View source for McCanna family

The McCannas were early settlers in [[Miles City]]. The matriarch and at least two sons, both with fair sized families weathered two [[fires]] and a major death. One of the sons moved on to [[Alaska]]. They are related to the [[Rooney family]]. The adults were born in County Latrim, Ireland and came from Minnesota to Miles City. Mother Bridgett ran at least one boarding house on Main Street between 3rd and 4th streets. They are Catholic, of course. 

In Ireland, the McCannas, and their neighbors the Hanrahans intermarried and then left for the United States in the Fall of 1867. And the immigration record of Myles McCanna puts him in the United States no later than 4/4/1868, settling near Padua, MN. There were at least three households: Myles, James S. and Michael Bernard, all had their own farms. About 1868 James marries Sarah Ann Duffy. Best guess is that Myles was the father and Michael and James were his sons. (Or they could all be brothers). Presumably, their mother Bridgette was with them, as she is with them when they arrive in Miles City and their unmarried sister, also named Bridgette. In September, 1875 both Myles and James sold their farms; a locust plague devastated Minnesota from 1872-1875, being especially hard-hitting in 1874. 

Also in 1874, Micheal marries Katherine Ann Rooney, whose family had emigrated through Canada, and a branch had moved to this part of Minnesota in such numbers that the area was named after them. Katherine had been a local school teacher for 2 years. At the age of 20 Katherine Ann became the community's first teacher; she taught in a one-room schoolhouse a mile or so from the present-day Padua. The teacher's contract is signed by her and by the school director, her cousin Hugh Rooney, [[13 Mau 1872]]. Hugh ends up living with Katherine about the time her husband dies in Alaska.

Michael and family headed west either that Fall 1875 or in the Spring of 1876. His 2nd child James is born in Fargo, ND December 1876. Presumably, Myles dies about this time, since he isn't mentioned in Miles City AFAIK. Mother Bridgett and probably Michael arrive in 1877, Michael's family (Katherine Rooney McKanna and 2 children) arrives in 1878. Sister Bridgette came either in 1877 or 1878. For 10 years, he is involved in construction projects. In 1883, he's listed as a teamster. The family lived on 4th Street,
between Main and Pleasant, around the corner from mother Bridgett. 

Sister Bridgette immediately marries [[Charles Johnson]] (1878). Johnson was one of the original suttlers, with the troops in the cantonment. He was the first merchant to set up shop when they were evicted from camp to the site of Oldtown. He and Bridgette were also the first white parents in the area.


James arrives at least by 1878 and his family follows in 1881. James is listed as a teamster and a railroad contractor in 1878 and 1881. They built a hotel at the corner of Casey and Jew St in old Milestown in 1878 and moved the building to Miles City in 1880. Known as the "Tongue River House" or more often, "Mrs. McCanna's house". 


1880 Census: Michael is a laborer and in his house live his wife and three children, plus mother Bridget and Maggie (listed as a wife?)

In [[8 Feb 1883]], James McCanna dies, leaving Sarah and 5 children.

[[18 Jan 1884]] The Ursuline nuns stayed at her boarding house when they first arrived in Miles City and described the filth quite graphically in their letters home to the motherhouse in Toledo.

[[23 Apr 1884]] Ad in YJ: Furnished rooms to rent at my house corner of Fourth and Main streets. Mrs. McCanna.

[[2 Jun 1884]] 1 am Monday morning, a fire broke out in the home of Mrs. Sarah McCanna at Third and Main. Discovered by a soldier and Gus Malden, who raised the alarm. The upper floor rooms had light cloth lining the walls instead of plaster and the house went up quickly. The night watchman and deputy sheriffs Conley and Zahl had been at the RR depot waiting to arrest someone on the incoming train, but on hearing the yelling, ran to the fire, firing off the 2 shots that indicated a fire. The wind was blowing across Main (northward) so only the back of the adjoining house received extra damage, about $100 worth. Using only pumps and buckets, the citizenry turned out and saved as much furniture as they could and the house being unable to save the house, worked to save the remaining structures to the west, towards the river. Mrs. McCanna only discovered the fire by seeing its reflection. The fire started in an upstairs room and came down the chimney. Soon she was overcome with smoke and was only able to escape with the help of neighbors. The house was seven years old and one of the oldest ones in town, having been dismantled from its original site in old Milestown and moved here in 1877. It was old fashioned but comfortable and estimated to be worth about $1000, and was mostly covered by insurance. The adjacent building was owned by Chinese laundryman Gee Lee. They emptied their building and doused it with water. The damaged laundry was "bad" but "as Sunday was past the stock of washing on hand was light". A keg of powder was placed in the laundry building to blow it up if needed, but the wind changed and they didn't have to use it. B. McCanna, who lived in the second house from his mother's burning building, was carrying valuables from his house, including an incubator and a packaged mixture of dynamite and giant powder which he stacked near the barn. A spark ignited the package, blowing the end out of the incubator, scattering chickens and eggs all over and causing the crowd to fall back.

