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THE COLL'S OF COUNTY DONEGAL - A FAMILY HISTORY

Preamble

This Third Revision of the History of the Coll Family from County Donegal begins with the birth in 1876 of the first child Denis Patrick to John and Bridget Huston Coll ("John and Bridget Sr."). The primary author is Denis Patrick Raymond Coll (Grandson of Denis Patrick Coll, son of Edward, Sr.) with invaluable assistance from Ray Coll, Jr., Mary Margaret Coll Malesky, Madelyn Coll Reilley, Amy Kramer, Pam Seligman (Patches Project) and others! On-going research has been contracted with the Ulster Historical Foundation (UHF). We cannot progress much further back into our "roots" beyond Denis until more information can be uncovered concerning John, Sr. and/or Bridget, Sr. Comments, suggestions and information can be sent to us via this Web site. (See bottom of page)

It all began with the location of the original of Denis' birth certificate in 1983 at St. Joseph's Hospital in Stranorlar, a town about 20 miles northeast (see map-location #1). According to a Feb. 1943 letter from a J.J. Dugan to Ed Coll, Dr., Dungan informed Ed that Ed's father Denis and Dugan's mother (Dugan was somehow related to the Boyle's-Bridget Coll Sr.'s mother family; the mother was Mary Boyle and the father was John Huston) had both been baptized by a Father McGinn (spelling??) in Dunloe (now Dungloe) and that the good father, having been re-assigned to the church in Stranorlar, took all of the records with him. If true, this could explain why Denis' birth certificate were found in Stranorlar, instead of Dungloe or Burnport or another town closer to the northwest coast of Ireland. According to a Sarah O'Donnell (see her letter to Dennis Coll dated 19/7/82) who worked at the hospital, there were other Coll certificates at the hospital (specifically, the birth certificates of Mary, Bryan (our Uncle Barney) and several deaths, although the death certificates did not seem to coincide with any of the Meenmore Colls.

In 1982, a Barney Houston who lived in Dungloe and was 85 at the time, wrote Dennis Coll, in response to a letter from Dennis, indicating that Bridget, Sr. was the daughter of Denis Houston (spelling was Barney's), who was also Barney's grandfather and that Denis, wife was Alice O'Donnell. He also indicated that Bridget Houston had married John Coll and had 8 children . Independent verification of these facts has not yet been made.

Prior to 1983, Ed Coll, Sr. had made numerous attempts to gather, record and document the family history, but most of those records were inadvertently lost during one unfortunate "spring house cleaning" in the Coll household. The current and on going effort at a written Family History is a testament to those early efforts on which it was built and will hopefully, encourage others to help us in our search for our genealogical origins.

DENIS' BIRTH CERTIFICATE

According to Denis' birth certificate (see below; n.b. the spelling of Denis with only one "N"), his father was listed as "John Coll of Meenmore, a farmer" (Note: the local pronunciation of Meenmore has the emphasis on the second syllable, thus "meen MORE" which in Gaelic means "big field"). The mother was Bridget Huston (pronounced "Whos tun" but it could have been Hewston). Attending at the birth was Ann Boyle (Bridget's mother was a Boyle, so Ann could have been an aunt). This is the oldest, authenticated genealogical document that has been located to date. Incidentally, the word "Coll" in Gaelic means hazel as in a haze; tree. The Gaelic (and American Family) pronunciation of "Coll" is "call" as in telephone call.

LOCATING THE ACTUAL "MEENMORE" AND THE UHF SEARCH

Denis and his father had hired the UHF in the 1980's to perform basic research on the Family Coll )even though they both knew that the elder Denis was probably rolling in his grave at the thought of hiring "the Orange" to help us). The UHF is the best source at researching genealogy in Ireland that we have found to date.

During his 1983 visit to Ireland, Dennis spent several days in and around Stranorlar, searching for the location of Meenmore and any pertinent records. He discovered that there were actually TWO Mennmore's, an upper Meenmore and a lower Meenmore (although Meenmore). Dennis located the townload of upper Meenmore (See Map-Location #2 - which is on the unmarked road leading north from R253 toward Letter Kenny, about half was between Stranorlar/Ballybofey and Glenties). The townload, as the locals call it, is really only a stretch of road, which in 1983, consisted of about 5-10 homes sitting well back off the road, on both sides of the road, in the highlands.

