Appendix E: Biographies
Brennan, Bergin, Keefe1
Mary Brennan (bap. 20 May 1828 – 25 May 1895) had a brother, James (1 February 1822 – 4 September 1886), who emigrated to the United States, arriving in New York on 9 May 1840.2 Both were born in Ballyhale, Kilkenny, Ireland, the children of Martin and Mary (Maher) Brenan [sic].3 It seems plausible that Mary Brennan, because she was a minor, arrived in the United States with James.
James Brennan took out initial naturalization papers in 1842 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and became a citizen of the United States on 20 February 1849 at the Hampden County Court of Common Pleas in Springfield.4 He resided in Springfield until his death.5
His occupation in the 1840s was probably that of laborer.6 In the early 1850s, he was employed by the Western (Boston and Albany) Railroad, and from the 1860s to 1880, his occupation is listed specifically as both fireman and engineer for the Western Railroad.7
James Brennan married Mary Hogan, but it has not been possible to locate a marriage record for them. Mary (Hogan) Brennan, who was born around 1827, died in Springfield on 26 July 1889, at the age of sixty-two.8 She as well was born in Ireland. According to the 1860 U.S. Federal Census (where the surname is spelled Brinnan), they had five children: Anna (14), John (12), Mary (9), James (6), and Margaret (1). Their daughter, Mary, married John Barrett, had three children, and lived in Springfield until her death at the age of eighty-one on 2 June 1931.9 It is to Mrs. Barrett that her aunt gave or ordered to be given (it was not bequeathed) the portrait of James Whistler painted in 1844 in St. Petersburg by C.A.F. Fiessler10 (see Image 24) and presented to to Mrs. Barrett’s aunt by Anna Whistler (see Images 1–5).
Another Brennan brother, Patrick, was a carpenter, living in Stonyford, County Kilkenny, Ireland, not far from Ballyhale.11 His interest in emigrating to the United States in 185012 may have been connected with the fact that their mother died in Ireland in late 1849 or early 1850.13 But Mary received a letter from him on 25 June 1850, saying he had decided “to remain in Stoney Ford.”14
While we know when Mary Brennan was baptized, we have no birth date for her, and documents for her marriage and death and the 1860 U.S. Federal Census give her age variously.15 All of the ages given indicate that when she went to work for the Whistlers she had to have been less than ten years old, which seems unlikely. If we assume that she was baptized in the year in which she was born, she would have been about fifteen in 1843, when we know for certain that she was in their employ. She may have been in their employ, however, from at least October 1842, when Anna Whistler and the children moved from Springfield to Stonington after Major Whistler’s (see Images 7–8, 21) departure for Russia.16
She traveled to Russia with Anna Whistler and the children in August 1843. Not long after their arrival, partly because of the death of Charles Donald, who had been her particular charge, she proposed returning to her brother James in Springfield, but then decided not to.17 Anna Whistler made efforts to arrange for her to have the companionship of nursemaids in the employ of other Whistler family friends, such as the Ropeses and Ellerbys. Mary became more courageous about making friends, but she seemed to seek out only other nursemaids.18 Arrangements were made on several occasions for her to travel to the United States and to visit her family in Ireland.19 She accompanied Anna Whistler and the children to England in the summers of 184720 and 1848, and remained in London in 1848 with Deborah Whistler Haden (see Images 17–19, 21),21 who was expecting her first child in December of that year. Thus, like James Whistler (see Images 24–29), Mary never returned to St. Petersburg again.
When Anna Whistler returned to the United States in the summer of 1849, she lived in Stonington with the Palmers (see Image 37) while deciding upon a more permanent place of residence, and Mary remained with her.22 Mary continued in the employ of Anna Whistler throughout most of the 1850s, but her situation was somewhat unstable. There are unexplained outbursts of rude behavior toward Anna Whistler recorded in the latter’s diary for January 1850, when they were living in Pomfret, their first move,23 but they may have been connected with the death of Mary’s mother.
