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Family Directory

The  John Desmond Sullivan Family

Compiled and contributed by Ron Seymour

Born around 1814 in County Cork, Ireland, John Desmond O’Sullivan was the third son of Mary Desmond O’Sullivan. His

father’s name has been lost to history and he may have died in Ireland before the family came to America. John was just one year older than his brother Michael and they would work together from time to time after they arrived in Dubuque. Likewise their two older brothers, Timothy and Dennis would farm together for almost a half century near Bankston, Iowa.

John D. was a bricklayer and three years after the Sullivan family arrived in Dubuque, the city fathers decided to build a brick courthouse. James L. Langworthy supplied almost 250,000 bricks and John D. Sullivan laid them. A newspaper article said that John “was one of the most competent and energetic master bricklayers and plasterers Dubuque ever had. In 1840 he built the Court House and the following years the Waples House, the Peosta House (then called Democratic Row), and from that time up to 1849 was concerned in the erection of most of the prominent buildings which now adorn Dubuque.”

John was twenty-nine when he married twenty one year old Elizabeth Ann Newman on Oct. 5, 1843 in Dubuque. Again Bishop Loras performed the ceremony. She was born in 1822 in county Cavan, Ireland, the daughter of Capt. James Newman who became a well-known riverboat pilot. Her brother, William, first settled in New York in 1837 and then moved to Dubuque three years later where Elizabeth joined him. The log cabin she lived in at the time of her marriage was located on the northwest corner of 2^nd and Locust. In later years it was moved to Eagle Point Park and now sits near the Ham House. Newman later said that the log cabin had been in existence for years before he arrived, having been built and occupied by French hunters and miners and could possibly date back to Julien Dubuque himself.

After their marriage, the couple resided at 26 W. 5^th St where Elizabeth would live for the rest of her life. A year after their marriage their first child a daughter, Margaret, was born but she died three years later on Sept. 6, 1847. Two sons were born to John D. and Elizabeth in the decade of the forties, one the year before and one the year after Margaret’s untimely death. They would have a total of eight children:

A terrible tragedy occurred on April 1, 1865 when John D. Sullivan was accidentally killed by a shotgun blast. The newspaper described it: “On Saturday last, in company with Mr. Edward Smith, a relative, we believe, (Smith was the nephew of John’s wife, Elizabeth) he started on a business tour for Ozark, in Jackson County. Supposing he might have an opportunity of shooting some game on the way, he carried with him his double-barreled shotgun. Arrived at their destination, and after having enjoyed themselves for some time in shooting, the party ate a hearty dinner preparatory to starting homeward. After dinner Mr. Smith proceeded to the stable to harness the horses, while Mr. Sullivan went to the wagon, which was standing some yards from the stable, for the purpose of rendering more comfortable for the ride. He had placed the gun on the bottom of the wagon, and it is supposed while in the act of driving a nail or removing the gun, the hammer accidentally caught in a splinter and discharged its entire contents into his right breast.

“Mr. Smith heard the discharge while harnessing the horses, but supposed that he had shot at a bird, while a Mr. Brown, who also was in company, started for the wagon, where he found Mr. Sullivan lying in front and between the wheels. At first Mr. Brown did not observe that he was shot, and jocosely remarked that he was taking it easy, but in a moment after discovered his mistake and ran to give the alarm to Smith. Mr. Smith then hastened to the spot and found him lying as above described. He caught him up and endeavored to stop the flow of blood, and called upon him to answer or recognize him by word or sign, but all in vain. Although he was breathing, he died 25 minutes later.

“Word was given to the neighbors and in the course of and hour or so a number of them had collected, a Justice of the Peace and jury summoned and an inquest held. This over, the corpse was placed in another wagon, and accompanied by several of the neighbors was brought home to his afflicted and disconsolate family.”

An article in the local newspaper noted:

“Obituary-The funeral of John D. Sullivan was very largely attended yesterday, showing that the deceased was held in the highest regard by his numerous acquaintances. Some 85 carriages and a score of horsemen formed the procession. The remains were taken to Key West for internment”

He left his forty-year-old widow and five surviving children Fannie, age 5, James, 7, Lizzie, 9, Mary, 15, and William, 17. Like his brother almost a decade earlier, John died in testate and also like his brother, left a considerable estate (for that time) valued at $40,000 or around one million in today’s dollars. However since John left no will the money was split up equally between Elizabeth and all the children, meaning she only got 1/5, and she struggled to make ends meet. Her income the first year after John’s death was around $1400 from the various rental properties and mineral rights he owned. He also owned 120 acres of farmland near his two brothers, Timothy and Dennis, in Iowa Township and 20 acres near Center Grove just west of Dubuque.

At the end of the summer of the following year, a neighbor, Laura Knowlton wrote a letter to a family member in western New York in which she complained “the weather keeps so unpleasant it rains every other day (and) one of the widow John Sullivan’s children had an attack of Cholera. She was very sick (and) I took care of her a week. Now she is well.” Mrs. Knowlton, also a widow, who’s husband had been a carriage dealer and probably well acquainted with William Newman, went on to say that Elizabeth’s brother-in-law “Mr. J. P. Quigley has been very sick with typhoid fever (but) is now much better.”

