Pioneers in Montana: The Sweeneys in the 1880's and 90's
Map from 1904 New Werner Edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.
Daniel Sweeney (1854 - 1909)
In about 1880 Hugh Sweeney and Nellie Coyle's eldest son, Daniel, emigrated to Montana Territory, USA where there was plenty of work for labourers in the mines. Daniel married another immigrant, Mary Francis Donnelly of Hamilton, Scotland in 1886 and settled in Granite, Deer Lodge County, Montana to raise a family:
- Hugh Joseph Sweeney - born 6 September 1888, died 11 June 1972.
- Mary Ann Sweeney - born 23 September 1889, married Hugh Lally.
- Jacob Remigius "James" Sweeney - born 1 October 1890.
- John Patrick Sweeney - born 5 August 1893, died 5 March 1985.
- Daniel Francis "Frank" Sweeney - born 8 March 1903, died May 1982.
Photograph of Daniel Sweeney and family c. 1899
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Daniel prospered and wrote home to recommend mining life in Montana to the family. His sisters Annie and Nora would both follow his advice. However, in time the mining life took its toll. Daniel Sweeney died of miner's lung on 21 December 1909 at the age of 53. His youngest child was only six years old. |
 Daniel Sweeney's monument |
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note: Daniel's footstone says he died aged 52, but he was born in 1854. |
footstone |
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Annie Sweeney (1864 - 1946)
Daniel's sister Annie is recorded by the US census as arriving from Ireland in
1885. She went to work for a rich doctor in New York to raise some money and
then moved on about a year later to Granite, Montana where she stayed with
her brother Daniel and his new bride. Annie met another immigrant Irish miner,
Dominic McElheney of Doochary Bridge, County Donegal and they were married 25
November 1888 in Deer Lodge, Montana Territory. (Montana only became a state in
1889).
Baptisms and marriages had to wait for the missionary's visit, so it was a
day to celebrate: the same day the priest also baptised Daniel's first son, Hugh
Joseph Sweeney, aged two and a half months.
Annie and Dominic had children in rapid succession until tragedy struck on
12 October 1891. Dominic was working in Marie mine, Philipsburg, Montana and fell
to his death down a 300 foot shaft. After only three years of marriage Annie
found herself widowed with three children under the age of three, and pregnant
with the fourth. Her four children were:
- Cornelius "Neil" McElhenny - born 7 October 1889.
- Hugh McElhenny - born 27 December 1890 (twin with May).
- Mary "May" McElhenny - born 27 December 1890 (twin with Hugh).
- Dominic McElhenny - born 29 March 1892, after the death of his father (and named after him).
On 1 Mar 1897 Annie remarried to Bernard "Barney" McKenna and had her second set of twins:
- John Joseph McKenna - born 4 December 1897.
- Helen "Nell" McKenna - born 4 December 1897.
The marriage was not a good one and eventually failed. By 1920 Annie was also looking after her two first grandchildren, Dominic and Genevieve McElhenny (children of her eldest son Neil who was working in the mines). Genevieve recalled frequent arguments between Annie and Barney, including one at the dinner table where Annie got up and hit him with a frying pan. Barney walked out and never returned.
Annie Sweeney and son in law Jack Baxter (married Nell McKenna)
Photograph taken about 1935 in front of Annie's house.
Nora Sweeney (1870 - 1946)
Nora Sweeney had emigrated to the US in about 1890 and worked for a priest in Goldfield, Nevada. She may also have run a boarding house there. After Dominic's accident Nora came to Montana to be nearer her sister. However, about five years later Nora met a "gambling man", James McLeod, and ran off with him to join the Gold Rush in the Klondike. She eventually returned without him. The 1900 census shows Nora living next door to Annie as the head of a household with five boarders and no husband. She never remarried and never had children.
By the 1920 census both Annie and Nora were living in Butte, Montana. Nora was listed as Anna McLeod, age 45, widow, living alone at 31 Atlantic Street (Butte, Enumeration District 211), proprietor of a grocery store. In 1936 Nora was also listed in the Butte City Directory as owning her own grocery store. The store was also a front for a beer parlour: she brewed her own beer and the miners would come in after their shift to sit around her dining room table.
On 15 August 1946 Nora died aged 76. She had been raped and brutally beaten. She died of her injuries at the house of Annie's daughter Nell. Annie was so distressed she declared she no longer wanted to live, and died twelve days later in the same house. The sisters were both buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana.