Note: If you only have a printed copy of this document, you
can
also view it and the links it contains on the internet at:
http://www.io.com/~rdellis/genestories/oconnor2.html
Charles Craft's story,
Your Great-Great-Grandparents O'Connor
inspired me to continue his research into the family that produced
Fannie O'Connor, wife of William James McCleery, and matriarch of
the Texas McCleerys:
Based on Charles Craft's information, (including the
marriage certificate
for Charles O'Connor and Elizabeth Cronin, the Mobile Genealogical
Society was able to find Charles, Elizabeth, and their family in
the
1860 census. It seems they were living in Baldwin Co., Alabama, east
of the city of Mobile, across Mobile Bay:
With this information, I was able to find images of the actual
census pages, which show 35-year old Charles O'Connor
(line 40,
bottom of page), 30-year old Elizabeth (Cronin) O'Connor
(line 1,
top of page), and the rest of the family (lines 2 through 5), including
55-year old Mary Cronin, who must have been Elizabeth's mother.
Charles' occupation is listed as Deckhand. Knowing that, and
knowing that Mobile was a key Confederate port in the Civil War, it
seemed likely that Charles would choose to serve in the Confederate
Navy (rather than in the infantry or cavalry).
An Internet search turned up an Australian website, one of the pages
of which lists
Confederate Naval Personnel, N - S
. The following
information is listed on that website:
Charles O'Connor, born October 21, 1824, County Cork, Ireland; enlisted at Mobile, Alabama, May 8, 1862, in the Confederate States Navy; served on the CSS Selma; captured at Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864; sent as a prisoner of war to Ship Island for six months, then to Union controlled Mobile, Alabama, February 9, 1865; indicated that he was transferred to the Army [not indicated which army] for secret service at the seige of Spanish Fort and Blakely; mustered out at Mobile; served under General A.L. Gibson, Louisiana Tigers Brigade at Spanish Fort; was residing in Pensacola in 1902.
I am fairly certain that this Charles O'Connor is Fannie
(O'Connor)
McCleery's father. I'll explain why shortly.
However, I was curious, and did a search for images of the
C. S. S. Selma.
That search produced the following photo, taken from the
Naval Historical
Center web site:
The Australian website indicates that the information about Charles
O'Connor comes from Florida Confederate Pension File Number A12749.
A web search using this new information turned up images of the actual
pension application, which includes one page possibly written in
Charles O'Connor's own hand:
Interesting information; however, why should we believe that this Charles
O'Connor is the father of our Fannie (O'Connor) McCleery?
Having had luck searching the 1860 census, I continued my search with
the
1870 census.
Though the Civil War ended in 1865, the South was still in ruins.
Carpetbaggers and corrupt Northern politicians handicapped recovery
efforts, and most southerners were having a very hard time. It appears
that the O'Connors were no different.
One page of the 1870 census shows 40-year old
Elizabeth Connor
.
She appears on line 8. On line 9 is young Charles, and he is shown to
be five years old. He should be fifteen in 1870. Following young
Charles are two new additions to the family: three year old William
and two year old Sarah. Conspicuously absent are Forty-five year old
Charles (Elizabeth's husband), thirteen year old John, and nine year
old Fannie.
Notice that the "O" has been dropped from O'Connor. Did the census
taker make a mistake? Ida Mae (McCleery) Craft has told me several
times that there was no love between Charles and Elizabeth, and that
he rarely came home. No one knows why the marriage might have gone
bad. Could Elizabeth deliberately have dropped the "O" from her name
to distance herself from Charles? He apparently wasn't living with her
when the census was taken. In the 1870 census, I could find no trace
of a Charles Connor, Conner, O'Connor, or any other variation. Perhaps
he went back to Ireland to visit family, or maybe he was on a ship,
and unreachable by census takers.
As for thirteen year old John, I found one possible person on the 1870
census that might be him. Line 31 of one page shows a twelve year old
John O'Connor
living with the Timothy Cahill family and attending
school in Milford township, Worcester Co., Massachusetts. According
to the previous census (1860), John was born in Massachusetts. Could
Elizabeth have sent her son to live with friends or relatives there?
That brings us to Fannie. Line 34 of another page of the 1870 census,
shows a
Fanny Connor
,
in a Catholic orphanage asylum in Mobile.
