Eliza McHenry

Eliza McHenry came from Buffalo, New York to Indiana sometime around 1854, when she married John McCartney. She seems to have travelled without family. She was 18, he was 25. Both had Irish parents, but hers were Catholic and his were Protestant. He may have just been invalided out of the British Army due to tuberculosis. (The dates match the life events of this John McCartney, but it is possible the military records I found are for different John McCartneys.) Witnesses were John Hughes, James Keelan and Henry Hughes (“of Notre Dame.”) The officiant was Father Cointet, a Catholic priest connected with a church in the town of Niles in Berrien County. John and Eliza were both living in Plymouth, Indiana previously, but the wedding took place in Bertrand, Michigan, which is 12 miles north of South Bend, Indiana which is where we find Eliza next.

Almost exactly a year from her wedding day, Eliza gave birth to her first child, a boy named for her father-in-law, Hugh. A year an a half later, the family grew with the birth of daughter Mary S., who was a summer baby. John and Eliza would record their marriage date and the birth dates of their children at some point, in their family Bible which was published in 1859. Several of their children were baptized at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in South Bend. Son John McHenry McCartney, called Jack, was born in 1859, the same year they may have gotten the Bible. This child’s name suggests to me that he may have been named for Eliza’s father. Sarah Jane followed in 1862, James Kirker in 1864, Anna Elizabeth in 1867, and baby Martha arrived in April of 1869.

A letter written by a niece of John McCartney describes the unhappy events of that fall. Hugh and Mary both died within a month of each other.

According to their divorce record, which contains only statements by John, by the next summer Eliza was drinking heavily, falling down drunk in the streets and showing her ankles. After another incident in which Eliza broke up their new stove and threw the pieces down the well, John had lost patience. He paid to send Eliza “back to Buffalo, to her father” in June of 1870. The problem was that Eliza was supposed to leave the baby, Martha with John, because he retained custody of all their children, but she took the baby with her.

I have been able to find nothing else about Eliza. Martha ended up back with her father in South Bend. I don’t know how that was managed. John remarried and had one other child. His father left him nothing in his will.

I found a John McHenry in Buffalo who had a daughter, Elizabeth. His first wife, presumed mother of his daughter, Elizabeth, died during a cholera epidemic. His son Buster died about the time Elizabeth gave birth to Hugh in South Bend.

My questions:

What happened to Eliza after 1870?

What were the circumstances of her leaving Buffalo for Indiana? Update, 3/12/23: I found this in a Buffalo newspaper, and it could be the answer. The date fits with her appearance in Indiana:

Was John disinherited because he married a Catholic?

What was the cause of deaths of Hugh and Mary?

Was Eliza’s alcoholism (it’s a family trait, so I don’t distrust John’s descriptions) triggered by the deaths of her two children? Or was it a chronic problem? (Photos of Anna Elizabeth as a teen show facial features that suggest possible fetal alcohol syndrome.)

Another family trait in this line is possible bipolar disorder. Was this an underlying cause of Eliza’s behavior and some of the mysteries in her life?

Did John and Eliza follow the Irish naming pattern? If so, was daughter Mary named for John’s mother and was Sarah Jane named for hers? They seem to have followed it for their sons.