Immigrant Ancestors Part 4: Janet MacDonell

Figure 1. Janet (MacDonell) Treacy c. 1890s

The final entry in the series on our immigrant ancestors focuses on the latest immigrant, Janet MacDonell (Figure 1) who immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1899. 

Janet MacDonell was born 23 December 1875 in Glengarry County, Ontario, Canada as the second child, and first daughter, of Hugh MacDonell and Mary (MacMillan) MacDonell.  Her MacDonell and MacMillan ancestors came to Canada from the Highlands of Scotland. Janet had an older brother, three younger siblings, and a brother Ranald who died in infancy (Figure 2).  Janet went by Jennie, so I will use that name throughout this post.  I believe Jennie was the only sibling to immigrate to the US. 

Figure 2. The children of Hugh and Mary MacDonell.  Janet was the second of their children. 

After finishing high school Jennie undertook additional schooling to obtain a teaching certificate and when she was 21 years old, during the 1897 calendar year (which apparently was the school year in Ontario at that time), she taught in Lancaster, Glengarry County, Ontario. Her teaching contract is shown in Figure 3. Her annual salary of $275 translates to ~$8,500 in 2020 dollars. So, teachers beginning their careers were not paid very well at the time. It is also interesting to note that the contract lists Dalkeith as her hometown. Figure 4 shows a photograph of Jennie from this time period. 

Figure 3. Jennie's teaching contract for 1897. Her salary was $275 for the year.

Figure 4. Photograph of Jennie MacDonell c. 1897.

It is unclear if Jennie also taught in 1898, but her ambition was to become a nurse.  She considered moving to Montréal to study nursing, but instead immigrated to Syracuse, NY to join the new nursing school at St. Joseph's Hospital in 1899.  

In 1860 several Franciscan sisters moved to Syracuse and by 1869 they had purchased the Samsel property on Prospect Hill and opened the city's first public hospital. The original building is shown in Figure 5 and was used until 1926 when it was razed for a new building, according to an article looking back on the 150 year history of the hospital.  The sisters were nurses at the hospital. Figure 6 shows three nurses observing surgery in 1897. Helen and Tim can comment more accurately than I can, but the sterile technique seems to be lacking by today's standards!

Figure 5. St. Joseph's Hospital building from 1869-1926 (Photo courtesy of Sisters of St. Francis archive).

Figure 6. Franciscan nurses observing surgery at St. Joseph's in 1897. 

The St. Joseph's College of Nursing opened in 1898, and Jennie joined the next year.  In the 1900 US Census and the 1905 NYS Census she is listed as a nurse.  Figure 7 shows the invitation to the graduation ceremony held on 11 February 1902 for the eight members of the class of 1901.  Jennie was class valedictorian according to the oral history in the family. 

Figure 7. Invitation to Jennie's nursing graduation. The  ceremony for the Class of 1901 was held on 11 Feb 1902. 

During her time working as a nurse, Jennie was one of three nurses taking care of a very ill a young man named John Treacy.  Jennie was boarding at 1101 East Genesee Street in Syracuse and John Treacy was living at 114 Wayne Street, only 1 mile away. John needed care around the clock, but I don't know if he was at home or in the hospital. When he finally recovered, he gave all three of his nurses a gift. I don't know what he got the other two, but Jennie received roses.  John and Jennie began dating afterwards and they were married on 4 September 1905 at St. Alexander's Catholic Church in Liochel, Ontario, Figure 8. Unfortunately, the parish was forced to close on 1 June 2014 when the  diocese "determined that with its dwindling congregation it was financially infeasible to keep the country parish going."  A photo of Jennie and John on their wedding day is shown in Figure 9. 

Figure 8. St. Alexander's Church in Lochiel, Ontario (Google maps). The Church record for Jennie and John's marriage. The entry in the Treacy family bible for the marriage. 

Figure 9. Photograph and Jennie MacDonell and John Treacy on their wedding day, 4 September 1905. 

After their marriage, Jennie and John made a home with John's parents John and Mary Treacy at 114 Wayne Street.  Over the next six years Jennie gave birth to three daughters: Mary (Maidie) Genevieve Treacy (12 Jul 1906 - 21 Mar 1969), Anne Laurentine Treacy (21 Dec 1909 - 3 Apr 1985), and Catherine (Kay) Victoria Treacy (12 Jan 1912 - 11 Jun 1971), Figure 10 and 11.  

Figures 10 and 11. (L to R) Anne, Mary, and Catherine Treacy c. 1917-1918.

