HOGAN FAMILY IN NEW YORK CITYPatrick & Catharine HOGAN - Part 4 - widowed Kate in Brooklyn
Hogan Overview | Tree 1 | Tree 2 | Tree 3 | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
BROOKLYN
We don't know when Patrick Hogan died. We only know that Catharine Hogan, at the time of the 1880 census, was a widow living in the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn, very near her son Thomas's family. She would be a widow for another 26 years.
1880 census reel# 850, ward 16, enumeration district 153, page 31Another mystery: where was the oldest daughter Anna in 1880? Anna, who would have been 23-27 in 1880, was to marry James McGrath of Hackensack, but not until the mid 1880s. Was she a domestic living with a different family? Was she simply skipped by the census taker? The 1880 census is the only census to be indexed for every person and the entire country, it is easy to confirm that Anna Hogan was not present, or at least, not identifiable.
June 28, 1880, 352 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn, Kings Co., NY
- HOGAN, Kate, F, 50, head of household, widowed, b. Ireland to Irish parents, occ: Washing & Ironing
- HOGAN, Richard, M, 11 (actually 14), son, single, at school, b. NY to Irish-born parents
- HOGAN, Kate, F, 18 (actually 21 if last census was correct), dau, single, Seamstress, b. NY to Irish-born parents
- HOGAN, Margeretha*, F, 15 (actually 18), dau, single, Seamstress, b. NY to Irish-born parents
* The name Margeretha also appeared in another family listed on the same page. This census taker had a German name and was evidently translating unfamiliar names into ones he knew.
Note the odd errors in the children's ages, with Maggie's and Richard's ages understated by exactly 3 years. And though I don't know Kate's year of birth, she was listed as 11 in the 1870 census, so was also probably given the same minus-three treatment.
(Separate narrative about the McGraths to come.)
Catharine's life for the period 1880-1894 is undocumented. After her 1879 widow listing at 342 Bushwick she took out no further directory listings. We don't know where or with whom she lived. We can assume she continued to support her remaining children by doing laundry, supplemented by her daughters' earnings as seamstresses. During this period her brother John Donohue had a carpentry shop in Greenpoint, roughly a mile northwest of the Bushwick Avenue address. But this address was a few doors down from Philip Worth, a relative of Thomas's wife, and about four short blocks from Thomas himself.
We know that her 17-year old son Richard Patrick left the nest on Aug 20, 1883 to enter the Christian Brothers' Senior Novitiate in Ammendale, MD. Richard (as Brother Edmund Francis) was to die of tuberculosis on Mar 3, 1886 at one of the order's institutions in Amawalk, Westchester, NY. In a rather sad coincidence, this was the same month that Thomas's son Richard died.
When Catharine Hogan reappeared, it was in the 1900 census as an inmate at the "Home of the Aged of the Little Sisters of the Poor" on 16th Street and 8th avenue in Brooklyn. (An interesting aside, Mary F. Hogan, daughter of Thomas, left a small bequest to this institution at her death in 1931.)
June 1, 1900 - Census ED 806, sheet 2, line 96, Ward 22There are some questionable entries: 1. she gives an 1849 year of immigration, which would throw into question birth date of her son George (as they provided when George entered the La Salle order). And 2. she gives as number of children born/ and now alive, 9/8. We know only of 6 (George, Thomas, Anna, Kate, Maggie and Richard. Richard died in 1886 and Kate and Maggie's fates are unknown.) It's not hard to imagine she had 9 children, with several being lost in infancy, but it IS hard to imagine 8 were still alive in 1900.
- Catherine Hogan, b. Apr 1829, 71 years old, 9 children/ 8 alive, b. Ire/Ire/Ire, immigrated 1849, 51 years in US, occupation: inmate
Catharine's death took place in this institution 5 years later.
April 14, 1905, Brooklyn certificate# 7286Her death certificate reiterates some of the information gleaned from census and adds one surprising bit of information: she was an inmate of this institution for 11 years prior to death, in other words, since roughly 1894, at age 65. This might suggest early physical or mental degeneration, or perhaps simple poverty or death of a caregiver. It was customary for one of the children to find a place for aged parents in their homes. In 1900 Thomas was already housing his wife's aged father, Henry Handy. Anna was a widow in Hackensack with 7 children. One assumes that daughter Kate didn't survive and that Maggie was possibly married but not in a position to provide a room for her mother.
Full name: Catherine Hogan, age 76, no occupation, widowed
Place of death: 8th av & 16th St., Type of premisis: Home for the Aged
Resident at this address 11 years, Usual residence unknown
Birthplace: Tipperary, Ire
in US/in NY 56 yrs
Father: Philip Donohue, b. Ire
Mother: Catherine O'Brien, b. Ire
Cause: acute bronchitis
Burial: Calvary, April 16, 1905
Undertaker: J. Smith, 246 Prospect Park West
Doctor: Jas J. Keys MD, 225 17th st
Catharine Hogan was buried alongside her mother Catharine (O'Brien) Donohue in the Calvary plot formerly belonging to her brother John Donohue. Also buried in the plot are three Donohue infants. Today, the site is unmarked.