Portrait of Gratia Eleanor BURKE MCGILTON This Portrait was written about my third great Grandmother , Gratia Eleanor BURKE. Until recently very little information was known about her parents. This was first submitted to the USGENWEB Project, Dunn County,Wisconsin, USA and I was contacted by a wonderful woman who gave me the ancestor information which I had been missing. I wish to thank Dawn K. for giving me my lineage back to my 5th great Grandparents. Without help from others, genealogy would cease to exist, and we also would be forgotten in time. To any descendants of this family, please contact me, or if you would like to comment, please do the same.
Family Lineage CARSKADDON, CASCADEN, SCADEN, CASCADDEN, KIRK, BURKE, MCGILTON, ABBOTT, SMITH, BARR AND KELLEY. 5th great Grandparents: Andrew CORSCADDEN (CUSCADDEN) b. 1772 Ireland or Scotland d. 1844 unknown, he married Elnor KIRK b. 1776 Ireland d. 8 Aug 1858 in Eau-Galle Wisconsin they were married in 1797, Parish of Inver, Diocese of Raphoe, County Donegal in the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Inver, Ireland Children: Robert CORSCADDEN b. 1798; William Henry CORSCADDEN b. 1801; George CORSCADDEN b.1802; Mary CORSCADDEN b. 1807; Isabella CORSCADDEN b. 22 Apr, 1812; Margaret CORSCADDEN b. 18 Sep 1814; Jane CORSCADDEN b. 5 May 1816; Catherine CORSCADDEN b. 30 May 1817; Elnor CORSCADDEN b. 27 Sep 1820 4th great Grandparents: Margaret CORSCADDEN (CUSCADDEN) CASCADEN b. 18 Sep, 1814 in Mountcharles, Inver Parish, Banagh Barony, County Donegal, Ireland d. unknown she married Thales BURKE of Ireland or Scotland Children: William BURKE; Martha BURKE; Gratia Eleanor BURKE b. 1837 3rd great Grandparents: Gratia Eleanor BURKE b. 31 Jan 1837 in Hemingford, Canada East, (Quebec Province) d. 25 May 1889 in Cedar Falls, Dunn County, Wisconsin, she married John MCGILTON b. 1809, d. unknown, they were married 23 Feb 1854 in Hemingford Canada East Children: Emily MCGILTON b. 1855; Margaret MCGILTON b. abt 1863 in Eau Galle, Dunn County, Wisconsin; Edmund MCGILTON b. aft. 1855 in Dunn County, Wisconsin; John MCGILTON b. aft. 1855 in Dunn County, Wisconsin; Unknown male MCGILTON 2nd great Grandparents: Emily MCGILTON b. 1855 in Hemingford, Canada East d. unknown, married Mr. Smith Children: Hazor Judson SMITH b. Dunn County, Wisconsin; Grace SMITH MabelSMITH Charlotte SMITH b. 1882; George Edmund SMITH 1st great Grandparents: Hazor Judson SMITH b. in Menomonie, Dunn County, Wisconsin d. May 1959 married Leila Gertrude BARR b. Willmington, Illinois Children: Mary Emily SMITH b. Dwight, Livingston County, Illinois; HazorBarr SMITH b. 1906 in Dwight, Livingston County, Illinois; Betty Virginia SMITH b. 1908 Grandparents: Betty Virginia SMITH b. 31 Dec 1908, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois d. 16 Mar 1992, Aurora, Colorado she married Ward S. Kelley b. 3 Mar 1903, Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska USA d. 3 Jun 1979 in Walnut Creek California they were married 18 June 1930 in Dwight, Livingston County, Illinois Children: A son{my father}still living A daughter The rest of the family lineage is still alive including me: Julia Kelley
Introduction to the Portrait of Gratia Eleanor BURKE MCGILTON Eleanor MCGILTON CONNOR the daughter of Edmund MCGILTON (see 3rd generation), gave this Portrait to my grandmother, Betty Virginia SMITH KELLEY, she in turn passed it on to me prior to her death. Eleanor was born in 1898, her father Edmund is the son of Gratia Eleanor BURKE and John MCGILTON. This Portrait is transcribed in it’s entirety, however to maintain genealogical lineage, some additions have been made. When I first read this I was surprised to find reference to Poltergeists in the mid-1880’s. This story has quite a bit of history within it and depicts the way of life in the mid 1800’s. The means of traveling to the States and the hardships of daily life, as well as the ways of the family.
A Portrait Of Gratia Eleanor BURKE MCGILTON
As written by her granddaughter Eleanor MCGILTON Grandmother MCGILTON’s maiden name was Gratia Eleanor BURKE. She was born in Hemingford, Canada East, {now Quebec Province} on January 31, 1837, the daughter of Thales BURKE and Margaret CASCADEN, both of whom were of Scot-Irish ancestry. Her father’s family had lived in America ever since Richard BURKE came to Massachusetts in 1640. His immediate fore-bearers were natives of Vermont. Her mother was born in Mountcharles, Donegal County, Ireland. I have always regretted that she died nine years before I was born, for I have harbored a deep affection for her, perhaps because I was impressed by my father that it was a great honor to be named for her, but also because the entire MCGILTON clan, in-laws and all, always praised her to the skies. Since I was not fortunate enough to have been an eye-witness, I will with pride, quote my father’s {Edmund MCGILTON}description of her from his Autobiography: “ She was about five feet eight inches tall, and weighed about 145 pounds. She had dark hair but not black, blue eyes, a fine nose, handsomely set, regular features, good color, youthful appearance, tall erect and graceful in her movements, and possessed a most happy and cheerful disposition, a good disciplinarian, looked for obedience in her children and generally got it. When she was obliged to resort to punishment of any of us, it was given with a smile, and not in anger... so she always retained the love and respect of all her children. She was well-poised always, and under all circumstances she possessed a most winning personality, made friends easily and retained their friendship.” She had a good common school education, and attended Champlain Academy in New York State. She possessed a sweet singing voice with which she enriched the church music, and the musical evenings of the family, which they dubbed “band concerts”, because Uncle John {MCGILTON} played the cornet, my father {Edmund MCGILTON}the violin, and Aunt Margaret {MCGILTON}played the piano. She sang the words to hymns, Come to the Church in the Wildwood, In the Gloaming, When You and I Were Young, Maggie, and other songs in vogue at the time. She loved pretty things, but from all accounts she wasn’t surfeited with them. One of her lovely things was a dresser set of pink satin glass comprised of two cologne bottles, and a powder dish. It is now one of my precious possessions. The large pastel portrait of her, which Susan has now hanging in her dining room, was done by “the best artist who could be found in Chicago”, Grandfather said. The family all agreed that it flattered her, but Grandfatherthought it was just right. But I am getting ahead of my story, because first I must tell of the romantic circumstances of her marriage. Her mother{ Margaret CASCADEN BURKE}wanted her to marry a certain young man when she was sixteen, and the wedding was planned, the guests invited, and some presents received. The night before the wedding her father {Thales BURKE} heard her crying, and when he investigated, he found that she didn’t want to marry that certain young man. I suppose she sobbed on her father’s shoulder, (wise choice) until she got up courage to admit that there was another certain young man, who had just returned from a trip out west, and with whom she was madly in love, John MCGILTON by name, her second cousin. Her father assured her she didn’t have to marry anyone she didn’t want to, so the imminent wedding was called off. The sentiments of her mother are not recorded. The happy {?} ending was that the right wedding was planned for February 22, 1854. She was seventeen and he was twenty-eight. One of her cousins acted as Maid of Honor. John MCGILTON, the bridegroom lived some little way from the BURKE home, and he had planned to arrive in style, with a shinigcutter and a beautiful horse. But alas, a very bad blizzard came up as it can in the St. Lawrence Valley, and he had to keep changing horses all the way, the drifts were too much for one horse to tackle for long. Gratia never gave up and neither did the guests. They were rewarded when the wedding ceremony took place at last, at 2:30 in the morning, February 23, 1854. The wedding took place in Hemingford, Quebec, Canada, where they lived the first year, during which John MCGILTON (grandfather), made another trip west to Wisconsin with several friends and relatives to select a site for their future home in Dunn County, in the heart of the lumbering country. Their first child, who became my adorable Aunt Emily MCGILTON, was born in Hemingford in 1855. She always epitomized her mother to me, she was so handsome, and full of grace, charm and dignity. While Emily was still a babe in arms, they set out for the West, going via the Great Lakes to Chicago, then by train to the end of the line at Galena. >From there they took a Steamer up the Mississippi to Reed’s Landing at the mouth of the Chippewa River. A smaller boat met them there and carried them to a little town, Durand, and from there it was a matter of 55 miles on horseback, (baby Emily being carried in Gratia’s arms), to their cabin in Eau Galle, which was more than 150 miles from a railroad. I wish I knew more about that journey. Grandmother’s chief interest was always her home, and from all I can learn, she managed her home and family capably and happily. Like all pioneer mothers, she made candles and soap, saw that the children did their stint of sewing carpet rags. She superintended the churning and the turning of the crank of the washing machine, while she rubbed the dirtiest of clothes on a board of corrugated iron. She had five children, all of whom grew to adulthood and who had children of their own. She was a very religious person. She helped establish the Methodist Church out there in the wilderness. She taught Sunday School, and became a serious student of the Bible. She owned all the important commentaries, including the writings of Robert Ingersoll, the famous Peorian, because she wanted to know all sides of a question. In fact she was often consulted by ministers and friends as to her interpretation of a certain passage. In addition to her book learning, she was noted for her moral and spiritual strength, which was founded, to quote my father, “on the strength of her faith which was in turn founded on the moral grandeur of the Gospels”. She once said, “the teachings of Jesus are the moral light of the world, and in that light I am content to walk”. She loved truth for truth’s sake. Father’s (Edmund) comments on what he owed to his mother are the tribute perfect, as follows: “She taught me to live a white life; to do my level best; to look before leaping; to learn before judging; to be candid and frank; to think before speaking, to stop my ears to gossip; to discount the talebearer; the influence of high motives; to bridle a slanderous tongue; to be courteous to an enemy, to be square in business deals; to be prompt in keeping a promise; to be honest and unselfish, and to be patient with unreasonable neighbors and friends”. About 1868 the family moved to Cedar Falls, where Grandfather bought half interest in a saw-mill. The venture proved to be very successful financially, but their home life was made miserable by the experience of living in a “Haunted House”. In the light of modern research it probably was an authentic case of poltergeists, a phenomenon very terrifying to behold. The heard groans, dishes rattling and falling on the kitchen floor, which were found safe in their places upon investigation. At nine o’clock every night, it seemed as though a huge stone would fall on the roof and roll down and hit the ground with a thud, but they never could find the stone. The three boys slept together in a bed upstairs, and one night an apparition appeared at their bedside, and threw itself across them all. They felt the impact and saw the phantom, but when they sat up, there was nothing there. One day my father came home from school and asked his mother who the bride was in the orchard. She knew nothing about it and they never found her. They often would hear footsteps on the boardwalk approaching the kitchen, but there would be no one there when they opened the door. My Uncles and Aunts always swore that all those things really happened, and their Uncle Shep fully corroborated their stories because he often stayed overnight there and heard the goings on. He even reported that one man stayed overnight there, and the next morning he looked as if he had a serious illness. One night Grandmother and Grandfather were awakened by a terrible commotion in the parlor. Chairs and tables were being shunted around the room and everything was in confusion. grandmother proceeded to wake all the children and had them all come down into the parlor. She persuaded Grandfather to come too. Then she made the ghostly events a subject of fervent prayer, and believe it or not, that was the last of the “haunts”. Soon after, they moved to their farm “Fairview”, a step that Grandfather would never take before. he said he would never let those “spirits or whatever they were” drive him out. But it had been a nerve-wracking experience he had put the family through. Aunt Margaret (MCGILTON) , who was about five when they had moved to Cedar Falls, suffered from an extremely sensitive and nervous disposition, a fact which some of the family blamed on that early environment. Grandmother loved to have company, and always entertained the circuit rider clergyman when he came to the church. Also their farmyard was often the haven for covered wagons on their way west. For years Aunt Margaret and her two daughters Alice and Kit lived at the farm until Aunt Margaret married again, and they went to northern Maine to live, Presque Isle to be exact. Uncle John (MCGILTON) and his wife Angie lived there a short time too, and thereby hangs a tale. It seems that Uncle John and Angie got themselves in “trouble” before they were married. When Grandmother learned of it, she made it clear to the rest of the family, that, after a prompt marriage, Angie was to be taken into the family and loved and treated as a MCGILTON deserved to be treated, and she told them that she didn’t want any of them to ever think or say anything about the matter again. I never heard of it until after I was grown and married. Upon my request, Clara ABBOTT, one of the MCGILTON clan, wrote me the following, which I cherish very much. After observing that the MCGILTON’s were a very affectionate family she continued: “Your Grandmother Gratia was in a class by herself, a very stately and lovely Christian person, and I think the gracious qualities of her children was her gift to them. After Gratia’s grandmother KIRK died, she cared for her grandfather like her own, and he died at her home. As most pioneer women did, she rode horseback if she wanted to get around any. I remember that our little old midwife did, no doctor within miles. Myrtle MCGILTON was an expert horsewoman, as were your Aunts, Emily and Margaret”. Through her letters and Dad’s Autobiography, I have learned several amusing anecdotes about her. For instance, when Dad was a boy he joined in with the gang to show himself to be a man, by chewing tobacco. When he came home he felt very ill, which caused his mother to be very solicitous, but when she detected the cause, she marched him out to the woodshed, and wasted no more sympathy on him. One winter night when Grandfather was away on business, the house caught fire. She got the children all out safely and took them to the neighbors for safe keeping, as she thought, but lo and behold, Edmund, aged about four, had to be rescued again, because he had run back into the house for some apples. That winter night, Grandmother’s hands were badly frosted while she held a lantern for the men who were trying to save a bin of wheat in a shed adjacent to the house. She visited Dad several times at the University in Madison after many cordial invitations by him. And after he graduated from Law School and while he was working for a mercantile house in North Dakota in order to earn enough money to hang out his shingle as an attorney, she wrote him in true motherly fashion. She wanted to know if his Boarding House observed Easter, and if he had a good buffalo robe, not realizing that he covered his territory by train. Also she vowed that she was going to have a Christmas tree “this year, if all she could have on it were apples”. In that connection, there is a family tale that as the children began to grow up, they would ask their father why he didn’t give their mother more money to spend. With a twinkle in his eye, his reply invariably was, “It wouldn’t do any good, she would just give it to the church”. There are some short excerpts from her letters which prove to be illuminating about her life and times. Oct. 3, 1885 - Gratia to her daughter Margaret (Maggie) I am preparing for winter and haven’t sewed a stitch. I am making kraut and pickles. Is your dress finished? What are you sewing on now? When I get my polonaise, I will have to make it for I need it. My plantsare doing nicely and many of them will soon be in bloom. Jan, 8, 1885 - Gratia to son Edmund in Madison John helped me put down the carpet and fix up the room. it looks very nice now. Mar. 1885 - Grandfather (John MCGILTON) to Edmund Mother was called down to Grandmother’s (possibly KIRK) in Durand. The doctors have given her up. Apr 7, 1886 - to Edmund in North Dakota We have been making hot bed and soap, and white-washing this week in the mens chambers, so you can see we have been doing things lately. It bids fair to freeze hard tonight. There doesn’t seem to be much money in anything, turn whichever way one will. People have to struggle along as best they may, not as they would. your father talks of buying more land, I dread the idea of being in debt again and having to think I must be very carefuland saving. Hoping to hear from you soon, I am your loving mother, Gratia E. MCGILTON. 1888 to Edmund in Omaha It worries me that you have joined the Commercial Club, where they must drink and gamble and waste their time. They just want to get all they can out of you. Apr 29, 1888 - Grandfather to Edmund If Mother’s health keeps on failing she will be bedridden. (Her health had been failing for a year and a half, Grandfather wouldn’t have a doctor, he had no faith in them). May 14, 1888 - Grandmother Gratia to son Edmund I do not suffer except with debility. I hope I will improve as the weather improves. Gratia Eleanor BURKE MCGILTON died in Cedar Falls May 25, 1889, six weeks after Edmund’s marriage to Lina WILLIAMS in Menomonie. She couldn’t attend of course, and Grandfather MCGILTON wouldn’t leave her to come either. This was always a painful memory to Dad. On her death bed she rallied and said, “Yes I love the Lord, and I want all my children to serve him always”. This was after they had put pennies on her eyes. Note: {This may be correct or may not, however it is included in this Portrait} BURKE Burke was originally written de Burgh, and under that form is an ancient name of great note. It began in the 8th Century with the 5th son of Charlemagne and continued on through Baldwin de Bourgh, a renowned Crusader, who founded the House of Blois in France and the Noble family of Burgh in Ireland. After the Norman Conquest many de Bourgh’s held high office under Henry II and King John. One descendant became the Earl of Ulster, who had various titled descendants, such as the Lords of Connaught and the Marquis of Clanricorde, 1604-1657
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