[[17 Mar 1885]] A fire broke out in the 2 story building on Main near Fourth Street, the front of which was Toy Siug's laundry. A multitude of alarm shots brought a large crowd who rescued belongings and tried to put the fire out. Apparently, between the flames and the ignited keg of gunpowder, the buildings on each side were also destroyed, a small house to the west and Mrs. McCanna's house on the corner of Main and Fourth. Her house was valued at $600 and was insured. Total damage estimated at $1200 - $1500. 

[[18 Mar 1885]] A fire left Mrs. [[M. McCanna]] homeless and [[Towner Savage]], [[Major Borchart]] and [[Sam O'Connell]] took up a subscription for her, raising $150.

Two days later the YJ published a different version: Smoke was pouring into Mrs. McCanna's house pretty lively when [[Dave Roche]] and [[Jim Whelan]] and other burst the door open and wakened Mr. and Mrs. Judd who also lived on the corner. Their furniture was all removed but Mrs. McCanna, lived in the next house, where the fire started, lost everything. [[Kid Roche]] and Jim Whelan had their hair and hands burned in the efforts to save property. A keg of powder was placed in one of the buildings, but Jim Whelan saw it and removed it. [[George Silverberg]] heard McCanna's hens cackling and transferred them from the coop to a place of safety. He also saved her cat. Probable cause was thought to be a lamp explosion. [[Judge Conger]] organized the bucket brigade. 

[[16 Apr 1885]] The Whitesides have taken the contract to rebuild another house for Mrs. McCanna on the site of the burned structure. [[1 Jul 1885]] the new house has a roof and will soon be completed.

During 1885, Mrs. B. McCanna spent $2000 on 2 buildings and Mrs. M. McCanna spent $800 on a residence (according to a list of construction for the year).

In 1885 the Government opened up Alaska to self rule and started urging immigration, the McCannas heard the call. Patrick H. Fox and his wife, Madge McCanna, went to Douglas, Alaska in the Fall of 1885.

Apr 1886 ad: Leave your clothes at the Miles City dying works back of McCanna's.

In Aug 1886, the family moves to Alaska, and they quickly become involved in the gold rush, establishing a claim near Douglas, Alaska.

Dec 1886: [[Abe LeRoy]] receives a letter from [[Jimmy McCanna]] who is with his father in Alaska. He tells his "old pard" that he doesn't like Alaska as there ain't enough winter there.

Sep 1887 Bridgetta McCanna owed $1 as a witness in probate court by the board of county commissioners.

[[2 Mar 1890]] Mrs. Bridgetta McCanna, an old resident of MC, died on Sunday at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Maggie Mathews, at Williston, ND. She was quite elderly and feeble when she left MC to live with Maggie. She had quite a bit of real estate which yielded her considerable income at one time, but as the town shifted focus to the east, became less profitable.

[[13 Jun 1899]] on way back from gold fields with son Jim, Michael dies of Bright's Disease after a few years of affliction (abt 55). His daughter, Lizzie, went up on the Topeka RR from Skagway to Lake Bennett, met James there, and helped him bury their father.

After her son's wife, Alma Gribble, died in 1909, she helped care for Philip's children, Hugh Hiliary and Philip. They lived with her son Hiliary at Eagle River, north of Juneau. Then between 1917-1923 she moved to Goldendale. There she took care of the two boys and their sister, Frances, until Philip remarried in 1925. When her daughter Elizabeth died in 1930, Katherine Ann took care of her brother-in-law, Robert Willis, in Goldendale. Katherine died in 1939. She was living at the time with Philip's daughter, Frances, and her husband, William Ruff. She had moved down to live with them after Katherine Margaret Willis, the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Willis, her granddaughter, had finished college in Seattle.