There was no sign of a "town" as we would think of on today! However, at the northwest corner of the intersection of the unmarked road and R253, there was an unusually large pub given the few houses in the area, called the Spinning Wheel. However, as Father McGlynn, the good pastor of the large Catholic Church at Gortahork (See Map-Location #3) would tell Dennis, the entire area was essentially "on the dole" that is, on welfare, and thus, the existence of large pubs such as this one. There were traditional gathering places for the Irish in tough times.

The local cemeteries, especially the one in Fintown (Map-Location #4), have several Coll burial plots (the brothers James, Patrick and Talgue), but none that could be traced back to John and Bridget (with what little information was available at the time). A delightful octogenarian couple on the road to Letterkey (Mr. and Mrs. Dan McCauley-who were both in their 80's in 1983), indicated that there had been "no Colls from your side of the family since about 1902 or thereabouts!" (It should be noted however, that there was, at that time. a "Carmac" Coll who was about 25 and lived in the area and a Bridget Coll, widow of Paddy, who lived a few mile away, both of whom were probably not related to our Colls.

Our preliminarily conclusion, therefore, was that upper Meenmore was probably NOT the actual birthplace of Denis. This conclusion was later validated by the Ulster Historical Foundation ("UHF"); see below.

After several detailed searches, the most informative of which was dated 4/89/21 (see attachment 3), the UHF concluded that Denis probably came from the "townload of Meenmore which lies on the seashore adjoining Dungloe and comprised 1548 acres in the parish of Templecrone (which also included the island of Arranmore). It was bounded on the north by Sheskinroan (sic) and Cruckamore (sic), on the west by Glashboggan (sic)." These latter three towns in the UHF description do not appear on current maps. An 1837 dictionary described this area as "very inhospitable but beautiful!"

Several other interesting aspects have arisen during this research. The aforementioned Father McGlynn of Gortahork introduced Dennis to a Seamus ("SHAE mus") Coll, who, the good father noted, had a striking resemblance to Dennis. Seamus was about 30 years old in 1983 and worked for ANCO which is the national Irish trades school. He was one of the very few employed persons in the pastor's congregation. Seamus never responded to several letters from Dennis over the following year, probably because he, like many other Irish in this area, cannot read. And if you haven't seen the movie "The Secret of Roan Irish", a 1993 movie distributed by Columbia Tristar, you shouldn't. It was a story about an island off the NW coast of Ireland from which a little baby was lost when his wicker baby basket washed out to sea after which he was raised by seals, one of which was called "Selkie" or part human, part seal. The descendents of these Selkies, called "darkies" in the movie and in Ireland, are the Irish who have the darker skin more prevalent to the Mediterranean countries (such as Spain-see possibility of a Coll family "Spanish connection" below). They make the point that many of the men from the island had to go ashore for brides, since there were not many available (i.e. unrelated by blood) females on the island. The movie will give you a good visual "feel" for the beauty of the island and the surrounding area!

THE ISLAND OF ARRANMORE

The area or "townland" of lower Meenmore was defined (by the UHF) to be adjacent to Dungloe (see Map-Location #5), on the western coast of County Donegal, due north of Glenties. Church and other records were searched in Glenties and Dugloe by Dennis and he UHF, all to no avail. The UHF report could not find any surviving birth or baptism records in the local churches, which they found to be quite strange if, in fact, John, Bridget or Denis was, in fact, from the mainland. They even checked for a Protestant baptism of Denis. In their research, the UHF concluded that a relative (probably either the father or grandfather of John, Sr.) paid rent on land owned by the Marquis of Conyngham on the island of Arranmore. As of 1989 the National Library of Ireland has not yet sorted thorough the Conyngham Estate papers, in thus they were unavailable for a review by the UHF. A new request for a continuation of the search by the UHF was initiated in mid 1997. In the earlier study the UHF had surmised---because of the uncommon (although not universal) Irish tradition of naming the first male after the father's father and the second son after the father's grandfather---that John, Sr.'s father could well have been a Denis and John's grandfather a Bryan, and that this grandfather could well have been the Bryan Coll living on the Marquis' estate in 1857 in one of three dwellings on a 79 acre property leased from the Marquis! In 1857, there were 19 properties in Templecrone parish occupied by Colls and 11 by Hustons. In 1928, only one Coll remained. Somewhere thereafter, as evidence by the currently large number of Colls on the island, the Coll's returned.

In furtherance of this Arranmore connection, a chance meeting by Dennis in Chicago in 1996 of a fellow named Kevin O'Donnell, who is the lead singer of the U.S. based Irish Folk Group "Arranamore" (See Map Location # 6), may have added additional credence to the UHF study. As soon as he heard Dennis' last name, O'Donnell immediately replied "Your family is from Arranmore!". He referred Dennis to a Father Shiels at Holy Cross Church on the island.

The island of Arranmore, located about three miles west of Burtonport, off the western coast of County Donegal, is part of County Donegal as well as part of the area formerly known as Meenmore and was in the parish of Templecrone. The island is a tourist area known for its scenic beauty, striking cliffs, interesting marine caves and is, in season, quite busy.

In September of 1997, Madelyn Coll Reilly, her husband Jim, son Patrick and others made our first contact with several island inhabitants. They met with Mary O'Donnell, whose grandfather was one Owen Coll and whom, O'Donnell believed, might well have been our John Coll, Sr.'s brother. Owen is buried in the Kincassall Church in Burtonport. The Reillys also met with Mary Gallagher, the operator of a "bed and breakfast" called Erin House (Tel: 075-42079) located on the road between Burtonport and Dungloe, overlooking the ocean. Mary's husband is Patrick Coll Gallagher. Mary took them "under her wing for three days" and introduced them to everyone (just about) on the island. They also discovered that Coll's formerly owned the land underneath the old (1908) school as well as the new school. We are now in the process of contacting all of these folks with follow-up questions. The local phone book (a few pages of which were purloined by certain Colls from Indiana, PA) shows about 90 "Coll" listings.

Thus, Denis and his family could well have been from the island of Arranmore even though the townland listed on the birth certificate was Meenmore, most of which was on the mainland! If/when the Conyngham estate papers are sorted and made available for researchers, we may be able to conclusively prove this point in the lineage.

THE COLLS OF ARRANMORE - (According to Barney Carter)

Another data source of the Colls from Arranmore came from Barney Carter (who lived in Pittsburgh in the late 1980's), whose great great grandfather was Bridget Sr.'s (a Boyle) father and thus, Denis' maternal grandfather. Barney Carter has compiled an extensive genealogy of the Boyles of Arranmore, also with the help of the UHF as well as a book written by a Barney Gallagher (whose son Aidan lived in Dublin in the 1980's and sent a copy to Carter - see Attachment 4) which states that the Colls are a County Limerick clan which has been in Ireland since the 14th century. The Colls of Arranmore were in fact of Scottish origin and were then called "Collins" according to the book. As for the Coll heritage, at least on the maternal (Bridget Boyle) side, we come from good native Irish stock, according to Gallagher's book. The Boyle "sept" (i.e. clan) essentially ran the NW part of Ireland, complete with a regularly initiated chieftain at Cloghinelly, who was descended from an ancient high-king of Ireland called "Neil (Niall) of the Nine Hostages" (probably another interesting story there!).

There were apparently four distinct branches of Colls on the island. If true, our line of Colls would have probably descended from the Paddy Bawn Colls (see page 32 of the Gallagher book, Attachment 4), since Paddy's son Dominic had three children, one of whom was a John Coll who married a Brigit Boyle (Doney) of Fallagowan.

There may also turn out to be a "Spanish connection" in our background. The origin of the Coll family needs further investigation given the extremely large number of Coll surnames in Spanish speaking areas, such as the island of Mayorca, where there are about 10 pages of Colls in the phonebook, and Miami, Florida where many Cuban refugee families are named Coll also! Keep in mind that the Spanish Armada, after its disastrous battles with the British, had to circumnavigate the British Isles in a counter-clockwise direction (rather than pass through the British straights and risk another, perhaps fatal, sea battle) in order to return to Spain. Over 60 ships were lost or washed ashore off the northwestern and western coasts of Ireland during the terrible storms in September of 1588, with many ship-wrecked mariners successfully reaching the Irish coast (see Attachment 5). In actuality, the local Irish were not very hospitable to the half-drowned mariners who made it to shore. In most cases, they robbed, beat and then hung these poor, unfortunate sailors, mainly because the British authorities who oversaw Ireland at the time had a very small British garrison to defend the island and certainly did not want a large number of well trained Spanish soldiers in their brigs. As can be seen on the map of shipwrecks (also Attachment 5) along the Irish coast, several went down near Donegal. The most promising one in terms of our search is the "Duquesa Santa Ana" about which more research will be done.

THE EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND
The Great Famine took its main toll in Ireland from 1845-50, and was especially devastating on Arranmore. For reasons still unknown, John and Bridget, Sr. and their first three children (Denis-born 1876, Bryan-1878, and Mary-1881) did not emigrate to the US until sometime after Mary's birth in Ireland in early 1881 and probably before the end of 1883, since daughter Alice was born in Feb. of 1884 in Broadford, PA (see PA Map-Location # 7). It is possible, of course, that John could have come over first and then sent for his wife. But assuming that he is the father of all of Bridget's children, it is highly unlikely that he would have returned to Ireland to father Barney and/or Mary. However, in another letter in 1943 (from Ed Coll, Sr. to a John Boyle), Ed reiterated the fact that his Dad (Denis) had arrived in the U.S. with his two siblings and parents. John, Sr. et al could have departed soon after Mary's conception, which would place their arrival as early as the mid-1880 timeframe!

We do know that John, Sr. became an American citizen on Oct. 4, 1884 (Alien Docket #2214-Uniontown, PA Court - see Attachment 6) although the certificate issued by Fayette County indicated that he had resided in the jurisdiction "for five years immediately preceding his application" which would mean from about Oct. 1879 onward! Thus, you could conclude that either John, Sr. came over in 1879 without his wife Bridget, some two years before his daughter Mary's birth in Ireland in 1881, which then gives rise to interesting questions of lineage viz Mary's birth; or, more likely, John may not have met the other part of his citizenship testamentary, namely "that during that time, he had behaved as a man of good moral character..." which we would presume meant telling the truth about how long he had been in the US. More likely, the citizenship requirements were seen as just a formality, since Frick controlled everything else in Fayette County at the time. "Very interesting!" as they used to say on the old TV show "Laugh In!!!" Thus, our best guess as to their arrival in Broadford, PA would be between mid-1880 and late 1883!

According to Mary Margaret Malesky ("MMM"), Nanny (Bridget, Sr.) was 93 when she passed away (which would indicate a birth year of 1853) and John, Sr. was 90 at his death, indicating his birth in 1852. Their cemetery headstones, however, indicate births in 1860 and 1862 respectively. The earlier birth dates are probably closer to the truth, otherwise, Bridget, Sr. would have been only 14 by 1876 when she had her first child (such an early age, however, was not unheard of at that time). The first Census (1990 - Connellsville Borough) on which the Coll family appears (see Attachment 7), shows John's given birth date as January 1852 and Bridget's as July, 1854. This same census also shows Denis' birth date August 1879 and Barney's as July 1881, both of which conflict with the actual birth certificates. It needs to be noted here that the Census was taken during the day. In this particular census, it was June 1st, 1990, a Friday when the men and boys were probably either in the mines or in school. The older women had probably been shipped off to a parish house or the like to earn their keep by working for the priests, etc. or were already married, as was the case with Mary (1897 marriage to Pat Burns). Thus, the source of the Census taker's data would have had to have been either Bridget, Sr., or the younger children (John was listed at 9, Charlie at 7). It is hard to believe that Bridget, Sr. was the source, given that she got the older boy's birth dates wrong by three years. More research has to be done on these birth dates. Additionally, family verbal history has them emigrating to the U.S. in 1878, but that is clearly not the case, given Mary's birth certificate showing a Jan 1881 birth in Ireland. Thus, we think that the parents would have been about 30, and their children would have been about 6, 4 and 1 at the time of the ocean passage.

