Newspaper “Jollies”

Or, The Marriage of Michael J. Sullivan

Michael Joseph Sullivan and Helen Elizabeth Moran

Note: Basic genealogical information for this couple can be found here. In brief: the Canadian-born Michael “Mike” Joseph Sullivan (1859-1951), son of Timothy Sullivan and Hanora Enright, emigrated with his parents and siblings to Polk County, Minnesota in 1878. In December 1887, Mike Sullivan went up to Huntley township, Carleton Co., Ontario to marry Helen “Nellie” Elizabeth Moran (1866-1947), daughter of Alexander “Sandy” Moran and Mary Leavy. When the newly-married Nellie (Moran) Sullivan arrived at Polk County, Minnesota in late February 1888, she already had two siblings in the area: her brother John Moran (husband of Elizabeth Malcomson) of Forest River, Walsh County, North Dakota, and her sister Mary Ernestine “Tina” (Moran) Lavallee, widow of Joseph, of Fisher, Polk County, Minnesota (and later of East Grand Forks).

Newspaper ‘Jollies’

In a 1916 survey of “Polk County Newspapers,” W.E. McKenzie of the Crookston Times opined that Captain Arnold’s briefly-lived paper the Northern Tier had failed because Captain Arnold was “a good mixer but a poor financier.” The columns of his paper, McKenzie explained,

were crowded with personal ‘jollies’ for Tom, Dick, and Harry. Every citizen was mentioned by his or her Christian name, and they were all smilingly present when the roll was called in the local items each week. There was no room left for advertising…¹

Now, I have no idea whether or not this is a fair and accurate account of the failure of Arnold’s newspaper. But I do like the term “jollies,” and I think it captures the tone with which Frank J. Duffy, editor of the East Grand Forks Courier (East Forks Forks, Polk County, Minnesota), spoke of the marriage of Michael J. Sullivan. It is a jokey, insidery tone, highly gratifying to those in on the joke, and possibly amusing, though possibly a bit irritating, to those on the outside. But whether you find this jocular tone amusing or irritating, there’s no question that newspaper “jollies” are a gift to the genealogist.

Who was Frank J. Duffy?

Born at Watertown, Wisconsin, Francis “Frank” J. Duffy (1855-1931) was the son of Patrick Duffy and Frances Williamson, emigrants from County Cavan, Ireland. He began his newspaper career as a typesetter in New York City, then took a European tour in the spring and summer of 1882, before settling at East Grand Folks, Minnesota. From late 1882 to 1900, Frank J. Duffy was the editor and proprietor of the weekly East Grand Forks Courier.² He was also a good friend of the Sullivan brothers of Polk County, Minnesota.

Francis J. Duffy married Mary Frances McCabe, daughter of Thomas McCabe and Catherine Duggan, at Watertown, Wisconsin on July 11, 1888. His wife died at East Grand Forks, Minnesota on August 5, 1891, leaving him a widower with two young daughters, one of them only six weeks old.³ He never remarried, and he died at Watertown, Wisconsin on May 25, 1931.

‘Another Good Man Gone Wrong’

The Grand Forks Herald (copying items from the East Grand Forks Courier) published several items on Michael J. Sullivan’s marriage, the first of which appeared on December 12, 1887.⁴ Here we read that Michael J. Sullivan, “one of nature’s noblemen,” will soon start for Huntley, Ontario, with the purpose of his trip coyly revealed to be that of matrimony. The bride is not named, but we learn (again, these “jollies” are a gift to the genealogist) that she “had visited here for several months in 1886.”

On the same page is a jokey item about a Jas. [James] McClinchy on “an excursion to Canada to visit his old home.” Mr. McClinchy is “a bachelor,” Duffy reports, “and the supposition is he has gone to ‘Candy’ [Canada] to lay siege to some obdurate heart.”

Also on the same page, and above the notices for Michael J. Sullivan and James McClinchy, is Duffy’s facetious complaint about young men going east, “and particularly to Canada, to marry.” The Northwest (i.e., the Grand Forks area) had plenty of worthy young women seeking “to acquire homes and husbands,” and many of these girls were, Duffy assured his readers, “the peer of any in the country.” And yet the young man “turns his back upon the girls here,” and insists on “traveling a thousand and one miles” to marry a bride from the east, and particularly from Canada. “It is not giving the girls at home a fair shake,” wrote Duffy, though surely with tongue firmly in cheek. Although Frank J. Duffy would only go about 600 miles east to Wisconsin to marry Mary Frances McCabe in July 1888, he was likely already contemplating marriage, and may have already been engaged to be married, when he wrote this item in December 1887 — in which case he was poking fun not only at Sullivan and McClinchy, but also at himself (and of course, those in the know would have been in on the joke).

On February 8, 1888, the Grand Forks Herald — copying an item from the East Grand Forks Courier, which the Courier had, in turn, copied from the Almonte Gazette (Almonte, Ontario) — published a marriage notice which revealed the name of Michael J. Sullivan’s bride: she was “Miss Nellie Moran, daughter of Alexander Moran of the township of Huntly [Huntley, Carleton Co.], Ontario.” Note that it was Frank J. Duffy, the editor of the Courier, who added the jokey title (Another Good Man Gone Wrong), along with the information that Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan are “expected here [i.e., in East Grand Forks, Minnesota] next week.”

