Railway Ancestors – Ottawa Valley Irish

Thomas Benton

Born at Clonganhue, Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary in 1826, Thomas Benton was the son of Thomas Benton Sr., a tailor, and Catherine (‘Kitty’) Dwyer.

Thomas Benton emigrated to North America (probably first to the United States) in the early 1850s. By 1856, he was in Ontario, in the Gananoque area, working on the construction of a Grand Trunk Railway line. His brother-in-law Cornelius Harrington (originally of Rossnagrena, Kilcaskan, Co. Cork) was also a GTR labourer at Gananoque. It was at Gananoque, on 14 April 1856, that Thomas Benton married Honora Ryan, originally of Curraghafoil, Doon, Co. Limerick, daughter of Michael Ryan and Bridget Lahey.

The item below, a ‘Missing Friends’ advertisement from the Boston Pilot, dated 30 June 1855, suggests that Thomas Benton had been in North America (and at Edgar County, Illinois?) for at least a few years before he turned up in Gananoque in 1856.

Ad placed in the Boston Pilot, 30 June 1855, by Thomas’s older brother John

John James Lahey

John James Lahey was born at March township, Carleton Co., Ontario in 1858, the son of John Lahey and Margaret Jane Killeen.

As a contractor, and working with his father John Lahey, John James Lahey helped build parts of the Old Pontiac Pacific Junction (later Pontiac division of the CPR) and the Canadian Pacific short line at Ste. Anne de Bellevue. He was also engaged in railway construction work in the state of Maine. When he died, he received a floral tribute from Colonel V.I. Smart, Deputy Minister of Railways and Canals, for whom his daughter Mary Laura Lahey worked as personal secretary.

Allan Jerome Moran

Born in Ottawa in 1897, Allan Jerome Moran was the son of Alexander Michael Moran and Anna (‘Annie’) Maria Benton.

As a young man, Al Moran worked as a stenographer for the Grand Trunk Railway, later the CNR. His brother Orville also worked for the CNR.

He later worked for many years as a clerk/timekeeper for the Gatineau Power Company, a subsidiary of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

He married Mary Catherine Lahey in 1932.

John Lahey

John Lahey was born at March township, Carleton Co., Ontario in 1837, the son of James Lahey (originally of Ballymacegan, Lorrha, Co. Tipperary) and Ann Armstrong (originally of Annagh, Co. Cavan).

On 12 January 1858, he married Margaret Jane Killeen, daughter of Denis Killeen (originally of Meelick, Co. Galway) and Mary Ahern (originally of Co. Cork). John and Margaret Jane had 5 children, born between December 1858 and February 1867.

At some point in the late 1860s or very early 1870s, John Lahey left his family. In the 1871 census, his absence was recorded by the enumerator’s comment: ‘Husband left.’ A decade later, John Lahey was still absent, and now presumed dead: in the 1881 census, Margaret Jane (Killeen) Lahey was enumerated as the widowed head of a household that included her 5 children and her niece Bridget Loreto Killeen (a Seamstress Ancestor).

Fortunately, the ‘widowed’ Margaret Jane did not see fit to remarry, for she was not a widow at all. By 1884, John Lahey had returned to his family in South March, where he set himself up as a contractor. He helped build the stone church of St. Isidore (1887), which was built on the 2 acres of land that his uncle, John Lahey the Elder, had donated to the Roman Catholic Church in 1859. And he was also engaged in railway construction: as a contractor, John Lahey helped build parts of the Old Pontiac Pacific Junction (later Pontiac division of the CPR) and the Canadian Pacific short line at Ste. Anne de Bellevue.