Nothing concrete is known about this Phenton Lawlor. Phenton is named as the father of Patrick Lawler in family records submitted to the LDS church records by an L.A. Burke of Las Vegas, Nevada. Lyman Morrison and I attempted to contact Mr. Burke but never heard back anything regarding his sources. According to Irish naming custom the first born son is usually named after the father's father. And that is true in this case as Patrick's first son is named Fenton. (The name is also spelled Finton in Ireland.) I've also seen Phenton named on various other relatively old pedigree charts from other relatives, but I can't be sure how many of them are just copied from one another and what the original source was.
Similarly, I'm afraid there isn't much hard evidence that Daniel and John are sons of this Phenton. However, there is enough circumstantial evidence to convince me they must be. The key piece of evidence being that Patrick, John, and Daniel all lived on adjacent farms in 1860 in Washington township, Clinton county, Iowa. Also, very similar given names are used in all the families. Later, a lot of these three Lawler families all moved to the same part of Crawford county, Iowa. According to a descendent of Daniel, Peter Andrew Lawlor, his family tradition was that all three (Dan, John, Pat) were brothers, However, in a 1975 letter to Mel Foley, Daniel Vincent Lawler (who went by Vincent), grandson of the immigrant Daniel, wrote that he was pretty sure that his grandfather Daniel only had one brother, John. (But he didn't specify any reasons for thinking so.)
All these Lawlors are definitely linked to County Queens (now called Laois or Leix), Ireland. The inscription of John's tombstone points to a more specific location -- Orchard townland in Stradbally parish, County Queens.
In 1996, Dennis Nicklaus heard from Mary Lalor of Portlaoise, Co. Laois, Ireland. Mary was the clan Honorary Chieftain for the O'Lalor clan, a group for people descended from Lalors (or the variant spellings including O'Lalor, Lawler, Lawlor,\ldots) There is (in 1996) a Dan Lalor, age 87, living in Timahoe, and Mary relayed what Dan knew about the Lalor family of the area, which is now presented here. To put another date in for reference, Dan's father was William, born 1867. To orient you to some of the places in the following account: Co. Queens is in the east central part of Ireland. Stradbally is a town east of the center the county, as well as a parish with boundaries encompassing some of the countryside. Timahoe is a small town about 10 miles southwest of Stradbally. Orchard townland is about 2 miles east of Timahoe. Ballinaclough is just west of Timahoe.
According to Dan, the Lalor family was not always in Orchard, they came to Ballinaclough, Timahoe from Roskelton Mountrath, Co. Laois three or four generations back from Dan. Two brothers came from Roskelton to Orchard -- Finton and Peter. Both had 75 acres of land each. They were the first owners after landlordism. The present Dan said a Lalor built Orchard. He fled to the US after the Fenian rising in 1848. Where in the US he does not know.
Dan also gave details about his family: again, Dan's father was William, born 1867. William had brothers Finton, Patrick, and Dan, and sisters Mary, Margaret, Julia, and Brigid. Dan's siblings are Patrick, William, James, Bridie, and Nan. Dan's aunt Mary went to Iowa and married a Thomas O'Sullivan, and had two children. William's youngest brother, Dan, went to the US, had 10 children. His second brother, Patrick joined the met. police, died young. Margaret married a man name Lynham in Ireland. Julia married a man named Dunne, of Knockbawn, the Swan, Laois. Finton died in 1875 in Ballinaclough.
Another thing which makes this family interesting for our purposes is that the Mary and Dan (the informant's aunt and uncle) didn't just come to the USA or Iowa, they came literally next door to the Lawlers of Crawford County. Daniel P. Lawler and Mary Lawler brother and sister, are listed in the household adjacent to the % Finton (Fenton) Lawler % family (Fenton, who was a son of John and married % Katherine Farrell % ) in the 1900 census for Jackson Township, Crawford County, Iowa. According to that census, Daniel P., born Jan. 1871 in Ireland, a farmer, arrived in the US in 1894 and his citizenship papers were in progress. Mary, born Nov. 1869 in Ireland, house keeper, immigrated in 1889.
Daniel P. Lawler is included on a list of Crawford Co. Old Settlers Who Have Passed Away During the Past Year, published Sept. 6, 1922.
So again, there is not yet hard evidence linking these Lalors to our own, but we see the same given names (such as Finton and Daniel) being repeated each generation and the fact that Mary and Dan moved right next to the other Iowa Lawlers.
All these clues seem to indicate there is some family connection to our line.
Mel Foley is one source of much of the information about Lawlor descendents. He's been collecting information for many years and has visited Ireland and the Irish Lalors several times. Mel is a great-grandson of the immigrant John Lawlor and grew up near West Side, Crawford County, Iowa.