The passage from Ireland was much easier than we had originally believed, due mainly to the intense competition between the relatively new steamship lines plying the waters between Europe and America, primarily the Cunard and Allan Ship Lines. Because of the competition, the cost was less that $9 per person one way (at least by 1894) and took only "a fortnight" (14 days). The ships were actually quite nice, with many having separate beds, baths and regularly cooked meals, even in steerage. There were also many Irish and American sources (in addition to the railroads and coal mines, which advertised heavily of their "free passage for laborers") from which the Colls could have obtained the cost of the voyage.

The departing emigrants were probably either picked up at one of the many small ports along the NW Irish coast, such as Burnport, and transported to Moville (which replaced Liverpool in 1870 as the major debarkation port) or perhaps even Queenstown and then sailed from there. The Reilly's were told in Arranmore that the emigrants from Meenmore went by train from Burtonport to Moville (in northern County Donegal) or Derry and then to New your, but that information needs to be independently verified. We are assuming they would have arrived in New York harbor, as did most of the emigrants at that time. We are still searching for proof of this, such as the ship's register, since Ellis Island did not open until the 1890's! Baltimore is also a strong possibility since the Baltimore & Ohio railroad ran through their first hometown of Broadford.

Why them emigrated at this time is still a mystery to us. We do know that in the late 1880's, Ireland designated several areas, including the western part of County Ulster (which is now County Donegal) as "Congested Districts" which was a nice way of saying that these areas were the "most wretched and poorest" areas in Ireland. We also know that it was "fashionable" to leave Ireland for the "great opportunities" in America that many preceding emigrants were extolling in their letters back home. In fact, emigration had dropped to about 14,000 in 1877 due to the depression in the US, but then increased dramatically to 30,100 in 1880 and then over 83,000 per year (not all to the US) by 1883. Or, preceding relatives may have sent them for. We are still searching for this answer! Whatever the reason, we do know that things were very harsh in their part of Ireland, even some 30 years after the famine. Proof of that can be seen in the "famine walls" on Arranmore, erected stone by small stone by the Irish for their English landlords, at the pay rate of "one penny per day!"

Although we originally believed that John, Bridget and their three children traveled from New Your City to Western Pennsylvania by boat (NYC>>Hudson River>>Great Lakes>>Beaver River>>Ohio River), it now seems more probable that they traveled by train, probably wither the Pennsylvania RR or the Baltimore & Ohio RR, both of which were operational in the 1882 timeframe. The B & O had a 10 mile spur line off the main line which went to Broadford (where the Coll's first settled). H.C. Frick saved this line from going out of business at about the time of the Coll's arrival.

THE COLLS ESTABLISH THEMSELVES IN THE WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA COAL MINING AREA

The family came to the Western Pennsylvania coal mining region (about 50 miles SSE of Pittsburgh) to what was then called the "Morgan Valley" to mine the "Connellsville seam" which was discovered and purchased in 1871 by Henry Clay Frick of the H.C. Rick Coke Company. This vein of bituminous coal (i.e. "soft" coal as opposed to the "hard" anthracite coal found mostly in eastern PA) was nine feet high. The "Lower Connellsville Field covered the area east of the Monogahela River between Brownsville and Uniontown (see Attachment 9). The transport from Ireland may well have been part of a fee passage arrangement (known in other centuries as "indentured servitude") that Frick employed to bring the hard working European laborers over to provide cheap labor to mine the coal. Frick had converted the impure mined coal to pure coke (essentially coal, which has had all of its impurities, removed, usually by burning in the ovens). Frick then sold the coke to his friend and future business partner Andrew Carnegie (and others) to make steel, for which the coke provided the raw fuel to fire the steel mill furnaces to exactly the correct temperatures needed to make steel. Another key ingredient in this process was the proximity of the coke ovens to river barges to transport the coke down stream to the Pittsburgh steel mills (to which the iron ore from the ranges in Minnesota had also been water chipped). In 1855, there were just 26 ovens in the Connellsville area, but the Civil War and the resultant need for steel and iron changed all that. By the time of the Coll's arrival, Frick's operation alone had frown to 1,026 coke ovens and over 3,000 acres of coal (see "a Brief History of H.C. Frick Coke Company, dated 2/20/47).