The peripaties of Anna Whistler’s life and her financial difficulties seem to have been the cause of the instability of Mary’s life. Anna Whistler was poor after Major Whistler’s death, and the visits she made to family and friends were partly intended to save her money. Mary did not accompany Anna Whistler when the latter traveled to England for extended stays with family, nor when she went to visit her brother, Charles Johnston McNeill, in Florida. Anna Whistler also made visits in the United States to close friends – such as the Eastwicks, Harrisons, and Winanses – but it is not always clear what Mary did then. She may have gone to stay at these times with her brother James, whom she frequently visited.24 Both she and Anna Whistler suffered on these occasions.
At Christmas 1852, Anna Whistler was in London with the Hadens and did not return home until May 1853.25 She was concerned about having to write twice to Mary Brennan because she had not heard from her.26 In April of 1854, Anna Whistler and Mary were in Stonington when the former received an invitation to visit Baltimore. This left Mary disconsolate, and the offer to take her along drew only great indignation because Mary was afraid “to meet any linked with our breaking up.”27 Nevertheless, despite her fears, Mary was with Anna Whistler in Baltimore in autumn of 1854.28 Although she told Anna Whistler in December 1854 that she wanted to return to her New York connections,29 she stayed on. In 1855, because of her poverty, Anna Whistler shared a house with her nephew Donald McNeill Fairfax (see Image 38) and his first wife, Virginia Cary (Ragland) Fairfax, in Baltimore until April, but Mary was with her.30 In late November – early December 1855, with Anna Whistler’s permission, Mary visited her brother James for two weeks.31 In December of 1856, expecting that Anna Whistler would go to visit Charles Johnston McNeill in Florida, Mary informed James Brennan that he might “hope for her spending the winter in Springfield.”32 Mary found herself forced to stay in Springfield, to the mutual trial of herself and Anna Whistler, while Willie Whistler contemplated where he would next pursue his studies.33 Anna Whistler hoped Mary might find employment in Springfield with Mrs. Barnes, until she herself could “see [her] way clearer,”34 but that does not seem to have happened. Mary “cheered herself with the hope that Willie” might induce his mother “to keep house for him in Phila. and that she [might] be [their] fag again! never to leave [their] house!”35
In the winters of 1858–59 and 1859–60, Mary Brennan was again or still living in Springfield and was unable to leave there to help Anna Whistler move before spring 1860.36 She apparently had taken a new position in the late 1850s, for in 1860 she was registered in the U.S. Federal Census for Springfield and enumerated as a servant (Brinnin, age twenty-eight) living with Ellen Child [sic], a widow, at 6 Chestnut Street.37 The interesting fact in this census return is that one of the other two female servants in the Childe household was an Ellen Bergen, nineteen years old. She was most likely a relative of Martin Bergin, whom Mary Brennan married on 9 June 1861, at St. Michael’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Springfield.38
Martin Bergin (25 September 1834 – 4 May 1897) was also born in Ireland and was, like the Brennans, from Kilkenny.39 He arrived in New York in July 1851 and note was made that he was a minor.40 He was “naturalized in the Superior Court of Hampden County in Springfield. No specific date is given, but the naturalization occurred between 1853–1867.”41 It had to have occured before 1862, when Anna Whistler refers to New Haven as the Bergins’ domicile.42
His occupation is given in the marriage record as “grocer.” Although his place of residence is given there as Springfield, his name does not appear in the Springfield directories at all. In their marriage record, in 1861, Martin and Mary both give their age as twenty-six, making Mary two years younger than she was in the 1860 U.S. Federal Census. Their witnesses were James Welsh and Anne Bergin, and the officiating cleric was M.P. Gallagher. Martin’s parents are given as Stephen and Ellen. His mother’s maiden name was Murphy.43 The names of Mary’s parents are not given.