==Michael's family==
 Michael Bernard McKanna/McCanna b: 1846 in Waterford or Leitrim, Ireland ; d. 13 Jun 1899 in Alaska.
 Katherine Ann ROONEY b: 02 APR 1852 in Farrellton, Quebec, Canada; d. 1939 LA, CA.

:Elizabeth Elinor MCKANNA b: 13 MAY 1875 in Grove Lake, MN; d. 1930 Goldendale, WA; m. Rbt J Willis

:James Adelbert MCKANNA b: 16 DEC 1876 in Fargo, D.T.; d. 1918 Portland, OR; m. Francis G. Morrissette 1911; d. of pneumonia on trip to wife's family in AL. His father-in-law gave them $10,000 for a house, which was one of the best in the area. James studied at ?seminary?, worked gold fields with his father, ran a ferry company in Juneau, then was a merchant and finally a realtor.

:Emmett Joseph MCKANNA b: 08 JUN 1879 in Miles City; d. 1958 Yakima, WA; m. Lilian Penglase 1885 MI

:John MCKANNA b: 07 JUN 1882 in Miles City; d. 1886? (?fall from wagon on trip to Alaska?)

:Phillip Francis MCKANNA b: 17 MAY 1884 in Miles City; tried to find gold in Alaska.; d. 1940 LA, CA. 2 wives and 7 children.

:Robert J. MCKANNA b: 21 MAY 1889 in Douglas, Alaska; d. 1958 Fairbanks, AK; m. Theodocia L. Wheeler; worked on the docks, probably with Jim's ferry co. Served in WWI.

:Hillary M. MCKANNA b: 11 JUN 1892 in Douglas, Alaska; d. 1957, Spokane, WA mental hospital, hung himself (manic-depressive psychosis and cerebral arteriosclerosis); Farmer/Clerk/Railway Ag Dishman, transfer business; m. Vivian L. McDonald 1929

==James' family==
 James S. McKanna, b. 1841; d. 1883; 
 Sarah Ann Duffy, b. ; d. ;

:Margaret Jane, b. 1869
:Francis "Frank" Edward, b. 1871
:James Scott, b. 1874
:Charles Michael, b. 1878
:Mary Cordella, b. 1881

==Bridgette's family==
 Charles S. Johnson, b. 1847, d. ?
 Bridgett McKanna, b. ?, d, ?

:Charles Alphous, b. 1877
:Ellen, b. 1879

==Raw notes==
In 1886 Michael Bernard McCanna loaded his wife and five young children into a wagon bound for adventure.  Alaska beckoned with abundant land and treasures of  gold. The Alaska Pioneers’ Association numbered among its members those who had settled into this virgin and wild world by 1887. A picture hanging on a wall in the Juneau-Douglas City Museum includes Michael’s wife, Katherine Ann Rooney McCanna, and four of their children.  (Michael died in the Yukon goldrush fields in 1899.) Its documentation places their arrival in the newly opened territory as August of 1886.
After my mother, Mike Willis, died in 1960 I found a note in her handwriting in the family bible. It listed all of the children of Michael and Katherine, with their birthdates. She named a child who has disappeared, John, born in Miles City, Montana, on June 7, 1882. During a conversation about the family, Mickey McKanna, a son of Philip McKanna and Kathleen Doyle McKanna, related how on the trip from Montana to Alaska one of the children fell out of the wagon and perished. I suspect this accounts for the lost, and seldom if ever mentioned, John. It also underlines the rigors of this pioneering journey.

The McCannas settled on Douglas Island, across the Gastineau Channel from Juneau.

`The family lived in Douglas; Michael labored as a hard-rock gold miner in adjacent Treadwell. The family grew by two as Elizabeth gave Michael two more sons: Robert John on May 21, 1889, and Hilary on June 11, 1892. In the course of  day-by-day events on the Island like these,  the surname “McCanna,” so spelled from Ontario to Minnesota to Miles City, morphed into ”McKanna,” as written to this day.

From 1892-1898 Elizabeth McKanna, having graduated from St. Ann’s Academy in Juneau, found work on the Island as Douglas’ s postmistress. 

