Julia Kinney Hancock, painter

When she visits, my mother often brings a treasure-trove of genealogical materials from my grandmother's stored belongings. This week, she brought this oil painting. On the back it says "Painted by Julia Kinney as a girl". Julia, who was my great-great-grandmother, was born in 1859. I'd guess her "girlhood" to be anytime before 1880. Before she reached the age of 20, Julia had lived in Nova Scotia, Boston, San Francisco, and Whidbey Island, Washington. This landscape doesn't particularly remind me of any of those areas, but it's more "east coast-y" than west. On the other hand, she very well may have copied some other painting and not seen this landscape in real life.

If you look closely, you'll see that the human figures are a bit stiff but the animals and landscape are quite good. Joe wanted to know if she kept painting, and if the family has any of her other work. Honestly, I don't know. Maybe some of my cousins do?

Deans and the Whiskey Rebellion

I was reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton when I was struck by his description of the Whiskey Rebellion, specifically, of its epicenter as west-central Pennsylvania. The Whiskey Rebellion took place from 1791-1794, and guess who was living in west-central Pennsylvania at that time? The early Dean family! Specifically, my 6xgreat-grandfather, James Dean, who died around 1795 (his wife was probably already dead by this point), and his son and daughter-in-law, my 5xgreat-grandparents, Abraham and Sarah Stewart Dean.

The Whiskey Rebellion began in the Appalachian area, among the Scotch-Irish small farmers, who were enraged by a whiskey tax that was far more punitive and inconvenient to them than to the larger distilleries of the coast. Many small farmers made whiskey as a more efficient way of transporting their crops for sale across poor roads. The tax was detrimental to one of their primary money-making enterprises and the required inspections were problematic given their dispersed farmsteads and difficult traveling conditions.

The resistance to the tax had its most formal expression on July 27, 1791, when a group of community leaders gathered at Redstone Old Fort in Fayette County and signed a proclamation declaring their grievance. The most prominent politician present was Albert Gallatin, later Thomas Jefferson's secretary of treasury. Among those who signed the statement was one "John Canon", possibly from Washington County.

There is a John Canon (or Canan) who was the son-in-law of James Dean, husband of Abraham's sister, Margary.  Could he have been the signatory? We do know he was a civic leader, according to this biography of his son, also named John, who was a Pennsylvania representative:

John Canan, his father, was born in Ireland in 1746; his mother, Margery Dean, also born there, came to America before the Revolution, and they were married here. John Canan was second lieutenant in the 2d Pennsylvania Regiment in 1777. In 1786 and '87 he was a member of the general assembly from Bedford county. He was also a member of the supreme executive council from 1787 to 1790. Under the constitution of 1790 he was appointed an associate judge and he was again a member of the assembly from Huntingdon county from 1791 to '94, and senator from Huntingdon and Bedford from 1795 to 1799. He owned a large estate in land, and late in life entered the forge and furnace business, being unfortunate in his investment. He died in 1831, at the age of 85 years. Margery Dean Canan died in 1815, when she was 55 years old.

Neither this John Canan or his son were from Washington county, but they were definitely from the area.

I haven't had a lot of time to do genealogy this summer, but I hope to look into this more in the future. Regardless of which side of the Whiskey Rebellion our ancestors supported -- if we ever know -- they definitely lived through the heart of it.

A Little More Rooney Info

I have written previous blog posts (here and here) about John and Eliza Rooney, my 3xgreat-grandparents. When I first got interested in genealogy, I was surprised to find that they had died and were buried in Osakis, MN, which is only about 45 minutes from where I live now.

Today, I went to the Douglas County Historical Society, which has a lot of really lovely people who help do genealogical research. On their webpage, it said they had a family file on John and Eliza Rooney. It turned out they didn't have much, and they weren't able to find any obituaries. They did have a page from what is clearly one of those county history books that were so popular in the U.S. in the early 20th century. The page had an entry for A.A. Rooney, John and Eliza's youngest son. Here's what is says that's of interest to the wider family:

A.A. Rooney, one of the well-known and successful farmers of Osakis township, Douglas county, was born in Dodge county, Wisconsin, on September 17, 1870, the son of John and Elizabeth (Kelly) Rooney, who were born in Ireland and there received their education in the common schools, grew to manhood and womanhood and were married. In 1848 they decided that they would leave the land of their birth and seek a home in America, where so many of their countrymen had come. After landing in New York they decided to locate there, and for the next seven years that was their home. In the fall of 1854 they removed to Dodge county, Wisconsin, where they lived until 1887, when they became residents of Minneapolis, where they resided for the next two years. In 1889 they located in Austin, Minnesota, and lived there three years, after which they removed to Farmington, where they remained until 1901. They then removed to Osakis township, Douglas county, and there Mr. Rooney died in 1907. They were the parents of the following children: Patrick, Thomas, Isabelle, Lizzie [This is Elizabeth, who married a Cunningham and is my direct ancestor], Anna, Frank, Stephen, Margaret, Isabelle, Jennie, and A.A. [his name was Ambrose Aloysius]. The first-born Isabelle is now deceased. The family are devout members of the Catholic church.

A.A. Rooney received his education in the public schools of Dodge county, Wisconsin. As a young man he started farming for himself, at Austin, Minnesota. In 1901 he moved to Osakis township, Douglas county, where he is now the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land, which is well developed and improved with good and substantial buildings.

The genealogy volunteer at the historical society asked me if I was related to the Rooney family that owned the hardware store in town. I had to say "I don't know!" Maybe I'll find out as I trace more of Ambrose's descendants.

The useful new information in this biographical sketch is the description of their movements, which were too frequent to be caught in the census. They moved to Minneapolis around the same time as their daughter, Elizabeth Rooney Cunningham. The Cunningham's stayed, but the Rooney's moved on. Perhaps I'll be able to find more information at the historical society.

Mystery solved!

I have written before about my great-great-grandparents, David Philip Dean and Sarah "Jennie" Brattain Dean. I had always wondered how they met. David Philip Dean was born in Iowa, and he lived there until he was an older adult, when most of the family moved to Washington. Jennie, however, was from Indiana. How did they come together? At first, I thought David may have been visiting his mother's brothers, who did have farms in Indiana, but the Dean family bible made it clear that they were married in Iowa.

Recently, my mother found the original marriage certificate for David and Jennie among my grandmother's documents. One of the witnesses listed is "Jackson Wisehart". Wisehart is Jennie's mother's maiden name. Indeed, her mother, Louisa Wisehart Brattain, had an older brother named Andrew Jackson Wisehart (yes, really). Jackson was married to Hiram Brattain's younger sister, Christena. Hiram Brattain was Louisa's husband and Jennie's father. So, Andrew Jackson Wisehart was Jennie's uncle by birth and by marriage.

So, why was Andrew Jackson Wisehart present at the wedding of David and Jennie? The documents I found for him suggested he was born and died in Indiana. So, I searched further and I found this copy of his obituary:

If you click on it, you'll be able to see it better. Basically, it turns out that Jackson Brattain spent a chunk of time in DesMoines, Iowa, building a business there from 1872-1894, before returning to Indiana. His niece must have visited him and her aunt there, met David, and married him in 1876. I wonder if she was there because her aunt, Christena, was ill and needed some help with her younger children.  Sadly, Christena died almost a year to the day after the wedding of her niece.

Mystery solved!