Mary (Brennan) Bergin died at 586 Grand Avenue in Ward 6, New Haven, Connecticut, on 25 May 1895.44 Her death certificate lists her age as fifty-six, but the age she gave on her marriage record in 1861 would have made her sixty years old at her death, and her baptism date suggests she was sixty-seven. The death notice in the New Haven Register states that Mrs. Martin Berigan [sic] would receive a solemn requiem mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New Haven.45 Her body was brought by train to Springfield on 27 May 1895. After her funeral service, she was buried in “cemetery plot #1259 in the Hill Section of Calvary Cemetery in [nearby] Chicopee.”46 The plot was purchased by her husband when she died.47
Martin Bergin “was in the grocery and meat business” in New Haven.48 At some time, he served as an alderman.49 He sold his business there, apparently after his wife’s death, “and intended to open a store in [Springfield] or Holyoke.”50 On 4 May 1897, while visiting his relatives in the Holyoke area, he died tragically in a hotel in Holyoke owned by a niece of his. The gas jet in his room “had not been turned fully off,” and he died of asphyxiation.51 His funeral took place on May 5 at the Church of the Holy Rosary, and he was buried in the same plot as his wife.52 They had no surviving children.53
Mary Brennan was devoted to the Whistler family. Her particular faithfulness to Anna Whistler was exemplified on Christmas Day 1845, when she gave her mistress “a carved ivory seal for [her] desk” with her initials on it in silver and “a chaste cart dog at the top.”54 On route to England in June 1847, Anna Whistler wrote her husband, assuring him for some unclear reason that Mary was not spoiled, but “modest, humble & trying to anticipate all our wants.”55 Mary seemed to justify this assessment when she offered to sleep on the floor of the cabin because of a lack of berths.56
When Major Whistler died, Mary communicated to Anna Whistler that she would not leave her and perhaps offered to take a smaller salary, for Anna Whistler wrote to James: “Tell my good Mary how gratifying it is to me to hear such proofs of her attachment to me—she will cheerfully then lighten my toils—for we must all do our part upon a very small income.”57 Anna Whistler described the hardworking young woman as “a host in herself.”58 And, as late as 1874, she received proof “of the faithful and loving attachment of [her] good old servant Mary who altho a very respectable Mrs Bergin residing in New Haven … sign[ed] herself [your] ‘Servant Mary’.”59 To this Anna Whistler responded: “There are not many like her.”60
A third surname needs to be grouped with Brennan and Bergin: that of Keefe (O’Keefe, Kief, O’Kiefe). Anna Whistler referred to a Thomas in 1849 when she wrote of James Brennan.61 While identifying James as Mary Brennan’s brother, she did not clarify who Thomas was. But, as a sister of Martin Bergin later married a Thomas Keefe, also from Ballyhale, Kilkenny,62 it seems plausible to assume that the abovementioned Thomas was Thomas Keefe. He was born on 9 August 1824 and arrived in New York on 1 August 1841,63 about a year after James Brennan. He made his domicile in Springfield, Massachusetts, from at least 1842, and became a citizen of the United States on 15 February 1847.64 In 1852, he was working at the Springfield depot.65 He married Margaret Bergin on 8 May 1853 in Cabotville (now Chicopee), Massachusetts.66 The names of Margaret Bergin’s parents are not given in the marriage record67; only the name of Thomas Keefe’s father, Richard, is given. Thomas’s occupation is given in the U.S. Federal Census for 1860 (Chicopee) as mason.68 At that time, the Keefes had three children: Mary (6), John (4), and Ella (2).69 Thomas Keefe is not recorded in the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, so he may have died between 1860 and 1870. Neither the statewide nor the local vital records record his death, but Margaret (Bergin) Keefe is listed as a widow in the Holyoke city directories in 1876.70 She continued to appear in the Holyoke city directories until 1911.71 The Holyoke City Clerk’s Office has no death record for her.72
A final intriguing question arises from these biographies. All the persons were from Ballyhale, Kilkenny, the population of which in the 1830s was 369.73 Who or what could have been the impetus for the departure of these three families from this tiny town in Ireland with the specific destination of Springfield, Massachusetts?
Notes
1 I am deeply grateful to Margaret Humberston, supervising librarian of the Genealogy and Local History Library, Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, Springfield, Massachusetts, for the painstaking research she carried out on my behalf in Springfield, Massachusetts, and New Haven, Connecticut, on the Brennan, Bergin and Keefe families.
2 Mary Flood, Kilkenny Archaeological Society (KAS), Kilkenny, Ireland, to E. Harden, 7 March 2002; Death Certificate for [Mary] Bergin, Bureau of Vital Statistics State of Connecticut; Springfield Daily Republican, September 6, 1886; Naturalization papers for James Brennan, Waltham, MA, NAUS. The KAS found only one baptismal record for a Mary Brennan in Ballyhale in the period 1823–1833. This Mary Brennan had three siblings, born in 1830, 1832, and 1835. Anna Whistler never refers to them in her correspondence, so perhaps they died. That this Mary Brennan is the one we are looking for seems borne out by the fact that a James Walsh was a sponsor at the baptism in Ballyhale, and a James Welsh was a witness at her wedding in Springfield (M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 11 January 2002).
Anna Whistler said her Mary “was a farmers daughter in the north of Ireland” (Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 1205 Arch St., Philadelphia, Nov. 11th [1858], GUL: Whistler Collection, W495). Anna Whistler was mistaken. Kilkenny was a town in Kilkenny County, located in the south of Ireland (Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America [New York: Oxford University Press, 1985], frontispiece map).
3 Ballyhale Catholic Parish records, Register 1, p. 73 for Mary Brennan. “We can confirm that all Catholic Baptisms marriages and burials prior to 1900 have been computerised. However, in relation to the Catholic Parish of Ballyhale the very earliest baptisms date from 1823, and marriages from 1855. Hence we are not in a position to provide the marriage of Mary’s parents if this took place in Ballyhale” (Mary Flood, KAS, to E. Harden, 7 March 2002). For James Brennan’s birthplace, see NA: J. Brennan.
4 M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 2 April 2002; NA: J. Brennan.
5 Springfield Daily Republican, September 6, 1886.
6 His initial application for naturalization in 1842 gives his occupation as laborer (NA: J. Brennan). In August 1849, he and someone named Thomas offered through Mary Brennan that wherever Anna Whistler chose to live they were willing “to leave their work for a few days if [she needed] their assistance in unpacking the furniture” arriving from Russia. James Brennan promised that he would help his mother “if he can get the same wages he had formerly,” because “his work is increased and his profits reduced under the present system” (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Stonington. Aug. 23rd. 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W389).
7 When James Brennan acquainted Anna Whistler with his situation in 1849 (see previous Note), she felt she had to ask her step-son, George, to write to a Mr. Gray about a job for him (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Stonington. August 23rd. 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W389). Henry Gray (c. 1814 – 19 December 1870), a brushmaker in Boston, had received “proprietorship of one of the restaurants” on the Providence and Stonington Railroad in 1838 through Major Whistler. He later joined Major Whistler in Springfield and became a collector on the passenger trains of the Western Railroad, succeeding to master mechanic. On the retirement of General James Barnes as superintendent of the Western Railroad in 1850, Henry Gray was appointed to the position, which he held for seventeen years (“Death of Henry Gray,” Springfield Daily Republican, December 20, 1870). He apparently did help James Brennan, as the latter was employed by the Western Railroad starting in the 1850s. See Bessey’s Springfield Directory for 1851-1852 (Springfield: M. Bessey, 1851), p. 44 (name spelled Brannon). James Brennan is not indexed in the 1850 US Federal Census. The 1860, 1870, and 1880 censuses all identify his occupation.
8 Springfield Daily Republican, July 28, 1889.
9 Springfield Evening Union, June 2, 1931, p. 4; Springfield Daily Republican, June 3, 1931, p. 4. According to the records of the Diocese of Springfield Catholic Cemeteries, she was buried in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Springfield, Section 6, Lot 37, Grave 4E (Lynn Carney, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 10 April 2002).
