Born ‎21 Dec 1920 Coeur D'alene, Kootenai County, Idaho, died ‎13 Jan 1992 Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon‎, age 71 years
Rhonda says, via Ancestry:

"David, My mother Gladys Cunningham was married to Dennis for a few months. I am NOT Dennis's daughter. My father is Harry Spain. Dennis married Helen, then Gladys, and then a third lady. I might have her name some where. I was born in 1953. I hope this helps. Rhonda Spain-Minchew.

"Dennis married Helen in 1941, Payette, Id. Gladys April 12, 1952, in Id. Divorced June 26, 1952 in Grant Co. Or. Margaret Nov. 1, 1953 Crook, Or."

Note: The DNA evidence indicates that Rhonda is indeed, genetically, the daughter of Dennis L. Martin, and Ancestry shows many shared connections with Martin/Rooney relatives.

It appears that, in addition to their earlier Idaho marriage record, Dennis and Lois also have a marriage record for 27 Jul 1942 in Clark, Washington.

Born ‎12 Feb 1894 Bangor Township, Pope County, Minnesota, died ‎25 Apr 1954 Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon Event Description: Greenwood Cemetary‎, age 60 years
Francis Clements Martin registered for the draft in 1942 in Bend, Oregon. It gives the name of the person who will always know where he is as "Mrs. Pearl Martin," living at the same address, 1475 Baltimore (?). He's 48 at this time.

Mary Irene Martin married Arthur Bryan Alexander. Her brother, Francis Clements Martin, married Arthur's sister, Pearl Alexander. So their children would be double-cousins.

Ed L. Martin is buried in the Kirkland Cemetery next to Peter J. Brown, a brother of his sister Mary's husband John J. Brown. Peter had bought 20 acres of land in Kirkland and John J. Brown lived there until he died; John J. Brown is also buried in this cemetery. John Henry Martin is also buried here.
Frank C. Martin and John Francis Martin are buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, Bend, Oregon.
Mayme Wolfe Martin and Elmer H. Jensen are buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, Washington.

Born ‎9 Jan 1899 Burlington, Becker County, Minnesota, died ‎11 Jul 1978 Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon Event Description: Greenwood Cemetery‎, age 79 years
Mary Irene Martin married Arthur Bryan Alexander. Her brother, Francis Clements Martin, married Arthur's sister, Pearl Alexander. So their children would be double-cousins.

Born ‎15 Apr 1868 Saint Anthony, Hennepin County, Minnesota, died ‎5 Dec 1940 Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon Event Description: Greenwood Cemetery‎, age 72 years
Modified narrative by Rena Martin Jensen, granddaughter of John F. Martin:

John Francis Martin was born in St. Anthony Village [or St. Anthony Falls - actually, Minneapolis] on April 15, 1868, his father's 30th birthday. He was the first-born child of William Joseph Martin and Catherine Rooney. He was baptized in St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in northeast Minneapolis on April 16, 1868.

"Johnny Martin married Mary Brown and Mary Martin married Johnny Brown."

John F. Martin and Mary Brown we're married on November 16, 1892, presumably at Padua, Stearns County, but no verification has been made. Their siblings, John Brown and Mary Ann Martin, were also presumed to have been married there on the same day in a double wedding ceremony.

John Martin's wife Mary Brown was born in Ireland, perhaps at Derryheagh, County Mayo in 1866. [Today – 2015 - Derryheah is perhaps a small area near the town of Newport, County Mayo. There's a Killeen Cemetery 6 miles west of town overlooking Clew Bay in which one couple's gravestone says they're from Derryheagh.] Mary's brother John was also probably born there in 1868. The 1900 census indicates that she was born in Ireland and emigrated to the U.S. in 1879, at which time she would have been 13.

John Martin farmed near Sedan, Bangor Township, Pope County, for several years – possibly adjoining or nearby land owned by his parents. His name has appeared on the plat book of Stearns County on a tract of land that was tenanted by his parents during somewhat earlier years. This was the tract owned by his uncle Mike Rooney in sections 26 and 35 of the Raymond Township. Most of their six children were born while they lived in Bangor Township: Francis Clements (Frank), Ann, Walter Joseph (Joseph Walter), Mary Irene, John Henry, and Robert Irvin (Irwin). Their daughter Ann died in infancy in 1898 in Bangor Township.