During this time from 1905 to 1919 John Treacy made money by various means.  He was highly educated for the time. His high school education came from the Christian Brothers, before they established Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) in 1900. He went on to graduate from Canisius College in Buffalo, and St. Michael's College in Toronto, which was affiliated with the University of Toronto. He might have studied accounting, because he worked for the Erie Canal as a disbursing clerk (payroll manager) and "commissioner of deeds," Figure 12. His monthly pay of $91.67 in 1919 translates to an annual salary of ~$16,500 in 2020 dollars.  

*NEW from my Uncle Brian*
John's experience on the Erie Canal led him to be part of a group that was tasked in the 1920s with reviewing the condition of, and economic feasibility of, the Black River Canal, which ran from Carthage to Rome.  My guess is that the group was deciding whether to keep the canal open. By the early 1920s traffic had dwindled and it fully shut down by 1925. It's interesting that he was doing this in a part of the State where his daughter would later live.

To supplement this income he sold pianos from his home on Wayne Street.  Newspaper ads for the piano business appeared at various times from 1913 to 1917, Figure 13. I especially like the bottom of the ad: "Our Motto - A Square Deal."

Figure 12. Public notice of Erie Canal salaries published in the Tully Times in June 1919. 

Figure 13. Ad for John's piano selling business that appeared in the Syracuse Journal on 17 Sep 1913. 

During this time John's mother Mary died (1913), Jennie's father Hugh died of Bright's (kidney) disease back in Canada (1915), and John's father Dennis died (1917).  In 1918 Jennie and John sold the Wayne Street home and moved to 123 Woodland Avenue. Previous blog posts from Tim and Janet have provided rich details of life there. During her time on Woodland Avenue Jennie enjoyed gardening. My Aunt Janet (Fenlon) Dippold remembers her tending to her flower beds.  As an interesting aside, John's first cousin Theresa (Hayes) Heffron lived at 206 W. Colvin Street with her family in 1920. Her home was only 0.5 miles away from 123 Woodland Ave. By 1930, John's uncle James Hayes was widowed had moved in with his daughter Theresa. 

Jennie's mother Mary (MacMillan) MacDonell came to the US c. 1924 to live with her daughter's family on Woodland Ave, so she is also one of our immigrant ancestors. She passed away unexpectedly on 29 Jan 1926 and is buried in St. Agnes Cemetery, Figures 14 and 15.

Figure 14. Mary (MacMillan) MacDonell c. 1910. 

Figure 15. Newspaper obit for Mary (MacMillan) MacDonell from Jan 1926.

John went on to work for the Onondaga County Highway Department for 30 years and after retiring from the county he worked for the Will & Baumer Candle Company. 

*NEW from my Uncle Brian*
When John worked for Onondaga County, one of his duties was to disperse payroll envelopes (in cash) to highway workers once a month. One summer in the early 1930s twins Edward and Emmett Fenlon were seasonal employees of the Highway Department so John gave them their paycheck. In 1936 (or '37?), when Anne introduced Emmett to her father, John remembered him as one of the twins he had paid several years before. As an aside, Emmett told Brian a workers' strategy to make the difficult work in the summer heat a bit more tolerable. If you wanted a break for awhile all you had to do was swing the sledge hammer just so -- and break the handle. Then, of course, you had to take time to fix it, which required quite a bit less energy than swinging it!

John died on 15 Nov 1954 and is buried in St. Agnes, Figures 16 and 17.  Jennie died on 4 July 1967 while my parents were on their honeymoon in Canada. She is also buried in St. Agnes, Figures 17 and 18.

Figure 16. Newspaper obit for John Aloysius Treacy who died on 15 Nov 1954. 

Figure 17. Gravestone for John and Jennie (MacDonell) Treacy in St. Agnes Cemetery. 

Figure 18. Newspaper obit for Jennie who died on 4 July 1969 in Syracuse. 

Finally, Figure 19 shows Jennie and John at their daughter Anne's wedding reception on 28 May 1938 (two photos), holding her grandson Emmett John Fenlon in 1939, and at Anne's home c. 1953.

Figure 19. John and Jennie at 123 Woodland Ave. on 28 May 1938, Jennie holding her grandson Emmett John Fenlon in 1939, and in John and Jennie in Copenhagen, NY c. 1953. 

Thank you for reading these posts on our immigrant ancestors.  As always, I welcome your feedback and suggestions on future topics for the blog.

Ed Fenlon
Lancaster, PA.