Michael McKanna, mining in the Yukon gold fields with his two oldest sons, Jim and Emmet, came down with Brights Disease, a kidney ailment. Making his way back toward Douglas with Jim as his support, Michael died near the shores of Lake Bennett, in the District of Atlin, British Columbia. When news reached Douglas, his daughter Elizabeth took a boat to Skagway and a recently built rail line up the Chilkoot Pass .  She and Jim buried their father’s body in a small miners’ cemetery located at the top of the Pass, one the Forest Service maintains to this day.

In 1901 the citizens of Treadwell elected Robert Willis as the town’s first mayor. The next year the federal government appointed him as Treadwell’s postmaster. It is no surprise, given the situation, that on November 7, 1903 he married twenty-eight-year-old Elizabeth McKanna. The wedding took place in the McKanna family home in Douglas;  Rev. Peter Bougis, S.J. officiated. Nine months later, on August 18, 1904, Elizabeth gave the couple their first child, Robert John Willis (II), and the girls a baby brother. According to the baptismal register of Our Lady of the Mines Catholic Church in Douglas the same Jesuit priest, Fr. Bougis, did the official welcoming into the Catholic communion. Philip McKanna stood as his godfather.

Sometime during this period, Robert Willis took over the management of the Alaska-Treadwell store, certainly during 1905-1906. But other opportunities beckoned. His best man, Douglas Ledbetter, purchased with Earl Wallace a general merchandizing store in Goldendale, a small farming community in south-central Washington State. Ledbetter talked his manager/ friend into transferring with him to Goldendale; he would manage the new store’s agricultural department.  Willis accepted the offer. In February 1907 Robert Willis preceeded his family to their new home; they joined him on the Fourth of July. Thus began the transporting of the combined McKanna and Willis family from the Alaska Territory to Washington State.

The two oldest McKanna boys for some years followed their father’s path. Emmet mined around Dawson from 1897-1900, Jim from 1897-1904. When Emmet came back to Douglas, he worked first as a clerk in the P.H. Fox Department Store (Patrick Fox was married to Emmet’s aunt, Madge McCanna, Michael Bernard’s sister).  On July 15, 1909 in Douglas he married Lillian Penglase, the twenty-four-year-old daughter of John and Mary Penglase, residents of Douglas since 1894 when they migrated there from Upper Peninsula, Michigan.

Soon afterwards he and Lillian struck out across the water to Juneau. Emmet bought an interest in a brokerage firm, Epsteyn and Gilmour; by 1914 he acted as a wholesale agent for the company of Geddes and McKanna. In 1917 he,  Lillian, and their three children (Emmet, Mary, and John) followed Bob and Elizabeth Willis to Washington State. They settled in Yakima. There Emmet sold automobiles for three years before he switched to real estate, a business career he practiced with notable success until his death in 1958.

I knew Aunt Lil and Uncle Em during my childhood years (it took ages before I could fix them as my father’s uncle and aunt, not mine!).  On occasion, especially after Sunday mass, we visited them, sometimes for lunch. In their sixties they seemed to me to be a happy and peaceful couple, contented in their lives and family. Through the eyes of my lifetime boyhood friend, Dick Dietzen, the son of Mary McKanna Dietzen and husband Joe, I valued them as “Nana” and “Tutu,” his well-loved grandparents.

As I think about them, two memories stand out. In one I am chasing Uncle Em around his house. He has his hand behind him; he is hiding from me his gold ring fashioned from a raw nugget. I don’t recall him regaling me with stories about Alaska and the Yukon; I know from others that he could do so, and would, at the drop of anything resembling a hat! He especially defended his journey into the Yukon gold fields with his father and brother as occurring in the spring of 1897, a whole year before the stampede begun by a shipload of gold-laden miners disembarking at the Port of Seattle. As a boy, I only vaguely recognized his sourdough past, though I had some sense of the exotic about his life.

On one visit to the McKanna home I met Bishop Gleeson, a gray-haired, gentle, yet imposing missionary pastor of Alaska. He served the Territory as Vicar Apostolic until 1951. At that time Pius XII created the Diocese of Juneau; Bishop Gleeson stayed on as Vicar Apostolic for the rest of the Alaska Territory, with his base in Fairbanks.  Although I hardly understood it, the Bishop belonged also to the Jesuit Order.  He–and the likes of Fr. Hubbard, the Glacier Priest–held a special place in the affection of the Willis-McKanna family. In my life in Yakima this extended to the Jesuits at St. Joseph’s parish and the adjacent Marquette High School. My father, Robert Willis, particularly liked and valued the Jesuit pastor there, Fr. Richard Bradley. Only in recent years have I come to realize the intricate connections between our family, its Alaska origins, and the Jesuits’ role in serving our family in that pioneer land. Raised as we were in this Jesuit milieu, one that seeps into ones psychological fibers, I more easily understand how Jim and I attended, without a moment’s question, Marquette High School, and how we both decided we had a call, be it from God or from our  family tradition, to enlist in the long-robed ranks of the Society of Jesus.