It is not precisely clear exactly where John and Bridget, Sr. lived during their 55+ years in Pennsylvania, but an educated guess would indicate the following:

Upon Arrival (c. 1882) until 1888 - Broadford, PA (even though the birth certificates for Alice (1884) and the younger siblings indicate birth in Adelaide, the town of Adelaide apparently was not built and occupied until 1888, according to Cassie Coleman and local Frick Co. records);

1888 until 1922 - Adelaide, PA ( located just across the Youghioheny River from Broadford; until the mine, also called the "Cupola Mine", shut down in 1822 and was consolidated with the Trotter Mine);

1922 until 1927 - 612 Lincoln Street in the city of Monongahelia near the Star mine;

1927 until their deaths (1942 and 1946) - Edenforn, another "patch" or coal mining town, where their son John, Jr. lived and worked and where John, Jr.'s two daughters Madelyn and Mary Margaret, were available to tend to their sickly and bed-ridden grandfather John, Sr.

Broadford and Adelaide were two small towns on opposite sides of the beautiful Youghiogheny River ("the Yough"), just north of Connellsville, PA. Broadford is on the north side of the Yough (take US 199 north across the Connellsville bridge for about 1/2 mile, turn west on Rt. 711, go under an old abandoned RR tressle and the turn left over the old RR tracks just as 711 bends right along a row of houses. The remaining houses of Broadford sit directly in the shadow of what remains of the old Overholt & Co. distillery (owned by the family of H.C. Frick's wife, Adelaide and for whom the town across the river was named. Many of the old distillery building walls still remains as of 7/97. (see map location #7)

Broadford now consists of a few run-down but occupied row houses. Just east of the nearby Hodge Transmission garage, there is a road that leads across the RR tracks to the old distillery remains. The old Broadford mineshaft was about 200 years east of this RR crossing, on the north side of the tracks. At the time of their arrival, Broadford was the headquarters of Frick's coke operations. According to the "Patchers" project, Broadford was built in 1871 while Adelaide followed in 1888. As can be seen in the 1900 Census (see attachment #7), the Colls lived at 828 Steel Works Row in Adelaide. A further understanding of Adelaide, its coke ovens and residents can be found in Angela La Porte's detailed piece entitled "Beehive Coke Ovens & the Lived of the Adelaide Coke Workers from 1870-1920's (see attachment 10)

While many of these old coal-mining towns are rundown, Adelaide (which incidentally, no longer exists as a townsite as evidenced by the fact that is not indicated on any current map) is a very pleasant suprise! The three remaining "company" houses as well as the other 6-8 houses along the river have been well maintained and overlook a very scenic and beautiful piece of the shallow Yough River. In fact, many of the old Coll reunions of the 1950's and 1960's were held right here at the still remaining "park". TO find Adelaide, take Rt. 201 west from Connellsville about 1.5 miles to Adelaide Street, turn right (north) and follow the signs to "Rivers Edge Camp Ground" which is another 1.5 miles and is adjacent to the houses in what was once Adelaide- see Map # 8.

