Mary Corcoran McCann 1842 - 1933
Native of Ballindine and Pioneer of California
by Mary Doran, Brisbane, Australia
Residents and visitors in Ballindine will be familiar with the lovely stained-glass window in St. Joseph's Church. It features the Holy Family and on it are the words - " Gift of Mary McCann - in loving memory of her parents, Thomas and Letitia Corcoran". This window, donated in 1926, was by the renowned artist, Harry Clarke, of Dublin, and is regarded as one of the finest examples of his work in the country. Thomas and Letitia Corcoran are buried close to the gate in the graveyard of St. Joseph's Church, and their grave has become a place of pilgrimage for the many Corcoran descendants from around the world, who have come to Ballindine, seeking their family roots. They have all been deeply impressed with the beauty of the window, and look on it as a wonderful legacy of this family who left the town so many years ago. Many may not realise that Mary McCann never saw her parents' grave, or the window which she donated.
My great-aunt, Mary Corcoran McCann, was born in Ballindine on July 22, 1842, the eldest of ten children of Thomas Corcoran and his wife, Letitia Grehan. According to family tradition, Thomas was a native of Cobh (then known as Queenstown), Co. Cork. He was a school teacher by profession, and was Professor of Latin and Greek at St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, Co. Galway, in the 1830s. He was well-educated, and as a young adult was said to be fluent in five languages. He most likely met his future wife, Letitia Grehan, in Ballindine. She was one of ten children of Austin Grehan and Mary Raftery of Balla. Tithe Applotment records of 1842 show that Austin Grehan was a farmer with landholdings of around twelve acres in the Ballindine area. It is not known when Thomas Corcoran left St. Jarlath's, but he was obviously living in Ballindine from the early 1840s. The Ballindine National School opened on April 27, 1845, the first teacher being Richard Vizard. He resigned in October, 1848, and was succeeded by John O'Grady. On the resignation of O'Grady, Thomas Corcoran was appointed as Teacher, on November 1, 1853. It is not known where Thomas was employed during the period between his leaving St. Jarlath's and appointment to Ballindine National School, but it is possible that he taught at the private school in Ballindine, which was supported by Lord Oranmore. It is also possible that he was teaching at the National School sometime during the years 1845 to 1853, but his name does not appear in the Education Department files during that period.
Mary and all her siblings were educated by their father at Ballindine National School (at least after 1853). Thomas was reputed to be a devoted but strict parent, eager that his children obtain the best possible education. We know very little about Mary's childhood, but we can assume that, as the eldest child, she would have played a major role in helping her mother with household duties and in caring for the younger children. They were a healthy family and were fortunate to escape or survive those childhood illnesses, which caused such high mortality rates in children in the nineteenth century. Mary would have been too young to have any memories of the Great Famine of 1845-1849, but she would have heard, in later years, of this enormous tragedy, and how destitute, starving people came to the schoolhouse to receive alms from her mother.
After finishing her schooling, Mary remained at home helping to run the household. Despite her good education, a young woman of Mary's background would have had few employment prospects in Ireland in the 1850s and 1860s. These years following the Famine saw massive emigration of Irish people to England, America, Canada and Australia, all seeking employment and a better future. It was not surprising, then, that Mary Corcoran would choose to emigrate, and in so doing, start a trend which would see seven of Thomas and Letitia's ten children leave their homeland, never to return. Around 1868, Mary went to the U.S.A. to join her uncle, Bernard Grehan and his wife, Celia Brady, in New Orleans. Three of Letitia Grehan's brothers - Bernard (better known as Barney), Michael and Dominic lived in New Orleans. On her arrival in New York, Mary received a letter from her uncle telling her that an epidemic of black fever was raging in New Orleans, and that it would be unsafe for her to go there. He advised her to travel on to her aunt, Anne Blake (Bernard's sister), in California. He said that if anything happened to Mary, her mother would never forgive him. Mary travelled by ship from New York to Colon, then by train across the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Coast. Here she boarded another ship bound for San Francisco. It was a remarkable journey for this young woman who had previously never travelled far from Ballindine.
On her arrival in San Francisco, Mary was met by Father McCullough, former parish priest in Ballindine. After her long journey, it must have been reassuring for her to see a familiar face in this place so distant and so different from her homeland. Even then, Mary's journey was not over - she then travelled by stage coach to Visalia, where Mr. Blake met her and took her to the Blakes' home in Farmersville. ( Mary never mentioned her aunt's name, but always referred to her as "Aunt Blake", but it is known that her name was Anne, as Letitia Grehan's only other sister, Mary, was married to a Mr. Glynn, and lived in England). The Blakes had at least two daughters (one of whom was named Elizabeth), who would have been of a similar age to their cousin, Mary. As mother and guardian of young women of a marriageable age, Aunt Blake would have considered it her responsibility to find suitable husbands for the girls. There was one man in the area who was eminently eligible, and whom Mrs Blake was keen to have as a son-in-law. This man was the rancher, George McCann.
George McCann was born in Dublin, Ireland, on August 15, 1826, the youngest of the ten children of George and Mary McKeon McCann. The McCanns were farmers and George spent his childhood years on the family farm. At the age of twenty, George left Ireland for the U.S.A. After working as a miner in Wisconsin and later in California, he bought cattle and became a successful stock breeder in Southern California. On September 15, 1859, George came to Tulare County and settled on Cross Creek. He eventually owned nine thousand acres in Tulare and Kings Counties, where he raised stock, grew grain, and conducted a profitable dairy. In the late 1860s, George, then in his forties, was still a bachelor, but this was to change when he met Mary Corcoran. According to family tradition, this meeting occurred when Mary was serving at a stall in a church fair. Apparently, it was somewhat of a disappointment to Mrs Blake, when George McCann began to court her niece, Mary, rather than one of her daughters.
George and Mary were married on December 18, 1870, in St. Mary's Catholic Church, Visalia. The celebrant was Father Daniel Francis Dade, the first resident priest. The couple settled on the ranch at Cross Creek, and their first child, Letitia, was born on September 20, 1871. Five more children were born to the McCanns over the following twelve years - Mary on August 8, 1873, Thomas on April 6, 1876, George on August 10, 1877, Clara on June 12, 1880, and Katie on May 29, 1883. In the early 1870s, Mary McCann was joined by two of her brothers, Bernard and Thomas, who emigrated from Ireland to California, and were given work on the ranch. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, the McCanns were recognised as one of the most prosperous and successful stock-breeding families in California. However, in the mid-1880s, George and Mary suffered a most appalling family tragedy. Four of their children died from diphtheria during an epidemic in 1886, three within one month - Letitia on February 18, Katie on March 5, George on March 10, and Clara on March 13. They had already lost one child - Thomas died at the age of three months on July 3, 1876. The anguish of Mary and George McCann was still not over. Their last surviving child, Mary (known as Mollie), was sent to boarding school in Santa Cruz, in the hope of avoiding the diseases which were claiming so many lives in the Visalia area. Tragically, she too succumbed to an infection, and died on April 23, 1888, at the age of fourteen and a half.
After these successive bereavements, Mary and George no longer seemed to have the heart to stay on the ranch. They were said to have travelled extensively in 1888 and 1889 but it not known where they went in the course of these travels. In 1889 they settled in Visalia, leaving Mary's brother, Thomas Corcoran, as manager of the Cross Creek ranch. Mary was then forty-seven years old and George was sixty-three. In the "History of the State of California and Biographical Record of the San Joaquin Valley" published in 1905 by Professor J.M. Guinn, the author referred to George and Mary McCann. He said "the McCanns, in 1889, located in Visalia, where they have a comfortable and pleasant residence, rounding out the years of a well-spent life in quiet enjoyment of the prosperity which the years have brought to them and to the country at large."
George retained an active interest in politics and was said to be "a staunch adherent of the principles advocated in the platform of the Democratic Party." He had given nearly fifty years of his life to the state of California and had helped in its development from the pioneering days of hardships and privations to the prosperity of the late 1890s. Again to quote from Professor McGuinn's "History", George McCann "is justly entitled to the honoured position which he holds among the representative citizens of Tulare County, which has been the scene of his labours since 1859". Mary McCann was also very highly regarded by her fellow citizens for her loyalty and dedication to her adopted county of Tulare and state of California, despite the great personal losses which she had endured. George McCann died in Visalia on August 7, 1908, just a few days before his eighty-second birthday.
During her years in California, Mary kept in regular contact with her family in Ireland. She received letters informing her of the marriages of her brothers and sisters, the births of nephews and nieces, and the emigration (to Australia) of two brothers, Michael and Austin, with their families. She would also have been told of the deaths of her beloved parents - Letitia, on October 13, 1886, and Thomas, on February 14, 1891. Over the years Mary had many stories, both happy and sad, to share with her Irish family - the details of her early years with George in Visalia, the terrible loss of their children, and the successful careers of her brothers, Thomas and Bernard. She would also have told them of natural disasters, such as droughts and storms, and the most dramatic event of all, the great earthquake, which devastated San Francisco in 1906.
Mary was deeply saddened by the deaths of two of her sisters in the 1890s. Anne Nolan, Principal of the Female School, died in 1893, at the age of thirty-eight, and Letitia Horgan died in 1897, at the age of thirty-five. Letitia's husband, David Horgan, a policeman, had died just a short time before, and this left the couple's three children as orphans. The Horgan children, Daniel, Letitia and Margaret Clare (Gretta), were cared for by their uncle and aunt, John and Mary Corcoran, in Galway. Mary McCann continued to take a great interest in their welfare and in their education over the years. She provided assistance for the education, in Galway, of her nieces, and was delighted when the two girls became accomplished musicians. In 1903, Letitia Horgan, aged sixteen, entered the Sisters of Mercy, at Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.A. In 1912, Gretta Horgan, aged twenty-four, also came to the U.S.A., and joined her Aunt Mary, in California. Gretta, who never married, remained as companion to her aunt for the rest of Mary's life, and in effect, took the place of Mary's lost children.
Mary's youngest sister, Bridget, married Connor Morris, then Principal of Ballindine National School, in 1892. Bridget, Connor and their children emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1904, and settled in New York. There was then no descendant of Thomas and Letitia Corcoran living in Ballindine, and the fifty years' association of the Corcoran family with the town's National School came to an end. (Thomas, his son, Austin, his daughter, Anne, and his son-in-law, Connor Morris, all taught at the school.) Bridget was just a small child when her sister, Mary, left for the U.S.A. in 1868, and it is probable that Mary and Bridget knew one another only through the exchange of letters. As with other members of her family, Mary was deeply concerned with the welfare of the Morris family in New York, particularly after Connor's early death in 1910. She invited Bridget and her children to come to live with her in California, but Bridget felt that she could not face the long and difficult journey to the west, and elected to stay in New York. Though they kept in contact, and Mary continued to offer emotional and financial support, Mary never had the opportunity to be reunited with her youngest sister, who died in 1929.
In 1924, Mary donated funds for the establishment of the George McCann Parochial School in Visalia as a memorial to her late husband. She also contributed towards the building of the Notre Dame Sisters' Home. Around this time, 1924, Mary, her brother, Bernard, and Gretta Horgan moved to San Francisco. Bernard, who never married, had a successful business career in California, and had acquired considerable wealth. He died on June 4, 1925, aged seventy-six. The other brother, Thomas, who, like Bernard, had come to Visalia in the early 1870s to join Mary and George, was manager of the McCann ranch from 1889 to 1920. In 1910, at the age of fifty-nine, he married Ellen (Nellie) McCarthy and had three children. The town of Corcoran in California is named after Bernard and Thomas Corcoran. The Corcoran brothers gave right of way to allow the Santa Fe Railway to pass through a property which they owned. In return the company agreed to name the railway station at the site, "Corcoran". A settlement grew up near this station and became the town of Corcoran.
In 1926, Mary McCann donated the stained-glass window for St. Joseph's Church in her home town of Ballindine, as a memorial to her late parents. Her nephew, the Rev. Michael Canon Corcoran (son of John Corcoran) and his sister, Anne Corcoran Tully, selected the design of the window.
Mary Corcoran McCann died in Bay City, San Francisco, on February 4, 1933, in her ninety-first year. According to the obituary, her death occurred after an illness of two weeks duration, growing out of an injury received a year before. In her long life she had experienced success and prosperity beyond the reach of most of her family, but she had also suffered great tragedy. The whole course of her life had changed when, as a young woman, she had left her birth-place in Ballindine, and made the long and often hazardous journey to the far west of the American continent. Here she met and married George McCann, one of the most charismatic figures in Southern California at that time, and together they built up a highly successful stock-raising business, which brought them great wealth and influence. She suffered almost unimaginable tragedy with the loss of her six children as the result of diseases which in more recent times could be readily prevented or cured. Mary McCann was a woman of great generosity and used her wealth to assist her family, particularly those suffering financial hardships. She was also a great benefactor of charitable institutions, and of numerous other causes which were of benefit to the citizens of her adopted home in Southern California. The obituary in the local newspaper refers to Mary McCann as "a philanthropist, a former wealthy, pioneer resident, well loved in the Visalia district." Mary McCann was interred with her husband, George, and their children, in the family vault in Visalia Cemetery. Her niece, and heiress, Gretta Horgan, died in San Francisco in 1990, at the age of one hundred and two.
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