The following interviews were conducted with my aunt, Ethel Lerohl, my mother, Madelon Donohue, and a cousin of my father, Edward Cunningham, seeking information about the Donohues. They have interest both for the factual material and the color of the interview.
 
 

RE: FAMILY GENEALOGY
DATE: NOVEMBER 27, 1989

I spent a day with Aunt Ethel talking family.  She was in a Senior Care home in Tucson, Arizona. Ethel was the best of my Dad’s sisters as a family historian and enjoyed reciting the following.

Interview With Ethel Lerohl

I interviewed Ethel Lerohl regarding our family and the following are her recollections: Ethel is 89 this year, born in 1900, the second of the seven girls of Will and Mary Donohue.  She was born in 1900 in Melrose, grew up in Melrose, commensurate with her family moving into St. Cloud she started college.  She described her dad as having her enrolled at the University of Minnesota because her sister, Madeline, had gone to the University of Minnesota.  However, Ethel did not want to leave home and, therefore, went to St. Cloud State and lived at their home on Fifth Avenue in St. Cloud.  She graduated from college, taught first in Princeton, Minnesota. She then taught in East Las Vegas, New Mexico, for a year.  She came back after that year and taught in Bovey, MN, where she met and married her husband, Andy Lerohl. an immigrant from Norway.  He was a superintendent in the iron mines.

She remembered her grandfather Donohue.  She said he came to their house when she was a little girl.  He had a shock of white hair, very beautiful snowy white hair as she described it.  He was a nice man and told them lots of stories.  He came alone so it must have been after his wife had died.  His wife died in 1905, and he died in 1907.  Ethel said that would sound correct.  She would have been just a little girl between the ages of 5 and 7, that would fit.  She didn't know much else about him.  He was a farmer although retired at those times he came to visit.

Ethel talked a lot about Aunt Ellen.  Ellen would be the wife of Patrick Graham, Ethel's great-uncle, the brother of her grandfather Thomas Graham.  Aunt Ellen had a farm a mile and a half west of Melrose.  This farm was later taken over by Jim Graham, now dead, whose wife, Ruth Graham, survives and lives in Melrose, as does their daughter, Mary Ellen Gebeke.  The Ellen Graham farm was a very happy place.  They all loved Auntie Ellen.  Auntie Ellen used to do a lot of cooking, was an excellent cook, and provided them with lots of cookies.

She described how they would walk out to the farm the mile and a half and walk back.  She described one time that she was going there with her sisters and her mother and Mrs. Zins.  As they were walking back, they saw a man hiding in a culvert or sitting in a culvert and they said it was Jack the Hugger.  This was some character in Melrose who would hug kids.  They were all shouting back to their mother to look out, it's Jack the Hugger, and the man says, "Yes, I'm Jack the Hugger but I'm not going to hug you."

In the years they lived in Melrose, they did not have a car, nor did they have horses or a buggy.  She said everyone walked; no one had a car.  She joked, in fact, saying Dr. Huber was the first one to get a car.  He was a friend of her dad's.  As soon as he had the car, he drove over to give the kids a ride.  Ethel said they loved the ride but she puked in the car.  She felt real bad.  Her dad never drove, but once, she said when he did, this was later on in St. Cloud, he hit another car and damaged it.  That was enough.  In fact, when they got the car their dad hired a man to teach Ethel and Howard how to drive it.  He never chose to drive, saying the kids liked to drive and that was good enough.

In the times they lived in Melrose, they simply did not have a car.  They did their walking, if they went out to one of their cousins' farms farther than Auntie Ellen's Uncle Arthur, one of her mom’s brothers, would send in a horse and buggy to pick them up.  She stated when her dad went to St. Cloud he would go by rail.  If they went to the Cities, they would go by rail.  She said her mother often went into St. Cloud to shop at Fandel's or would go down to Minneapolis to shop at Dayton's.  It, of course, was a big deal to go to Minneapolis.  It was fun.

I asked her whether or not they considered themselves well to do as they lived in Melrose.  She said when her dad started practicing law, her grandfather, Thomas Graham, was supposed to have told them, “you'll never make a dime in Melrose”.  She says they believed they did well,
they lived in a large house, her mother always had a maid both in Melrose and in St. Cloud, and their house was well fixed in town.  She said they, of course, never knew, but assumed that they were well to do.  She said when they moved into St. Cloud they still considered themselves well to do and there was no real change.  Will Donohue did fairly well when living in St. Cloud.

She described her dad as a very quiet man.  He had very little to say to the kids, he had very little to say to anyone.  He would work usually from 8:00 in the morning, leaving the house about then, usually before the kids, and be home around 6:00.  He did not often work at night.  He would only do so if trying a case.  When home, he did an awful lot of reading.  He just did not talk much, she cannot recall many conversations at all that she had with her dad.  Alice Dirkswager has related the same, that she had very little conversations ever with her dad.  In turn, she said she saw very little talk between her mother and dad.  Her dad did what her mother told him to do.  She would really run the house and ran all of their social life. He always acquiesced.  He would never cross his wife.  What she said he complied with.  To me this seemed weird as he didn't attend his kids' weddings, those weddings he didn't approve of, Ethel said he simply arranged to be out of town.  When Howard and Madeline got married, he was simply out visiting his sister Kate.  She said he didn't make a big deal out of it.  He simply arranged to be gone the day of the wedding.

At home, he simply didn't have much to say.  She said she always found it remarkable that as they would bring kids home, their friends, he always remembered their names and who each one was and called them by name.  She said this, of course, pleased them that their dad would have enough interest.  Although he wouldn't talk to them, he would know who each kid was and know their name.  He did command a great deal of respect, like if a friend were sitting in his chair as he entered the room, they got up and moved very quickly.  She also described him helping out two of her friends who were in an automobile accident.  She said he got them a good settlement, represented them but never said a word about it.

He was a good lawyer, he was an active politician.  She said they would go to many political meetings and he obviously talked there.  She said when he was at the 1932 National Convention where he worked for Roosevelt, he lost 17 pounds.  She didn't know whether that was from all the work he was doing or whether it was from the cancer that was obviously developing at that time.  He came home, felt sick, saw Dr. Phil Stangl, Phil sent him down to Rochester, he was examined at Rochester and was told he had cancer.  She said when he went into Rochester, he asked the doctors how much it was going to cost.  They gave him a quote, when the bill came through it was $1,000 more.  She said he sent Howard down to the business office to straighten it out and they reduced it by $1,000.

She said had he lived he would have been an ambassador to South America.  He always wanted to go to South America and he expected to get an ambassadorship from the work he did on the national committee for Roosevelt.  Of interest, the story behind this is that he ran for a non-committed delegation in 1932.  The joke was that Donohue was running for president.  A good deal of the Democratic party was going for Smith as they had in Houston in 1928.  Will Donohue, as a Catholic, was in a good position to go against Smith and for an uncommitted delegation to the convention.  At the state convention, the Smith folks wouldn't agree to an uncommitted delegation.  They walked out of the convention and conducted their own "rump convention”.  at the National Convention  in Chicago Will Donohue argued the admission of his uncommitted delegation before the credentials committee. The credentials committee was then headed by John Jacob Raskob, the Tammany Hall boss from New York.  Will got his delegation admitted to the convention over the Smith "rumpites."  This was considered one of the events that let to Roosevelt's nomination in 1932.  This nomination led to the longest presidency experienced in the United States.  There is a picture that I believe is now in my brother's hands from Roosevelt, a picture of Roosevelt inscribed "To my good friend William F. Donohue."  This was obviously sent posthumously.  Will Donohue died November 2, and Roosevelt was elected November 7.  The tribute that was given him at his death noted, I think Judge Himsll saying it, that he was to be a Federal Circuit Judge on Roosevelt's election.

I have heard both stories, both the ambassadorship to South America as well as the Circuit Judgeship.  According to my father, this was all a bunch of "bunk," Roosevelt wasn't elected when he died, who knows what he would have gotten.  My father did, however, point out that, yes, he was known as running for president in Minnesota and yes, he would have gotten something because he was instrumental in Roosevelt's nomination that led to his presidency.

Stories by my father are that Will Donohue was very active in the Democratic Party from 1900 to 1932.  In fact, he was considered the “Boss” and the man behind the scenes who actually ran the party during this entire 32-year period.  A Joe Wolf from Staples was the state chairman.  Wolf answered to Donohue.  I went to school with Nancy Jo Wolf, the daughter of Joe Wolf, and she confirmed this.  She knew that from either her father or her grandfather.  Nancy, as I recall, married Charlie Flett, a lawyer.  I have read that in this period the Democratic Party in the north was a party of Irishmen and drunks. This was the post-reconstruction period following the Civil War. The party at that time tended to be fiscally Conservative.  According to my father, my grandfather was that.  Among other issues he strongly opposed the income tax.

The dominant party in the period of post Civil War until 1932 was the Republican party with the exception of that period in which Woodrow Wilson occupied the presidency during World War I.  The dominant party in Minnesota along with the Republicans was the populist party of the Farm-Laborites.  It was Hubert Humphrey who was instrumental in joining the Farm-Laborites and the Democrats sometime after 1932.

Will Donohue had run for a variety of offices, I believe in 1912 he ran for sixth district congressman, lost to Harold Knutson.  In the early 1900's, he ran for Attorney General and lost.  He was Stearns County Attorney for some period that I have not been able to tie down.  He held school board, legislative and perhaps village offices in Melrose.

