Tombstone Tuesday - John O'Connor

John Timothy O'Connor

John Timothy O'Connor was my great-great-grandfather. He was born March 9, 1863 in Maysville, Mason County, Kentucky and died July 30, 1924 in Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin. John's parents were Timothy and Mary (O'Reilly) O'Connor, and he was baptized on March 15, 1863 at Saint Patrick's Catholic Church in Maysville.

John married Katherine Jean "Bema" Bruce in about 1890, probably in Minnesota. They lived in St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota, and Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, moving to Racine around 1897. In Racine, John worked for the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, part of four generations of my family to do so (I graduated from J. I. Case High School). John always seemed rather stern to me from the photographs I've seen, and family stories confirm that.

John and his wife Bema had nine children: Charles Edward "Charlie" O'Connor, John Timothy "Jack Tim" O'Connor Sr., Anna Katherine "Annie" (O'Connor) Novine Glidden, Emily Etta (O'Connor) Thielen, Robert O'Connor, Dorothy Alice "Toots" (O'Connor) Sullivan, an unnamed son, Kathryn Jean "Mike" (O'Connor) Brush Baker, and Franklin Dan "Bolivar" O'Connor.

When John died at age sixty-one, his youngest son was only twelve, and his wife outlived him by thirty-six years. John was buried in a single cemetery plot in Calvary Cemetery in Racine. Most of the other headstones in that section have deteriorated so badly that they're illegible.

John on horseback, riding down what became Durand Avenue in Racine.

John's Find A Grave memorial is #112636899.

Wordless Wednesday - Gottlieb & Emma (Klingler) Daft

Emma Bertha (Klingler) Daft (1900-1982) and her husband Gottlieb Michael Daft (1886-1988), probably taken in Oconto Falls, Oconto County, Wisconsin, where they lived. Gottlieb was the brother of my great-grandfather Gottfried Daft.