Irish O’Plenty

Kathryn “Kate” Dooley, or Katie Doodle Bug as her Father used to call her, was young when she moved from Ballina, Ireland to Pennsylvania with her family. Ballina was first recorded a settlement around 1375 when a monastery was founded. Kate’s parents grew up there and saw many changes over the years.

Kate’s parents wanted a new life for their family so when they had the chance to sell what little land and possessions they had, they did. The promise of the United States of America called them in 1858 and so, with a small trunk for each family member and a large one for family heirlooms Kate made the journey with her parents and three sisters.

Kate was 6 when the family immigrated to America so she doesn’t remember much, but she did remember the ship they came over on and how all of them slept in one small room.  She remembers the small apartment they spent a good amount of her childhood in, as it was where birth of the 3 siblings; a boy and 2 more girls, took place. Katie Doodle Bug fell right in the middle of the large family and the nickname was at first thought to be because she was the youngest, but her father kept it up to make her feel special because she was in the middle.

They were a hard working family and saved enough to buy a small home. Her father worked for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad as a track laborer – back-breaking work he would have you know – while he saved for their new home. As soon as she and each of her sisters were old enough, at the ripe old age of 12, they worked in a Wilkes-Barre silk mill. Their mother did laundry for people for coins and that money feed the family for years.

Kate married James Brennan, a textile salesman she met at a local dance in her twenties. Before then her parents thought she would never get married, so they were quite pleased when James asked for her hand in marriage. They were even willing to put aside their disappointment at her marrying someone who wasn’t Irish because as far as they were concerned she could find someone in their small community of Irish-American people. But Kate and James were in love so her parents said, “At least there is that.”

Kate and James did not live far from her parents and most of her family. It was extremely helpful to have her parents near when raising her three children. Lawrence, Francis and Julia. Lawrence and Frances came to the family in the traditional way but Julia arrived unconventionally.

Kate and James had befriended Julia, a young woman who had fallen pregnant and was blissfully happy in her marriage. The young mother died after child birth from what was likely an infection and the father, grief stricken and unable to function and raise a baby on his own, asked Kate and James to raise her. He’d wanted Baby Julia to know her first mother and father through personal stories that Kate and James could tell. Kate and her family welcomed Baby Julia in their family as the unexpected surprise she was; and they cherished her. Years later Julia’s first father would come to meet her and find a healthy, vibrant, young woman who knew all about him and his beloved. Her namesake, his wife.

Just as the light moved through the window and hit Kate’s face a photographer took this picture. Julia had paid for the photographer to come to the house on Kate’s 80th birthday. Julia treasured this photo and it was passed to her eldest daughter. She told the story of how Nana became her mother. She smiled when she told about how she watched Kate embrace her first father on the very day this photo was taken. He, who’d been welcomed to the celebration of Kate’s well-loved life, and how she saw her mother crying and overheard her tell him “Thank you for letting us raise your daughter.”

Inspired by Charlie O’Hay, who provided “facts” about our Katie Doodle Bug, except for that nickname. Charlie blogs here.

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