But Duffy at the Courier was wrong about the expected arrival date of the newlyweds. On February 20, 1888, the Grand Forks Herald reprinted his report that “M.J. Sullivan and bride are still visiting relatives and friends in Huntley, Ont.”

‘Let me down easy’

And then on March 2, 1888, the Herald (again, copying from the Courier) published no less than four items, all on the same page, and all referencing the recent marriage of Michael J. Sullivan:

This is the editor of the Courier using his paper to engage in some good-natured teasing at the expense of his friend. “Let me down easy,” Michael J. Sullivan pleads, with his gift of an Irish clay pipe (Item 2, above). But Frank J. Duffy will do no such thing, he is clearly having too much fun. The third item pokes fun at the starry-eyed bliss of the newly-married young man, who has yet to face the “stern realities” (i.e., a wife and children to support) of the marital state. And while Item 4 is mostly a chatty, newsy item about a party held in the couple’s honour (a party which Duffy himself almost certainly attended, given the amount of detail he provides), this item too ends with a jest: while the bride was congratulated upon her recent marriage, apparently the bridegroom met with unstinting sympathy.

Duffy did not seriously mean to suggest, of course, that Mike Sullivan deserved to be commiserated for returning to Minnesota with “his fair young bride” from Canada. This was good-humoured banter of “the ol’ ball and chain” variety. But was he also thinking of his own situation when he joked about the “stern realities” of wedded life? By now, Duffy was certainly contemplating marriage: he would soon make a visit to his hometown of Watertown, Wisconsin, where the Watertown News published a “jolly” about his matrimonial designs on March 7, 1888.

Though Duffy clearly relished a jest at the expense of the local bachelors and benedicts, he certainly did not adopt this jokey tone for every man who was about to marry, or who had recently married. As reprinted by the Grand Forks Herald, the East Grand Forks Courier printed many marriage notices that were more serious in tone. To the left, for example, is an item on another Canadian-born resident of the Grand Forks area going back up to Canada to marry. The tone here is markedly different: much less casual, if not quite formal, with an approving nod to Mr. Hope’s intention of fulfilling a promise, and with a respectful commendation of the lady’s high rank as an educator in her native town of Perth (Lanark Co., Ontario). Duffy no doubt realized that his brand of humour would not suit everyone, and that a man who was not a close friend, who was not already in on the joke, might take offense.

A Sullivan Soiree

Recall that, in his first notice of Michael J. Sullivan’s marriage, Duffy wrote that Sullivan’s bride was “no stranger to many of our people,” as she had visited the area “for several months” in 1886. She would have been visiting with her brother John Moran (of Forest River, Walsh Co., North Dakota) and/or her sister Tina (Moran) Lavallee (of Fisher, Polk County, Minnesota). Had Duffy previously published a newspaper “jolly” which made reference to Nellie Moran’s presence in the Grand Forks area in 1886? Of course he had.

In October 1886, Duffy had published a breezy account of a party he had attended at the home of County Commissioner Sullivan (i.e., Timothy, father of Michael J. Sullivan). As reprinted by the Grand Forks Herald on October 23, 1886, this item reveals that Nellie Moran had also attended this party, as had Rose Lavallee, sister-in-law of Nellie’s sister Tina (Moran) Lavallee. Here Duffy pokes fun at two of his friends: Mike Sullivan, who had thoughtlessly failed to introduce Duffy to two of the female guests; and Dennis Dwyer, who was apparently a favourite with the young ladies of East Grand Forks. Both of these friends would go on to marry young ladies who had attended the Sullivan soiree: Mike Sullivan of course married Nellie Moran on January 25, 1888; while Dennis Dwyer married Rose Lavallee on August 27, 1890.

Thanks to Frank J. Duffy’s newspaper “jollies,” I know more about the courtship and marriage of Mike Sullivan and Nellie Moran than can be found in census returns or vital records. I do have to wonder what Nellie Moran made of these jokes, which were, after all, partly at her expense. Was she heartily amused? deeply offended? secretly flattered? or perhaps some strange combination of the above? This I will never know. But I strongly suspect she saved the newspaper clippings to share with her family back in Huntley, where they all had a good laugh.

1. W.E. McKenzie, “The Newspapers of Polk County,” Chapter 10 of Compendium of history and biography of Polk County, Minnesota, ed. R.I. Holcombe and William H. Bingham (Minneapolis, 1916), p. 92 ↩︎
2. In the late 1890s to early 1900s, Frank J. Duffy got into some pretty serious legal difficulties at Grand Forks (see the page for Francis J. Duffy at Reshaping the Tornado Belt for a few details), and ended up owing $9,500 to a Jacob Dobmeier (Grand Forks Herald, May 7, 1904, p. 8). He sold the Courier to B.O. Seymour in 1900. Writing in 1916, W.E. McKenzie (see note 1) claimed that Duffy was still living on the fortune he had made in East Grand Forks. ↩︎
3. Ruth M. Duffy, who never married, was born at East Grand Forks, MN on June 22, 1889, and died at Watertown, WI on February 5, 1965. Helen Duffy, who was born at East Grand Forks, MN on June 25, 1891, died at Watertown, WI (at the home of her grandmother) on December 24, 1891. ↩︎
4. Since I do not have access to the East Grand Forks Courier (which is available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society), I have discovered only those items which were reprinted in the Grand Forks Herald (which is available online through newspapers.com [subscription-only]). ↩︎