Born ‎2 Apr 1852 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎2 May 1939 Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California‎, age 87 years
Katherine Ann Rooney: A Grandma for All

"Grandma McKanna: now there was a woman!" Whenever he spoke of her, m y father, Judge Willis, inevitably came around to this glowing phras e of praise. Others who knew her echoed those sentiments: Katherine W illis, named for her; Mickey McKanna, son of Phillip and Kathleen Doyl e McKanna, her grandson; Frances Penglase Barnhill, "Panky," lifelon g friend of Elizabeth McKanna Willis, her daughter. What electrified t hem about this woman?

Patrick Rooney and Ellen Tracy gave life to Katherine on April 2, 1852 . Patrick had emigrated from Ireland to Quebec Province, Canada, in 1 835; Ellen had done likewise in time to marry him in 1837 in a small f arming and logging community in Upper Wakefield Township. There Patri ck farmed while Ellen gave birth to, cared for, and raised her ever-gr owing family. Katherine made child number eight; she would in two mor e years welcome her youngest sibling, Elizabeth, the ninth and last ch ild. The family being Catholic, Katherine was baptized at St. Camillu s Catholic Church in Farellton– a rural town now called La Peche and e xisting to this day alongside the Gatineau River. As always, the goth ic steeple dominates the surrounding landscape.

In 1862 the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act. It offere d 160 acres of unused public lands in the Northwest Territories to any one who wished to settle on, and improve their homestead. Much of th e Rooney clan– Patrick and Ellen, and his married brothers and sisters– immigrated to Minnesota to claim its deliciously rich farming soil. Th ey settled in Stearns County in a place they named "Rooney's Settlemen t," eventually renamed Padua in honor of St. Anthony of Padua, its pat ron saint and title of its Catholic parish.

Katherine, fifteen at the time of the move, finished her schooling i n her new home. When she evidenced a mature twenty years, the communi ty leaders judged her sufficiently educated to become the first employ ed school teacher of Raymond Township. A small, wooden-shingled, one-r oom schoolhouse where she taught, though no longer in use, still exist s.

I treasure a picture of her from that period of her life:

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A Young Woman

I once described this picture thus: "Although of medium height, here s he appears tall, almost statuesque. Dark-brown curly hair encircles he r head and curves gracefully over her forehead toward the outside of h er eyes, setting off her alabaster-smooth face and neck. Deep-set eye s gaze directly at the camera, showing interest and intensity. A sligh t smile indicates kindness and self-possession. She is wearing a pleat ed white blouse with a white collar softly framing her neck. Though th e blouse has long sleeves, they are turned back, exposing her lower ar ms. A black/brown dress with an openwork bodice emphasizes both her wh iteness and maidenly fullness as its falls from her shoulders over he r breasts to her waist. From there it cascades with deep folds in a be ll shape to the floor. She holds her hands clasped behind her in an at titude at once direct and controlled. She told her granddaughter Kathe rine Willis that as teenagers the Rooney girls created quite a stir am ong the young men thereabouts. If the others looked like her, one nee d not wonder why."

The young schoolteacher did spark ardent male attention. One suitor, H ugh McFarland, pursued her assiduously enough to gain a promise of mar riage. When she told her parents her happy news, and produced his ring , she hit a wall of displeasure. The Rooneys professed a strong Iris h Catholicism; the McFarlands did not belong to either of these benigh ted clans. They said no to any unblessed alliance with him.

Subsequently Katherine, in tears, handed back the engagement ring. I n exasperation Hugh snatched it and hurled it far out into a grassy f ield. He accompanied it with these words: "Here's to the ring and here 's to the girl who cannot keep a promise." Clearly she had failed him . Yet, how could she simply oppose the traditions that bound her famil y?

Years later she related this episode to her granddaughter Katherine. S he held Hugh as her first and probably only true love. She shared thi s, not to complain, but rather to reflect with her on what might hav e been.

By the spring of 1874 Hugh and the pain of this rejection faded. Micha el McCanna, a young farmer from adjacent Pope County, courted her. Bot h Irish and Catholic, plus being a hard-working young fellow, satisfie d her parents. The marriage could proceed:

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Church Certificate of Marriage, April 9, 1874

The couple began their family on Michael's farm in Grove Lake. They co nceived and bore a daughter there, Elizabeth Elinor McCanna (my eventu al grandmother), on May 13, 1875. Katherine became pregnant with thei r second child nine months later.

