Dohertys of County Tyrone
Hugh Doherty & Sarah Evans
The Doherty family originated from County Tyrone, Ireland. Hugh, his son Richard and daughter Sarah were the first to emigrate to the United States, settling in Manayunk (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania. There is a ship passenger list for the North Star that arrived in Philadlephia on 12 August 1846. Hugh’s wife Sarah and the children, Nancy (12), James (10), Samuel (8), Patrick (6), John (3), and Hugh (1) traveled on the Ship Superior, which arrived in Philadelphia on April 28, 1847. According to the shipping company’s records, the family was from Castlederg.
The family appears in the 1850 Federal Census in the lower ward of Manayunk, Philadelphia County. Manayunk was later incorporated into the city of Philadelphia. The youngest son, Francis, appears in this census. He was born about 1848. The family remained in Manayunk until about1855 or 1856.
By the spring of 1856, the family was living in Hillsdale Township, Le Sueur County, Minnesota. Hugh has an original entry on sections 22 and 23 of Town 112N, Range 25W: Section 22, NE4 on November 17, 1856 and a patent was received on September 5, 1861. Land in section 23, E2NW4, SW4NW4 was homestead on September 12, 1859.
Hugh Doherty was born about 1802 in County Tyrone, Ireland. He was an educated man, serving on the first township board of Hillsdale and also serving as one of the early commissioners of Le Sueur County. His obituary says he renamed Hillsdale Township Tyrone, for his home county in Ireland. He also served as schoolmaster. He was one of the earliest members of the Church of St. Thomas, Derrynane, Le Sueur. He died on November 20, 1884 at the age of 82 and is buried in the St. Thomas cemetery. His wife Sarah was born about 1804 in Ireland and died on April 17, 1886. She was living with her son James at the time of her death. Prior to her death, she had taken a fall that hastened her death.
Hugh and Sarah’s children were: Richard (1831), Sarah (1832), Ann (1834), James (1836), Samuel (1838), Patrick H. (1840), John (1842), Hugh J. (1845) and Francis (1848).
Ann and John do not appear in Minnesota records. Ann does appear in a Le Sueur newspaper account that says her name was “Mrs. Ferrell” and she remained in the East. Richard and John are not mention in any obituaries. John was fairly young when the family moved to Minnesota, and so probably died before the family moved. Richard appears in land records in the 1870s in Le Sueur County, Minnesota, but it is not clear when he came to Minnesota or where he lived before that time.
Sarah Doherty married Patrick Cantwell on May 1, 1864. He was a very early settler in Le Sueur County. They had seven children: Francis, Edward, Samuel, Margaret, Joseph, Matthew and Sadie. Sarah died at the home of her daughter on March 30, 1919 at St. James, Minnesota
James Doherty homesteaded 40 acres in Section 23, Town 112N, Range 25W on the 15th of January 1857. He was logging the land and building a dwelling of logs, twelve by sixteen feet and one story high, with a bark roof, one window and one door. He purchased this land for $1.25 per acre.
He was born about March 14, 1836 in County Tyrone, traveling with his family to the United States. When he enlisted in the Minnesota Volunteers, he was 26 years old and described as five feet, eight inches tall with brown hair, a fair complexion and hazel eyes.
He entered the service as a private on August 15, 1862 as a member of the Tenth Infantry of the Minnesota Volunteers, Company “G” and was part of the Defense of New Ulm in the conflict called the “Sioux Uprising”, continuing his career as a soldier in the War of the Rebellion. He was promoted to first corporal on September 28, 1862. On November 1, 1863 he was promoted from corporal to sergeant.
On May 15, 1866 he married Ann Heatherston, daughter of Richard Heatherston and Roseanne Lynch. Their children were: Sarah (1867) wed Martin Spence, Richard (1869-1873); Rose Ann (1870) married David J. Coleman, Margaret (1872) married David T. O’Connell, Hugh (1873) married Minnie Erickson Wicklund, Mary (1875) married Henry O’Connell, Matthew (1878) married Nellie Koller, Samuel Henry (1880) and Michael J. (1882) married Marie Kane.
Samuel was born in Ireland about 1838. He served in the Tenth Minnesota Volunteers, Company G, as well, under Lt. Col. Brydolph. He married Ellen Cantwell (a sister of Patrick Cantwell who was married to Sarah Doherty) on January 31, 1867. They had one child, Mary Josephine who married Henry Hal(l)ing. In 1879 he applied for citizenship and took advantage of the Soldiers and Sailors Act of 1872. He purchased 160 acres in Hancock (Town 123N, Range 41W) in section 28. His wife died December 25, 1899. Her death record says she was a teacher and gives her name as Ellinore. At the time of her death, her daughter was living in River Falls, Wisconsin. Samuel died at St. Joseph’s home on January 12, 1917, Haven Township, Sherburne County.
Patrick H. Doherty was born about January 28, 1840 in Co. Tyrone, Ireland. He served in the Tenth Infantry of the Minnesota Volunteers, Company H under Lt. Col. Brydolph. When he enlisted he was 22 year old and described as being six feet tall, having fair complexion, black hair and grey eyes.
Patrick married twice. His first wife was Mary McGuire. They were married on January 3, 1869, St. Thomas. They had a daughter (Sarah) Agnes. Mary died on March 10, 1873.
Patrick’s second wife was Mary A. Griffin whom he married January 20, 1874 in Belle Plaine, Minnesota. Their children were: Joseph L. married Catherine Byrne, lived in Swift County; Ellen Mary married John Regan; Hugh Doherty married Lizzie Sullivan; Frank, Patrick, John Francis who married twice: 1) Ida Hawkins and 2) Cecelia Checco; Annie, Mary and the last child was a boy who died at age 3 days. Mary A. Griffin Doherty died just after his death on November 18, 1886. Later in life Patrick moved to live with a few of his children who lived near Hibbing, Minnesota at Kelley Lake. Three years before his death he moved to the Minnesota Soldiers’ Home in Minneapolis, where he died on May 23, 1917.
Hugh Doherty was born about 1845 in Co. Tyrone, Ireland. He married Johanna Maher on May 5, 1873 in St. Peter, Minnesota. His children were: Francis T. (1874), Margaret (1876), Mary (1878), James C. (1879), Sarah (1882) and Ann (1884).
The youngest of the children, Francis, was born in Manayunk/Philadelphia about 1848 after the family’s reunification. His wife was Margaret Callahan. They were married January 31, 1883, St. Thomas, Minnesota. Their children were: Hugh A. Doherty (1885) and Dennis (1883). Francis died on February 26, 1926 in Minneapolis. His wife Margaret died on May 22, 1926, also in Minneapolis.
O'Connell Hetherston Burns Murphy Sullivan-Shea Sheehan-Whalen Hogan Galvin