After the family left the Sedan– Bangor area it appears they lived in Mandan, North Dakota briefly before moving to Frazee, Minnesota. Mary, John's wife, died of leukemia 1914 and is buried at Frazee. Joseph Walter died in 1918 during World War I while in the service of natural causes in New York. Robert Irwin died tragic death on 7 May 1920 when he was 13. He and another boy we're playing near a cave that they had dug into the riverbank of the Otter Tail River. Just as they ran into the cave it came down on top of them and smothered them to death.

John is listed in the 16 January 1920 census of Burlington, Becker County, Minnesota as a widower and a sawmill worker. His only child with him then is Irwin, age 13. John married Hattie Maxwell in 1920 – presumably while they were still living at Frazee. John F Martin worked in the sawmill at Frazee and drove a four or 64 steam in the woods hauling logs to the mill. When lumbering declined in Minnesota, the company moved to Idaho and the family followed in 1920 to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Margie Evelyn Martin was born to John and Hattie on May 1, 1821 in Coeur d'Alene. Later John F. Martin and Hattie were divorced. Can't find him in the 1930 or 1940 census. In May, 1936, John moved to Kirkland, Washington and lived with his brother-in-law (both ways), John Brown. Joe Wirtzfeld, son-in-law of John Brown, later bought a house and acreage in Kirkland and John lived there until he moved to Bend, Oregon 1939. John died there of a stroke on December 5, 1940 and is buried in the Greenwood Cemetery.

Ed L. Martin is buried in the Kirkland Cemetery next to Peter J. Brown, a brother of his sister Mary's husband John J. Brown. Peter had bought 20 acres of land in Kirkland and John J. Brown lived there until he died; John J. Brown is also buried in this cemetery. John Henry Martin is also buried here.
Frank C. Martin and John Francis Martin are buried in the Greenwood Cemetery, Bend, Oregon.
Mayme Wolfe Martin and Elmer H. Jensen are buried in Sunset Hills Memorial Park, Bellevue, Washington.

Born ‎15 Nov 1866 Derryheagh, County Mayo, Ireland, died ‎7 Feb 1914 Frazee, Becker County, Minnesota Event Description: Sacred Heart Cemetery, Frazee‎, age 47 years
The 1910 census says that Mary immigrated in 1873. She had 6 children at that time, 5 of whom are alive. They're living in Frazee, Becker County. She died of leukemia.

"Johnny Martin married Mary Brown and Mary Martin married Johnny Brown."

Born ‎15 Apr 1838 Shanagolden, County Limerick, Ireland Event Description: the date is of his baptism, died ‎28 May 1910 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 72 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
William Martin and his wife "Kate" and two kids and his brother John, age 25, are in the 1870 census of Minneapolis (St. Anthony, Ward 2 : 550 618). He and his brother are working in a sawmill. Also living with them are Catherine's brothers Michael Rooney (age 23, b. Canada), James Rooney (age 21, b. Canada), and perhaps a cousin, Patrick Killeen (age 40, b. Ireland), all listed as laborers. Other records indicate that Patrick enlisted in the Civil War in 1965 and was in heavy artillery at Ft. Snelling, and that he was born in Galway.

William Martin moved from Minneapolis where his two oldest children were born to the Detroit Lakes area in 1870 to work for a "pinery" or lumber company. James and William were born here. In 1873 they moved to "Stearns" (Raymond Township) in about 1873, based on comments in letters from his brother James in Canada. There are a number of mentions of the "Record" newspaper in the Canada letters, from Detroit Lakes. In 1885 the family moved from Raymond Township to Bangor Township, about 12 miles to the southwest. They retired to a home in Sedan, owned by Charles.

In a letter shortly before their marriage, James Martin told Jennie Anderson that he had secured a traveling pass, a ticket from Kensington to "Detroit," so that as part of their honeymoon they could see Det oit where his life started.