John D. Sullivan had owned some rental property on the southwest corner of Sixth and Main for many years. A little before midnight on the first of November 1870 a fire was discovered running up the rear of the frame building John had left to his wife, Elizabeth. It was across the street from the Herald and someone working there noticed the fire and aroused all the occupants of the building. A westerly wind pushed the flames and the building was soon engulfed and the fire spread to the adjoining structure.

Her loss was estimated at $3000 of which only $2000 was covered by insurance. Her tenants, a clothing store, a saloon, an upholstery shop, millinery and a shoe store were mostly covered by insurance. The fire reportedly started in an ash barrel at the rear of the saloon.

Less than six months after the fire Elizabeth borrowed $4,000 at 10% interest from a woman named Sally Howes of Philadelphia to rebuild the structure she had lost. The next month she also sold some farmland for almost $1500 to help finance the construction project. Some of the money may have been targeted for another “project” that Elizabeth was presumably involved in. She was not only busy with rebuilding and financing she also had a wedding to plan for. Seven months after the fire her twenty year old daughter, Mary Margaret, married Edgar C. Langdon on June 2, 1871. A little over a year later the couple welcomed their only child a son, John, born on Aug. 4^th.

The income Elizabeth received from her husband’s estate was reported in detail to the court along with all her expenses. From November 6, 1866 until February 10, 1873 she reported a total income of around $14,000 or about $190 a month.

Tragedy struck the family again on Valentine’s Day, 1882 when Elizabeth’s oldest surviving son, William was killed in a railroad accident.

William had attended public school and also what was known as “the Bishop’s School” at St. Raphael’s. He then went on to graduate with honors from Notre Dame. Afterwards he was the deputy clerk of the U. S. Court in Dubuque and studied law with Griffith and Knight. He also clerked for his uncle, J. P. Quigley who was city recorder and treasurer.

That fateful day William was decked out in a new suit of clothes in preparation for a business trip to Milwaukee and Chicago. He decided to hop the northbound C. M. & St. Paul train for a short ride to the car shops where he hoped to obtain letters of recommendation to the parties he was meeting on his trip. The train was an hour late and when it got to the car shops it did not slow down as William expected but continued on at around fifteen miles an hour. One account said that William attempted to jump off but there was another man standing on the step below him who was also intending to jump off. The man, whose name was Peter Weitz, a painter for the A. A. Cooper Wagon Company, apparently made a motion to jump off but did not jump. William, attempting to follow Weitz did jump and he struck Weitz pushing him onto his hands and knees on the platform. Unfortunately William was thrown back onto the step of the car and he fell under the wheel of the rail car which passed diagonally over his left lung and shoulder pretty much severing his arm. As is usually the case in horrific accidents of this kind eye witness accounts vary widely and are often conflicting. Weitz said “he was unaware of having come in contact with the deceased in any manner, although he is not positive that he did not do so.” He also claimed he did not see any car wheels pass over William and “is inclined to believe that he was crushed between the projecting oil boxes of the trucks and the platform.” Other witnesses said that Weitz was on the rear platform of one car and William was on the front platform of the next car when both jumped off at almost the same time. They claim William came in  “violent” contact with Weitz causing him to fall off the platform and under the wheels of the train.

Sullivan fell face down alongside the tracks and his left arm fell over the rail. It was run over and “smashed by the fore wheel with a cracking sound which was distinctly heard by the terrorized bystanders. In an effort to escape, he raised himself on his right arm, thereby inclining his body toward the rail. He was in this position when his left shoulder came in contact with the hind wheels of the ladies coach which ran over the left side of his body as did six wheels of the sleeping car.”

The Herald described his injuries in grisly detail. “Several bystanders hastened to convey Mr. Sullivan from the track to the interior of the supply shop. He was bleeding profusely from a wound in his left side above the heart, evidently made by some sharp instrument which had pierced his left lung. He was unconscious and uttered no sound save an occasional moan.” A priest and a doctor were summoned and upon examining the wounds found “an opening the breadth of a hand between the left arm and shoulder. The latter was crushed as were also the left ribs and the entire framework of the left side. The entrails were forced through the flesh of the abdomen and were bursted. There was a large opening in the left hip joint. The left leg was broke in several places and the right one at the ankle. There were two slight bruises on the face, one on the forehead and the other on the nose, and a bruise under the chin. He breathed for about thirty minutes after being removed from the rail.”

It would be hard to imagine his mother’s grief when William’s body was brought to her house. His sister, Mary Langdon was the only sibling in town at the time of the accident. His brother, James, who traveled for A. W. Sears was in Cascade and his sister, Lizzie was visiting in St. Louis. His other sister was in Chicago. One of the pallbearers at William’s funeral was his cousin, Dan Sullivan from Bankston.

Not surprisingly, when a coroner’s jury was convened the railroad was exonerated from all blame.