10 This watercolor portrait has already been described in the biography of James Whistler in “The Whistlers as They Were in the 1840s.” It would seem to have been gifted rather than bequeathed to Mary Barrett, as neither Mary Bergin’s will nor that of her husband contains any reference to it (Estate of Mary Bergin, no. 13, 171 and Estate of Martin Bergin, no. 13, 172, New Haven Probate District, Connecticut State Library, Hartford, CT).
See William Whistler to James Whistler St. Petersburg 10th May 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W978, in which reference is made to the packing up of Mary Brennan’s pictures. See also Springfield Daily Republican, July 8, 1934.
11 George Henry Bassett, Kilkenny City and County Guide and Directory, facsimile edition (Kilkenny, Ireland: Grangesilvia, 2001), pp. 288, 289.
12 On 1 May 1850, Anna Whistler had received twenty dollars for Mary Brennan from Captain William Henry Swift, her late husband’s brother-in-law, who had power of attorney to act for Anna Whistler in financial matters. The money, an “advance of [Mary’s] next quarters wages [was] to be applied by her for sending for her brother in Ireland” (entry of May 1st: April 29, AMW 1850 Diary). Mary Brennan was also receiving interest on three hundred dollars invested for her by Captain Swift (entry of July 23: July 21, AMW 1850 Diary).
13 Entry of February 26: February 24, AMW 1850 Diary.
14 Entry of June 25: June 23, AMW 1850 Diary.
15 Marriage Record (1861), Massachusetts Statewide Vital Records; Certificate of Death for [Mary] Bergin, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Connecticut; 1860 US Federal Census.
16 It is known that the Whistlers had a nursemaid named Mary while in Stonington, and that she left their employ to marry. Her marriage took place on 12 January 1840. A Mary Russell was traveling on the ill-fated Lexington (see Image 46), which burned at sea on 13 January, while on route from New York to Stonington. Her purpose in traveling to Stonington had been to take leave of the Whistlers (Boston Transcript, January 25, 1840; Salem Gazette, January 28, 1840). It seems plausible to assume that Russell was her married name. The details of this terrible disaster, in which only 4 passengers were saved, are to be found in Benjamin F. Thompson, History of Long Island from Its Discovery and Settlement to the Present Time, ed. Charles J. Werner, 3rd ed., 3 vols. (New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1918), vol. 1, pp. 411–420. The Whistlers moved to Springfield in the summer of 1840. There is no evidence, however, that Mary Brennan, who had probably arrived in the United States in May 1840 with her brother and would have gone with him to Massachusetts, replaced Mary Russell. I wish to thank Colonel (retired) Merl M. Moore of Falls Church, Va., for the Boston Transcript reference. Colonel Moore, when we met in the late 1980s, was engaged in research on American artists up to 1860 and was affiliated in his project with the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
George Washington Whistler was doubly grieved by the death on 1 January 1840 of his fifteen-year-old son, Joseph Swift Whistler, and by the loss of a friend and acquaintances on the Lexington. He did not, however, refer in any way to Mary Russell (George W. Whistler to General J.G. Swift, Springfield, 31 January 1840, NYPL: Swift Papers).
17 Entry for January [1/13] 1844, NYPL: AWPD, Part I.
18 Mary Brennan “soon became friendly with [the] English nurse” of the Princess Dolgorukii on board the ship to England in 1847 (Anna Whistler to Major Whistler, Tuesday morning June 8 1847. Steamer Nicolai, GUL: Whistler Collection, W353). She was also witness at the marriage of Jane Morris (nursemaid in 1845 “at Mr. Morgan’s,” BRBC STP 1845, fol. 40) to John Tilt at the English Church on 20 May/June 1, 1848 (PREC STP, no. 582[8]).
19 In addition to Anna Whistler’s diary entries, see, e.g., Anna Whistler to Mr. Harrison 62 Sloane St. June 19, 1849, LC: P-W, box 34, in which it is reported that Mary is going “to visit her friends in Ireland while I am in Liverpool the week previous to our embarking for N York”; Anna Whistler to Mr. and Mrs. Harrison Fleetwood. Monday. July 15ƭ 1849, in which it is reported that “Mary is now visiting her mother in Ireland.”