Is this Fanny Connor the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth? The age on
the census form is hard to read, but it appears to be eight years old
(and that is what the Heritage Search Database indicates). Our Fannie
was born February 24, 1861. The information on the census was taken
June 28, 1870, which would make our Fannie nine years old. Was the age
listed for Fanny just an error on the part of the census taker? Were
times so bad for Elizabeth that she had to send her daughter Fannie to
the orphanage?
So ends any information I have about the O'Connors in 1870.
The next link to any of the O'Connors is to Fannie herself. On August
13th, 1879, Fred Shear obtained the following license to "authorize
his marriage to Fannie O'Conner..." (sic):
This was Fannie's first marriage. She married Fred before marrying
William James McCleery. She and Fred had a son by that marriage,
Ed Shear (named, no doubt, for Fannie's brother Ed O'Connor). Ed Shear
visited the Texas McCleery's somewhat regularly. In fact, he is third
from the right, top row, in this 1959 McCleery reunion photo of
Fannie's offspring:
As the license indicates, on the very next day, J. J. Scott,
D. D. L. L. D., Rector of Christ Church, Pensacola, did indeed
solemnize the marriage of Fannie and Fred.
This brings us to the 1880 census.
Charles O'Conor (sic) reappears in 1880. According to line 34 of the
1880 census page shown below, fifty-five year old Charles is living
in Pensacola, Escambia Co., Florida. He is now a Bay Pilot:
The Deckhand may not be the Mississippi river-boat captain
talked about in Charles Craft's story,
Your Great-Great-Grandparents O'Connor
;
however, that Deckhand seems to have risen through the ranks to
an equally-coveted Federally- and State-licensed position. Perhaps,
before then, he may have even worked the intra-coastal waterway
between Mobile and Pensacola. Certainly, it's possible that he was
already familiar with the waterways between the two states.
Also appearing on the following page from the 1880 census for
Escambia Co., Florida is nineteen year old Fannie Shear (line 41)
along with her new husband, Fred (line 40):
Back in Mobile, 1880 seems to have brought better times for the rest
of the O'Connor family as well. Line 43 of a census page there shows
Fifty year old
Eliza O'Connor
,
a house keeper, living with her children:
twenty-five year old Charles (a barkeeper), twenty-three year old John
(a carpenter), twenty year old Mary (a dressmaker), twelve year old
Sarah, and a new eight year old son, Edward.
At some point after 1880, Sarah moves to Texas, probably to Galveston,
where she marries William G. Roberts. Their daughter Floie was one of
Charles Craft's main sources of information about the O'Connors. It
was she who provided the
marriage certificate
of Charles O'Connor
and Elizabeth Cronin.
Click here
to see her letter to Charles Craft.
Sarah (O'Connor) Roberts passes away in 1909.
In 1910, thirty-eight year old
Ed O'Connor
,
a Detective, appears on line 84 of a
1910 Mobile census page with his family. Living with them is his
brother John, whom Charles Craft pointed out, lived as an old
bachelor with Ed for the rest of his life. Following is a picture
of John with his sister, Fannie (O'Connor) McCleery, taken when he
came to visit her in Texas:
Ed O'Connor
and family also appear on the 1920 census in Mobile (lines 56-61).
Ed is now the editor of a Mobile newpaper; however, an email
message from an archivist at the Univerisity of Southern Alabama,
corrects the letters from Flo Ratzman as to which paper Ed edited:
Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2005 From: Archives <...usouthal.edu> Subject: Re: Mobile Item: Ed O'Connor Mr. Ellis, The 1920 Mobile City Directory lists Edward V. O'Conner as Editor and Publisher of the Mobile Times-News, not the Mobile Item. In 1915 he was publisher of the Gulf Coast Fruit Grower & Farmer. I did not find him listed in the 1926 directory. Perhaps he had left Mobile. I'm afraid I do not have time to research other years for you. Perhaps you could request microfilm of the city directories through interlibrary loan if your local library doesn't have any. Sincerely, (name removed for privacy reasons) Archivist
Fannie passed away June 16, 1936, and was followed by her husband,
William James McCleery on December 23, 1937.
To date, this is all the information I have on the O'Connors.
Ralph D. Ellis
Austin, Texas
Following is a list of additional census pages (and their National
Archive series, roll, and page numbers) which contain various
members of the O'Connor Family:
