The following information was provided us by Dean Howarth. Dean is a direct descendant of Abbie Manning and John McGookin. His e-mail address is: buick@sover.net for those of you who would like to contact him. Thank you Dean for this great information!

E-MAIL

December 27, 2001

Thank you for your note. The Manning side of my family tree is weak and I was pleased to find your website. I will forward what I have in the near future. I am going south for the month of January so it may be a few weeks. The McGookins came to Vermont from Arboe, Country Tyrone, Northern Ireland. I do not know if they all came together or if the men came first and sent money back for the families to come but Rodney McGookin arrived in Eden (what is now Belvidere) in June 1842. He met a woman named Hannah Murphy on the boat and they wed and lived in Lowell, Mass for some time then moved to Belvidere to farm.

The entire family is listed in the 1850 Belvidere census. Richard and Hannah McGookin were the parents, their children were Bridget, Henry, Rodney and James. My grandmother and a great aunt told me about them. There was another woman listed in the census, Ann, but my ancestors never told me anything of her and I have found no record of her so am still searching.

Bridget married a Joseph Dodge and they had a couple of kids. Ancestors still live in Johnson, VT and run a construction company. Joseph was many years older than Bridget and died in a house fire. He is buried in the Dodge Cemetery in Belvidere. Bridget never remarried. She went to live with her mother.

Henry married a Catherine Hansbury and they had four children. Catherine, Mary, Jane, and John.

John married Abbie Manning and I am descended from them. Rodney and Hannah had two children, a girl and a boy, Richard. Richford had one daughter who I met, she had no children. The girl had no children either.

James McGookin is in the mist and I have not been able to get much about him. He seems to have disappeared. I have found a grave stone in Stanstead, Quebec for a James McGookin but the dates do not work. He had two children I know of but cannot find much about them either.

As I stated I am descended from Henry. His son John married Abbie Manning and they had seven children. John, Henry, Michael, William, Mary, Catherine and Abbie.

John Jr., went to work for the railroad and died falling down an elevator shaft in Pittsburgh, PA, never married and no children.

Henry never married and was a day laborer in Richford. He died of heart attack at his apartment in Richford.

William was a WW1 combat veteran serving with the 2nd Infantry Div., never married, no kids. Died of a heart attack out west.

Michael was a WW1 veteran, serving at Fort Ethan Allen, he, late in life married a Fairfield Brannon, however the marriage did not last and there were no children.

Mary, the oldest of the seven, married Elwin Peck. He worked in the CVRR and they lived in Richford. He broke his back in a RR accident and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He died in 1935 and Mary never remarried, no children.

Catherine married Maynard Wilke from Barton. They lived in Springfield, Mass. He died as a result of an infection obtained as the result of an operation on his nasal passages. No. children.

Abbie married a James Howarth from White River Jct. She traveled around a lot working as a cook in hotels. They had one child, Robert, and then divorced. She later married Roy Basset and they lived in Waterbury, VT.

John and Abbie are buried in the back part of the old Hyde Park Cemetery along with the four boys. Mary and Elwin are also buried there. Catherine and Abbie are married in the new Hyde Park Cemetery.

So much for now, I will send along more in the near future.

Any chance I can get a good copy of John Manning in uniform?