A locust plague devastated the crops of the Upper Midwest in the summe rs of 1875 and 1876. A number of the combined McCanna and Rooney famil ies decided to sell their farms and to head west for more congenial co nditions. Though pregnant and with a two-year-old child, Katherine joi ned her husband on this new adventure. On the way her second-born arri ved, James Adelbert, in Fargo, Dakota Territory, on December 16, 1876.

The family settled down in Miles City in the Montana Territory. Ove r the next nine years, Michael labored at construction and hired-out a s a teamster; Katherine, meanwhile, was busy raising her two youngster s and giving birth to three more: Emmett Joseph on June 8, 1879, Joh n on June 7, 1882, and Phillip Francis on May 17, 1884. A studio pictu re taken between 1880-1882 shows the parents with their first three ch ildren:

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Elizabeth, Katherine Ann, Emmett, Michael Bernard, and Jim

A few incidents give a flavor of their daily affairs in Miles City . I take them from the Yellowstone Journal of 1864, the months lead ing up to the birth of Phillip on May 17th. At that time Katherine ha d four children, ages eight to one.

"Mr. McCanna, living on Main Street west of the post office, and the r esidents of the other houses in that block moved out Sunday night an d had barely time to do so before the water backed up by the gorge cam e hurriedly into their houses and covered the lower floor to the depth s of a foot and more." (February 26, 1884)

"Mr. McCanna, will shortly grade the street at the corner of the pos t office building, running at right angles to Main." (March 1, 1884)

"Quite a lively scrap occurred last night between Contractor McCanna a nd a gentleman who had been under his employ. The latter, it seems ha d a bone to pick with the contractor and led him on an exciting scrimm age, in which Mc took a tumble and was assisted home by one of his num erous friends." (April 10, 1884)

"The illness of Lizzie McCanna, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. M. B. McC anna, is greatly regretted by their friends. She is afflicted with St . Vitus dance but there are some hopes of her recovery." (April 16, 1 884)

"Furnished rooms to rent at my house corner of Fourth and Main streets . Mrs. McCanna." (April 20, 1884)

The Sioux Uprising of 1862 in Minnesota resulted in summary execution s, the breaking of treaties, and the driving of these savages out of M innesota, westward into the Dakota Territory. Mickey McKanna, son o f the Phillip soon to be born to Michael and Katherine, related to m e an incident told him by his father.

According to Phillip, just hours before his birth his pregnant mothe r was walking alone on the edge of town. Suddenly, a band of Sioux o n horseback came hurtling down the hills toward her. She darted int o a nearby cattle corral. She ducked down among the steers in order n ot to be seen. The rampaging riders opened the gates for the penned c attle and drove them out. Katherine ran along in their midst and, som ehow, avoided detection. She returned home safely. She delivered Phil lip the next day.

I do not know how much truth hides in this account. It does offer a dr amatic and startling coda to a momentous spring in frontier Miles City . True or somewhat so, it also underlines how her family saw her.

The United States bought the Alaska Territory from Russia in 1867. B y 1882 it began offering homesteads to American pioneers willing to se ttle in that frigid, faraway land. The attraction of free property, pl us the finding of gold deposits that very year around Juneau, drew ma ny hardy folk northward.

In 1886 Michael bundled his wife and five young children into a wago n and headed for Seattle. We can only imagine the hardships of that jo urney, including the accidental death of three-year-old John. By Augu st the pioneering family arrived by boat in Juneau. They settled dow n on Douglas Island, across the Gastineau Channel. Michael secured a j ob as a hard rock miner for the Alaska-Treadwell Goldmining Company, b egun in 1881, the largest stamp-mining operation anywhere. Its main a ctivities were located in Treadwell, a half mile down-island from Doug las. The family purchased a house on Second Street in Douglas. There K atherine gave birth to her last two children, Robert John on May 21, 1 889, and Hilary on June 11, 1892.

News of gold discoveries in the Yukon began filtering into Juneau an d environs in the fall of 1896. The possible treasures proved irresis tible to the McKannas. The Alaska Searchlight for March 20, 1897 brief ly reports: "M. B. McKanna and son James left on the steamer Rustler o n Tuesday, bound for the Yukon gold fields." Son Emmett would quickl y follow. Katherine stayed home in Douglas, taking care of it and he r three young boys. At this juncture her oldest child, twenty-one-year -old Elizabeth, though living at home had a job outside. She served th e government and her community as postmistress for Douglas.

