. - Jo Anne Home
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