The Yough River at Adelaide is "picture post card material" (see preceding pictures). The river is quite shallow, as evidenced by the two boys fishing in the picture. Adelaide itself seems to have disappeared as a town, with only three Company houses remaining. But it is still possible to locate the old mine shaft, which is about 1/4 mile down the bike path from the Rivers Edge Camp ground. A 7/22/1899 picture (see previous page) shows the coke pullers in front of the mine and coke operation. We thing that one of these men is John, Sr. and that some of his sons are also in the picture! The picture came from a 1997 resident of Adelaide, Mr. Vincent LaPorte (412-628-4839), who was about 75-80 years old when we visited him in 1997, had loved in Adelaide all of his life and still remembered some of the "Coll Boys!".

Vincent took us over to see the remains of the old Adelaide/Cupola mineshaft entrance. To get there, we walked along the bike path (the old RR bed of the Pittsburgh, McKees Rocks & Youghiogheney RR) from the parking lot of the camp for about 225 paces from the River's Edge sign at the SW corner of the parking area looking for the path on our left as we walked (watch for a 6 foot vertical RR timber marker on the other side of the bike trail. We then took that trail, up a slight incline to a perpendicular paht and turned right. After about 50 feet on this path, up a slight incline to a perpendicular path and turned right. After about 50 feet of one of the new houses which you passed on Adelaide Street coming in! We then walked for about 130 paces, all the while looking for a small one foot high by three foot long mound of dirt/concrete just inside the bushes on out right side. When we were there in 7/97, there was some bright orange/red Engineer tape hanging from a bush next to the path (see Map on previous page).

The mine entrance cannot be seen from this path, since it actually faces toward you and runs under where you are standing. To locate the arched entrance, trod into the brush about 30-40 feet, down a slight grade, and then look back toward the trail. Again, this was marked by a second piece of Engineer tape when we were there! As you can see by the pictures, the entrance is not very large, perhaps just under 6 feet, and clearly leads to a "slope mine" the miners tunneled horizontally from there, sometimes for many miles. Vincent seemed to think that this shaft might have gone as far as Trotter, which is about 2.5 miles south! Further down the path, according to Vincent, again in the brush you can also locate the cover for one of the vertical shafts, where the mules (led by Uncle Barney) lifted the newly mined coal to the surface to be processed into coke. Looking back at the 1899 picture, compare the size of that operation with the aerial view of the area taken from the River's edge flyer! Another pictures is shown (see following), of a slope mine entrance not too far from this area, which gives a better understanding of what the mine entrance probably looked like.

One of the highlights of doing this type of on-site genealogical work is that you get to meet some very interesting people. Our new friend Vincent introduced Ray, MMM and Dennis to one such person, his Uncle Mike LaPorte (born c. 1904, lives alone at 1716 Crawford St. in Connellsville). Mike had a remarkable memory and regaled us with a wonderful verbal feast of the "good old days." He even remembered MMM's father (John, Jr.) nickname in the mines. More on that later! Mike observed that Adelaide was mostly Hungarian with but 12-14 Irish families. Because both groups were religious, they approached the mine superintendent (who was Adelaide Frick's brother) and requested that one of the company houses (actually a half, since the company houses were usually duplexes) be given over for a proper church meeting place. The super agreed and thus began the Catholic priest was from the church in Dawson, which meant that at least one of the Coll's ("Shorty" Burns, who was Mary's eldest daughter, born 1899) no longer had to cross the rope bridge near Adelaide to get to the other side of the Yough and then walk 5 miles to the Dawson church. Dawson incidentally has a very nice historical society office in the center of town. On a more humorous note and having absolutely nothing to do with any of the, two of Shorty's siblings were called Smokey and Lefty!

In addition to the aforementioned B&O RR, Mike also indicated that the Western Maryland RR came through Adelaide 4 times a day. He also pointed us to an elderly neighbor of his, a Mrs. Geysler, whom we visited at #1710 Crawford St. She is nearly blind and very hard of hearing, but thanks to Ray Coll's charm and perseverance, she showed us an old picture of Adelaide during the heyday of the Cupola mine. Unfortunately, she would not let us take it to make copies, as we did with the 1899 picture of the mine which Vincent let us use to make copies (and which we dutifully returned). And finally, what was John Jr.'s nickname in the mines, at least according to Mike LaPorte?? "Sis" says he, and apparently MMM had heard that name used when she was a child. Probably a VERY interesting story there. John Jr. was a big, strong guy with very powerful hands, such that the name "Sis" had to be tied into some sort of a story. Stay tuned!