The McKanna men reached Dawson that summer. They staked and worked cla ims for two years until Michael became ill. He came down with "Bright 's Disease," a kidney ailment that is now called acute or chronic neph ritis. In the summer of 1899 with Jim's help he headed back up the Yuk on River, retracing their steps in the hope of reaching home. The sic kness overcame him. He died near Lake Bennett at the top of the infamo usly treacherous Chilkoot Pass. When word reached Douglas, his daught er Elizabeth left straightway by boat to Skagway, and then took a rece ntly completed railway line up the Pass. She met her brother at Lake B ennett. The two buried their father's remains in a small miners' cemet ery nearby. His wife could only grieve at a distance.

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Mourning Picture, McKanna Family, 1899

A family photograph starkly records this tragic event in their lives . Katherine is seated to the right. Next to her and a bit forward, wi th his hand on her right knee, stands her youngest, Hilary. Robert i s standing just off of his little brother's right shoulder. Phillip co mes next, sitting where his father should have been. In back, Elizabet h has placed herself between Phillip and Robert, James talll and erec t between Hilary and his mother. Absent is Emmett, still prospecting f or gold, and Michael, finally at rest. Katherine is dressed in a full -length, long-sleeved black dress buttoned at the neck. She has her ha ir tightly curled and pulled back from her face. Her eyes express a de pth born of pain. Her mouth and jaw appear rounder now, less tense . A quiet dignity adds to her beauty.

Soon thereafter the family began a process of dispersal. On November 7 , 1903 Elizabeth married Robert Willis. By July 1907 they will uproo t to Goldendale, Washington. Jim traveled back into the Yukon; he hun ted for gold there until 1904. On returning he earned a living as whar finger and general manager of the Juneau Ferry and Navigation Company' s wharf in Douglas until his marriage to Frances Gaines Morrisette i n 1915. The couple crossed over to Juneau. Tragically, on a future sto pover in Portland, Oregon, Jim would succumb to the flu epidemic of 19 18.

Phillip married Alma Gribble on March 25, 1905. They located for a ti me in Rossland, British Columbia, and then retraced a path back to Jun eau. Alma contracted tuberculosis; she died on May 4, 1909; she was t wenty-two years old, and the mother of three small children. Elizabet h and Robert Willis welcomed two-year-old Frances into their family i n Goldendale. Katherine became both mother and grandmother to three-ye ar-old Hugh and one-year-old Phillip. They grew up in the McKanna fami ly home in Douglas until Katherine's youngest son, Hilary, sought ne w fields in Eagle River about fifteen miles northeast of Anchorage. H e farmed; she kept house for him and the boys.

She dwelt there between 1915 into the early 1920's. At that time she t ransported the two teenagers to Goldendale. Her son-in-law Robert Will is had built a house for her and Phillip's children. Their sister Fran ces rejoined her brothers. The three lived with Katherine in these ne w surroundings until Phillip remarried in 1925. Katherine transplante d them again, now to Yakima, just seventy-five miles to the northeast . The family united with Phillip's second wife and their next mother , Kathleen Marguerite Doyle.

Phillip and Kathleen headed back north to Juneau by 1929. Katherine r eturned to Robert and Elizabeth Willis in Goldendale. Early in the spr ing of 1930 tragedy struck this family. Elizabeth suffered a stroke wh ich left her paralyzed and unable to speak. Then young James Willis, r ecently graduated from Goldendale High School, drowned on a school out ing on the Columbia River, near Maryhill. He died on July 6th; his mo ther followed him on August 10th. As might be expected, Katherine stay ed on in Goldendale, keeping house for, and helping as she uniquely co uld, her son-in-law Robert, until he too died, of pneumonia, on Febru ary 16, 1935, two months before I was born.

I have a number of photographs taken in Washington State of Katherin e as an old woman. My favorite shows her standing with Frances Barnhil l, her daughter's lifelong friend, and my godmother. She is celebratin g her eighty-sixth birthday with her son, Emmett, and family in Yakima . Being not quite three at the time I don't remember her, though we o bviously met.

Katherine Ann Rooney McKanna died at her granddaughter Frances's hom e in Los Angeles on May 1, 1939. She is buried in the Willis family pl ot at Holy Trinity Cemetery in Goldendale, Washington, with her daught er, Elizabeth, her son Phillip, her son-in-law Robert, and her grandso n, James Emmett.

I began this essay with the desire to draw for myself and for you my p ortrait of a great grandmother I never personally knew. My words stan d as they are. But in the end what finer measure of her exists than th ese lyrical lines of Proverbs. I leave you with an inspired writer's w ords of tribute. He perhaps did not know it, but I think he was speak ing about Grandma McKanna:

Who shall find a valiant woman? Far and from the uttermost coasts is t he price of her. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he shal l have no need of spoils. She will render him good all the days of he r life.

