The fabulous life of Katie Meehan

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smcarberry
Posts: 1281
Joined: Fri Mar 30, 2007 4:31 pm
Location: USA

The fabulous life of Katie Meehan

Post by smcarberry » Tue Sep 08, 2015 12:14 pm

For several years I have had U.S. census records for the Meehan/Carberry family of Illinois, formed by the early 1850s marriage of Elizabeth Carberry (my gggrandfather's sister) and Patrick Meehan of East Clare. Those records show their only child was Catherine, who could never be found in 1900. Patrick died in 1886 and was buried in small city outside Chicago, where cemetery records are meticulously kept and freely shared. Elizabeth went to live with her brother Peter in Chicago, where her death in 1903 was announced in a metro newspaper. That seemed to sum up their lives fairly well, so I have not pursued much more. Earlier this year I finally located the December, 1895 brief newspaper mention of Catherine's death at age 40 yet single, so I let go of the records I had slowly collected of several young women of the same name who had married. The best candidate in that effort had the distinction of raising a young lady whose Irish-American activities were chronicled in Chicago newspapers, including a photo. I thought likely that was the closest I would ever get to knowing about Catherine's life.

An opportunity this weekend to access online images of U.S. probate records resulted in an astonishing look into her life. She was Katie, a highly-skilled business manager whose efforts on the family farm grew even more successful after her father's death in 1886. In most such cases, the farm would be sold and the women would use their proceeds to live in the closest town or with relatives elsewhere. Instead, with Katie as estate administrator, certain items were sold to pay Patrick's final expenses: goods independently appraised at one level were in fact sold by Katie for $228 more. There was enough left over to make a cash payment of almost $800 to the widow and $495 to Katie, good-sized amounts in those days. The widow received a standard allowance of household goods, which reveals what constituted a typical comfortable farm lifestyle in 1886. Other appraisals show their livestock in 1886. Half was typical farm stock, but there were a number of horses apparently involved in a breeding operation. Katie was a horse woman and she put that knowledge to work, so in her 1895 will her bequests were large ones: $4000 to her uncle Peter, $2000 to her aunt Catherine Tracy (whose Montreal birth is described in a previous Forum posting) and more than $3500 to aid her favorite Catholic organizations, as well as providing well for her mother. After her mother moved to Chicago, the story of Katie's career of 20-plus years was totally lost and Peter's living descendants have had no clue to her existence. The farm was rented out after Katie's death and not sold until Eliza passed in 1903, so its proceeds (1886 value: $10,000) undoubtedly supported Peter's family but they only speak about trips outside the city to a relative named Ethel or Evelyn. Descendants of Catherine Tracy decline to state anything about their past.

A life well lived, which now can be remembered as that of an extraordinary woman, far more than just a spinster.

Sharon Carberry

kate2013
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat Mar 09, 2013 4:26 pm

Re: The fabulous life of Katie Meehan

Post by kate2013 » Tue Sep 15, 2015 9:59 am

She sounds like an amazing and strong woman. Thank you for sharing.

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