Jim McKanna stayed in Alaska. He too married, lived and worked in Juneau, on the wharfs and in a sawmill. On a trip to Oregon in 1918 he contracted the deadly influenza virus and died at the early age of forty-two. He left behind his wife, Frances Morrisette McKanna, and three young children: Edmund (6), Jim (5), and Christine (4). He also left an imposing home, one he built  with Yukon gold-money and $10,000 from his wife’s father, on the hill above Juneau. This structure at 236 Gold Street later became the residence of the Alaska Territory’s delegate to the United States Congress. The governor lived in the  mansion next door. Both stately places still exist, overlooking Juneau, the Gastineau Channel, and the buildings of Douglas dotting the horizon.

The younger McKanna boys–Philip, Robert, and Hilary–all married. They worked in various occupations. Philip became a prospector in Douglas, a farmer in Montana, a mill worker in Aberdeen, Washington, and even a fur farmer in Juneau. The youngest, Hilary, farmed in Alaska and Washington, worked on a dairy farm as a milker in Juneau, and ended his laboring days as a railroad employee in Spokane, Washington.

Robert, “Uncle Bob” as my father called him, had a special place in Dad’s life.  When he decided to go to the University of Washington in 1923 with the intention of becoming a lawyer, he had to support that decision financially. Uncle Bob had recently married a young stewardess of the Alaska Steamship Company, Theodocia Louise Wheeler, or “Theo” as people knew her. Bob and Theo were settling into Seward where Bob managed the docks and supervised loading and unloading activities. Young Bob, both as an undergraduate and graduate student, spent one semester plus summer every year between 1923-1930 boarding with Bob and Theo, unloading ships on Bob’s docks, saving his money for school, and enjoying immensely a rural Alaska life with the young and vivacious couple. He hunted, fished, camped out, fought mosquitoes as big as fighter planes, and lulled around campfires as stories spun their magical webs. In his photo album he has an abundance of remembrances of those halcyon days.



The following is a summary of the ROONEY - McCANNA connection - submitted by Robert John Willis, III, of Connecticut.

   Sometime between 1847 and 1849 Myles McCanna and his wife, Bridget McDevit, emigrated from Ireland (possibly Waterford) to Canada. Myles, born in 1810 or 1812, Bridget born in 1819, brought four children: Elizabeth (12/29/1837), James S. (1842), Mary Ann Lavina (8/1/1844), and Michael Bernard (1849). They settled in the "Queen's Bush" area of Ontario, between Georgian Bay and Lake Ontario, in Grey County. They homesteaded Lot 42, Consession 8 in Normandy Township. Nearby neighbors, the Hanrahans, had Concession B. Three more chldren were born to them there: Bridgette (1854), Catherine (1856), and Margaret Jane (3/1858). Although they were to live there till 1868, it does not appear that Myles either became a Canadian citizen nor acquired final rights to the land.

   As the children got to marrying age, life changed. Elizabeth married Patrick Hanrahan in Orchardville, Ontario on 2/1/1860; James married Sarah Anne Duffy in Mt. Forest, Ontario on 4/11/1866. Between that date and 10/25/1867 the Hanrahan family emigrated to the United States, probably to take advantage of the Homestead Act which opened up the "Northwest Territories" in the 1860's. Mary Ann Lavina went with them as she married John Hanrahan in Faribault, Minnesota (south of St. Paul) on that October date. Her brother, Michael, joined the trek southward in Pope County, Minnesota, in an area about three miles from Grove Lake and about ten miles from the Rooneys' Settlement. Myles and Bridget were there by 4/4/1868.

   Myles homesteaded a 160 acre farm near Lake Alice, on preset day Pope County Highway #28. As he was in his late fifties, and since Michael Bernard was unmarried and nineteen, Michael probably worked this farm with his Dad while Bridget took care of the house and the three young girls. James and Sarah Ann had another 160 acre farm nearby, as did John Hanrahan and wife, Mary Ann Lavina.

