Thomas Higgins and Mary Coll

by Judy & Conrad Terrill, last edited 28 May 2024

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You can find most of the records upon which this story is based in our "A records history for the Thomas Higgins and Mary Coll family," listed in chronological order.

For a background introduction to this story, see "Ireland of the Devaneys and Higgins."

  Thomas Higgins, son of Bernard Higgins and Bridget Mahon, was born around 1825 according to his tombstone (died 1890 at age 65), or around 1834 (died 1894 at age 60) according to a bio written for his son Patrick (henceforth called Patrick's bio)^Z1.  He may have been born in the townland of Tully, near Bellanagare, in County Roscommon, in the province of Connaucht, considering that there were Higginses there in 1833 and 1857^Z2, and that he settled near there after he married.  Sometime around 1862, we believe, he married Mary Coll, who was born around 1834, a daughter of Thomas Coll and Sarah Elwood of Arraghan (pronounced something like Ar-a hahn), a townland a little north of Tully.  They settled in Killaster, another nearby townland, on the edge of the bog there.  All their childen were born in Killaster.  These townlands were all within a mile or two of each other.

  We know little else of the ancestry of Thomas Higgins, nor that of Mary Coll, since few relevant records have survived from those days."  We also know very little of Thomas's and Mary's early years.  Assuming that they both were born in 1834, they would have been about eleven years old at the beginning of the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852), which hit Roscommon and all of Connaught hard.  It lasted until they were eighteen.  Both probably went to school for perhaps six years at the nearest national school (the national schools began in 1831).  There they would have learned to read, write and speak English.  And perhaps both went to the Roman Catholic Chapel in Bellanagare.

  Thomas Higgins was not a leaseholder in Killaster in 1858, but after he and Mary married, they may have lived in Maurice Elwood's cottage there.  Elwood could have been an uncle of Mary (he could have been Sarah (Elwood) Higgins' brother).  We know from civil birth registration records for their children that Thomas was a laborer in 1864, a cottier by 1866 (meaning that he rented a cottage but held no land), and a landholder in Killaster by 1869.  The land he held was on a small piece of Killaster townland which jutted out to the west, stretching to the ten-foot-wide Owennaforeesha (pronounced Owen-na-for-ee-sha, we think) river, which flowed northward through Bellanagare.  No one was living in this small area, or anywhere in the western half of Killaster, in 1837, per the Ordnance Survey map of that year.  The land there appears to have been all bog.  This bog land was drained in the mid-1800's by digging ditches which led to the river.  Thomas may have been involved in the draining.  The house Thomas and Mary lived in, in 1869, could well have been one which Thomas built himself.  They and their family were the sole occupants of this small piece of Killaster with frontage on the river.  Thomas likely "cut turf" for a living, meaning that he cut peat 'logs,' stacked them to dry, and delivered them to customers as fuel.  Lower quality turf was used to anchor the thatch on roofs.

  A granddaughter of Thomas and Mary has told us that Thomas "had a large farm, and also cows and goats ... They had chickens also." ^z4  If we were to assume that Thomas leased all the land from the river to the roads (the double lines in the map below) surrounding his house, the size of his farm would have been about 48 (U.S.) acres.

  We think Thomas and Mary's first child, son Patrick, was born in 1863.  We have no record of his birth since Civil Registration birth records started in 1864, and the extant Roman Catholic parish records for Kilcorkey Parish start from 1865.  Their second and only other son, Thomas, was born in 1864.  "Sally Cole," of Arraghan, his grandmother, signed the birth registration form with her mark.  And there were six daughters that we know of, although Patrick's bio mentions that there were seven.

  The house was situated a couple hundred yards from the river.  It was probably a small house with a dirt floor, stone walls, and a thatched roof.  The thatch would have needed replacing every few years.  There would have been men in the area who were expert at this work.  Judy and I, with Judy's cousin Mary Lou (Devaney) Sutphen and her husband Bill, visited Bellanagare in 2007. Dennis Higgins (believed to be a distant cousin of Judy and Mary Lou) showed us the house his great-grandfather (Bernard Higgins, b. 1866, grew up in.  This house still stands across the street from the house Dennis himself grew up in, in Tully.  There are many other such houses strewn throughout the parish, hidden in thickets and copses, sliding along into ruin.  Mary Lou and Bill showed us where Mary Higgins' house used to be, having been led there previously by Brian and Mickey Conry, whose grandparents were neighbors of the Higginses (see the map below).

  Patrick's bio tells us that, "[My father] Thomas Higgins came to the United States prior to the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865), enlisted in the Union Army, served until the war closed, then returned to Ireland ...".  It's difficult to find out more about this since there very many Thomas Higginses who enlisted in the Union Army, even counting just those who enlisted in New York and New Jersey, and there is not enough information available to determine which one was our Thomas Higgins.  Anyways, Thomas could not have served until the war closed since Thomas Jr. was born 23 July 1864.  We suspect that Thomas went to America in the 1850's to make quick money in order to kickstart his married life.  And when the war started he responded to the initial call for 90-day enlistments.  Seeing how the Irish were regularly used to lead charges and guard retreats, with heavy casualties, could have been enough to discourage him from re-upping.  By 1863 he was back in Ireland.

  The nearest village to Tully, Arraghan and Killaster was Ballinagare, now generally spelled Bellanagare, a mile or so to the northeast.  Four fairs were held there each year, on specified dates, the January fair noted for young horses and pigs. ^z5  The landlord for all the tenant farmers in the area was Denis O'Conor in 1858, and remained O'Conors until at least the late 1880's.  The O'Conors were Catholic—it was an O'Conor who had the church built in Bellanagare, in 1819, now in ruins.  The O'Conors were reputed to be good landlords, who treated their tenants as fairly as possible and never evicted them.

  We can imagine that the children, as soon as they were able, helped out with the farm work—milking the cow, feeding the chickens and collecting eggs, helping to plant and dig up potatoes, reaping hay, cutting turf, and much more.  It was a hard life, but there would have been lighter parts, with music, dancing and story-telling.  Still, all of the children, it appears, emigrated to America upon reaching adulthood.  The future for them in Ireland did not look promising, compared with what they were hearing about America.  Most settled in and around Orange, New Jersey, following many others from the area who had emigrated earlier.  Once in America and earning money, they would have continued to provide for those back home, paying ship passage fare for those who followed them.

  The Higgins house would have been improved after enactment of the Purchase of Land (Ireland) act of 1885.  It would not have made sense to improve it earlier, since they did not own the house or land.  The Act allowed a tenant to borrow the full amount of the purchase price (equal to 17½ years rental) and repay it at 4% over 49 years.  We know from the 1901 Census return for Mary Higgins that the house at that time had walls of stone, brick or concrete (not mud, wood, or other perishable material), a roof of thatch, wood, or other perishable material (not slate, iron or tiles), two, three or four rooms, two of which were occupied (so there were probably just two rooms), and two windows on the front side.  Mary, the landholder, was the sole occupant at the time of the census.  There were fifteen other dwelling houses in the townland, all inhabited, one family each, 52 people in total, 30 male, 22 female, all but one Roman Catholic.  Only one house had a roof of slate, iron, or tiles.

  Thomas Higgins died in 1890, so he may not have lived to see the new house.  Kate and Mary Anne emigrated to America in May of 1900, the last of the children to do so.  Mary was living alone in the house in 1901, and died in 1909, not in her own house but in that of her neighbors, the Conrys, who took care of her in her last few years.  She left her house to them.  Neither the Higgins house nor the Conry house still stands.  Both were obliterated decades later by the Forest Service, which bought their land and planted trees.

  Mary and Thomas lie buried in the old Kilcorkey parish church cemetery. The inscription reads:

 "Erected by Patrick Higgins / In memory of his father / Thomas of Killaster / Who died 2^nd Feb 1890 age 65 years / Also his mother / Mary Higgins / Who died 9 March 1909 / Age 75 years / RIP."

  Afterword

  We'll finish up with brief summaries of the stories of the children of Thomas and Mary.  These, too, are based on records, which too are included in the records history mentioned at top.  The more detailed stories, in rough and data-heavy form, appear in that records history.

