John Donnelly : Short Biography

John Donnelly died in Rapid City, South Dakota on 14th May 1904.  John was born in 1852 in Co.Armagh (I think Moy, Blackwatertown areas) and sailed to New York in 1872.  According to Newspaper articles he appears to have travelled to the Black Hills around 1879 travelling to Lead, then to Myersville and in late 1880 went to Pactola and made his home with John Duffy and his wife at their boarding house.  Later he came to Rapid City along with Mr and Mrs Duffy.  The Duffys’ would later move on to Grand island, Nebraska.  In Rapid City he was engaged in “putting in the city water works”.  At the time of his death he had several interests in a number of gold mines.

Another article reports that John  never married and had no relatives in America and few back in Ireland.  A sister came from Ireland a number of years before his death to visit with him but she contacted typhoid and died in Mahoney City, Pennsylvania.  I don’t know if this sister was married.

Why am I interested in John????  My Mother’s (Donnelly) side of the family come from Moy/Blackwatertown in Co.Armagh and her grandfather Peter Donnelly moved to Belfast in 1865 to work in the Mills.  I have the family records for the mid 1830s onwards.  A cousin gave me a letter recently dated 1906 from a Lawyer in Rapid City to Frank Kerr, Solicitor in Belfast.  The lawyer was replying to an earlier letter from Frank Kerr explaining that “he carefully noted what he said” and there was nothing in John Donnelly’s estate to “be distributed among the next of kin”.  So, I think someone from America wrote to the Donnelly family in Armagh or Belfast about the death of John, about his interests and estate and the name of the Lawyer handling it.  I believe my great grandfather instructed Frank Kerr to write and make a case for the next of kin in Ireland...without any success.  But who was John and how is he connected to my Donnelly family.  Does anyone Know!

I have three John Donnellys born in Co. Armagh who could fit the bill....

Parish             Baptised                    Father             Mother                        Siblings

Armagh          05/10/1852                James              Mary Dunleavey         6

Armagh          05/12/1852                John                Jane Quinn                 7

Loughgall       26/07/1852                Thomas          Catherine O’Brien     0 identified