He was a political figure of this period.  He was even though, Judge Himsl at his memorial noted “he didn't appear in the Mitchell (Stearns County) History”.  This was a subscribe and be written up publication done in 1915.  These were very common in that time.  A company would sell subscriptions to locals. This would assure a local an entry in the book, With enough payment, a key history would be done. Because he was too penurious to subscribe. This is probably why he was left out at a time that he was Stearns County’s elected County Attorney.  This has always been an anomaly with me.  Recently, I have found in some of the resources for genealogical research that if a person contributed to these histories that were done of local areas, they got well written up. If they did not contribute, that is buy a bunch of books, they were kind of overlooked.

When he was dying at Mayo, my father tells the story, that Paul Madigan had just received a federal appointment to the job of a prison guard in the Federal Prison System that was just being organized and/or expanded.  This was the result of Will Donohue's request to Congressman Knutson.  He told Howard from his deathbed to contact Harold Knutson and tell Knutson that the family would be voting for him this next election in appreciation for what he did for Paul Madigan.  Of note, Paul Madigan, Madeline's husband, later became Warden of Alcatraz.  He did quite well.

Another note worthy of mention is that Ethel was at that time serving as Postmistress in Bovey, Minnesota.  This was obviously a political appointment as well.  All of this suggests he had some political clout.

She said her father talked very little about his family.  He never called George.  Her uncle, Arthur Donohue, would come and visit from Washington.  Even after her mother made contact with George, she doesn't recall her dad having any contact with George Donohue.  She recalls Frederick coming and visiting them once and then leaving for Australia.  She kind of figures Fred got to Australia. The story I have always heard is that he dissapeared.  I think it will be worthwhile to do a little looking in Australia to see if we can find a related Donohue contingent there. Fred was one of the youngest of the family, born in 1877, 15 years after Will.  She believed her grandfather, Peter, to be very industrious.  She also noted that her father once mentioned that his grandfather lived to be over 100.  She didn't know whether that was Florence Donohue or Daniel Coughlin.

She stated her father was a very small man.  At one point she thought he was just a few inches taller than she, about 5'4" total, and other times she wasn't so sure that maybe he was as tall as Howard, who was 5'7" or 5'8".  She noted this as size being small in talking about the fact that he would never stand up to her mother.

She really liked Aunt Annie.  She noted how Annie was very active in teaching in Minneapolis, was involved with the PERA bill and later went out to Hollywood, owned a lot of apartment houses out there and mentioned how her doctor and nurse would never let any of the family see her, they believed a doctor and nurse took all of Annie's money.  Apparently, Arthur or George got in to see her fairly near her death.  She never saw Margaret Cunningham who lived in Cylon Township.  She saw Aunt Mary Fitzsimmons in Rockford, Illinois.  They were a nice family.  She also did not know Sarah Donohue other than that she did not marry.  She talked a lot about the Burkes, had a lot of contacts with the Burkes, particularly Pat Burke in Duluth.  One of Will's sisters married a Burke.  She also noted that the Kennedy in Sauk Centre was a sister of her mother.  She didn't know which sister it was.
 
 

My mother, Madelon Hills Donohue, born in 1909, in her eighties, proved to be my best historian on all sides of the family.  She knew her family, knew the Donohue/Graham families and was an excellent source for me. The following are excerpts from interviews I had with her regarding the Donohues.

Madelon:  Dad's (Howard I Donohue) people, the Donohues, were from Wisconsin.  His grand-parents were buried near Erin Prairie.  I say that because we went over there.  His father (William F. Donohue) had several sisters. One was named Margaret Cunningham.  She married a Cunningham. There were a bunch of those kids and one of them died. It was right after, not too long after his dad died (William F Donohue). Grandma ( Mary Anne Graham Donohue, William’s wife), had to go to every wake.  I suppose she was in California with Evelyn (Howard’s sister) so dad took it upon himself to go over there.  We stayed at New Richmond. That is where grandpa Donohue was from, around there.  This Cunningham was buried at Erin Prairie.  I can't remember it being at any town, maybe it wasn't any town, maybe it was just a little church in the cemetery.  I don't know, I know we stayed at the hotel in New Richmond and I assume that is where Howard's father was from because he also talked as though he was from there.
Mike: Did you ever know what grandpa Donohue, my grandpa Donohue, William Donohue's parents died of?  Why I ask that is, looking at the work Aunt Mary did, the older sisters of grandpa Donohue, that is my grandpa Donohue, all seem to have been educated.  Then Mary makes some mention of my grandfather Donohue having to fend for himself at a young age, educating himself.  Do you know why?
Madelon: Well, because he lived on a farm over there.  There were two brothers and one, I can't tell you the other one's name, they both lived on farms there and I suppose there was no money and grandpa Donohue, your, yes it would be your grandpa Donohue taught school for many years, not many years but several years and finally got tired of teaching and decided to go to, now I get this from dad, decided to go to Minneapolis and become either a priest or an attorney and he just could not make up his mind.  He got on a street car and he started out and as the street car went, still trying to make up his mind it passed, I don't know whether it was the University or what would probably be the only Law School.  He passed it and got off and registered and became an attorney.  Then he went to Melrose to practice and Mr. Stevens, from the same county as your grandpa, joined him.