  Patrick J. Higgins, according to Patrick's bio,was born 10 July 1863, although some other records give 1860 and other years, so we're not certain.  Most of what we know is from the biographical sketch.  After 18 years on the family's farm in Killaster he left to work on a farm in Staffordshire, England. In April of 1881 he emigrated to America, spent some time in New York City, then moved to Orange, NJ, and after a few months there finally settled at Bloomfield, NJ (a part of which became Glen Ridge in 1895), where he worked for twenty years as a farm gardener.  On 22 April 1883, at Sacred Heart R.C. Church in Bloomfield, he married Bridget Feeney, daughter of Peter and Mary (McGowan) Feeney.  Bridget was born in Sligo, Ireland, and came to the U.S. in 1880.  Patrick was a charter member of the Glen Ridge Volunteer Fire Department, and in 1903 was appointed patrolman in Glen Ridge.  Seven years later he was appointed chief of police, resigning in 1927 after seventeen years of service, succeeded by his son William P., who served for the next sixteen years.  Patrick and Bridget had four children, all sons born in Bloomfield/Glen Ridge:  Thomas Patrick, b. 5 Dec. 1883; William Peter, b. 13 Mar. 1886; Frank Joseph, b. 16 July 1887; and John Joseph, b. 20 Jan. 1890.  Bridget died in 1918, at age 53.  Patrick died in 1937.  An obituary described Patrick: "A fearless man of strong character, a sworn enemy of law breakers but impulsively warm hearted and sentimental to the hosts of local people, young and old, who knew and loved him, he established the [police] department on its present basis of efficiency ..."

  Thomas Higgins, born 23 Jul 1864, immigrated sometime in the 1880's.  On 3 September 1888 at Immaculate Conception R.C. Church in Montclair, NJ, he married Catherine ("Kate") Tonry, daughter of Thomas and Bridget (Byrne) Tonry.  On 25 May 1895 Thomas began duty as the third officer appointed on the newly-formed Glen Ridge, NJ, police department, working twelve hours per day (night service) at the rate of $50 per month.  He died on 7 August that same year, at age 31, after a very short illness.  Glen Ridge Borough Council records mention that he was never strong, and that "his death was caused by an earnestness and desire for efficiency that exceeded his physical endurance".  He and Kate had five children: Ruth F., b. 26 Nov. 1889; Genevieve, b. 16 Apr. 1891; Clarence Aloysius, b. 26 Oct. 1892; Alice, b. 13 May 1894; and Lucy Florence, b. 20 Dec. 1895 (after her father's death).
 Kate remarried in December of 1897 to John Beirne, and had three more children by him: Katherine, b. July 1898; John, b. Aug, 1901 (died young, apparently); and Thomas, b. June 1904.

  Mary Higgins, born 27 July 1866, was a twin to Margaret, below.  We believe she was a Mary Higgins, a maid for the Joseph F. McCoy household at 55 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY, in 1900.  Her age was given as 25 and her emigration year as 1893 in the federal census that year.  We believe this is her because Katie Higgins (see below), who emigrated that year, came to join her sister Mary at that address.  Mary had paid Katie's ship passage fare.  Mary's age was actually 33 on 1 June that year, so it could be that Mrs. McCoy, the probable census informant, guessed at her age and emigration year.  We have found no definite record of a marriage, and currently know nothing more about Mary.

  Margaret Higgins, twin of Mary, born the same day, shows up in the Frenchpark/Belanagare baptism records, but curiously, unlike Mary, not the civil birth registration records.  As with Mary, we believe she was a "Maggie" living in Orange, NJ, in 1900, because Mary Higgins (see below—Mary Anne, born 1873), who emigrated that year, came to join her sister Maggie, who had paid her ship fare, in Orange.  (Mary was travelling with her sister Katie, mentioned just above.)  No last name was given, so we don't know whether or not Maggie was married.  We cannot find a Margaret Higgins, or any likely married Margaret, in Orange in the 1900 federal census, and currently know nothing more about her.