20 Anna Whistler to Major Whistler, Tuesday morning June 8th 1847. Steamer Nicolai, GUL: Whistler Collection, W353.
21 Anna Whistler to James Whistler. In my room. St. Petersburg. tuesday evening Sept 26th 1848, GUL: Whistler Collection, W361: “I promise both you and Mary we shall send for you to come to us.”
22 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Stonington Aug 23rd. 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W389. Mary has returned from a trip to her brother James with the report that both he and someone named Thomas have offered to take off a few days to help Anna Whistler unpack her furniture wherever she decides to live.
23 Entries of Friday, January 18: January 16 and Monday, January 21: January 19, AMW 1850 Diary.
24 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Scarsdale Monday evening Dec. 15th [18]56, GUL: Whistler Collection, W472.
25 Anna Whistler to my own dear friend 62 Sloane Street Christmas Eve 1852, LC: P-W, box 34, fols. 35–36; Anna Whistler to my own dear friend 62 Sloane St. Feb. 21st, 1853 Monday afternoon, LC: P-W, box 34, fols. 37–40; McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, p. 132. The “dear friend” is Margaret Getfield Hill.
26 Anna Whistler to my own dear friend 62 Sloane St. Christmas Eve 1852, LC: P-W, box 34, fols. 35–36. The “dear friend” is Margaret Getfield Hill.
27 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Stonington. Thursday afternoon 27th. 1854, GUL: Whistler Collection, W436. The 27th fell on a Thursday in April and July in 1854. As James was preparing for a June exam, this letter would seem to have been written in April.
28 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Monday morning Oct. 30th [1854], GUL: Whistler Collection, W439. The letter cannot be dated earlier than 1853, as the death of Willie Wyatt [McNeill], referred to in it, occurred on 4 June 1853. It is connected with W436 and should probably be dated 1854. Anna Whistler expected in W436 to stay at the Perrine family’s dacha. Mary made a sacrifice in coming to Baltimore with her, expecting to see James, but James was evidently preferring the luxurious life at “Alexandroffsky,” the Winans estate in Baltimore, to being with his mother and her in more modest accommodations. Both Mary Brennan and Anna Whistler were very upset. For Mary’s attachment to James see also Anna Whistler to James Whistler, 176 Preston St. Jan 1st. 1855, GUL: Whistler Collection, W443; Anna Whistler to James Whistler [Baltimore] 8 January 1855, W444; and Anna Whistler to James Whistler Baltimore 15 January 1855, W445.
29 Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Baltimore, 7 December 1854, GUL: Whistler Collection, W442.
30 Anna Whistler to James Whistler, 1 & 2 January 1855 [Baltimore], GUL: Whistler Collection, W443; Anna Whistler to James Whistler Monday evening Jan 8th. 1855 [Baltimore], W444; Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Monday PM Jan 15th 1855 [Baltimore], W445. Anna Whistler suffered in this arrangement, as she and Virginia Fairfax did not like each other (Anna Whistler to James Whistler 20 or 21 March 1855 [Baltimore], GUL: Whistler Collection, W450; and Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Pomfret and Stonington, 2–5 November 1855, W464.
31 Anna Whistler to Deborah Haden, Scarsdale, 10 Dec. 1855, GUL: Whistler Collection, W465.
32 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Scarsdale Monday evening Dec. 15th [18]56, GUL: Whistler Collection, W472. Mary wrote to her brother on the 14th. She went in February 1857 (Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Scarsdale Cottage, Thursday Jan 29 [1857], GUL: Whistler Collection, W475).
33 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Richfield Sulphur Springs July 13th [1857], GUL: Whistler Collection, W480. W481, also written from Richfield Springs, is dated July 15, 1857; thus the tentative year assigned to W480.
34 Anna Whistler to James Whistler. Alexandroffsky Villa April 27. [18]57, GUL: Whistler Collection, W478.
35 See Note 33 in this biography. Also Anna Whistler to James Whistler St Johns River E Florida March 23rd 1858, GUL: Whistler Collection, W490. For Mary’s attachment to Willie, see the poignant letter from Anna Whistler to James Whistler, 13 February 1855, GUL: Whistler Collection, W447.
