The Thomas of Cork - Found At Last!

In 1900, eighty-seven year-old Timothy Moynahan (1813-1902) sat on his Mercer St. (Windsor, Essex, Ontario) porch for a Detroit Free Press photographer to take his photograph. Speaking with a "bit of the brogue - just enough of the rippling dialect of the Kerry man" Timothy described his journey from Ireland to the Americas when he "was 9 years of age" in the 1820s.

 Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan 25 Nov 1900, Sun  •  Page 37

I first located this news article in the 1980s in the Detroit Public Library - Burton Collection and I was delighted to learn of the details of the voyage,  

"The Thomas of Cork, Captain Bamfield , master, was the ship upon which we sailed. She was an old war remnant, as slow as molasses in January and the trip occupied six weeks and three days."

"A lonely voyage it would have been too if it had not been for the fact that there were sixty-two women, a flute player and a piper aboard. The women were wives of soldiers that were serving the crown in this country, and they were coming over to join their husbands."

"Between the women and the musicians, the time passed pleasantly. The piper was an untiring Highlander, and he succeeded in driving all the rats from the old schooner. The music of the Scotch bagpipes will do that same you know.” 

For over thirty years I have searched every emigrant index in the hope of finding the ship "The Thomas of Cork" or the Captain "Bamfield" to no avail until this week when I found this advertisement on "Find My Past - Irish Newspapers"

 

Patrolman Timothy Moynahan Robbed

I love reading old newspapers. I regularly buy a monthly subscription at newspapers.com and run queries for one month on surnames in my family tree.

A LOT of my greatest finds come from newspapers available for free online! (See my links below).

I was curious about this article about Special Officer Timothy Moynahan who was robbed in Detroit in 1911 while delivering the payroll to Detroit city garbage workers.

Source: The Amherstburg Echo, December 29, 1911

The article ends by saying that "Moynahan is a native of Maidstone township" which puts Timothy squarely into my Moynahan research files in Essex, Ontario.\

I found a photograph of Officer Moynahan with additional details on the robbery.

Source: Detroit Free Press; Thursday, December 28, 1911

Source: Detroit Free Press; Thursday, December 28, 1911

Moynahan On The Police Force More Than 30 Years

The Detroit Free Press article states that:
"With one eye gashed and completely closed, and his right nostril cut badly, Moynahan was taken after the robbery to his home 685 Seventeenth St in the police patrol. Moynahan was on the Police force more than 30 years...."

 "Every Wednesday for nearly five years Moynahan has carried the pay envelopes of these garbage wagon drivers to the station at at twenty Fourth St and the river. Three weeks ago it was moved to Eighteenth St."

Source: Detroit Free Press; Thursday, December 28, 1911

1884 Prevented Suicide

Patrolman Moynahan was written up in the newspapers again in 184 after he happened across a distraught woman on a Saturday night

Source: Detroit Free Press, Dec 15, 1884

Source: Detroit Free Press, Dec 15, 1884

1903 Timothy's Wife Committed Suicide

Unfortunately, Patrolman Timoth's wife Catherine (Murphy) Moynahan who struggled with mental health issues, died in 1903

On Catherine (Murphy) Moynahan's death certificate it indicates that the couple had seven children of which five were living in 1903.

Source: Michigan Department of Community Health, Division for Vital Records and Health Statistics; Lansing, Michigan; Death Records

On the 1880 census, there are three children: Cornelius, Felix and Frank. I believe that this may mean that Timothy's father's name was Cornelius.

Timothy and his family lived many, many years at 685 17th Street, Detroit Michigan and there were many other Moynahans in Corktown as well but I was unable to connect Patrolman Timothy Moynahan with our Maidstone Moynahans as reported in the Amherstburg Echo in 1911.

685 17th Street, Detroit Michigan

Timothy and Catherine (Murphy) Moynahan and family

Windsor, Ontario FREE Newspapers Links

(Windsor) Western Herald (Sandwich, Windsor) 1838-1842

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) Windsor Herald 1855-1856

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Evening Record 1893-1967

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Windsor Record 1917-1918

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Border Cities Star 1918-1952

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) Border Cities Chrysler News 1925

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Windsor Daily Star 1935-1959

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Windsor Star 1959-1986

From Google Newspapers

(Windsor) The Saturday Windsor Star 1981-1986

From Google Newspapers

Miscellaneous Newspapers Links

• Newspaper: Detroit Free Press ($)
• Newspapers: Canadian Historical
• Newspapers: Detroit Indexes
• Newspapers: Google archive
• Newspapers: Michigan
• Newspapers: NY Searchable
• Newspapers: NY State
• Newspapers: Ontario
• Newspapers: Pennsylvania
• Newspapers: TorStar ($)

52 Ancestors #24: Enos Moynahan (and brother James)

No Story Too Small has issued a New Year's Challenge: "Have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor.”

This week's blog post is about one of the most notorious characters I have ever come across in my family research Enos Moynahan (and his brother James..)

Enos Moynahan (son of Timothy Moynahan and Archange Parent) was a marine reporter (1888), cigars & tobacconist (1891), noted smuggler (1891) robber (Glun's Shoes 1893), opium dealer (1893) and went to prison twice.

In the article below we also learn about his brother James who was a policeman (1888) turned hotel keeper (1891). What we learn is that the smuggling between Detroit in Windsor was in its heyday in the 1890s.

From The Milwaukee Journal 1891

Scenes on the Border in 1891

In 1891, "Windsor a town of some 10,000 inhabitants is reached from Detroit by ferry. The distance across is less than a mile.....the suspicion arose that all the policeman in the town were under double pay. A man who goes on the force there never remains for over a year or two. As a general rule he becomes independent.

After serving a few years James Moynahan resigned and opened a hotel on the riverfront between Windsor and Walkerville. It was here that Enos Moynahan made his headquarters. Here also other smugglers were shielded from police interference."

Daily Journal: Milwaukee Dec 3, 1891

Enos and James both die at 34 years of age

Enos death was the subject of newspaper articles and autopsy investigations. 

Windsor Evening Record August 8, 1903

(The coroner discovered strychnine and arsenic 
and ruled poisoning as the cause of death. ) 


James married and was found in the 1891 census with Elizabeth (Bloomfield)

James died four years earlier than Enos (1899) from cerebral meningitis.

St. Alphonsus cemetery, Windsor, On

Source: Detroit Free Press: Sat Feb 25, 1899

Old Detroit Hotels