A happy occasion for the Sullivan family in Dubuque occurred on October 12, 1887 when Elizabeth’s middle child thirty-one year old Lizzie Sullivan married Phillip Ryder. The wedding took place at seven in the morning at the Cathedral, preceded by a breakfast at her mother’s home on Fifth and Bluff. Bishop Hennessy attended the breakfast, along with many other prominent people and Father Burke performed the ceremony. Ryder, who along with his brother ran a wholesale grocery business, had been a member of the city council. He presented his new bride with a set of diamonds valued at $500 or about $10,000 in today’s value. They took the noon train for New York and “other Eastern points, and on their return will occupy their residence on Thirteenth Street, between Main and Iowa.”

Elizabeth’s last surviving son thirty-seven year old James, married twenty-seven year old Hope Drepperd Lagen on June 2, 1894 at five o’clock in St. Raphael’s Cathedral. It was the second time the Lagen and Sullivan families were united in marriage. A little over a quarter century earlier Hope’s uncle John Lagen had married James’ cousin, Johanna Sullivan of Bankston. The Times reported “the largest and prettiest marriage ceremony in Catholic circles that has been celebrated in this city for some years was solemnized yesterday in a manner so impressive that the happy event will long linger in the memories of those who witnessed the uniting for life of two of Dubuque’s most well known and worthy young people who have lived and grown up from childhood in this community.” In almost two full columns the paper described the ceremony and the participants including all the flowers and the dresses that they wore. Afterward a reception was held for the relatives only at the Lagen home at 390 Bluff. Hope’s father was a “well known liveryman.” Her husband was “one of Dubuque’s energetic and prosperous young business men, being engaged in the retail boot and shoe trade.”

The newlyweds “were the recipients of a magnificent array of beautiful and costly gifts.” The groom’s gift to his bride were “diamond ornaments” that were worn on her wedding gown. The bride’s mother, mother-in-law, and two married sister-in-laws all wore black silk dresses, and James’s unmarried sister, Fannie wore “a pretty gown of white Swiss with trimmings of white satin ribbons.”

After the reception the couple “departed on the (Illinois) Central…on a bridal trip east and will take in the Thousand Islands, Montreal, Saratoga, Lake Champaign, the Hudson, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington. 

Among the guests mentioned in the article was “Miss Maggie Sullivan of Bankston.”

Six months later, Elizabeth’s thirty-six year old daughter Fannie died on January 25, 1895 at the home of her mother after a one-week illness. And almost eighteen months after that on July 12, 1896, the matriarch of the family Elizabeth Newman Sullivan passed away. She had been in ill health for several years but continued to see her friends until she became bedridden. A few months before her death the old house she had lived in for over fifty years at 32 W 5^th was demolished and a new structure was in the process of being built when she died. She had buried her husband thirty years earlier and had also buried five of her eight children.

The paper referred to her financial struggle after her husband’s death “Mrs. Sullivan was a woman of remarkable business ability. Left with a large family on her hands she managed her affairs in a way that excited the admiration of a number of Dubuque’s well known financiers who knew the trying position she was in and, coupled with her ability as a woman of rare business qualifications, was executive ability of a high order. She bravely mounted all obstacles in her path.”

Only twelve years after her marriage to Phillip Ryder, Lizzie (Sullivan) died at age 43 on March 20, 1899. She left two daughters: Isabelle and Marion aged 8 and 10. She died at the new house her mother built house on 5^th St.after a year of suffering from some unspecified disease. Neither of her daughters ever married. Isabelle graduated from Clarke College obtained her masters from the University of Wisconsin and a Phd from the University of Chicago. She and her sister owned and operated Ryder Realtor Co. for many years. She died in New York City two days after Christmas in 1956 and her sister, Marion died in Dubuque at age 89.

 The last surviving child of the John D. and Elizabeth Sullivan family, James M. died on August 3, 1939 at the home of his daughter in Madison, Wisconsin

At the end of the summer of the following year, a neighbor, Laura Knowlton wrote a letter to a family member in western New York in which she complained “the weather keeps so unpleasant it rains every other day (and) one of the widow John Sullivan’s children had an attack of Cholera. She was very sick (and) I took care of her a week. Now she is well.” Mrs. Knowlton, also a widow, who’s husband had been a carriage dealer and probably well acquainted with William Newman, went on to say that Elizabeth’s brother-in-law “Mr. J. P. Quigley has been very sick with typhoid fever (but) is now much better.”

John D. Sullivan had owned some rental property on the southwest corner of Sixth and Main for many years. A little before midnight on the first of November 1870 a fire was discovered running up the rear of the frame building John had left to his wife, Elizabeth. It was across the street from the Herald and someone working there noticed the fire and aroused all the occupants of the building. A westerly wind pushed the flames and the building was soon engulfed and the fire spread to the adjoining structure.

Her loss was estimated at $3000 of which only $2000 was covered by insurance. Her tenants, a clothing store, a saloon, an upholstery shop, millinery and a shoe store were mostly covered by insurance. The fire reportedly started in an ash barrel at the rear of the saloon.

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