36 Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 1205 Arch St., Nov. 22, [18]59, GUL: Whistler Collection, W502; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 1205 Arch St., March 27, 1860, W503; and Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 148 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, May 7, 1860, W505.
37 Ellen Childe was the widow of Captain John Childe (30 August 1802 – 2 February 1858), a graduate of West Point, Class of 1827. He resigned his commission on 1 December 1835, and went on to become an eminent builder of railroads, beginning with the Western Railroad. He was, therefore, a colleague of Major Whistler, to whom he had rented the property at 6 Chestnut Street in the early 1840s. On 27 September 1854, Captain Childe’s first wife, Laura (Dwight) Childe, and their eldest daughter, Lelia, were lost at sea in a ship’s collision. He next married on 23 October 1856, Ellen Wills Healey, who, at his death on 2 February 1858, was left with their son, John Healy Childe, born 18 January 1858, and her step-daughter, Mary, twelve years old (1860 US Federal Census; Charlotte Edwards Warner, A Chronicle of Ancient Chestnut Street [Springfield, MA: C.W. Bryan, 1897], pp. 24–25; Chapin, Sketches of Old Springfield, pp. 140–141; IGI).
38 Marriage Record (1861), Massachusetts Statewide Vital Records.
39 Marriage Record (1861), Massachusetts Statewide Vital Records; Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897.
40 M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 9 May 2002; Naturalization papers for Martin Bergin, Waltham, MA, NAUS.
41 M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 2 April 2002. Margaret Humberston “tried to get copies of his papers from the Supreme Judicial Archives, but they wrote back to say that their records are incomplete for that period.” See also the record card for Martin Bergin, noting Certificate Number 552 1/8 – Vol. 1 – Yr. 1853–1867, with the date of naturalization not shown, Waltham, MA, NAUS.
42 Anna Whistler to Mr. Gamble, Northampton, February 19, 1862, GUL: Whistler Collection, W512.
43 Massachusetts Statewide Vital Records, 1841–1905, vol. 472, p. 736. The KAS reports “no ‘match’ for him with parents as given,” but “a search of county database records revealed a family of Stephen Bergin and Ellen Murphy recorded in the Catholic Parish of Lisdowney.” Among the children is an Ellen Bergin (bap. 1 September 1837) (Mary Flood, KAS, to E. Harden, 19 February 2004, 31 March 2004). The figures for Ellen Bergin’s age also vary, like those for Mary Brennan.
44 Death Certificate for [Mary] Bergin, Bureau of Vital Statistics, State of Connecticut.
45 New Haven Register, May 25, 1895. St. Patrick’s was a church, not a cathedral. Its death records did not begin until 1951, and it closed in the 1960s (Maria Medina, Archdiocese of Hartford, to E. Harden, 16 December 2004).
46 Springfield Sunday Republican, May 26, 1895, p. 8. The first Catholic parish in Springfield was not established until 1847, while the earliest Catholic church in the area, Holy Name of Jesus Church, located in Chicopee, was established in 1838 (Rev. Richard F. Meehan, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 27 February 2002). Mary Brennan would have attended the Chicopee Church, and this may be why she wished to be buried in Chicopee.
47 M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 2 April 2002.
48 Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897.
49 Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897.
50 Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897.
51 Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897; Massachusetts Statewide Vital Records, 1841–1905, vol. 472, p. 736. His death was deemed accidental.
52 Springfield Daily Republican, May 6, 1897: p. 8, col. 4; M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 2 April 2002.
53 Springfield Daily Republican, May 5, 1897. The baptismal records for St. Patrick’s Church, New Haven, now kept at St. Michael’s Church, New Haven, were searched from 1861 to 1868, but no Bergin children were located.
54 Entry of Saturday night, December 27 [1845], NYPL: AWPD, Part II.
55 Anna Whistler to Major Whistler, Tuesday morning, June 8th, 1847. Steamer Nicolai, GUL: Whistler Collection, W353. She had expressed similar sentiments in the entry for Thursday [Sept.] 26ƫ [1844], NYPL: AWPD, Part I.
