Road Trip to Davenport, Iowa

 

Eleanor "Lillie" Motie and Edward M. Keating 1893 Chicago

  

Amy and I took a road trip this past Saturday to Davenport Iowa to learn more about our Keating and Motie relatives who lived in this area in the 1840s through the 1890s. 

Davenport is a mid-sized city (population around 380,000) located on the eastern border of Iowa along the Mississippi River. It is the largest of the so-called Quad Cities with a great location on rolling bluffs. This part of Iowa was originally inhabited by the Sauk, Fox, and Winnebago peoples.  By the late 1600s, French explorers were in this area as they navigated up and down the river system.

 

The Davenport area was part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803  and technically became United States territory at that time.  In 1832, the famous Black Hawk war occurred in the area around Davenport and when that war was concluded, American settlers began founding more permanent cities.  

 

French settler Antoine Le Claire gets credit for founding Davenport on May 14, 1836 and naming it for his friend, Colonel George Davenport.  Our family’s connection to Davenport started a few years later when our ancestors, Joseph Motie and Mary Maguire, came to Davenport around 1839 (separately, he came up the river from Missouri and she came from County Clare, Ireland with her parents and siblings).  Motie and Maguire can rightfully be considered some of Davenport's earliest settlers. (Motie and Maguire were also in Dubuque and married there, so Amy and I will be road tripping there later this summer).

  

The American branch of the Keatings started in Davenport when Michael Keating and his wife Bridget Creagh arrived from County Clare, Ireland sometime before 1863. I cannot find their arrivals nor do I know if they came together from Ireland, but we do know they were married in Davenport in St. Anthony’s Catholic church in November 1863.  As luck would have it, this was the first stop Amy and I made on our heritage trip. 

 

Their first child, Edward Michael, was baptized at St. Anthony’s on August 24, 1864.  

 

 

I think it’s worth noting that he appears to have been baptized on his actual birth date.  That detail tells you a lot about infant mortality in the 1860s. Michael and Bridget had two more children, two daughters Ellen and Mary, but then Michael died in 1867 leaving Bridget a widow with three children under age 5. (There is no information about what caused Michael to die, he was listed as a laborer in the city directory from the prior year, but we have no information about how or why he died at age 36).

How in the world did Bridget and those children survive? I have to think that the parish of St. Anthony’s helped her survive.  Looking at historical records, I can see that Bridget and the children lived in the Hamburg historic district, the area where St. Anthony’s is located. It was primarily an area for German immigrants and it was known for having many classes and ethnicities living together. I would assume the Keatings did not own a horse or carriage, so they must have walked everywhere. The neighborhood’s proximity to the church must have been important to Bridget and her children.  Amy and I walked to the last known address we have for the Keatings at 421 W. 5th street.  Here’s what we found:

Now, let’s move onto the Motie experience in Davenport in the 19th century. The Moties lived in an area called Cork Hill, another historic neighborhood named for having  numerous Irish immigrants from County Cork. (Mary Maguire was from County Clare)  From its location overlooking the river and the larger lot sizes, Cork Hill is quite obviously a more elite neighborhood than the Hamburg area.  Joseph Motie was a brick mason and had a business in Davenport. The Moties lived for years at 412 10th in a house built by Joseph.  The house was listed on the historic register, so you can see it here.  Motie House

 

 

Today, the site where Motie’s house was located is across the street from a very elegant Catholic Cathedral of the Sacred Heart. (Above is the cornerstone of the Cathedral)

This church was first built in 1856 as St. Marguerite’s church and we know the Motie family attended this church and Joseph was in the choir!

 Here is an article from the Quad City Times from February 11, 1876:

 

Our great grandmother Eleanor Motie was born in Davenport in 1869 and surely lived in the house on 10th street and attended the church across the street, when it was St. Marguerite’s.

 

In 1881, the Pope established the Diocese of Davenport and St. Marguerite’s was named a cathedral, re-named the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and re-built into the grand cathedral that exists today.  (You can see my minivan in the background in front of the Motie address.)

 

 

 

Our great, great, great grandfather Joseph died in 1880, so he didn’t see the building of the Cathedral, but Mary and her children did. When Mary Maguire died in 1898 in Chicago, her body was returned to Iowa and her services were held in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

Both the Keatings and the Moties are buried in the Mount Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Davenport.  I had the lot numbers for the Keatings and the Moties, but the cemetery was extremely difficult to navigate and there was nobody working there, as it was a Saturday.  I was ready to throw in the towel, when Amy’s eagle eyes spotted a Keating monument.  

The monument was for Michael Keating who died in 1867 along with his daughter, Mary who died in 1904 in Chicago and was married to George Motie (recall brother and sister married brother and sister).  Anyway, I am not sure why Mary is buried with her parents, not her husband, but there she is.  I may do more research into this situation, but we know this–Mary’s death in 1904 was truly tragic.  She was only 36 years old and she left 5 young children and her husband George.  

Our Heritage trip was informative.  We know for certain that the Keatings and Moties lived in very distinct neighborhoods and attended different Catholic churches.  Did Edward and Eleanor know each other before moving to Chicago?  We do not know, it’s possible as the areas are close by, but they may have not interacted.  I also wanted to know if Edward had started his printing/linotype profession before moving to Chicago.  The answer to that is yes.  Edward is listed in the 1888-1889 City Directory as a pressman, so he did start his training in Iowa.

I will do some more research into Mt. Calvary and hope to return later this summer!

 

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Special thanks go to: 

• my dad and Brian Keating for some help understanding historical documents

• Amy Keating for being a great travel companion and navigator

• My friend Linda Lauterbach for advice on genealogy field trips and finding terrific articles

• The Special Collections department at the Davenport Library  

We have some videos available of our trip, but are too hard to post on this blog, but contact me if interested in seeing the raw footage!