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Maria Jane Darragh's Illness: Researching Acute Mania in 19th Century Ontario

Image by rawpixel.com.     Back in January, I focused on discovering more about my great-great-grandmother Maria Jane Darragh's identity. In the next few weeks, my focus will be on discovering more about her cause of death: acute mania. Jane—as she was known—was not my only ancestress to be diagnosed with a mental illness. Another great-great-grandmother, Catherine Ryan Gilbride, suffered from puerperal mania and was institutionalized in 1881 in Danville, Pennsylvania. 1 Both Jane and Catherine are in my paternal lineage: Jane was my grandmother's grandmother, while Catherine was my grandfather's grandmother. Let's start with an objective and what we already know. Objective The objective of this project is to learn more about Maria Jane Darragh’s cause of death: acute mania. Jane was born about 1852 in Grey County, Canada West. She married Charles Cassidy on 20 June 1883 in St. Catharines, Lincoln County, Ontario. She died on 23 October 1903 in St. Catharines, Ontario,...

Visit to Greenwood Cemetery, Newton, Kansas


 

by Nancy Gilbride Casey


I've often shared photos, documents, and genealogical news on Facebook. I thought it worthwhile to publish them here, on Leaves on the Tree, as well. This will be an occasional project as the Facebook Memories posts come up.

 

Today's throwback is to July 3, 2021, when daughter Anne and I were coming back from a trip to Colorado. We journeyed through Kansas, and stayed near Newton, Kansas, just so I could visit Greenwood Cemetery, and capture some grave photos of my husband's Davis and Taylor ancestors.


These three headstones mark three Davis/Taylor graves. From right to left: The largest stone is for Collostin Davis and Ellen Maria Martin Davis, Jim's 3x great grandparents. The middle monument is that of the Davis' daughter Florence and her husband Henry O. Taylor. Lastly, next to the tree, is the grave of Blanche Davis Eddington, Florence's sister.

The largest stone is for Jim's 3x great grandfather Collostin James Davis, Civil War veteran of the 12th Maine Infantry. His wife was Ellen Maria Martin Davis; she and Collostin were the parents of Florence, Blanche and George. Sadly Ellen outlived her husband, and all of her children







The small, original stone for John Davis, Collostin's brother, and fellow Civil War veteran from of the 42nd Maine Infantry. An inscription for John was later added to the main stone (below), but the original one still present.

Inscription for George R. Davis, Collostin and Ellen's son.

Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) marker. The GAR was begun in 1866 as a fraternal organization for Union veterans. The F, C and L stand for fraternity, charity and loyalty. Both Collostin and John were members of the GAR during their lives and honored with these markers for their service during the Civil War, after their deaths.

Until next time....

Read other posts on the Davis and Taylor families:


NOTES

All images: Nancy Gilbride Casey, photographer, Davis and Taylor grave sites, Greenwood Cemetery, Newton, Kansas, 4 July 2021.

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