Comments

Kenneth Vail said,
July 15, 2011 at 11:42 pm
As a researcher I was fortunate to find details pertinent to real esta te transactions in the early times of Miles City I can tell you that w hen the McCanna family arrived they moved in next door to Morgan Ear p and his common-law wife Louisa Houston Earp. This was in 'old town ' and lasted for about five months till the Earps sold their cabin an d moved.
Clerk of the county commissioner who assigned the log cabin to the McC annas actually gave up to them his own, as Michael McCanna was set t o build a hotel in quick order, which he did, the hotel opening firs t week of January 1878.

Unfortunately in spring '78 most of the whole town picked up and move d nearly two miles further west to the new town site – this in conjunc tion with the permanent Fort Keogh which was being built, about the sa me distance west from the original Cantonment.

rjjwillis said,
July 18, 2011 at 12:13 am
Kenneth,
Thanks for your e-mail. It is rare to get a response that actually con tributes to the knowledge I already have.

Michael and Katherine Ann McCanna left Grove Lake, Pope County, Minnes ota, in the fall of 1876. On December 16, 1876 Katherine Ann gave birt h to their second child, James, in Fargo, Dakota Territory. The grou p of McCanna and Rooney families pushed on to Bismarck, wintering ove r there. Michael McCanna leased a hotel in Fargo and rented out rooms.

In late spring of 1877 the McCanna family moved on to Miles City. It i s at this time that the family must have received the help of the coun ty commissioner to obtain his log cabin and begin work building a boar ding house. It makes sense that it would have been ready to take in ro omers in January, 1878. In family lore it is mentioned that they had " the first hotel in Miles City."

I know that Ft. Keogh was commissioned after Custer's defeat at the Li ttle Big Horn in June 1876. Until you mentioned it in your e-mail, I d id not realize that the initial army cantonment and the beginnings o f Miles City migrated two miles west of the original settlements som e time in 1878. By the 1880 census Michael and family are living in Mi les City, he is working as a teamster, and his wife in taking in board ers.

The period of 1878-1880 was significant for the McCanna clan. In the s pring of 1877 Michael's sister, Bridgette, took a side trip to Ft. Buf ord. There she met a young man who worked for an outfit supplying th e Cavalry in what we would now liken to the PX. He had been with the C avalry encampment during the Little Big Horn battle. She married him i n 1880. Another sister, Katherine "Madge," married Charles Johnson , a gambler, in Miles City in 1878 and had two children by him. By 188 0 the couple were separated; in 1883 Katherine married a recently disc harged soldier from Ft. Keogh, Patrick Henry Fox. Michael and Katherin e Ann McCanna added a third child to their family, Emmet Joseph, in Mi les City on June 8, 1879.

The McCanna and Rooney families were in Miles City from the spring o f 1877 to the summer of 1886.

Mark Lewis Whitman said,
August 5, 2011 at 4:40 am
Mr. Willis,
I reside in Douglas, Alaska and am doing research on the "Birch Bros" , brothers out of Ontario, then North Dakota. They took charge of a ho tel here in Douglas in 1896: the Douglas City Hotel and Cafe. This hot el was built in 1887. I have a copy of the newspaper notice of its ope ning…the proprietor's name is M. B. McCanna…I think there is more to t he family story here that you might enjoy. Do you perhaps have any pho tos of the hotel? I look forward to communicating with you . Sincerely , Mark Lewis Whitman.

rjjwillis said,
August 5, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Mr. Whitman,
Thank you for your e-mail concerning Michael Bernard McKanna in Dougla s.
I have no doubt the the hotel proprietor, M. B. McKanna, is my great g randfather. He and his family left Pope County, Minnesota, where he wa s a farmer, for the west in the fall of 1876. The party made it to Far go, Dakota Territory, that winter. They stayed there at the Stevens Ho tel which Michael rented. He and his wife then took in other renters . In the spring of 1877 they were in Bismarck ; they traveled on to Mi les City, Montana Territory, that summer. There Michael built "the fir st hotel in Miles City." He worked as a teamster there while his wife , Katherine McKanna, took in boarders. They stayed in Miles City til l the late summer of 1886. At that time Michael and family moved to Do uglas, on Douglas Island, in the Alaska Territory. It is quite possibl e that he found a job there at the new Douglas City Hotel and Cafe a s you suggest when it passed into the ownership of the Birch Brother s in 1896. He probably did not work long for them. On March 20, 1897 M ichael and his two oldest sons left on the steamer "Rustler" for Skagw ay, the Chilkoot Pass, Lake Bennett, the Yukon River, and finally th e Dawson City mine fields. By 1899 Michael became sick with a liver ai lment. He and his son Jim began the long trek back up the Yukon. Micha el died on June 13, 1899 in the district of Atlin, British Columbia. H e is buried in a small miners' cemetery at the top of the Chilkoot Pas s.