   The stage is now set for the Rooney family to appear. Indeed, Michael Rooney, born in Galway in 1783, and his wife Catherine Caulfield, also born there a year later, had emigrated to Canada around 1845. In their 60's they came with their nine grown children. They settled in the Gatineau River region of Quebec north of Ottawa, near the town of Farellton (present day La Peche). The three oldest boys -- Patrick (1808), Michael (1809), John (1820) -- all had ther own farms. They also probably did some contract lumbering as this region was rich in lumber and this was the heyday of lumber being shipped by boat to Great Britain.

   Patrick Rooney was married to Ellen Tracy (born in 1815). They had eight children after their marriage in Ireland c. 1837. Mary (5/28/37), "Little Pat" (1839), Eleanor (12/21/1842), and Michael (1845) were probably born in Galway; John (1847), Tom (1849), Katherine Ann (4/5/2), and Eliza (1854) were born in Wakefield Township, probably at the farm outside of Farrellton.

   After "Daddy Mick" died in 1857 and was buried in the Catholic cemetary in Farrellton, "Mama Kitty" emigrated to the U.S.A. with eight of her nine grown children and their families. Patrick and Ellen with their eight children were among the ones who headed for Minnesota in the late 1860's. This large group settled in Stearns County, Raymond Township, in a place at first called "Rooneys' Settlement," later called Padua.

   By 1872 Katherine Ann Rooney was twenty years old. She had been well schooled for a young girl living in rural Canada. Indeed, she became the first teacher in Raymond Township and taught in a small one-room schoolhouse about three miles east of present-day Padua.

   Two years later, on April 9, 1874, Michael McCanna married Katherine Ann Rooney at Rooneys' Settlement. The best man was her brother Michael; the bridesmaid was his sister Margaret Jane. Fr. Wolfgang Northman, a Benedictine from St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, officiated. In all likelihood the new couple moved in with the Myles McCanna family. Elizabeth Elinor, their first child, was born at this farm in Grove Lake on 5/13/1875.

   All was not well with these settlers in the early 1870's. A locust plague devasted Minnesota from 1872-1875, hitting Pope and Stearns Counties especially hard in 1874.

   Myles McCanna became a naturalized citizen of the United States on 10/14/1873; James followed suit the next day. On November 15th Myles laid claim to his farm at the federal land office in Alexandria, Minnesota. Again James imitated his Dad. Myles owned his land by March 10, 1874 and James his by September 10, 1875. But eleven days later (9/21) Myles and Bridget sold their farm for $1,000 and James and Sarah Ann theirs immediately thereafter (9/23) for the same amount. The locusts had done them in.

   Either that Fall or early in 1876, the McCanna family moved on out for newer lands in the West. John Hanrahan and wife Mary Ann did not leave. Indeed, a sick Myles also stayed, probably with them. He died of jaundice in 1879 and is buried in the Hanrahan plot at the Lake Alice Cemetary, on land that probably was once part of his farm. John and Mary Ann raised four children on their Pope County farm: James A., Elizabeth E., William Henry, and John T.

   Bridget left with her two married sons, James and Michael, and her three unmarried daughters, Bridgette and Catherine and Margaret Jane. They made it as far as Bismark in 1876. It is likely that Katherine Ann's and Michael's second child, James, was born there on December 16th. Bridget and her girls stayed in North Dakota, while James and Sarah Ann, Michael and Katherine Ann continued on to Miles City with their children. Bridgette married Charles Johnson in 1878 and had two children, Charles and Helen; she remarried in 1890. She and her new husband, Patrick Fox, then took the family to Alaska. Catherine married Thomas W. Gallagher; they had a daughter, Ann. Finally, Margaret Jane married Robert C. Mathews in Bismark on 6/6/1880. It seems likely that they lived in Williston, North Dakota and that Bridget lived with them. The Mom died there on 6/18/1890; her youngest died there on 2/26/1940, fifty years later. Because of a payment default, the McCanna farm had reverted back to Bridget. When she died, she left it to her daughter Margaret Jane and husband, Robert Mathews. They in turn sold the land to Mary Ann Lavina and husband, John Hanrahan, for $1,900. In this way the original McCanna homestead stayed in the family.

