I hope one day that I’ll be able to visit the little village of Beragh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. My great great grandparents, Robert and Roxanna (McCrystal) McCauley walked away from their stone cottage there in 1870 and walked to Belfast, Ireland where they boarded a ship for America.

Beragh is a part of the Earldom of Belmore. That means that all of the land surrounding Beragh, and the houses in the village, were all owned by the Earl of Belmore and those who lived there paid steep rents.

I don’t really know how Robert and Rosanna McCauley acquired the funds to purchase passage to America, but they arrived in New York, were met by relatives who housed them for a while, and then took the Union Pacific Railroad to Illinois where they stayed a while with friends. They didn’t really like the situation there, and they decided to go on West to Mitchell County, Kansas where they took a homestead of 160-acres of prairie on Plum Creek, 10 miles from Beloit.

Within a few years, they had the funds to buy another 160-acres of land. As they could, they broke the prairie and turned over the rich sod. Their farm was very fertile and the 1880 Kansas agricultural Census indicates that they had cattle, hogs, horses, and raised 160-acres of wheat and 100-acres of corn.

My grandmother, Mildred Mae (McCauley) Corbin-Clark knew her grandmother Rosanne (McCrystal) McCauley very well. She was in her teens when her grandmother passed away. I never heard my grandmother talk about the McCauley’s living in a sod house before they were able to build a substantial stone house. I’m sure they had to have some kind of temporary residence, but I don’t know anything other than the stone house. Later, when her husband Robert passed away, Great Great Grandmother McCauley turned the farm over to her son James McCauley and moved into a nice home in the town of Beloit. There she welcomed visits from her many grandchildren and told them about Ireland.

The McCauleys were all Catholics in Ireland. They attended the parish church in Beragh, where they were married on June 2, 1870 before departing for America. All five of their children were born on the farm in Mitchell County. Eventually, Robert and Rosanna paid for Rosanna’s mother to also come to America. Margaret (Carr) McCrystal lived with them on the family farm. Margaret had a daughter and two sons that lived in New York City and owned a very successful tavern.

My great grandfather was Samuel McCauley, born in 1872. He met and married Lucy Mae Lemon in 1896. The Lemon Family, parents and children, had all worked on the building of the Union Pacific Railroad and had lived in Concordia and Beloit. That is how Samuel and Lucy met. Samuel was working on the railroad to earn extra money for the family, and Lucy was working for the railroad as a laundress and seamstress, washing and repairing the workers clothing.

Lucy’s parents and several of her brothers and sisters and their families hear about the building of the railroad through Wabaunsee County and they moved to Maple Hill, where they worked on the railroad. Samuel and Lucy (Lemon) McCauley moved with them and Samuel went to work for Frederick L. Raymond on his farm in the Vera Community. Lucy worked for Mr. Raymond helping in the house and with preparation of meals. Samuel and Lucy were very hard workers and within a few years they were able to purchase their own farm in the Snokomo Community, south of Paxico.

They were the parents of three children: Robert M. McCauley born in 1896, Samuel Lester McCauley born in 1898 and Mildred Mae McCauley born in 1902. Samuel Lester McCauley had whopping cough and died in 1904. Robert and Mildred both attended the Snokomo School, then Rossville High School.

Tragedy struck the family when Samuel McCauley, Sr. had brain cancer and died in 1911. Lucy was left to work a farm and decided to rent it out. She moved to Meade and Plains, Kansas where she operated a general store, and Mildred assisted. In 1919, Lucy moved to Wichita and worked in a dry goods store and Mildred attended business college where she graduated with honors.

I’m going to stop there for today and will add more later. I’m hoping that within the next couple of years, I am able to visit Beragh, Tyrone, Ireland. I have visited Beloit and have seen the farm but the original stone house is gone.

Family history is an enjoyable and entertaining never-ending quest for me. I hope you catch the bug!!

(Photos: First, a map of Northern Ireland. The red dot indicates where the village of Beragh is located in County Tyrone. Second, recent photo of Beragh’s main street. Third, The Robert McCauley Family, taken at Beloit, Kansas. Fourth, the wedding photograph of Samuel and Lucy (Lemon) McCauley stained by 1951 flood waters. Fifth, a baby photograh of Mildred Mae McCauley taken in 1902.)