Mark Lewis Whitman said,
August 6, 2011 at 5:52 am
Greetings Mr. Willis,
Thanks for your reply. The notice I have is from the Alaska Free Pres s – 8 October 1887 – the Douglas City Hotel is advertised as "newly bu ilt", and M. B. McCanna is the proprietor. He continues advertising…h e was the builder. Late the Birch Bros. managed it. The oldest Birch B rother "Kid" Birch of Joseph Birch was an early miner of the Yukon jus t like M. B. McCanna…one of the few, lucky ones who struck it rich bef ore the onslaught arrived. He used to winter in Juneau and Douglas. An yway, I would like to find some way to send you copies of M. B's adver tisements. Also regarding the Penglase family…Mr. J. Penglase ran th e Douglas Opera House…located on the waterfront just a few doors dow n from where the Douglas City Hotel was. I am not savvy how to attac h things to this site. This information is in PDF and JPG format. – Si ncerely, Mark Whitman

rjjwillis said,
August 6, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Dear Mr. Whitman,
The Penglase family joined the McKanna family through the marriage o f their second eldest daughter, Lillian, to the McKanna's third child , Emmet. I have a picture of that wedding on July 17, 1909. It is in D ouglas; the picture is taken outdoors on a deck; you can see Juneau ac ross the water (it makes me wonder if this could have been taken at th e hotel). You can find a packet of pictures of the Penglase family, in cluding this one, in Juneau at the State Library.
You could send any documentation to me at my e-mail address: rjwinct@A ol.com . Thanks.

Pamela Newcomer said,
January 17, 2012 at 2:14 am
I really enjoyed how you have told a story here and elsewhere on you r site, this really brings geneology to life. We both came from Dadd y Mick and Mama Kitty Rooney, though different lines, you from Patrick , me from his sister Ann. We crossed again in Alaska and again in Yaki ma. Thank you for keeping the history alive.

McKanna Descendants said,
November 8, 2015 at 5:06 pm
On Katherine's Rooney's 104th birthday, April 2, Katherine's great gra nddaughter, and Phillip's granddaughter, my wife Kathleen (named afte r her grandmother Kathleen Doyle) was born. We lived in Juneau durin g a military assignment (2009-2012) and loved it there. Kathleen's dau ghter, Catherine Ann, named after her great great grandmother Katherin e Ann Rooney, visited, fell in love with the area, and now lives in Do uglas — traversing the same streets as her namesake did 130 years ago . None of us knew the full extent of the family's rich history there.

rjjwillis said,
November 11, 2015 at 9:13 pm
Thank you for your update on the McKanna Family. I have the followin g information that documents your post:
First Generation: Katherine Ann Rooney, b. 04/02/1852 in Farellton, Up per Wakefield Township, Quebec; m. Michael Bernard McCanna on 04/09/18 74 in Rooney's Settlement, Stearns County, Minnesota; the couple had s even children, including Phillip; she died on 05/02/1939 in Los Angele s, Ca.
Second Generation: Phillip Francis McCanna b. 05/17/1884 in Miles City , Montana; m. Kathleen Marguerite Doyle on o6/06/1925 in Aberdeen, Wa. ; the couple had four children, including Kathleen; he died on 08/05/1 940 in Long Beach, Ca.
Third Generation: Kathleen Alice McKanna, on 12/22/1927 in Yakima, Wa. ; m. William LeCou in June 1948 in Long Beach, Ca.; the couple had fou r children, including Kathleen; Kathleen Alice died on 07/03/2006 in S pokane, Wa.
Fourth Generation: Kathleen Elizabeth Lecou, b. 05/01/1949 in Long Bea ch, Ca.; m. Douglas Charles Roberts on 09/10/1977 in Spokane, Wa.; th e couple had three children, including Kathleen.
Fifth Generation: Kathleen Rose Roberts, b. 12/18/1977 in Spokane, Wa. ; m. Michael John Anderson on 08/09/2003 in Spokane, Wa. I do not hav e any data about the children born of this marriage nor of any subsequ ent marriages of those children. If you have that information, I woul d appreciate receiving it.

Born ‎1846 Ireland, died ‎13 Jun 1899 Atlan, British Columbia, Canada‎, age 52 or 53 years