8/23/15:
David Gaffaney looked up my great grandfather's baptismal record on the Irish parish website (http://registers.nli.ie/) - he is William Martin, who married Catherine Rooney. Lyle Martin had found him listed in the parish record at Shanagolden, Co. Limerick, Ireland when he made a trip there in the 1980s.
It was quite easy to find him. His is the last baptismal record of April 15, 1838. The Latin reads "Bap. Gulielmus filius leg. Ionnes Kilmartin & Catherine Connors (spon Patricius Sullivan & Juditha [?] Keating)". English: William, legitimate son of James Kilmartin & Catherine Connors, sponsors Patrick Sullivan and Judith [?] Keating". After the Kilmartin's arrived in the Gatineau area of Canada they changed their last name to Martin.

William Martin and Catherine Rooney were married at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in northeast Minneapolis on July 7, 1867. Witnesses were John J. Darcy and Mary Tracy. The priest was the Rev. Felix Tissot.
Two years later John Darcy married Catherine's younger sister Sarah at the same church. They had a son they named Felix.
Mary Tracy would have been Catherine's 24-year-old first cousin, daughter of her aunt Ann Rooney.
As of 2016, the St. Anthony parish records are at the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis, about a mile north of St. Anthony of Padua (612-789-7238) on University Avenue.
Also, see http://www.lngplants.com/Basilica_of_Saint_Mary_Minneapolis_1955_JMR_PA.html

William Joseph Martin's naturalization record is at Pope County, dated March 10, 1886.

This a list of priests connected to St. Anthony of Padua parish in Minneapolis, some of whom had a connection with the Murphy/Rooney families:

Reverend John McDermott, born in Clifton, County Galway, Ireland, in 1816, and ordained in Little Rock, Arkansas, about 1840. He came to the Diocese of St. Paul in 1860 and assumed charge of St. Anthony parish. He was a pastor at St. Anthony of Padua church in Minneapolis before going out to Mower and then Wright County and from there to Meeker County just to the west. He died in 1887 in Darwin, Meeker County, Minnesota and is buried in St. John's Catholic Cemetery there. (He was injured getting off the train in Darwin that same year, which may or may not have any connection to his death.)

Rev. Felix Tissot, a French priest, succeeded Fr. McDermott in 1866 at St. Anthony in Minneapolis. The predominately Irish parishioners were chagrined that they had a French priest instead of one of their own. He was the priest who married Catherine Rooney and Will Martin in 1867 as well as also her younger sister Sarah Rooney and John Darcy in 1869. He was born in Lyon, France in 1835 and was first assigned to a Goodhue County mission in 1856, then to Cannon Falls, then Wabasha, then St. Anthony of Padua from 1866 until 1886. He died 18 November 1893 at the age of 58 and is buried in St. Anthony Cemetery in Minneapolis in the circle plot.

Rev. Hugh J. McDevitt was born in 1842 in Ireland and died in 1910 in Minneapolis and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul. He did mission work in Australia before coming to the U.S. He was the one listed with Margaret Murphy in the 1895 Minnesota census of Manannah, Meeker County, Minnesota. (Fr. McDermott had already died; he had organized the Church of Our Lady in Manannah in 1876 ). It looks like the faded name written in that census is Rev. John McDevitt, but the first name is either a mistake or it's his middle name and he went by John. And his age fits him. He was pastor of the Minnesota parishes of Darwin, Manannah, Rosemount and Shakopee, successively.

Rev. James McGolrick was born May 1, 1841, at Barrisokane, County Tipperary, Ireland and came to Minneapolis in the autumn of 1867. He was soon transferred to Minneapolis as assistant to Father John McDermott of St. Anthony's church. To provide a place of worship for the Catholics of East Minneapolis, Father Mc-Golrick built an addition to the little frame structure erected some time previously by Father Tissot, the successor to Father McDermott at St. Anthony's parish. This was the first Church of the Immaculate Conception. Father McGolrick remained in charge of the congregation of the Immaculate Conception until December 27, 1889, when he was consecrated first Bishop of Duluth. He died in 1918 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Duluth.

Rev. James O'Reilly from County Cavan, Ireland, was pastor at St. Anthony of Padua in Minneapolis starting in 1886. He became bishop of Fargo in 1909.

Born ‎14 Sep 1845 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada, died ‎25 Jan 1911 Sedan, Pope County, Minnesota‎, age 65 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
William Martin and Catherine Rooney were married at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic church in what is today northeast Minneapolis on July 7, 1867. (The cities of St. Anthony east of the Mississippi and Minneapolis west of the Mississippi, merged into one, Minneapolis, in 1872.) Witnesses were John J. Darcy and Mary Tracy. The French priest, Rev. Felix Tissot, performed the ceremony. Fr Tissot is buried in the "circle" in St. Anthony Cemetery in Minneapolis
Two years later John Darcy married Catherine's younger sister Sarah at the same church with the same priest. They had a son they named Felix.
Mary Tracy would have been Catherine's 24-year-old first cousin, daughter of her aunt Ann Rooney.
As of 2016, the St. Anthony parish records are at the Church of the Holy Cross in Minneapolis, about a mile north of St. Anthony of Padua (612-789-7238) on University Avenue.
Also, see http://www.lngplants.com/Basilica_of_Saint_Mary_Minneapolis_1955_JMR_PA.html

Glenwood Herald
February 3, 1911

CALLED TO HEAVENLY HOME
_____________________________

Mrs. Catherine E. Martin of Sedan is called Home After Long and Useful Life.
_____________________________

At her home in Sedan, Minn. on Wednesday, January 25, Mrs. Catherine E. Martin passed away at the age of sixty five years. Death had been expected for some time for the doctors gave up hope long ago, and Death alone could furnish relief from a long term of pain and suffering which began several years ago [carcinoma of the rectum].
Funeral services were conducted by Rev. Father Sharer of Padua in the Catholic church at Sedan on Saturday at nine o'clock and interment was made in the cemetery at Padua, in the afternoon of the same day, and the body laid beside that of her husband William J. Martin who had died just eight months before.
Deceased whose maiden name was Catherine B. Rooney, was born in Canada September 14, 1845, and was therefore, at the time of her death in the 66th year of her age. In the early sixties she emigrated with her parents to Minnesota and settled in Minneapolis, which was then little more than a village. Here she was married to William Martin in 1866 [actually, July 7, 1867]. They moved to Stearns county in 1873, whe re they lived for 12 years engaged in farming till 1885 when they move d to Bangor, Pope county. In June 1908, they moved into town finding farm work some what strenuous for their advancing years and here she passed away as above noted surrounded by a number of sorrowing friends and relatives.
Six sons and four daughters live to mourn the loss of a kind and loving mother, also six brothers and one sister survive her. The sons are, John F. Martin, Frazee, Minn., James E. of Kensington, W. E. and Chas. H. of Sedan, T. C. of St. Paul and E. L. Martin of Windham, Mont. The daughters are, Mrs. James A. Gaffaney of Forada, Margaret Julia and Elizabeth of Sedan. The brothers are, Michael and John Rooney of Montana, James and W. E. Rooney of Padua, T. T. and Hugh M. Rooney, Brooten and a sister Mrs. Dennis Egan of Padua.
Kind and loving in disposition, a great friend of the children of all ages, her sympathies were always with the young. She will be greatly missed by a large circle of friends, and the loss to her home is irreparable, indeed.
The Herald joins in extending sincere sympathy to the friends and relatives of the deceased.

Born ‎24 Jun 1820 Galway, Ireland, died ‎19 May 1880 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 59 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
The 1844 John R. Rooney and Mary McCool marriage record at St. Paul's Catholic church, Aylmer, Gatineau, Quebec, Canada:

"The sixteenth day of October, one thousand eight hundred and forty-four, after the banns of marriage have been once published at the parish (place?) of the mass of our mission between John Rooney of Wakefield son of age of Michael Rooney and Catherine Caufield [or Callfield], County Galway in Ireland, on the one part, and Mary McCool of Hull, daughter under age of the late Michael McCool and of the late Sarah Flannigan [or Flanigan] on the other part; no impediment having been discovered and whereas the publication of two bans has been by us granted in virtue of our powers, we the undersigned priest missionary have received their mutual consent to marriage and have given them the nuptial benediction in presence of Eliza Paul, James McCool, James Cassidy and Bernard Cassidy, who as well as the parties have declared they could not sign.
J. Desantels, priest"

This family, through Sarah, is in the 1851 Canada census of Quebec (Canada East), Ottawa (county), Wakefield. The family through Thomas (8 kids) is in the 1861 census of Canada, Township of Wakefield. Next to him is his brother Thomas Rooney and Bridget and their three children (the oldest being from Thomas's first wife).

Sometime during 1865 or 1866 the family moved to Minnesota. They we're found in the 1865 Minnesota state census.

[There's a John Rooney in the 1869 Minneapolis city directory as a laborer, living between Helen and Oregon streets, which are the 2nd and 3rd streets south of Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Minneapolis and St. Anthony were joined in 1872 under the name Minneapolis. He is more likely to have lived in St. Anthony, so this one may not be related.]

John and family are in Raymond Township, Stearns County in 1870.

Helen Felling's papers: John Rooney (the father) left with a team of oxen to get [or to sell] a load of seed wheat about a mile north of his home. His wagon tipped over and the sacks of grain smothered him [he was found dead buried under the load]. He is listed in the 1880 federal mortality schedule of deaths in Stearns county, the cause of which is listed as "accidental." The Sauk Centre Herald reports this on May 28, 1880.

Born ‎1823 Donegal, Ireland Event Description: or 1828, died ‎30 Nov 1895 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: St. Anthony of Padua Cemetery, Padua, Stearns, MN‎, age 71 or 72 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
According to maps made from Griffiths, McCool is almost exclusively an Ulster name. The name concentrates in Donegal.

December 2016: An online family tree of distant relatives has identified the location of the birth (1823) of our great, great grandmother Mary McCool, who married John Rooney. They provided a picture of where she and her parents, Michael McCool and Mary (or Sarah) Flanagan, lived in Cullionboy, Donegal.

The McCool homestead was a two-room thatched roof stone structure with an attached shed which was used for the animals. This building, located in the townland of Cullionboy--about 5 miles from Donegal Town--was inhabited until 1967 and, as can be seen in the recent photo, is still standing, minus the thatched roof.

One of the witnesses to her marriage to John R. Rooney was her brother James McCool. Also perhaps an Eliza McCool and two people with the last name Casidy (Cassidy?).

In the 1851 census of Rigaud, Vaudreuil, Canada, there is a family of "McCall" next to the Avon John Rooney and family, and the Mary has the correct birth year. Parents were Denis McCall and Helene Chanan.

Born ‎1782 Ireland, died ‎12 Jan 1857 Wakefield Township, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada Event Description: St. Camillus Catholic Cemetery, Farrellton, Quebec, Canada, age 74‎, age 74 or 75 years, buried ‎Jan 1857 Farrellton, Outaouais, Quebec, Canada
Michael Rooney and Catherine Caulfield emigrated to Canada around 1845 (although there are land records showing Rooney's in the Canada farm census of 1841). In their 60's, they followed several of their grown children, the earliest who was in Canada by 1829. They settled in the Gatineau River region of Quebec, north of Ottawa, near the town of Farrelton (present day La Pêche).
The two oldest boys - Patrick (b. 1808) and Michael (b. 1809) - had their own farms in Canada. They also probably did some contract lumbering as this region was rich in lumber and this was the heyday of lumber being shipped by boat to Great Britain.

Michael and Catherine's grandson Thomas T. Rooney, son of John R. Rooney (1854-1925), was possibly a second cousin to his wife Ellen E Rooney (1872-1902). Her grandfather, John Rooney, would have been born at an age to be a brother to Daddy Mick. John's descendants coincidentally fit into the Michael and Catherine Rooney line when a granddaughter married married a Daddy Mick Rooney grandson.

As of 2017, it has been proven by finding DNA matches on Ancestry between the Padua Rooney branch and descendants of the Avon Rooney branch. However, the exact connection is still to be determined.

The Egan's and Rooney's intermarried eight times (all of the couples dying in Pope or Stearns County):

James Rooney (1848-1926)
Ann Egan (1846-1914)

Mary Ann Rooney (1865-1937)
Dennis Egan (1849->1910)

William Edward Rooney (1897-1980)
Mary Emily Egan (1897-1990). Mary was an orphan train adoptee, so not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "grandfather" was John R. Rooney. Also, her husband William Edward Rooney was one of the "Avon Rooney's." Though not genetically an Egan or a Rooney, even though her "great grandfather" was Michael Rooney on the Padua side, she married William Edward Rooney whose great grandfather was John Rooney the Avon side. Thus by prior relationship they were 3rd cousins, but unrelated by consanguinity.

Mary Rooney (1837-1905)
James Egan (1826-1912)

Eleanor Rooney (1842-1902)
Patrick Egan (1833-1892)

Elizabeth A Rooney (1866-1904) (first-cousin once-removed to her husband)
Thomas Edward Egan (1862-1928)

Martin Gannon (1848-1911) (son of Mary Egan and grandson of Thomas B Egan)
Catherine Kilroe (1859->1940) (granddaughter of Bridget Rooney and great granddaughter of Daddy Mick/Mammy Kitty Rooney)

Daniel Michael Rooney (1955-2014) was related to his wife, Karen Ann Majerus (1957-living): His great great grandparents were Michael and Catherine Rooney, while Karen's 4x great grandparents were Michael and Catherine. Thus, they were third cousins twice-removed. Also, Karen is an Egan descendent as well.

Including the three cousin marriages listed just above, there are these additional three:

In 1877, Sarah Margaret Tracy, daughter of Ann Rooney, married her first cousin, John J. Rooney, son of Patrick Rooney.

In 1888, Hugh M. Rooney married his first cousin, Winifred Sophia Rooney.

In about 1889, Thomas T. Rooney of the Padua Rooney branch married his second cousin, Ellen E. Rooney, of the Avon Rooney branch.


Randy Rooney says (May 2016):

"I have been in contact with my closest Y-DNA result match who has a genetic distance of 1 out of the 37 markers I had tested. His great grandfather, Patrick [Rooney] b. ~1845, was from Dundalk, County Louth , just south of County Down. Is it possible that we aren't finding Rooney's in the area of Parish Moore since Michael wasn't from that part of Ireland, but just started his family there because Catherine was from there? And if Michael didn't have strong family ties to the area, did that prompt their emigration from Ireland. It seems reasonable they lived near Parish Moore at one time if Thomas married Ellen Ward there, and Michael/Catherine are listed as being from Co. Galway on the Canadian marriage record of John Rooney/Mary McCool. However, what else is known about where they had lived prior to Canada? The more we learn, the more questions there seem to be…"

Earlier in his email Randy said: "Clonburren and Moore South graveyards, [the two others besides the Kilbegley Cemetery associated with the Parish of Moore in Roscommon], have been completed already [cleaning, reading and photographing old monuments], so you can see what Kilbegley eventually will include. I found the Moore South graveyard interesting since there were many Caulfield's, but no Rooney's."
Ten Caulfield's, to be exact.


July, 2017:

Looking at Geraldine Felling Walsh's Ancestry DNA pages. She and her siblings and several of her living first cousins are closer to the Rooney ancestors genetically than are any of the rest of us. There are a number of people related to her that have a Rooney in their family tree, but those Rooney's have no known connection to us. The furtherest ancestor any of them listed could be as close as a first cousin or a nephew or niece to "Daddy Mick." They appear so far to come from either Leitrim or Mayo in Ireland. Maybe they are from a "Leitrim" branch?

Born ‎1783 Ireland, died ‎17 Feb 1875 Raymond Township, Stearns County, Minnesota Event Description: Padua Cemetery, Stearns, Minnesota, age 91‎, age 91 or 92 years, buried Padua, Stearns County, Minnesota
After "Daddy Mick" died in 1857 and was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Farrelton, Mammie Kitty emigrated to the U.S.A. with eight of her nine grown children and their families. They came first to St. Anthony Falls, site the present-day Minneapolis, which was so small it could be covered in a half hour by horse and buggy. Later they moved to Stearns County, Raymond Township - a place at first called "Rooneys' Settlement, later called Padua, between 1865 and 1870.

Ambrose Rooney said that his father used to talk about "Grandma Kitty " and thought that there was something funny about her. Ambrose Gaffaney said his mother used to talk about a lady who smoked a pipe (Mary McCool, wife of John Rooney, smoked a pipe; Marilyn Rooney Lysen is now in possession of the pipe).