56 Anna Whistler to Major Whistler, Tuesday morning, June 8th, 1847. Steamer Nicolai, GUL: Whistler Collection, W353. This Anna Whistler would not permit.
57 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Alexandroffsky May 10ƫ 1849. Thursday, GUL: Whistler Collection, W388; Anna Whistler to Mr. Harrison, 62 Sloane St. June 19th 1849, LC: P-W, box 34.
58 Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Pomfret tuesday night Feb. 10ƫ, GUL: Whistler Collection, W406. They were preparing to move to Scarsdale. Although no year is given, it is most likely 1852. Anna Whistler also informed James that “Mary was delighted to hear from [him].” See also Anna Whistler to Meg, [Stonington] Friday afternoon 20ƫ, LC: P-W, box 34, in which Mary’s labors to make things nice in their “dwindled circle” are reported.
59 Anna Whistler to Mary Emma Eastwick, Albyns Essex Sept. 8th, 1874 [Sept.] 9; [London] 2 Lindsey Houses Sept. 23 [1874], LC: P-W, box 34. The “dear Sister” addressed here is Mary Emma Eastwick.
60 Anna Whistler to Mary Emma Eastwick, Albyns Essex Sept. 8th, 1874 [Sept.] 9; [London] 2 Lindsey Houses Sept. 23 [1874]. See other comments about their mutual attachment in GUL: Whistler Collection, Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 1205 Arch St., Nov. 22, [18]59, W502; Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 1205 Arch St., March 27, 1860, W503; and Anna Whistler to James H. Gamble, 148 Joralemon St., Brooklyn, May 7, 1860, W505.
61 Anna Whistler to James Whistler, Stonington. Aug 23rd. 1849, GUL: Whistler Collection, W389. She also referred to a Thomas in 1838 (Anna Whistler to Catherine McNeill, Stonington, Ct. May 1st 1838, GUL: Whistler Collection, W345). We know, however, that he was not Thomas Keefe, as the latter did not come to the United States until 1841. Kate McDiarmid says that the Stonington Thomas, an Irishman, worked for the Whistlers for eight years: first in Lowell, Massachusetts, going with them to Stonington, when they moved there in 1837, and to Springfield in 1840 (McDiarmid, Whistler’s Mother, pp. 30, 31, 32). She recorded some of Thomas’s reminiscences of the Whistler family, but, as she often did not cite her sources, we have only her tantalizing statement that these reminiscences were published in the newspapers (p. 30).
62 Marriages registered in the Town of Chicopee County of Hampshire for the year 1853, p. 367.
63 Naturalization papers for Thomas Kief, Waltham, MA, NAUS. The KAS reports “no record of Thomas (O)Keefe’s baptism noted from Ballyhale Catholic records which commence in 1824, understandably they may be incomplete for the early years” (Mary Flood, KAS, to E. Harden, 19 February 2004).
64 NA: T. Kief.
65 Anna Whistler to James Whistler Pomfret tuesday night Feb. 10 [1852], GUL: Whistler Collection, W406. Although no year is given, it is most likely 1852, as, in the 1850s 10 February fell on a Tuesday only in 1852.
66 Marriages registered in the Town of Chicopee County of Hampshire for the year 1853, p. 367.
67 However, the abovementioned county database records revealed that Stephen Bergin and Ellen Murphy had a daughter, Margaret (bap. 22 May 1831) (Mary Flood, KAS, to E. Harden, 19 February 2004, 31 March 2004).
68 US Federal Census for Chicopee 1860.
69 US Federal Census for Chicopee 1860.
70 M. Humberston, Springfield, MA, to E. Harden, 9 May 2002.
71 M. Humberston to E. Harden, 9 May 2002.
72 M. Humberston to E. Harden, 9 May 2002.
73 M. Humberston to E. Harden, 9 May 2002; Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, with Historical and Statistical Descriptions, 2 vols. (Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1984), first published in 1837.