This same Irish Lalor family appears in Mel Foley's records since their children grew up in the West Side area too. Mel states that Mary Lawler married Tom Sullivan and has one child named: Joe Sullivan. Joe was married and had one son, and separated from his wife. Mel had record of eight children of Mary's brother Dan and his wife Mary McKean: Josephine, Leonard, Ray, Vincent, Ursula, George, Mary, and Monica. Of these, Josephine married Walter Clifford who died in S. Dakota. Leonard didn't marry. Ray married Elsie Kelly and had five children. Ursula was a beautician in Des Moines. She died in 1991 at age 77 in an auto accident in Des Moines. George married Beatrice Lundy, Mary died young of strep throat, and Monica is still (1997) living at a nursing home in Carroll. I've included a short list of descendents of this line here.
Recall what Dan said about the Lalor founder of Orchard fleeing to the US. Daniel and John Lawlor, who are treated as probable sons of this Phenton, came to the United States about 1848, according to various census records. Coincidentally, a James Fintan Lalor was a key figure in the 1848 uprising (and is one of the most famous Lalors of Ireland). (James Fintan Lalor's father was from Tenakill, near Mountrath, Co. Laois.)
In the 1855 Griffith's Valuation for Fossy or Timahoe Parish, Co. Queens, (which includes Orchard and Ballinaclogh) are five Lalors, including a Finton Lalor with 108 acres in Ballinaclogh and Mary Lalor with 98 acres in Ballinaclogh. The others are not far away: Mary and Daniel in Garryglass townland and Patrick in Little Rheenduff townland. The population of Orchard townland is 59 in 10 houses in 1841, but only 29 people lived there in 5 houses in 1851. This sort of population decline is quite common over that period because of the great famine.
The more ancient history of the Lalor family and name is also quite interesting. The O'Lalors were one of the ``Seven Septs of Leix.'' The leaders of these septs, or clans, were exiled to Co. Kerry in 1609, but the peasants and workers remained.
% I have two maps of parts of Co. Laois here. There is one map showing the location % of Timahoe, Stradbally, and Mountrath and another with % a closer view of the Timahoe area, showing the location of Orchard and other townlands.
%
OK, I said four families, but it is becoming increasingly evident that there is a fifth Lawlor family entangled with these others in Iowa. Perhaps by coincidence, perhaps not. All the records of this fifth Lalor family are courtesy of a few descendents who have researched the family.
This fifth Irish Lalor family (spelled Lawlor in the US) traces back to a Patrick Lalor, born about 1794, who married Sarah ``Kitty'' Dowling. Actually, it has been traced one generation further. The father of that Patrick is called ``Tom (of the road) Lalor.'' This Lalor family lived in the vicinity of the village of Ballyroan. Ballyroan is in between Timahoe and Abbeyleix, about 3 miles NE of Abbeyleix. Patrick and Kitty lived in Raheenabroque, which is two to two and half miles west of Ballyroan, and perhaps only one mile from Abbeyleix. At least one daughter (or niece??) and two grandsons of Patrick and Kitty also came to Crawford County, Iowa from Ireland. The grandsons were John Patrick Lawlor and Richard Lalor. John Patrick's father was John (b. about 1828) and Richard's father was William (born about 1832). The following account of these Lalors is from Bessie (Keenan) Brady, a granddaughter of the Richard Lalor who came to Iowa: William married Mary Langton in 1855. Mary Langton, born 1824, connects to still more Lalors, as she was the daughter of Denis Langton and Catherine Lalor. Catherine was born 5 February 1799 to Loughlin Lalor and Anastasia Phelan at their house in Crubbin. Crubbin is another tiny spot on the map, which is about one and a half miles east (towards Ballinaclough and Timahoe) of Ballyroan. The Loughlin Lalor house there was a ``Station House''. During the Irish Penal Days (when penalties applied for being Catholic), Mass had to be said in secret and baptisms and marriages also had to be performed in secret. A Station House was where at Christmas and Easter people would gather for confession and communion and Mass would be said and marriages and baptisms would also take place too if necessary.
Continuing with Bessie's story of William, son of Patrick and Kitty: William was a baker in Crubbin. He supplied bread to the ships bringing the unfortunate emigrants to the U.S. and Canada. He also supplied the Workhouse in Abbeyleix. His brother John did the carrying to Dublin which was over 60 miles away. There was also a Tom involved in this business -- maybe another Tom of the Road.??
Anyway, back to the Lalors of this branch who came to Iowa: Patrick William Lawlor, b. 1858, lived in Jackson Twp, Crawford Co., Iowa for about 8 years prior to moving to Denver, Colorado. He died in Denver, Colorado in 1916. (Several other members of his extended family also immigrated to Denver.)
The second grandson, Richard, lived in Vail, Iowa from roughly 1886 to 1890 before returning to Ireland. Richard, who married Alice Duff, worked on the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. Richard Lawler is also named in probate records for the estate of Patrick Lawlor in Crawford Co. Apparently Richard had loaned Patrick $95 to buy a buggy about two years before Patrick's death. This appears in the probate records because the loan hadn't yet been fully repaid.
