In late spring of 1848 saw heavy rain, while early and midsummer experienced very hot temperatures, two conditions that spelled disaster for the autumn harvest. Realizing the severity of conditions, early in 1848 John Donley (1826-1885), the adventurous third son of John and Joanna, said goodbye to his parents and brothers and set out from their home in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, on the thirty-five mile walk to Cork with £3 pounds (equal to about $15.00 or approximately 6 months wages) in his pockets. So, according to family lore, there were two ships sailing to North America that week from Cork, one bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, and one for New York City. John asked who the president of Halifax was, and the ticket clerk informed him that Halifax was loyal to Queen Victoria, John quickly pulled out his 3 pounds on the table, saying, “I’ll take New York”, John a 22 year old farm laborer, set sail from Cork, Ireland on the Bark Christianna for the port of New York.
After John Donley arrived in New York, he entered a lease-purchase agreement on a 160 acre farm in Lenox, Macomb County, Michigan. John’s brother Michael and his family came to the US and the two brothers set about clearing the land and building a log cabin for them to live in. In 1856 the Donley brothers jointly purchased for $465 the 160 acres farm on Irish Road (29 Mile Road) that would be the home for four generation of Donley’s. Soon brother Patrick joined Michael and John in Lenox. In December 1864 the 160 acre farm was divided into three equal parts, which were owned individually by each of the brothers.
John Donley married Mary Barry, and upon her death, he married Ellen Hickey, John would continue to work the farm until his death in 1885 and was buried in New Baltimore. Ellen passed away in 1899.
Thomas’, John and Mary’s son, had the natural ambition to be a farmer and a family man. He bought an 80 acre farm across the road from the Donely cabin, and the house he built cost $900. which is were he brought his bride, Catherine Sullivan in 1886. Catherine was from a neighboring farm also with Irish roots. Thomas and Catherine had three children, Mary born in 1892, who died in infancy, Hugh born in 1890 and a daughter Mary born in 1892. Major changes for the family occurred when Thomas was kicked by a horse and died from his injuries. His young son had just turned six. Catherine Sullivan Donley was a strong women and very determined, self sufficient widow. After Thomas death in 1896, she sought tenants to farm the eighty acres of land she and her late husband owned. She and her children moved to Richmond where the school was located, so the children could get a proper education. She rented a house and took in trade salesmen as boarders to help with the costs. When her son graduated from high school, she wanted him to qualify to be a school teacher. The nearest school was in New Baltimore, so the family moved there and she once again took in boarders to help pay for the schooling till he finished getting his teaching certificate.
During World War I, Mary moved to Detroit and once more became a landlady to defray the costs, but did ok, with the help of the farm income at times. Although farm prices declined in the 1920’s, she moved back to the farm and lived in the house until she died in 1930.
Hugh had inherited his grandfather’s John Donley’s farm, and after his mother’s death he inherited the family farm across the street from the cabin. He rented out the land while we was teaching. But in spite of his love of teaching the lure of the farm brought him back to farming around 1815 to 1920. Hugh married Frances Gavin, and they decided to move back to Detroit where he worked for the auto industry as a book keeper. But with the looming depression, pretty much everything would be lost and once again they made the move with their family back to the farm.
Hugh and Frances Garvin Donley, raised eight children, and it would be this generation that would start the important task of caring for the family cabin in the coming years. Ed was the oldest, with Frank (1923-1943), Hugh Jr. (1926-1989), Joseph (1928-1994), Thomas (1930-1931), Lawrence (1932- ), Mary Ann the only Donley daughter (1935- ) and Michael (1937- ). After moving back and enduring the loss of two of their children, to the farm house a cross from the cabin in Lenox, the troubles only continued when in 1940 a fire broke out and burn down the house, the family now had only the cabin (18 ft x 27 ft) to live in for the next few years. But to the children, they were left with irreproachable examples of two human beings, who when confronted with seemly endless disaster, always maintained their commitment to their principles.
It is Hugh and Frances son Lawrence (Larry) that I need to continue on with in this story. In 1931, John’s grandson, Hugh Donley took on the task of preserving the cabin with a new foundation and new mortar between the logs. This was needed when the family moved back into the cabin after the fire at the farm house across the street. But as years moved on to the late 1960’s and into the 1970’s the cabin had been through a lot of of ‘life’ and from the first images above was in bad shape. Here is were Larry enters the picture of my story, as he decided that redoing the entire cabin was a project that needed to be started. In 1972 the great grand sons took the cabin apart, numbering each log and rebuilt using the old mortar mixed with new. See picture above after the restoration.
While the family did their best to keep an eye on the cabin, so did the vandals with nothing better to do than ruin the long loved family history of the Donley’s. It was only because of the fast response of the Lenox Township Fire Department that they were able to save the cabin from total destruction at the 29 Mile and Gratiot Road cabin. The Richmond Historical Society approached the family saying they would like to move the cabin to the little historical, village they were putting together at Bailey Park. After many hard discussions and thought, the Donely’s realized that probably the safest place and best place to preserve the cabin was to help the Historical Society with their venture. And so in 1998 the John Donley cabin was very carefully moved to Bailey Park. In 2017 the cabin was restored with some additional work were two logs were replaced, new roof beams and roof, windows and doors. Below, in 2019, the Donley family reunion, they try and hold every two years, now they gather in Richmond at Bailey Park.
You will find more stories like this in the Farming in Northern Macomb County, another ‘Images of America’ series book, due out in October 2021.
On that ‘wee note’, till next week.
Courtesy of Larry and John Donley and their book ‘The Donley Log Cabin An Oral History’
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Linda Osborne Cynowa 