The other brother who lived there, on the farm, was a surveyor.  Now, the way I understood it, he was a self-made. He learned how to survey on his own.  He was in demand.  He probably homesteaded and farmed also.  Dad told a story about them.. A cyclone came through there or a tornado, and he and his wife, they had no children, he and his wife were sitting in the kitchen and a 2 x 4 went right through the house.  I don't know if it was between them or it didn't hurt them, but the force of the tornado passed it right through the house.

Of your grandfather’s family I recall a brother, Arthur, became a forester in Portland, Oregon.

Mike:  Did he have children?
Madelon: No, none of them had children, Uncle Arthur had no children..
Mike:  And George didn't have children.
Madelon: But he had sisters that had children galore.  There was another one that lived in Dakota.
Mike:  That was Grinella.
Madelon:  Annie was involved as a teacher in the Minneapolis school district, was involved with the adoption of PERA the Public Employees Retirement Act.  In fact, she had a pen she received from the governor, the pen that was used to sign the bill adopting PERA.  After she retired from the Minneapolis school district, her sister Sara, who lived in Hollywood and tutored children in Hollywood, probably movie stars' families, as it is understood, invited her out to live with her and tutor with her. She did, she died there, along with Sara, both died residents of Hollywood.

RE: FAMILY HISTORY
DATE: AUGUST 3, 1990

I visited with Edward Cunningham on 7/31/90.  Edward lives at 3802 West Mount Vernon Avenue in Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53208.  His home is on 38th Street four blocks south of Wisconsin.  He has lived in Milwaukee since 1936.  He is the son of Margaret Donohue.  He grew up on a farm in Cylon Township.  He knew of Peter Donohue and knew of a Timothy Donohue in New Richmond.  He said Timothy was a cooper in New Richmond.  A cooper is a bell maker.

He was always told that he had a grand uncle, Timothy, buried at Gettysburg.  He does not know whether that was  Timothy Donohue or a Timothy Coughlin.  Talk that he heard of the Coughlins were that the father Coughlin of some notoriety in radio days was a relative.  He knew an Owen Coughlin who lived east of New Richmond to be a relative.

He says he recalls my grandfather who was a very quiet man.  He stated my grandfather could sit for an afternoon and say nothing.  He was, however, an excellent lawyer and an excellent politician.  Additionally, he had what is called the golden touch.  Everything he touched turned to money.  He noted particularly his land in Canada.

He knew his grandfather Peter Donohue to be a mailman in Stanton Township.  He also stated that his mother always quoted her father, Peter, saying "if the English weren't the most religious people in the world, they would have rounded up all of the Irish and thrown them into the sea."

I asked him whether or not he knew where the Donohues came from in Ireland.  He stated he didn't know, however, whenever his father wanted to put down any Irish, particularly the Donohues, he told them they all came from Cork.  Somehow according to Mr. Cunningham, the fact that they came from Cork was somehow derisive of them.  Beyond that, he knew nothing.

He did state that Pat Burke had done some research or at least had some interest of the history of the Donohue family and had visited him once in the 1940's asking question.  I will want to find Pat's daughter, Abby, and see whether or not she has any of her father's research.

Maggie Donohue Cunningham was a school teacher.  She lived with John Cunningham's sister in the township of Cylon and it was that way she met the father.  According to Mr. Cunningham, John's ancestor that came from Ireland at the time of the famine, before the civil war, was Peter Cunningham.  Apparently, Mary Rose Moore attempted some research and discovered in Ireland that for some reason the Cunninghams had adopted an English name to avoid knowledge by the English as to who they actually were, for this reason, there was some question whether Cunningham was the correct name.

I learned of Ed Cunningham through Mary Rose Moore who is his first cousin.  Mary Rose lives in New Richmond at the Sunshine Courts on Somerset Road.  She is of the age of 90.  She is the daughter of Frank and Mary Meath.  Her mother, Mary, is a sister of John Cunningham, Maggie's husband.   She gave me Ed's name, whom she called Ted.  She also gave me the name of Rita Poweer, the daughter of Lee Cunningham, Ed's brother.  Rita's lives in St. Paul