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BY FRANCIS CHARLES "FRANK" DECOURSEY
The first DeCoursey that I know anything about was my grandfather James DeCoursey that would be five generations, or your great, great grandfather. He was born in Prince Edward Island, Canada.1 In 1849 he went to California to the California Gold Rush, in an oxen train, before the railroad was built to California. He amassed a small fortune in the California gold fields, and then returned to near Lena, Illinois where he married Miss Mary Murphy. Then they moved to Leavenworth, Kansas 2 and homesteaded there, on a farm west of Leavenworth. This was some time before the Civil War, but I do not know the exact year. He entered the Civil War in 1862.3
They had four sons and two daughters. His oldest son was my grandfather or your great grandfather. He grew up on the farm outside of Leavenworth.
In 1879, my grandfather started the first creamery in the state of Kansas, in Leavenworth, Kansas. Since that time, for five generations, our DeCoursey family has been in the creamery business continuously.
In 1879, my father drove a team of horses from, Leavenworth, Kansas to Leadville, Colorado, which, in those days, took two months to haul ore from the mines of Leadville. In 1881, he left Leadville and went to Alma, Colorado, about sixteen miles from Leadville. There he met and married Miss Mary McCormick, who had come from Pennsylvania to teach school in Alma. She had one sister who was in the Sisters of Charity order at the old Catholic hospital in Leadville, Colorado. Her name was Sister Mary Digna. Another sister, Frances McCormick Kilduff, ran the Saint Nicholas Hotel in Alma.
My father and mother had four sons and one daughter. The daughter, Mary DeCoursey, graduated from Saint Mary's Academy, and joined the Sisters of Charity at Leavenworth. She was in the order until her death at about the age of thirty-two.
The only one left of the oldest generation is myself. James DeCoursey died in 1955 leaving two sons and two daughters. His youngest daughter is Sister Mary Edwin of the Sisters of Charity Order, and is located at Saint Mary College, Xavier, Kansas.
Edward, his third son, died in 1936, at the age of fifty, leaving a widow, two sons and a daughter who live in California now. My youngest brother, William, died this year in January in Anaheim, California, leaving a widow, three sons and three daughters. His oldest daughter is Sister Regina of the Order of Sisters of Charity , presently at Billings, Montana.
I am the only surviving member of the last generation. My wife died in 1961 and we had two sons and six daughters, all living and forty-seven grandchildren. The sons are Frank Decoursey Jr., and Joseph A. DeCoursey, both in Wichita, Kansas and engaged in the creamery business. The six daughters are Miss Rita DeCoursey, Mrs. Donald E. Martin, Mrs. John Morrisey, Mrs. Bernard Ruysser, Mrs. Harry Foster and Mrs. Thomas Foley. Mrs. Donald E. Martin has nine children. Her oldest daughter is Sister Bridget of Xavier, Kansas, who is in the Sisters of Charity.
The farm west of Leavenworth was sold about 1917. At that time, Harry, James and Charles DeCoursey went to live in Leavenworth, Kansas. One daughter, Mary, had married Edwin Barrett and had moved to Illinois. Harry had married Elizabeth Ryan of Leavenworth but they had no children. James W. married Miss Annie Thompson of Leavenworth and they had one son, James. Charles DeCoursey never married.
There is a story that my father, Edwin DeCoursey, was the first white child born in Leavenworth. I often heard my mother tell of the gold mining days in Leadville and Alma - "The Boom days of Colorado." They have been well described in the stories of "Baby Doe" Tabor and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," both of whom were from Leadville. Also, I heard my mother tell of the heroic deeds of the Sisters of Charity in the early days of Leadville - how they helped the sick and poor miners, collected money for the orphan children, and their other numerous charitable activities.
1 James was born in Canada, but most other sources state he was born in Nova Scotia, not Prince Edward Island. As no records pertaining to his birth or early life have been found, his exact place of birth is not known.
2 Records indicate that James and his wife first settled in Johnson County, Kansas, moving to Leavenworth after about five years.
3 No record of James' Civil War service has yet been found.
Frank and Kate DeCoursey on their wedding day September 1st, 1915.