   Miles City was a mixed blessing for the two families. James and Sarah Ann had their youngest there: Mary Cordelia was born on May 21, 1881 and was baptized at the Jesuits' Sacred Heart Parish on October 1st. She joined Margaret J. and Frances E. -- they were confirmed there on September 28, 1883. And there was one other child, Scott J. But tragedy also came in 1883 as their Dad, James, froze to death on February 8th. A Montana Advertising Directory for Custer County in 1883 lists only Michael McCanna, teamster, and Sarah A. McCanna.

   Michael and Katherine Ann had two more children in Miles City: Emmett Joseph on 6/8/1879 and Philip Francis on 5/17/1884.

   In 1886 the U.S. Government started an active campaign to draw homesteaders to Alaska. Michael and Katherine Ann responded. Some time that year they settled with their family in Douglas, Alaska. Their last two children were born there: Robert J. on 5/2/1889 and Hillary M. on 6/11/1892.

   The gold rush proved too much for Michael Bernard! In 1899 he followed the hoards of goldseekers into the Yukon Territory. He took with him the two eldest boys, James and Emmett. Katherine Ann stayed home with the two young boys; she had the help of her eldest, however, Elizabeth, who was now twenty-four It seems that soon both of them were serving as postmistresses in Douglas.

   Disaster stuck not long after. Michael Bernard came down with Bright's Disease, a kidney ailment (nephritis), and died in the District of Atlin in British Columbia on 6/13/1899. He is buried at Lake Bennett, British Columbia.

   Katherine Ann's children all married: Elizabeth to Robert John Willis on 11/7/1903; Philip to Alma Gribble in 1904; Emmett to Lillian Penglase on 7/15/1909; James to Frances Morisette on 4/12/1911; Robert to Theo, and Hillary to Vivian McDonald. Eventually only Robert and Theo stayed on in Alaska, living in Fairbanks.

   Elizabeth and Robert John Willis moved to Goldendale, Washington where he owned a farm implements business. He also was Goldendale's head of the school board and mayor. They had three children: Robert John, Katherine Margaret, and James.

   In 1909 Philip's wife, Alma died, leaving three small children. Katherine Ann took care of the two boys, Hugh Hillary (b. 12/1905) and Philip (b. 6/1908); Elizabeth and Robert John Willis took one-year-old Frances in as their own. Katherine Ann and the two boys lived for many years with her son, Hillary, at nearby Eagle River.

   Between 1917 and 1923 Katherine Ann moved with Hugh and Philip to Goldendale where son-in-law Robert had built them a home. The boys were thus reunited with their sister, Frances. Then in June, 1925 her son Philip remarried; this time to Kathleen Doyle in Yakima, Washington. Katherine Ann and Philip's three children now moved to join them in Yakima, about 75 miles from Goldendale.

   Disaster stuck the Robert Willis family in 1930. His wife, Elizabeth, had a stroke some time in the Spring and was bedridden, unable to speak. Then their son, James Emmett (b. 12/13/1912), drowned while boating on the Columbia River in July. Elizabeth died on August 10th; she was never told about her son's accidental death, though she probably knew.

   Katherine Ann returned to Goldendale with Frances to take care of her son-in-law Robert. The oldest son, Robert John II, had recently graduated from the University of Washington's Law School and was practicing law in Yakima. Daughter Katherine Margaret was attending the same University's School of Journalism in Seattle.

   When Robert John Willis I died in February, 1935, Katherine Ann moved to Seattle to live with her granddaughter Katherine Margaret. They lived together from 1935 to 1937. On 1/2/1936, Frances (Philip's youngest daughter) married Bill Ruff in Los Angeles. As Katherine Margaret had finished her university work and was moving, Katherine Ann looked southward. She headed to Los Angeles to live with the Frances she had raised and her new husband, Bill. And in their home she eventually died on 5/1/1939. Quite satisfactorily, she left them and us only at the end of her life. She is buried in the family plot in Goldendale, Washington with her eldest daughter, Elizabeth, her son-in-law Robert John, and her grandson James Emmett. She lived 87 quite full years.

Robert John Willis, III
135 Garvin Road
Hamden, Connecticut 06518
July 4, 1993 




==Links==
* [http://www.rooneys-minnesota.com/rooney-mccanna-connection.html]
* [http://willisgene.wordpress.com/the-mckanna-family-pioneers-of-the-northwest/#comment-1206]