Billick-Wetrich Family: Four Generations Ago

James J. Billick’s family had been in America for at least two generations by the time he was born in Pennsylvania. The surname “Billick” is most likely an Anglicization of the German “Billig,” and suggests that the family originated near the village of that name south of Cologne.

James Billick was known to all as “J.J.” He grew up in Greene County, Pennsylvania, closer to Wheeling, West Virginia than to Pittsburgh.^[1] In 1847 he married a local girl named Susan Amanda Jacobs. The surname “Jacobs” is so common in both German and English-speaking countries that it is not possible to determine Susan’s family’s origins. She was born in Virginia around 1830, most likely in the region that became Ohio County, West Virginia during the Civil War.^[2]

The Billicks began married life near Richhill Township in Greene County, Pennsylvania, where heavily forested hills defined the landscape. Today the region is synonymous with “coal country,” but during the Billick’s time the only coal mining was for local consumption. The challenge for the coal industry in the early 1850s was transportation: the black stuff could be gotten easily enough, but the terrain made it impossible to ship to distant markets at a reasonable price. The land was so hilly that one railroad running through Greene County turned sharply 178 times; it was a roller coaster with a destination. A wit at nearby Waynesburg College penned this little ditty about the track:^[3]

It wriggles in and wriggles out,

And leaves the matter still in doubt.

Whether the snake that made the track,

Was going out or coming back.

J.J. Billick was a farmer; we do not have any firm information about his farm, but the most valuable local livestock at the time were Spanish Merino sheep. The breed produced wool fibers that were finer, softer, and tougher than those of other sheep, and therefore brought higher prices, so Spain restricted the export of Merinos for centuries. The sheep thrived in the climate and vegetation of southwest Pennsylvania and with their wrinkled skin and large curly horns were easy to spot.^[4]

J.J. and Susan Billick lived in Pennsylvania until about 1855, after which they relocated to Louisa County in southeast Iowa, stopping in Columbus City Township.^[5] We do not know for certain their reasons for leaving Pennsylvania, but the fact that they passed through fine farming regions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and did not stop until they reached unpopulated land suggests that the couple was searching for a place to call their own.

In Iowa the Billicks found a landscape very different from that they left in Pennsylvania: southeast Iowa was isolated, flat, and featureless except for the occasional marsh or stand of trees. Iowa had been a state for less than a decade and very few railroads reached across the Mississippi River into the new frontier. Families made or grew their own supplies; manufactured items arrived only by steamboat and ferry, and farmers relied on the rivers to get crops and livestock to market for sale. Today, 170 years after J.J. and Susan Billick arrived, the roads near their farm remain unpaved. When the Billicks arrived Louisa County was still the land of pioneers.^[6]

J.J. first worked as a laborer on the farms of Louisa County neighbors. By 1880 he and Susan owned a 400-acre farm; they used half of the land for crops and the remainder as orchards, pasture and meadows. Their livestock included 175 hogs and 26 head of cattle, which they sold at regular intervals. (Merino sheep, unfortunately, did not thrive in the climate and landscape of southeastern Iowa; it is highly unlikely that the Billicks or any other farmer would have attempted to raise them.) The Billick farm produced 1,000 lbs. of butter, 3,000 bushels of corn, 200 bushels of oats, 150 bushels each of rye and wheat, and small amounts of molasses and honey annually.^[7]

The Billicks were Protestant although we do not know their denomination. James and Susan Billick had at least 11 children; the names they chose reflect a keen interest in politics and history:^[8]

• Thomas Jefferson (1848-1913)
• Pleasant C. (1850-<1855)
• James Harvey (1853-1926)
• Joseph J. (1854-1855)
• John Charles Fremont (1856-1910) (married Elizabeth Jane Whitham)
• Florence V. (1858-1858)
• Ida M. (1862-1863)
• Josephus (1866-1897)
• George Washington (1867-1869)
• Mary Ellen (1870-1950)
• Louis Albert (1872-1944)

James J. Billick died on September 27, 1887; Susan Amanda (Jacobs) Billick died on July 6, 1899. They are buried together in Columbus City Cemetery in Louisa County, Iowa.^[9]

GEORGE WHITHAM AND ELIZABETH BADGER

George Wilson Whitham was a carriage painter. He occasionally took work painting coaches, plows, signs, even houses, but his expertise was with carriages. He learned the craft as an apprentice in a wagon builder’s shop.

George was born in 1832 in southwestern Pennsylvania, the Protestant son of parents whose ancestors had arrived in America from England generations earlier. The surname “Whitham” likely derives from the name of a town northeast of London in Essex County, England, which itself derives from the Old English “wiht” (curve or bend) and häm (village homestead). It had a long history as a prominent center of the wool trade and was identified as early as 913 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[10]

George learned his trade near his family’s home in West Findley, Pennsylvania and by 1853 headed north to Pittsburgh to strike out on his own. “Steel City” did not yet exist; Andrew Carnegie was an unknown telegrapher who had not yet founded any of the companies that would become U.S. Steel. Pittsburgh in the 1850s was instead known as the “Gateway to the West,” most notable as a busy port along the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers.^[11]

George soon fell in love with Elizabeth Badger, a young woman who had been born in Ireland about 1830. Elizabeth was likely a descendant of the Ó Bruic (Irish for “badger”) family. The relevant question for the Irish was “Who are your people?” not “Where are you from?” and Irish surnames identify the ancestor’s qualities (the tall one, fierce as a badger, etc.) or occupation (smith, clerk, etc.). The Irish rarely identify the location of a person’s ancestor, unlike the English and many other cultures. The important connections for the Irish were with people rather than places.^[12]

Elizabeth emigrated during the depths of the Great Hunger, the famine known to the Irish as an Gorta Mór, that that ravaged the nation in the 1840s. It is possible that she emigrated because of the famine. It is worth noting, however, that Elizabeth was likely born in the north of Ireland, where the Great Hunger had the smallest impact, and that she was likely Protestant, a group far less affected by the famine than Catholics. It is also possible, therefore, that her emigration in the 1840s was not prompted by the famine.^[13]

Whatever caused her to leave Ireland she was soon glad to be in Pittsburgh. George and Elizabeth married in 1853 and quickly started their family. Elizabeth gave birth to three children over the next six years, two of whom survived to adulthood.

The family moved to Trenton, Tennessee, a small town midway between Memphis and Nashville, in 1859. We do not know for certain the reason that the family left southwest Pennsylvania, but Trenton was home to a new a foundry and plow manufactory, and it is possible that George moved his family in connection with a job painting wagons for the growing company. Our ancestor, Elizabeth Jane Whitham, was born while the family lived in Tennessee.^[14]

It was the couple’s first experience in a slave-holding state, and it likely changed George’s desire to remain in the South. George’s brother, James Whitham, was a vocal advocate for the Union and abolition. Western Tennessee, where George and Elizabeth lived, was heavily pro-slavery and in favor of the Confederacy. George moved his family north to Fairfield, Iowa, near his brother shortly after the Civil War broke out. He registered for the draft but was not called into military service.^[15]

Around 1865 the family made its final move, from Fairfield east to Burlington, Iowa, a thriving center of commerce and transportation on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. Burlington was once the largest city in, and capitol of, the Iowa Territory and today is home to the oldest continuously printed newspaper in the state (the Burlington Hawk-Eye, a name the publisher pointedly selected “to rescue from oblivion a memento, at least, of the old chief (Black Hawk)” when nearby states were selecting rodents such as Wolverines as emblems). Burlington was home to at least four carriage manufacturers, several banks, and dozens of other commercial enterprises, served as a base of operations for several railroads, and was the hub for much of the trade on the Mississippi River. It was a lively city when the Whithams were there.^[16]

George and Elizabeth lived in Iowa from about 1862 through the remainder of their lives, where George continued painting carriages and wagons. Elizabeth Badger Whitham died in Burlington on November 8, 1868; she was not yet 40. She and George had seven children, six of whom survived to adulthood:^[17]

• Mary Ann (1854-1855)
• John Badger (1855-1932)
• Robert George (1858-1933)
• Elizabeth Jane (1861-1898) (married John Charles Fremont Billick)
• James Andrew (1863-1949)
• Amanda Albernetta (1865-1944)
• Charles Edward (1868-1925)

George remarried two years after Elizabeth’s death. He and Rosanna Jacobs Whitham had four additional children, all born in Burlington, Iowa:^[18]

• Rosa Virginia (1874-1937)
• Rebecca Catherine (1877-1945)
• Alice May (1879-1957)
• George Wilson Jr. (1882-1954)

George Wilson Whitham was 50 years of age when the last of his 11 children was born; it was in 1882, the same year that George died. He was a proud member of the International Order of Odd Fellows and an active participant in the civic and business life of Burlington. He is buried along with both of his wives in the city’s Aspen Grove Cemetery.^[19]

WILLIAM MOYLAN AND MARGARET QUIRK

William Moylan and Margaret Quirk were natives of County Tipperary, Ireland.  The Quirk family descended from ancient chiefs of Muscraighe Cuirc. The surname “Moylan” is found in almost every part of the country. It is one of many Anglicizations of Ó Maoláin (others include Mullen and Myland). At least four early Irish clans used the name; we do not know the branch from which our ancestors sprung.^[20]

We do know, however, that William and Margaret were Roman Catholic. Eighty percent of Ireland’s population was Catholic. Ireland was governed, however, by England, which was overwhelmingly Protestant. The English refused to grant full political rights to Irish Catholics. The reason had nothing to do with theology and everything to do with power: one early justification was a fear by the Crown that Catholics would support the Stuart family (which was Catholic) in its efforts to regain the throne. That was in the 1600s. By the time William Moylan and Margaret Quirk were born the Stuarts were not a threat yet Catholics had only limited rights.^[21]

William and Margaret were married around 1837 and soon began a family near the small town of Toomevara. The location of their home would have ensured that they witnessed one of the greatest orators of the age, “The Liberator” Daniel O’Connell, as he worked to improve the political fortunes of Catholics in Ireland.^[22]

O’Connell’s earlier efforts had led the British Parliament to enact the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829, granting Irish Catholics the right to hold seats in Parliament. At the same time, legislation reduced the number of Irish peasants entitled to vote. The effect was to place a tight and small lid on the number of future Members of Parliament who were Irish. O’Connell recognized that the interests of the Irish would never be fairly represented so long as Ireland was governed by Great Britain, and he began a campaign for Irish independence.^[23]

British forces disrupted O’Connell’s early gatherings violently and quickly. In light of the imbalance of power, O’Connell used the only weapon at hand: he held rallies so large that outnumbered British forces were unable to stop them. He called these “monster meetings,” deriving the the name from the “monstrous” size of the rallies. O’Connell led 30 monster meetings in 1843, including a rally in a field a short walk from the Moylan’s home that attracted well over 100,000 participants. It was a spectacle the young Catholic couple would not have missed.^[24]

The 1840s in Ireland were not just a time of political challenge, of course; it was also the era of the Great Hunger, when a blight destroyed the potato crop, leading to the death of one million Irish residents and the emigration of two million more. William and Margaret Moylan were among the group that got away; sadly, three of their children died at young ages. Disease killed far more people than starvation during the famine, as malnourished bodies were unable to recover from the dysentery and cholera that was endemic among the poor.^[25]

We know that the family was struggling because when William set sail for America in 1847 he was alone, suggesting that the young couple did not have enough money to pay for passage for them all. William worked in New England for a few years, and when the newly established State of Iowa encouraged settlement by offering farm land at bargain prices, William seized the opportunity. He purchased land near Atalissa, a small town in Muscatine County, and sent for Margaret and the children to join him from Ireland.^[26]

William Moylan and Margaret Quirk had the following children:

• Patrick (1838-1923)
• Edward (1840-1922) (married Anna Frances Fitzpatrick)
• Mary (1842-1851)
• John (1844-1851)
• Judith (1845-1849)

The cumulative effects of poor nutrition caused by the famine and travel in cramped quarters on a disease-ridden vessel took its toll on the family. The youngest child, Judith, died in Ireland soon after William sailed for America. The youngest remaining children – Mary and John – reached America but died on the journey to Iowa on the Mississippi River, most likely from cholera.^[28]

We know little of William and Margaret’s life in Muscatine County, Iowa except that “from the raw prairie he developed a fine farm, upon which he resided for several years” and that she was “a most estimable lady.”^[29]

William died in 1862, after which Margaret lived with her son Edward on the family farm, where she died in 1874.^[30]

They had come a long, long way from Tipperary.

JAMES FITZPATRICK AND MARY FITZPATRICK

The name “Fitzpatrick” means “son of the servant of St. Patrick.” It is the Anglicized version of the Irish dynastic surname “Mac Giolla Phádraig,” and the “servant” was Donnchadh, lord of Ossory in the 10th century. The clan ruled over a large area of central Ireland from early times, and by the early 1800s the Queen’s County was home to more people named “Fitzpatrick” than any other area of Ireland. It makes sense that James Fitzpatrick and Mary Fitzpatrick, natives of the Queen’s County, were not closely related until they married in 1840.

The area is known today as County Laois (pronounced “leesh”), its name before British rule. When James and Mary Fitzpatrick grew up there in the 1820s and 1830s they lived in a land, and at a time, where the legend of the Blessed Turf took firm root. The legend held that if a person gathered sod from the site of an apparition and delivered it to seven people, and each of those people in turn delivered sacred sod to seven more people, they would all be spared from death by cholera.^[32]

Which meant that it was the sort of place where cholera was a significant problem AND that supernatural intervention was an Irishman’s only hope. Perhaps those factors persuaded James and Mary Fitzpatrick to emigrate to the United States in 1840, even before the hard times (Irish: an Drochshaol) created by the Great Hunger.

We know nothing of James Fitzpatrick’s parents. We have ample information, on the other hand, about Mary Fitzpatrick’s parents: Daniel S. Fitzpatrick and his wife Marguerite (Barnett) emigrated to the U.S. around 1839, and he is recognized as “one of the honored pioneers of Cedar County.” James and Mary Fitzpatrick’s farm was very near to Daniel’s.^[34]

Cedar County, named for the Cedar River and the native red cedars that lined its banks, was a land of gently rolling hills covered in deep black loam; many at the time considered it to be the finest farming soil in the state, and it remains so today. The Fitzpatricks settled in the southwest portion of the County, about one mile west of the Cedar River, living variously in Springdale, Gower, and Iowa Townships. The nearest markets were Mississippi river towns; the area included no mills or manufacturing of any type until very late in the 19th century, and many of the roads remain unpaved even today.

An early account gives a sense of the primitive living conditions the Fitzpatricks faced in the early 1840s:

The houses of the early settlers were made of logs in or near the timber and covered with clapboards, or “shakes,” three or four feet long, which were made from a conveniently sized tree that would split and trim easily. The clapboards were fastened down with weight-poles extending the entire length of the cabin or house – one weight-pole being necessary to each row of clapboards. … [I]n a majority of cases, not a single nail or piece of iron, for latch or anything else, would be used about a pioneer’s cabin. The doors were hung upon wooden hinges and were fastened with wooden latches, or … a pin; the latch was raised from the outside with a string.^[35]

Western Historical Co., The History of Cedar County, Iowa (Chicago, 1878), p. 535.

James Fitzpatrick was unable to read or write as late as 1850. The family flourished despite the physical and cultural hardships they faced. In 1850 the Fitzpatricks owned a farm of 160 acres on which they raised 16 hogs, grew hundreds of bushels of wheat, corn, and potatoes, made 200 lbs of butter and reaped 12 tons of hay. By 1860 the Fitzpatricks added sheep to their livestock and oats to their crops, increased annual butter production by 100 lbs., and increased hay production by eight tons. Over the following decade the farm – still 160 acres – doubled its production of corn. It is no wonder that a writer reported decades later that from “pioneer days down to the present the Fitzpatrick family has been prominently identified with the agricultural interests of Cedar county and have ever borne their part in the work of development and improvement.”^[36]

James and Mary were the parents of seven children, all of whom were born in Iowa:^[37]

• Margaret (1843-1932)
• Maria (1846-1937)
• Michael Henry (1848-1941)
• Elizabeth (1850-1910)
• Anna Frances (1851-1950) (married Edward Moylan)
• Edward James (1853-1927)
• Catharine (1855-1950)

When James died in December 1863 Mary remained on the farm, and their daughter Margaret’s family continued the operations. Mary died in February 1877 at the age of 58. They are buried together in Saint Joseph Cemetery, Cedar Valley, Cedar County, Iowa.^[38]

Wetrich Family

MICHAEL WETRICH AND ELIZABETH NIEDERHAUSER

Michael Wüthrich was born in the village of Trub, Canton Bern, Switzerland in 1815. In Middle High German the word wüetrich was an unflattering nickname for a tyrant, and it is possible that the earliest ancestor was such a man. (On the plus side, Kurt Wüthrich of the same hometown is a Nobel Prize-winning chemist.)^[39] 

Elisabeth Niederhauser was born about 12 miles to the east, in the village of Bowil, in 1821. Her surname is likely a reference to an early ancestor’s residence in the “lower house” (in elevation) of a castle having multiple houses, or it may refer to her family’s origin from any number of places in Europe named Niederhaus.^[40]

Michael and Elisabeth were members of Protestant families in the Swiss Reformed Church. They were married in Trub in 1843 and quickly began a family of their own. Michael and Elisabeth were the parents of 12 children, seven of whom survived to adulthood:^[41] 

Switzerland today is peaceful and militarily neutral, but it was not always so. Switzerland declared war on France the year that Michael was born, joining many allied countries opposing Napoleon’s recent return from exile. Only when Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo did Switzerland and the allies agree that Switzerland would remain neutral in future conflicts.

Nor has Switzerland always been a prosperous nation. Its economy in the early 1800s was dominated by agriculture, most of which was consumed locally. The year of Michael’s birth was also the year that Mount Tambora exploded in Indonesia, when the most violent volcanic eruption in more than a thousand years spewed ash that blotted the sun and made 1816 the “year without a summer.”

Swiss crops failed in 1816 and the mountainous geography made it difficult to ship food, which was in short supply everywhere, to remote Swiss villages. The country did not have any railroad service until 1847.^[42]

By 1852 Switzerland, like all of Europe, had changed dramatically from the time of Michael’s birth. The industrial revolution and advent of rail service allowed for cheap imports of agricultural products, wrecking the local business of Swiss agriculture and rippling through all elements of the economy. Switzerland had not yet established itself as a financial center for Europe, nor had it established a reputation for the precision-made clocks and watches that would be necessary to keep trains across the world running on schedule. It would take some time for Switzerland to catch up. From 1845-55, however, the country experienced a sharp spike in emigration, as hungry and underpaid Swiss sought opportunities elsewhere. Michael and Elisabeth’s family was among their number.

The family sailed for New York, intending to travel from there to Texas where they would join Michael’s brother. Bernice Wetrich, a granddaughter of Michael and Elisabeth’s, provides a detailed account of how the family’s plans changed and they became Iowans rather than Texans:^[44]

Grandpa age 37 and Grandma age 32 left Switzerland March 15, 1852 in company with [other family and their] three children [including Gustave, who would later become the father of John Henry Wetrich]. …

When they arrived in New York City, after 42 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean, there was a letter for them from a brother in Texas telling them not to come to Texas as there was an epidemic of yellow fever there, so they decided to go to a timber county in Ohio.

From New York City they went by boat up Hudson River to Albany N.Y. There by canal boat on the Erie Canal to Buffalo N.Y. From Buffalo on Lake Erie to Cleveland, Ohio. From Cleveland they traveled south on a small mule-pulled … boat, a very slow trip over fifty miles to Navarre, Ohio. There an overland trip by team [of horses and] some walking to the pioneer town of Wineburg, Ohio arriving May 15, 1852. It was a trip of endurance, disappointments, hardships and difficulties.

[A]fter ten years Grandpa and family of seven children came to Iowa, April 1862 settling in Johnson County [in the southwestern corner of the county, near Wellman]. … 

Grandpa Michael … original spelling [was] Wuthrich. People here called it Woodrick. Grandpa didn’t like it because Switzerland pronounced it We-trick, the correct way.

Grandpa was a highly educated and a German scholar [and] he intended to follow this occupation after arriving here, but soon found out German was not taught much in the States.

He was a very disappointed and unhappy man. He wasn’t a very successful farmer and he did not like to work. As a result they suffered hard hard times until the boys got big enough to farm.

I think Grandpa’s real love was writing poetry. I have many composition books full of poetry he wrote, all in Swiss script.

[Unfortunately, Michael’s books of poetry have not yet been discovered]

In 1852 Michael and Elisabeth had arrived in Ohio with three children, all born in Switzerland. When they moved to Iowa in 1862 it included three additional children. Only their youngest child was born in Iowa.^[45]

Michael died in Wellman on May 22, 1894. The Wellman Advance noted that despite the fact that his large family lived on farms nearby, he had been living in town, alone in a house near the railroad tracks, for some time. “Financially he was in good circumstances, yet he preferred his peculiar mode of life.” When Elisabeth, who had lived with her children, died several years later the Advance included this poem in her obituary:^[46] 

A loved one’s voice is hushed in death
A faithful heart is still
A place is vacant by the hearth
None other e’er can fill

Mother’s gone and we’re so lonely
Mother - dearest name e’er spoken
In her love our hearts found shelter
When life’s storms and tempest were broken

The vacant place, the empty chair
We see them day by day
And oh, it fills our hearts with care
Since Grandma went away

Her precious word of hope and cheer
Her tender loving care
What sacred memories cluster here
Around the vacant chair.

The poet’s name is not recorded. Elisabeth is buried next to Michael in Wassonville Cemetery in Washington County, Iowa.[48]

HEINRICH ECKHARDT AND CATHERINE SEMLER

Heinrich Eckhardt and Catherine Semler were both born in the small village of Gensungen, in the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel, Heinrich in 1831 and Catherine in 1836. The Eckhardt surname derives from the German terms agi and hard meaning “edge” and “brave,” likely originating with an ancestor’s military service. The Semler surname derives from semmel, a white bread roll, indicating that the earliest ancestors were bakers. 

The region had been populated for thousands of years, and the village was near the spot where St. Boniface felled Thor’s Oak in 763, beginning the Christianization of northern Germanic tribes. The region was once glorious, with three medieval castles (the Felsburg, Altenburg, and Heiligenburg) nearby. Constant battles devastated the countryside, however, and by the time Heinrich and Catherine were born Hesse-Kassel was best known for its grinding poverty, bitter political struggles, and semi-feudal agrarian structure. Although the Holy Roman Empire no longer existed, the leader of Hesse-Kassel chose to retain the title “Elector,” a relic of the days when he might select an Emperor. The Elector was not popular with the people, and in 1850 he declared that Hesse-Kassel was leaving its alliance with Prussia, while inviting Austria to help subdue his peasants. This led Prussia and Austria to the brink of war, one of a never-ending series of conflicts in 19th century Europe.^[49] 

Seeing no chance of their lives improving in Hesse-Kassel, Heinrich, two of his sisters, and Catherine Semler set sail for America in the summer of 1852. They traveled from Bremen to Baltimore, among the 202 passengers aboard the S.S. Albert, arriving on July 20, 1852. Heinrich and Catherine were married the following year.^[50]

The couple lived for a brief time in Ohio and Indiana, where they started a family and Heinrich became “Henry.” By 1861 the Eckhardts had traveled further west, arriving at the southeastern edge of Iowa County, Iowa. They remained in the area for the rest of their lives.^[51] 

Most of Iowa County remained uncultivated prairie. When a settler bought land he had property; until the settler made a farm, though, the land was just an investment.The settler first had to till the land, turning it over to expose fresh soil in which crops could grow, guiding a plow pulled by horses or oxen back and forth across the acres, one row at a time. 

It was backbreaking work in the best of conditions. On the prairie it was nearly impossible. Iowa was blessed with some of the richest soil on Earth, but much of it lay beneath a dense mat of roots created by centuries of prairie grass growth. Before he could make a farm, the settler first had to break the prairie. Prairie sod was so tough that ordinary wooden plows made no dent; cast iron plows were more effective but they were heavy, required up to six yoke of oxen, dulled easily, and broke often. Even when the iron plows worked, the soil they churned stuck to the plowshare, rendering the plow ineffective and requiring the farmer to stop frequently to wipe it clean. It was easier to clear a forest and plow around stumps than to break the prairie.

That changed when a farmer named John Deere, tired after cleaning and fixing his broken iron plow once again, struck upon the notion of a plowshare wrapped in steel. Steel was lighter than iron and the soil did not stick to steel the way it stuck to iron. Deere designed the plow so that when the share cut and lifted the sod, the turf met a curved board, turning over and exposing the soil underneath. John Deere’s “steel moldboard plow” cut more efficiently, scoured more cleanly and required less pulling power than previous plows. When he perfected the mass production techniques that made his plow affordable, John Deere cleared the way for large-scale farming in the midwest, rather than subsistence farming.^[52]

Henry Eckhardt doubtless used Mr. Deere’s plows on his family’s farm, which prospered as a result. Henry and Catherine, like most of their neighbors, had a large family:

• Martha Elizabeth (1854-1911) (married Gustave Wetrich)
• Charles William (1856-1927)
• Maria (1858-1945)
• Anna Gertrude (1860-1949)
• Matilda Lillie (1863-1937)
• Henry A. (1866-1957)
• Louisa (1869-1947)
• George Fredrick (1870-1954)
• John (1874-1930)
• William Edgar (1877-1960)

Heinrich and Catherine were baptized as Lutherans but in America they were active members of German Methodist congregations. When Catherine Semler Eckhardt died in 1907 the Wellman Advance noted that she was “a faithful Christian, a devoted wife and mother, and a firm and loyal friend.” When Henry followed in 1917 the newspaper wrote that the community had lost a “pioneer” who was “a good neighbor, kind parent, and true friend.”^[53]

Henry and Catherine are buried alongside one another in Wellman Cemetery, near Wellman, Iowa.^[54]

PHILIP RYAN AND WINIFRED KELLY

Philip J. Ryan was born in County Tipperary, Ireland in 1800. The Ryan family can trace its origin to the Clan Ó Maoilriaghain, meaning “descendant of Maolriain.” The family was very powerful in  County Tipperary in the 13th century; in the 17th century its lands were confiscated by the British, as were the lands of most other Irish landowners, as the crown sought to colonize and Anglicize the Irish.^[55]

The Ryan family lived in Gortmunga Townland in the northern portion of County of Tipperary. Their home was near Lough Derg (in Irish “Loch Deirgeirt”), third largest lake in Ireland and an important source of access to the River Shannon. The lake is the source of countless legends and origin stories, and they provide a sense of the folklore that infused the Ryan’s daily lives and the power that stories – and storytellers – held. One such legend holds that the lake’s name, which translates as “red eye,” arose from a journey through Ireland by Aithirne, a celebrated poet from Ulster. He made outrageous and unreasonable demands from every king through whose lands he travelled. The kings, wary that the poet was attempting to provoke them into war with the King of Ulster, complied with the demands. When Aithirne met the King of South Connacht at his fortress near the shores of Lough Derg, Aithirne demanded the King’s eye as a gift. The King had only one eye but he plucked it out at once and handed it to the troublesome poet. A servant led the blinded King to the shore of Lough Derg so that he could wash the wound. The servant remarked that the water was red from the King’s blood. The King replied that from that day forward the Lough should be called Loch Derg Dheirc (lake of the red eye), shortened to the Irish “Loch Deirgeirt.” It must have been a delightful spot for a swim.^[56]

Philip and Winnie were the parents of six children by 1848. The misery caused by the Great Hunger was near its worst: early that year 120,000 Irish were subsisting on relief in workhouses, far more than the system could support; by summer the number was one million. We do not know the specific effects of the famine on the Ryans, but we do know that they left Ireland in December 1848. Their first stop was Liverpool, England, where they boarded the S.S. Osceola. After celebrating New Year’s Eve on the high seas, no doubt below deck, the family arrived in New Orleans on January 20, 1849. The ship carried a cargo of 3,207 sacks of salt and 247 passengers, all of whom traveled in steerage.^[57]

The Ryans followed the Mississippi River north, living in in St. Louis for a brief time. It was the largest city west of Pittsburgh in 1850, serving as the nation’s largest hub for steamboat traffic and manufacturing, as well as the gateway for rail service as the nation expanded to the west. Philip, aged 50, worked as a laborer, joining a local workforce that had grown 500% in the past decade, swollen with German and Irish immigrants.^[58]

By 1852 the Ryans had moved 300 miles north and were living in Muscatine County, Iowa, a small town on the Iowa banks of the Mississippi River. It would be home for the remainder of their lives.^[59]  

Philip was a laborer, and when they arrived work in Muscatine was based on sawmills and the woodworking establishments that created sashes, doors, blinds, and boxes for shipment nationwide. The city would soon be home to more than 50 factories making buttons from shells found in huge quantities along the Mississippi River. We do not know for certain, but it is likely that Philip worked in one (or both) of these fields well into his 70s, while Winifred made their house at 401 W. 7th Street a home.^[60]

Philip and Winifred were parents of seven children, all boys, and all born in County Tipperary, Ireland

• Dennis (1832-1908)
• Thomas Kelly (1834-1916) (married Ellen Nolan)
• Infant Boy (ca. 1836)
• Edward (1838-1888)
• Peter L. (1841-1931)
• Rev. James Patrick (1842-1919)
• Philip J. (1847-1931)

Philip died in 1889 at the ripe age of 89. His obituary bears quoting at length:

[Philip Ryan] was a grand old man. He had filled his long life with honest industry, kept faith with his native land in all that he could do to promote her welfare, loved his adopted country and looked upon his citizenship as an honor to be kept untarnished; was true to friendship, a faithful husband, a loving parent, [and] a devoted Christian.^[61]

Winifred moved to Davenport, about 30 miles north, when Philip died. “A kind and gentle woman with a winning disposition,” she lived with her son James, a Catholic priest and pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Davenport. When Winifred Kelly Ryan died in 1892 St. Mary’s was draped in mourning; the altar was hung with streamers in black and white, and the pew in the south aisle where she sat for daily mass was vacant and covered with funeral drapery. The combined choirs of St. Mary’s and Sacred Heart Cathedral sang, and the entire student body of St. Ambrose College attended the service.^[62]

The grand old man and gentle woman are buried next to one another at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Muscatine, Iowa.^[63]

JOHN NOLAN AND MARGARET MORIARTY

John Nolan and Margaret Moriarty lived in the tiny townland of Gortdromascallahy, Moyvane Parish, in northern County Kerry.^[64] They were likely born in County Kerry ca. 1825.

John’s surname has its roots in the Fotharta Feadha, the tribe for which the Barony of Forth in County Wexford in southeastern Ireland is named. Their chief in 1133 was Eochaidh Ua Nualláin , and members of his clan share the name “Ó Nualláin.” It was Anglicized first to “O’Nowlan,” and then simply “Nolan.”^[65] 

Margaret’s surname has its origins in the maritime past of County Kerry. The Irish words for “sea” and “expert” are “muir” and “ceardach.” Combination of those Irish words produced the surname “Muircheartaigh,” adopted by chiefs of a clan from Aos Aisde, on the banks for the River Mang. Descendants of those chiefs took the surname “Ó Muircheartaigh,” which has been Anglicized to “Moriarty.”^[66]

County Kerry holds some of the most majestic scenery in all Ireland. The Dingle and other peninsulas of wild landscape push into the Atlantic, while Carrauntoohil, Ireland’s tallest mountain, and features like the “Devil’s Looking Glass” dot the countryside. The views, and the folklore they have inspired, make Kerry one of Ireland’s most popular tourist destinations today. 

In the mid 1800s, however, Kerry residents did not lead an idyllic existence. We know that John Nolan was a tenant of landlord William Sandes in 1850, and although we do not know anything specific about his livelihood most families were miserably poor, farming or fishing for subsistence with little chance that their fortunes would improve.^[67] 

For decades Kerry had the highest annual rate of emigration from Ireland; the population of the county in 1911 was barely half what it had been in 1841. The people of Kerry left their homes in search of a basic living. John and Margaret’s daughter, Ellen, was one of those emigrants.^[68] 

A huge portion of Ireland’s birth and death records were destroyed by fire during the 1922 Irish Civil War, and we do not know anything of John and Margaret after 1850. They are the only family in this generation of Billick-Wetrich ancestors who did not live in the United States.^[69]

[1] 1850 U.S. census, Greene County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Richhill Township, p. 309B, dwelling 323, family 323, James Billick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 783; 1880 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, population schedule, Oakland Township, E.D. 121, p. 17 [handwritten], dwelling 34, family 34, J.J. Billick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 350.

[2] 1850 U.S. census, Greene Co., Penn., pop. sch., Richhill Township, p. 309B, dwelling 323, family 323, James Billick household; 1860 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, population schedule, Oakland Township, p. 10, dwelling 71, family 71, James Billick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 331.

[3] Louis Waddell, “Historical Sketch of Greene County,” Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, December 1976, http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/historical-sketch-greene-county/.

[4] J.A.B. Walker, “Some Interesting History (of Merino Sheep),” Illinois Livestock Trail, June 23, 2004, http://livestocktrail.illinois.edu/sheepnet/paperDisplay.cfm?ContentID=6701 : accessed 21 Oct 2022; reprint of an article originally published May 1926.

[5] “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1856, Louisa County, Columbus City Township, James J. Billick household; citing microfilm from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

[6] “Louisa County Iowa, Early Settlements, Abandoned Towns, Villages and Communities,” IAGenWeb Project, 2014 (http://iagenweb.org/louisa/history/early_settlements.htm : accessed 11 Oct 2022).

[7] 1880 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, agricultural schedule, Oakland Township, E.D. 121, p. 8, line 4, J.J. Billick; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T1156, roll 28.

[8] 1860 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, pop. sch., Oakland Township, James Billick household; 1870 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, population schedule, Oakland Township, p. 453 [stamped], dwelling 21, family 21, J.J. Billick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 406; 1880 U.S. census, Louisa County, Iowa, population schedule, Oakland Township, E.D. 121, p. 17 [handwritten], dwelling 34, family 34, J.J. Billick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 350.

[9] Death of J.J. Billick, Columbus Safeguard (Columbus Junction, Iowa), 29 Sep 1887, p. 3, col. 2; image copy, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com; Death of J.J. Billick, Muscatine (Iowa) Weekly Journal, 30 Sep 1887, p. 7, col. 3; image copy, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com; Death of Susan A. Billick, Lone Tree (Iowa) Reporter, 14 Jul 1899, p. 1, col. 1; image copy, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for James J Billick (31 May 1821–27 Sep 1887), Find a Grave Memorial ID 5828344, Columbus City Cemetery, Columbus City, Louisa County, Iowa,  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5828344/james-j-billick : accessed 10 October 2022; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Susan A. Jacobs Billick (1830–6 Jul 1899), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6938169, Columbus City Cemetery, Columbus City, Louisa County, Iowa,  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6938169/susan-a-billick : accessed 11 October 2022.

[10] “Witham Family History,” entry in Ancestry.com; citing Dictionary of American Family Names, 2nd ed. (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2022).

[11] 1850 U.S. census, Washington County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Washington Borough, p. 368 [stamped], dwelling 431, family 463, George Whittam in household of Sheldon B. Hayes; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 834.

[12] John Grenham,“History of Irish Surnames,”  Irish Ancestors, https://www.johngrenham.com : accessed 25 Oct 2022.

[13] Padraig Mac Giolla-Domnhnaigh, Some Anglicised Surnames in Ireland (Dublin: Gael Cooperative Society, 1923), p. 6; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com;“Badger Surname Distribution,” database, MyHeritage, https://forebears.io/surnames/badger#distribution : accessed 18 Oct 2022; see John Kelly, The Graves Are Walking (New York: Henry Holt, 2012) for an excellent account of the daily lives of the Irish during the Great Hunger.

[14] 1860 U.S. census, Gibson County, Tennessee, population schedule, Trenton, p. 150 [handwritten], dwelling 1049, family 1064, George Whitham household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 1250.

[15] Advertisement for G.W. Whitham painting, Fairfield (Iowa) Ledger, April 23, 1863, p. 6, col. 4; image copy, NewspaperArchive.com; James M. Whitham et al., open letter to Rep. Bouligny, Burlington (Iowa) Hawk-Eye, March 2, 1861, p. 2, col. 3; image copy, NewspaperArchive.com; “U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for G W Whitham; image copy, citing National Archives, Records of the Provost Marshal General’s Bureau (Civil War), Record Group 110, NM-65, entry 172, 620 volumes, NAI 4213514.

[16] Western Historical Co., History of Des Moines County, Iowa (Chicago, 1879), pp. 425, 483, 622-51; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[17] 1870 U.S. census, Des Moines County, Iowa, population schedule, Burlington, p. 2, dwelling 9, family 9, George Whitham household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 388; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Elizabeth J. Badger Whitham (unknown–8 Nov 1868), Find a Grave Memorial ID 101645805, Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101645805/elizabeth-j-whitham : accessed 12 October 2022.

[18] 1880 U.S. census, Des Moines County, Iowa, population schedule, Burlington, E.D. 110, p. 34, dwelling 266, family 275, George Whitham household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 337.

[19] Find a Grave, database and images , memorial page for George Wilson Whitham (29 Jan 1832–30 Jun 1882), Find a Grave Memorial ID 101621751, Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/101621751/george-wilson-whitham : accessed 11 October 2022; “Flight to the Future,” Burlington (Iowa) Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 6, 1882, p. 12, col. 3; image copy, Newspapers.com.

[20] Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1923), pp. 490-91, 603; image copy. Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[21] “Catholic Parish Registers,” database with images, National Library of Ireland, entry for Parish of Tipperary, Diocese of Cashel and Emly, May 1819, Gulielmus Moylan, image copy, Irish Catholic Parish Registers, microfilm number 02495/04; entry for Parish of Clogheen, Diocese of Waterford and Lismore, August 1819, Margaritam Quirk, image copy, Irish Catholic Parish Registers, microfilm number 02453/04.

[22] “Catholic Parish Registers,” database with images, National Library of Ireland, entry for Toomevara Parish, Killaloe Diocese, County Tipperary, January 1838, Patrick Moylan, image copy, Irish Catholic Parish Registers, microfilm number 02481/03.

[23] “1829 Catholic Emancipation Act,” web page, UK Parliament, https://www.parliament.uk/ : accessed 23 Oct 2022.

[24] Chrysostom P. Donahoe, Popular Life of Daniel O’Connell (Boston, 1875), pp. 196-202; image copy, Google Books, https://www.google.com/ O’Connell’s strategy of peaceful political persuasion was unsuccessful; Irish independence from the British was achieved in 1921 only after considerable bloodshed.

[25] “Learn About the Great Hunger,” website, Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum,  https://ighm.org/learn.html : accessed 23 Oct 2022.

[26] “William Moylan,” brief biography, IrelandXO, https://irelandxo.com/ireland-xo/history-and-genealogy/ancestor-database/william-moylan-0 : accessed 20 Oct 2022.

[27] “New Orleans, Passenger Lists, 1813-1963,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for Margt Myland [Margaret Moylan] and children, Oct 1850; image copy, citing National Archives, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At New Orleans, Louisiana, 1820-1902, NAI number 2824927, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, record group number 85; “Immigrants,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), October 18, 1850, p. 2, col. 1; image copy, Newspapers.com; “Exports,” New Orleans Crescent, November 23, 1850, p. 4, col. 3; image copy, Newspapers.com.

[28] “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1852, Muscatine County, Wapsinonoc Township, William Moylan household; image copy, citing microfilm of Iowa State Censuses from the State Historical Society of Iowa; “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1856, Muscatine County, Wapsinonoc Township, William Milard [Moylan] household; image copy, citing microfilm of Iowa State Censuses from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

[29] 1860 U.S. census, Muscatine County, Iowa, population schedule, Goshen Township, p. 122, dwelling 853, family 840, William Moylan household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 337; 1870 U.S. census, Muscatine County, Iowa, population schedule, Goshen Township, p. 9, dwelling 61, family 61, E. Millard [Moylan] household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 419; Acme Publishing, Portrait and Biographical Album of Muscatine County, Iowa (Chicago, 1889), pp. 429-30; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com/.

[30] Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for William Moylan (1815–14 Jan 1862), Find a Grave Memorial ID 45247809, Saint Joseph Cemetery, Cedar Valley, Cedar County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45247809/william-moylan : accessed 19 October 2022; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Margaret Quirke Moylan (1819–17 May 1874), Find a Grave Memorial ID 183146417, Saint Joseph Cemetery, Cedar Valley, Cedar County, Iowa,  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/183146417/margaret-moylan : accessed 20 October 2022.

[31] Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1923), p. 378.“Maps,” The Fitzpatrick – Mac Giolla Phádraig Clan Society, https://fitzpatricksociety.com/maps/ : accessed 17 Oct 2022.

[32] Terry Dunne, “The Blessed Turf and the Fire From Heaven,” blog, Laois Local Studies, https://laoislocalstudies.ie/the-whole-of-the-queens-county-was-in-a-blaze-the-blessed-turf-and-the-fire-from-heaven : accessed 19 Oct 2022.

[33] “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1856, Cedar County, Iowa Township, James Fitzpatrick household; image copy, citing microfilm of 1856 Iowa State Census from the State Historical Society of Iowa; Western Historical Co., The History of Cedar County, Iowa (Chicago, 1878), pp. 308, 541; image copy, Google Books https://books.google.com/.

[34] C. Ray Aurner, ed., A Topical History of Cedar County, Iowa, (Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1910), vol. 2, pp. 465-66; image copy, Internet Archive, https://ia800106.us.archive.org/30/items/topicalhistoryof02aurn/topicalhistoryof02aurn.pdf;  1850 U.S. census, Cedar County, Iowa, population schedule, Iowa Township, p. 83A, dwelling 17, family 17, James Fitzpatrick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 182.

[35] Western Historical Co., The History of Cedar County, Iowa, p.  535.

[36] 1850 U.S. census, Cedar County, Iowa, agricultural schedule, Iowa Township, pp. 33-34, line 8, James Fitzpatrick; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T1156, roll 1; 1860 U.S. census, Cedar County, Iowa, agricultural schedule, Gower Township, pp. 47-48, line 11, James Fitzpatrick; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T1156, roll 2.

[37] 1860 U.S. census, Cedar County, Iowa, population schedule, Gower Township, p. 200, dwelling 1367, family 1376, James Fitzpatrick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 314; 1870 U.S. census, Cedar County, Iowa, population schedule, Gower Township, p. 13, dwelling 91, family 94, Mary Fitzpatrick household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 380.

[38] Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for James Fitzpatrick (7 May 1814–9 Dec 1863), Find a Grave Memorial ID 45251710, Saint Joseph Cemetery, Cedar Valley, Cedar County, Iowa,  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45251710/james-fitzpatrick : accessed 17 October 2022; memorial page for Mary Fitzpatrick Fitzpatrick (17 Jan 1819–20 Feb 1877), Find a Grave Memorial ID 45247601, Saint Joseph Cemetery, Cedar Valley, Cedar County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/45247601/mary-fitzpatrick : accessed 17 October 2022).

[39] “Switzerland, Select Baptisms, 1491-1940,” database, Ancestry.com, entry for Michael Wutherich; citing Switzerland, Baptisms, 1491-1940 (FamilySearch: Salt Lake City, 2013); “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2002,” NobelPrize.org, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2002/wuthrich/biographical/ : accessed 26 Oct 2022.

[40] “Switzerland, Select Baptisms, 1491-1940,” database, Ancestry.com, entry for Elisabeth Niederhauser; citing Switzerland, Baptisms, 1491-1940 (FamilySearch: Salt Lake City, 2013).

[41] “Schweiz, Katholische und Reformiert Kirchenbücher, 1418-1996”, database, FamilySearch, entry for Michel Wütherich, 1843, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:66J1-5PBP : accessed 28 June 2022.

[42] Wilhelm Oechsli, History of Switzerland 1499-1914 (Cambridge: University Press, 1922); image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[43] Michèle Hofmann, “History of Education in Switzerland: Historic Development and Current Challenges,” Encounters/Encuentros/Rencontres on Education 15 (2014): p. 223–37; image copy, Open Journals @ Queens, https://ojs.library.queensu.ca

[44] Bernice Wetrich, Account of Grandpa and Grandma Wetrich’s Trip to America, handwritten notes, n.d., privately held by Kevin O’Rear; report of the emigration of Michael and Elizabeth (Niederhauser) Wetrich family from Switzerland to the United States based on the author’s conversations with participants and review of family records.

[45] 1860 U.S. census, Holmes County, Ohio, population schedule, Salt Creek Township, p. 249, dwelling 1715, family 1736, Michael Wuethrich household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 989; U.S. census, Johnson County, Iowa, population schedule, Washington Township, p. 7, dwelling 46, family 46, Michael Witter [Wetrich] household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication 593, roll 400; 1880 U.S. census, Johnson County, Iowa, population schedule, Washington Township, p. 7, dwelling 46, family 46, Michael Wuetherich [Wetrich] household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 348.

[46] Death of Michael Wetrich, Wellman (Iowa) Advance, 25 May 1894, p. 8, col. 3; digital image, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com/.

[47] “Grandma Wetrich,” Wellman (Iowa) Advance, 18 Oct 1906, p. 1, col. 3; digital image, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com.

[48] Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19252557/michael-wetrich : accessed 22 October 2022), memorial page for Michael Wetrich (24 Sep 1815–22 May 1894), Find a Grave Memorial ID 19252557, Wassonville Cemetery, Daytonville, Washington County, Iowa; memorial page for Elizabeth Neiderhauser Wetrich (29 Apr 1821–13 Oct 1906), Find a Grave Memorial ID 19252560, Wassonville Cemetery, Daytonville, Washington County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19252560/elizabeth-wetrich : accessed 28 Oct 2022.

[49] “Hesse-Cassel,” in Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions, https://www.ohio.edu/chastain/dh/hessek.htm : accessed 26 Oct 2022; “Hesse-Kassel,” in Brittanica, https://www.britannica.com/place/Hesse-Kassel : accessed 26 Oct 2022. Spelling of the region’s name is inconsistent due to the fact that Germany implemented language reforms in the early 20th century; it was “Hesse-Cassel” when Heinrich Eckhardt was a resident, but is now “Hesse-Kassel.”

[50] “Baltimore, Passenger and Immigration Lists, 1820-1872,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entries for Heinrich Eckhardt and Cathr Elisabeth Semmler; image copy, citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm publication M255, roll 9.

[51] Union Historical Co., The History of Iowa County, Iowa (Des Moines, 1881), pp. 708-12; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[52] Darcy Dougherty Maulsby, Iowa Agriculture: A History of Farming, Family and Food (Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2020); image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com; Mildred Throne, “Southern Iowa Agriculture, 1833-1890: The Progress from Subsistence to Commercial Corn-Belt Farming,” Agricultural History 23, no. 2 (April 1949): 124–30.

[53] “Mrs. Henry Eckhardt Dead,” Wellman (Iowa) Advance, August 8, 1907, p. 1, col. 3; image copy, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com; “Another Pioneer Answers Final Summons,” Wellman (Iowa) Advance, March 8, 1917, p. 1, col. 4; image copy, Southeast Iowa Digital Archive, https://seiowa.advantage-preservation.com.

[54] Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Katherin Semler Eckhardt (19 Feb 1836–1 Aug 1907), Find a Grave Memorial ID 37061511, citing Wellman Cemetery, Wellman, Washington County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37061511/katherin-eckhardt : accessed 26 Oct 2022; memorial page for Henry Eckhardt (28 Apr 1831–6 Mar 1917), Find a Grave Memorial ID 37061184, citing Wellman Cemetery, Wellman, Washington County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/37061184/henry-eckhardt : accessed 27 October 2022.

[55] Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1923), p. 601; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com. Note that the family is distinct from another group of “Ryans,” those who descend from the Ó Riaghain clan of Carlow.

[56] “Myths and Stories of Lough Derg,” website, Discover Lough Derg, October 5, 2020, https://discoverloughderg.ie/myths-and-stories-of-lough-derg/ : accessed 26 Oct 2022.

[57] Kelly, The Graves Are Walking, p. 381; “New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S., Passenger Lists, 1813-1963,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for Philip Ryan family, 20 Jan 1849; image copy, citing National Archives, Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At New Orleans, Louisiana, 1820-1902, NAI number 2824927, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, record group number 85, roll 29; “Marine News,” Times-Picayune (New Orleans), January 20, 1849, p. 3, col. 2; image copy, Newspapers.com.

[58] 1850 U.S. census, St. Louis (Independent City), Missouri, population schedule, St. Louis, p. 95A, dwelling 799, family 1015, Philip Ryan household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M432, roll 417; St. Louis Planning Commission, “A History of St. Louis,” reprint of 1969 study, Illinois State Museum, https://www.museum.state.il.us/RiverWeb/landings/Ambot/Archives/History69/index.html : accessed 25 Oct 2022.

[59] “Iowa Compiled Census and Census Substitutes Index, 1838-70,” database, Ancestry.com, entry for 1852, Muscatine County, Bloomington Township, Philip Ryan; citing sources compiled and digitized from microfilmed schedules of the U.S. Federal Decennial Census, territorial/state censuses, and/or census substitutes; “Iowa, U.S., State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1856, Muscatine County, Bloomington, Philip Ryne [Ryan] household; image copy, citing microfilm of 1856 Iowa State Census from the State Historical Society of Iowa; 1860 U.S. census, Muscatine County, Iowa, population schedule, Muscatine, p. 198, dwelling 1477, family 1432, Philip Ryan household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication M653, roll 337; 1870 U.S. census, Muscatine County, Iowa, population schedule, Muscatine, p. 55 (written), p. 257 (stamped), dwelling 398, family 385, Philip Ryan household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing from National Archives microfilm publication M593, roll 413; 1880 U.S. census, Muscatine County, Iowa, population schedule, Muscatine, E.D. 246, p. 54, dwelling 492, family 538, Philip Ryan household; image copy, Ancestry.com, citing National Archives microfilm publication T9, roll 358; “Iowa, State Census Collection, 1836-1925,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1885, Muscatine County, Muscatine, Philip Ryan household; image copy, citing microfilm of Iowa State Censuses obtained from the State Historical Society of Iowa.

[60] Huebinger Surveying and Map Co., Atlas of Muscatine County, Iowa, p. 94 (Davenport, 1899); image copy, Iowa Digital Library, https://digital.lib.uiowa.edu; “U.S., City Directories, 1822-1995,” database with images, Ancestry.com, entry for 1889, Muscatine, Iowa, Philip Ryan; digital image, citing Muscatine, Iowa, City Directory, 1889.

[61] “End of a Long Life,” Quad-City Times (Davenport, Iowa), January 22, 1889, p. 1, col. 4; image copy, Newspapers.com; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Philip Ryan (1800–20 Jan 1889), Find a Grave Memorial ID 79217451, Saint Marys Cemetery, Muscatine, Muscatine County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79217451/philip-ryan : accessed 25 Oct 2022.

[62] “Obsequies,” Daily Leader (Davenport, Iowa), February 17, 1892, p. 5, col. 4; image copy, Newspapers.com; “An Aged Mother Passes Away,” Muscatine (Iowa) Journal, February 19, 1892, p. 6, col. 3; image copy, Newspapers.com;

[63] Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Philip Ryan (1800–20 Jan 1889), Find a Grave Memorial ID 79217451, Saint Marys Cemetery, Muscatine, Muscatine County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79217451/philip-ryan : accessed 25 Oct 2022; Find a Grave, database and images, memorial page for Winefrid Kelly Ryan (3 Nov 1805–15 Feb 1892), Find a Grave Memorial ID 79217455, Saint Marys Cemetery, Muscatine, Muscatine County, Iowa, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/79217455/winefrid-ryan : accessed 26 October 2022.

[64] “Funeral Services Held For Mrs. Ryan,” Gazette (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), June 3, 1916, p. 15, col. 1; image copy, Newspapers.com; “Church Records,” database, Irish Genealogy (https://churchrecords.irishgenealogy.ie : accessed 2 Oct 2022), entry for Ellen Nolan, Moyvane Parish, County Kerry, 26 May 1849; citing church register page not yet imaged, entry 171, record identifier KY-RC-BA-412388.

[65] Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames, p. 627; John O’Hart, Irish Pedigrees; or the Origin and Stem of the Irish Nation, 5th ed., vol. 1 (Dublin: James Duffy & Co., 1892), pp. 359, 838; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[66] Patrick Woulfe, Sloinnte Gaedheal is Gall: Irish Names and Surnames, (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1923), p. 621; image copy, Google Books, https://books.google.com.

[67] “Ireland Valuation Office Books,” database with images, FindMyPast.com, entry for John Nolan, County Kerry, Murher Parish, 1850; image copy, citing National Archives of Ireland, Ireland Valuation Office Books, reference code OL/6/254, NAI microfilm reference MFGS/47/12.

[68] National Archives of Ireland, “What Was Kerry like in the Early 20th Century?,” Ireland in the Early 20th Century, http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/exhibition/kerry/main.html : accessed 25 Oct 2022.

[69] A fire destroyed the Irish Public Records Office (PRO) in 1922 during the Irish Civil War; the PRO housed many genealogical treasures including Irish census returns, original wills dating to the 16th century, and more than 1,000 Church of Ireland parish registers filled with baptism, marriage and burial records.