  Sarah Higgins was born around February of 1868, we think, based on an average of her ages as found in records.  We have not been able to find her in either baptismal or civil parish records for Frenchpark/Bellinagare parish.  She emigrated around 1882 and appears to be a Sarah Higgins, servant, in the household of Edward W. Baldwin in Belleville-Montclair, part of Bloomfield township, NJ, in 1885.  She married John Thomas McDonogh, son of Michael and Mary (Dorcy) McDonogh, on 6 May 1888, in Orange, NJ.  Like Sarah, John was from Roscommon.  They settled first in Orange and then on Whittlesey Ave. in West Orange, where they raised a family of eight children: Charles Joseph, b. 21 Mar. 1890; Mary/Lydia, b. ~1892; Michael Dennis, b. 11 Jan. 1893 (died young); Marcella, b. ~1896; Joseph, b. ~ 1897, Thomas Aloysius, b. 22 June 1898; Francis Stephen, b. 24 Dec. 1899; and Dennis, b. ~1904 (died young).  John worked in a hat factory for many years.  Sarah died 24 Nov. 1934 at age around 66, in West Orange.

  Ellen ("Nellie") Higgins, born 22 May 1869, emigrated to America around 1888, at age about 19.  She married Luke Devaney, son of Michael & Mary (Noon) Devaney,  on 3 Feb 1892 at St. John's R.C. Church in Orange, NJ.  Luke was a hat sizer in 1900, and by 1905 had started service as a policeman in Orange, rising to detective by 1930.  They raised a family of four sons and four daughters in Orange:  Mary Edith, b. 1893; Michael Joseph, b. 1895 (d. 1896); Ellen, b. 1897; Veronica M., b. 1899; Frances, b. 1901; Thomas Leo, b. 1903; Louis Alfred, b. 1905; and Walter Edmund, b. 1907.  Luke died 23 Jun 1933; Ellen died in 1949.  They lie buried in St. John's Cemetery in Orange.

  Mary Anne Higgins, born 3 Oct. 1873, appears to have been the Mary Higgins, age given as 21, who, with Katie Higgins, 22, accompanied John Devaney, 19, on the steamship Oceanic which brought the three to America in May of 1900.  She was coming to join her sister Maggie, of Orange, NJ, who had paid her ship passenger fare.  Three years later she married this John Devaney.  Her marriage record is the only record we have found which gives her full name, Mary Anne Higgins, and not just "Mary," or Mary A."  She and John were married on 1 Sep 1903 by Rev. James E. Bobier of St. Charles Borromeo R.C. Church, on Sidney Place, Brooklyn, NY.  Mary was living at that time not far from the church, at 65 Remsen Street, which seems to indicate that she was living with, or near, her older sister Mary (who was living at 55 Remsen St. in 1900).  In 1905 John, single, was a servant in the household of his brother Patrick, in Glen Ridge, NJ, while Mary Ann, single, appears to have been a servant in the household of Edgar F. Rummler, in the city of Orange, nearby.  We don't know why they were recorded as single.  Their only child, son Howard John Devaney, was born 29 Oct. 1907 and baptized at Sacred Heart R.C. Church in Bloomfield, NJ (near Glen Ridge).  By 1910 they were living in Glen Ridge, in a rented house, and John was a coachman, earning wages.  They remained in Glen Ridge for the rest of their lives, living at 242 Baldwin St in a house which they owned.  By 1920 John was apparently a traveling salesman for a cream separator company.  By 1930 he was an operator of a stationary steam engine at a public school, and Howard was a policeman in Glen Ridge.  By 1940 John was a custodian at a high school in Montclair, near Glen Ridge, working 60 hour weeks, it appears.  In 1942 John, who had registered for the World War I draft in 1918 at age 38, registered for the World War II draft at age 62.  He retired in 1949 after 32 years as head custodian at Mt. Hebron School in Upper Montclair.  He and Mary Ann celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1953.  John died on 22 Jul 1955, at age 75, in Glen Ridge, after serving as a school crossing guard in Glen Ridge for his final five years.  He was a member of Foresters of America and had served as a Glen Ridge volunteer fireman for 20 years.  Mary Ann, a member of the Rosary Society of Sacred Heart Church, died 23 May 1957, at age 83.  She and John lie buried in Immaculate Conception Cemetery, in Upper Montclair.

  Catherine ("Kate") Higgins was born around 1878, going by the 1900 ship passenger record (see Mary b. ~1879, below), which gives us her exact date of immigration—10 May 1900.  We believe this Kate was the Catherine Higgins b. 4 Oct 1875 in Killaster to Thomas Higgins and Mary Cawley, and that the birth registrar misheard or misremembered the name of the mother, who was the informant.  On 27 April 1909 at Our Lady of the Valley R.C. Church in Orange, Kate, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Coll) Higgins, her age given as 29, married Patrick Noone, 28, coachman, son of Patrick and Mary (Brennan) Noone of Tartan, Roscommon.  Patrick had emigrated to America within the previous eight years, since he was living with his parents in Tartan in 1901.  Within a year of their marriage they returned to Tartan and Patrick returned to farming.  Son Thomas was born in Tartan on 3 Apr 1910.  Kate died six days later, at age 32, having been in labor for fourteen days.

References:
  z1.  Patrick's bio:  This is a short biographical sketch of Patrick J. Higgins, from Cyclopedia of New Jersey Biography ..., Mary Depue Ogden, ed. (1923: NYC, NY) vol. 5, pp. 290-291, PDF, 203 KB.
  z2.  Higginses were recorded in Tully townland, Kilcorkey Parish, Co. Roscommon in 1833 (the Tithes Applotment Books) and 1857 (the Griffith Valuation).  {Links?]
  z3.  New York ship passenger list, S.S. Oceanic, arrived NYC 10 May 1900, White Star List or Manifest of Alien Immigrants for the Commissioner of Immigration, Supplement to Manifest of Alien Passengers, ticket nos. 40742 to 40745.  Ancestry.com link, image 21 of 51.
   z4.  Letters to Judy in 1971/1972 from her aunt, Ella (Devaney) McCarthy (1897-1985), daughter of Luke b. 1867.  Ella told that her Devaney grandfather (Michael Devaney) "had a very small piece of land," and we know its size was about 6.7 British (and U.S.) acres in 1858; so Thomas Higgins' farm may have been about seven times as large.
   z5.  A Topological Dictionary of Ireland, Samuel Lewis, 1837: Belanagare.  LibraryIreland link.

Images:
   Ireland Provinces, Counites, Parishes map, National Library of Ireland. This map leads to Belanagare and Frenchpark (Kilcorkey) Catholic Parish records, 1865 to 1880. (Higher resolution copies can be found at Ancestry.com, "Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1655-1915">".)
   Killaster/Tully/Arraghan area ca. 1837:   This is an annotated version of a low resolution composition of two sheets (sheets 15 and 21) of the 1837 6-inch-per-mile Ordnance Survey maps for Co. Roscommon. For higher resolution versions see National Library of Scotland sheet 15 and sheet 21.
   Turf piles ...: Photograph of a field somewhere around Bellanagare by Conrad Terrill, July 2007.
   Present-day pictures of a house in Tully: Photographs taken by Conrad Terrill, July 2007, with permission from Dennis Higgins.
   Present-day ruins of old Bellanagare R.C. Chapel: A composition of two photographs by Conrad Terrill, July 2007, through a chain-link fence.
   Location of the Higgins house in Killaster: Annotated versio of cropped portion of a 1913 6-inch-per-mile Ordnance Survey map for Co. Roscommon, sheet 21.
   Satellite map view of same area: Google Earth, 2024.
   Tombstone for Thomas and Mary (Coll), old Kilcorkey churchyard: Photograph by Conrad Terrill, July 2007.
   Patrick J. Higgins (1863-1937): Glen Ridge [NJ] Historical Society (Sally Meyer), 2011.

Acknowledgements:
   We appreciate the enthusiastic collaboration with Judy's cousin Mary Lou (Devaney) Sutphen, who with her husband Bill led us around Bellanagare, showing us points of interest, and introduced us to numerous relatives there in July 2007.


If you know of other records, stories, pictures, etc., pertaining to the Thomas and Mary Higgins story, please let us know (contact Conrad at cwterrill@comcast.net).  We'll be happy to work with you.