The daughter (or niece??) of Pat and Kitty was named Margaret. Margaret married % William McCarty % in 1841 in Ireland and this William and Margaret McCarty (or McCarthy) family also came to Jackson Township of Crawford Co., Iowa. There is a little more intermingling through Margaret's children. Her daughter Bridget McCarthy married % John H. Lawlor % the son of the John who immigrated to the US about 1848. Margaret's son Edward married % Marcella Farrell. % Marcella was the daughter of George Farrell and step-daughter of % Catherine Lawler % (who was a daughter of Patrick Lawlor the immigrant).
The McCarthy farm in Crawford Co. was very near the farm of John and Bridget (McCarthy) Lawlor and in the 1910 census, Margaret and William's son Lock McCarthy is living with his sister Bridget and brother-in-law John Lawlor. In the 1880 census, Lock is a farmhand living with John Lawlor's brother % Daniel, % who farmed in Westside Twp of Crawford County. Lock is also mentioned in % the will of Margaret Lawlor. % (Margaret being the widow of the immigrant Patrick.)
According to Bessie (Keenan) Brady, in Ireland the ``McCarthy's lived in Crubbin also, about half a mile down the hill [from the Lalors]. They sold their farm to William Lalor [the baker] when they emigrated to the U.S.'' Another connection comes about because Ed McCarthy (son of Margaret and William) was the godfather of Bessie (Keenan) Brady's mother, the daughter of Richard Lawlor, who was born while Richard was in Iowa, and baptized at St. Ann's in Vail in November, 1887. (Richard's children Alice and William Francis were also born in Iowa).
One final note: Bessie (Keenan) Brady's aunt Liz was the last surviving member of her generation and the last to live at their house in Crubbin. Eventually, Liz was in bad health and finding it impossible to manage, so she sold the farm and went to live with her sister, Alice Cass. Anyway, Bessie remembers seeing a photo of the six daughters of Patrick Lawler (1808-1889, immigrant to Iowa) at the house in Crubbin. (The photo was at the house, not the sisters.) Bessie always heard her aunt Liz say that Pat Lalor, his wife and family were in Scranton.
Bessie wrote in 1998 about our Iowan Pat Lalor family, ``His first 3 children were born and baptised in Abbeyleix. He had six daughters and four sons. I remember seeing a photo of his six daughters in Crubbin long ago and was told they were the `Lalors of Scranton'. '' Bessie also wrote, ``Pat Lawlor settled first in Scranton, Penn.'' Now that may well be true --- I have no other confirmation of the fact that Pat settled in Scranton, Pennsylvania. However, as of 2001, I have come up with an alternate theory. There is also a Scranton, Iowa. It's about 30 miles east of the West Side, Crawford County area where these Lawlers in Iowa did eventually settle. There is a family photo album once belonging to Esther O'Donnell, then inherited by Marjorie (Walde) Knott, containing several Lawler and Farrell relatives' photos. On one of these photos, it has ``Scranton, Ia.'' printed on the border, indicating the town of the photography studio. ``Scranton, Ia.'' is printed in very fancy script and I had to look twice to see it wasn't Scranton, Pa. My theory is that maybe Scranton was also on the photograph mentioned above, and the Scranton, Pennsylvania tradition grew from this. Of course, 30 miles was a significant distance in the late 1800s. But perhaps the Lawlers went there specifically to have their photo taken or the photographer was travelling around the area. This is all really just conjecture on my part.
Bessie stated that Liz also referred to the fact that Patrick (1808-1889) was ``one of the Lalors of Raheenabrogue.'' So the oral history of the Raheenabrogue/Crubbin Lalor family definitely links Patrick in with them. The church records don't go far enough back to prove any of this.
In any case, you can read a little bit more about this fifth Lalor family on the % WWW page of a descendent, Dale Lawlor.%
One final Irish-Iowan Lawler connection: The Centennial of St. Ann's parish in Vail, Iowa was in 1978. They put out a book with biographies of some of the parish families. Included in this is a bit about the family of John Cranny, who ran a lumber company in Vail and was mentioned briefly above. It states that John was a son of Patrick and Bridget Lawler Cranney, and John was born in ``Abbeylaix'' (Abbeyleix), Queens County, Ireland November 30, 1843, the eldest of six children. It states that this Cranny family came to the US in 1850, and settled first in Louisville, Kentucky. In 1854, they went to Charlotte, Iowa, and John went to Crawford County, Iowa in 1879. So here again, we see the matching migration pattern, and recall that John Cranny was the executor of Patrick and Margaret's estates. So it seems likely that John's mother, Bridget might well have been a daughter in this family as well, although I have no evidence or family tradition of that.
For even more information on Lawlors in general, not necessarily related, you might want to visit the % Official Lawlor Home Page. %
Sources for this individual: @S538@ @S858@ @S527@ @S859@ @S860@ @S861@ @S171@
