Bridget Jennings [1807-1865] was the daughter of Daniel
Jennings [1765-1830], of Mill
Street, Newry, and his wife Bridget.
She married Daniel McCartan in Newry in 1841. There is some
suggestion that Daniel had spent time in Canada teaching before returning to
Newry but this has not been confirmed.
MARRIAGES. On the 17th
inst, in Newry, Daniel M'Cartin, Esq., to Miss Bridget
Jennings, both of that town.
They had four children:
1. Daniel [1841-] born Newry, County Down.
2. Bridget [1842-1926] born Newry, County Down.
Baptised in Clonallen, sponsors John Cavanagh and Catherine O’Hagan.
3 .John Charles [1850-1926] possibly born in Wisconsin.
4. Mary [1850-1872] possibly born in Wisconsin.
The family emigrated to the United
States and settled in Dekorra, Wisconsin.
It is probably necessary here to quote quite extensively from the official
history of Dekorra in order to do justice to its origins:
Dekorra was first used
by Native American Indians who entered the region and began using the rich
water and land resources for travel and as a living place. Several major Indian
trails arrive at Dekorra. The Prairie du Chien to Four
Lakes (now Madison)
to Portage to Green Bay Trail and the Port
Washington to Wisconsin River Trail intersect near the old village of Dekorra.
The “portage” lies
eight miles to the north of Dekorra. With only a mile and a half to walk, one
could travel down the Fox River to Green Bay and
out the St. Lawrence River. Going down the
Wisconsin River, one could travel all the way down the great Mississippi
to the Gulf of Mexico and up the Missouri River to Yellowstone.
This area near the “portage” has for years been a strategic meeting and
gathering point for much of the mid-America continent.
In 1729, Joseph
DeCaris, a French fur trader, came to Wisconsin.
That year, he married Glory of the Morning, a sister of a Ho-Chunk (called by
whites Winnebago) Chief. (Hopenka, Glory of the Morning, later became Chief
herself.) Their descendants were the beginning of the Dekorra family, many of
whom became Ho-Chunk chiefs with many village sites. This is the source of the
names for Dekorra Village and Town of Dekorra. The first land entered in Columbia County
land claims was the Town of Dekorra
by trader Wallace Rowan (for whom the Rowan Creek was named).
In 1837, Lafayette Hill settled in what was
named Kentucky City. A “paper plat” was drawn up but
never officially accepted. Here, Hill built his first inn which served as the
political center of the area until Dekorra
Village was platted over
the same area and developed in 1843. Dekorra grew as an active pioneering
village and included several businesses. The census of 1847 records 201 white
residents.
The Dekorra Village
plat in 1847 had a 1000-foot wharf for commercial river traffic used as a log
raft landing and for exporting farm produce. Loggers of Wisconsin’s Pinery sent their logs by river
raft for construction of homesteads…
A ferry that
transported people, animals, and crops across the Wisconsin River to Caledonia was located at the east end of the village. The
Village of Dekorra had two blacksmith shops, a
general store, a post office, a local school, a shoe and tailor store, a wagon
making business, three inns for travelers, and several residences. A quarter
mile east of the Village, a grist mill operated and Wisconsin
settlers traveled up to fifty miles to the mill to grind their grains…
Immigrants
came from France, Scotland, England,
Germany, and Norway to occupy and work the land which was
later named Town of Dekorra, Columbia County
in 1848. Other villages were platted: Inch, 1846, Oshaukuta 1848, Hartman 1857,
Pauquette 1837 (changed to Poynette in 1851)… The earliest churches were Inch
Methodist, founded in 1856, and Dekorra Lutheran founded in 1869. The names of
the early settlers and families are recorded on the tombstones in six area
cemeteries. Nine one-room schools were located throughout the Town.
The military road
(Prairie du Chien/Portage/Green Bay) was constructed through Dekorra leading to
the establishments of stagecoach inns at Inch, Oshaukuta, and on the Rowan
Creek. These inns flourished until the railroad arrived in the 1870”s.
Daniel
McCartan died in an accident in 1864. His wife Bridget died in 1865. Both are
buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery, Portage,
Columbia County, Wisconsin, together with their children,
Bridget and John Charles, their daughter-in-law Harriet Hagan and their
grandson John C. McCartan and his wife Anna Ryan.
Their great grandson, also John C. McCartan, who fought in
the US Army in World War II, is buried here too.
There were to be two more generations bearing the name of
John C. McCartan.