Because of the great disparity between the English and non-English speaking immigrants and management, a "cleavage" began to build in this area around Connellsville which erupted in the first great mine strike in 1894. Fortunately for our side of the Coll Family, the miners in the Frick patches did not participate in any of the strikes, at least until the big one in the early 1930's. However, another relative, the direct lineage of whom we are still researching, was a part of a murder that did start one of the strikes. It seems that a Hugh Coll, who was part of Frick's management team, was either a partner to or at least witnessed the killing of a miner at one mine, which resulted in a nasty strike. More on that in our next Revision.

As Ray Coll said at dinner after our visit to Adelaide, et al, it was a very cathartic and humbling feeling to stand on the ground where our forebearers had shed so much sweat and blood to enable us, the fourth and fifth generations, to have a better life!

THE "PATCH"

Until the early 1900's, coal mining was mainly a pick and shovel operation (see picture on preceding page) in which the miner dug coal from the solid coal seam face and then loaded the coal onto mine cars which were then towed to hoisting stations by horses or mules (Uncle Barney was a "mule skinner" and they even named his mule after him!). Once at the surface, the mined raw coal was delivered to the "beehive ovens" by "lorry cars", then dropped into the top of the oven, after which the ovens were "charged", i.e. ignited (see picture). The raw coal was then burned and transformed into coke. This coke was then used to fire the "blast furnaces" which in turn converted iron ore into steel. And the reason that this all took place primarily in Western Pennsylvania was, quite simply, that of the two key ingredients needed to produce steel (iron ore and coke/coal), it was cheaper to ship the iron ore from the Masabi Range in Minnesota to Pittsburgh than in would have been to ship the coke/coal from Pittsburgh up there!

Living conditions in the coal mine towns were very Spartan early on. Edenborn was a typical coal mine town that brings to mind the old 1950's Tennessee Ernie Ford ballad entitled "Sixteen Tons of Number One Coal" (sixteen tons being the amount of coal that each miner was supposedly expected to mine each day and number nine referring to the larger "clumped" coal). The town (also called a "patch" as in the PA State University-Fayette Campus research project called "Patch Voices", see Attachment 12) was built, owned, operated and controlled by The H.C. Frick Company (later to merge with the Carnegie Brothers Company which would eventually become U.S. Steel or "USS"). Fortunately for the Colls, they seemed to have always worked in Frick-owned mines and towns. The benefit to this was that Frick dictated just about every last detail of these towns, to include the precise ingredients for the house paint (yes, all houses were painted exactly the same color and way), where the family gardens were to be planted, the size and location of the schools, Company store, etc. The amazing detail to which Frick went can be seen in the town layout of Edenborn (see Attachment 13), where the senior Colls spent their last years. By the way, all houses in Edenborn were initially red and/or green. They are now all white. Edenborn can be reached by taking Route 51 southeast from Pittsburgh to Route 195 (near Uniontown), then west about two miles to McClell and town Road, then right to Edenborn.

In the early days, John, Sr. and his older boys would have had a daily schedule something like this:
4AM - Bridget and/or one of the younger children would awaken (did they have alarm clocks back then??) and start the cooking and warming fire(s).

4:30AM - the men would awaken, eat a very large breakfast and walk down the street to the mines or ovens. Bridget would have filled their three section lunch pail (see Attachment 14) with: water, homemade bread and large strips of dried beef or the like.

5AM - the men arrive at the mine shaft, where they would remove one of the "tags" or "checks" from their belt and place it on the board at the entrance to signify that this particular miner was in the shaft. These numbers corresponded with their payroll numbers. In case of a mine disaster, the people on the surface could then easily determine who was still down below. Each miner also had one of these numbered tags permanently affixed to their belt for identification purposes.

Until 11AM - after descending (vertical entrance shaft) or walking (slope shaft) down to the main level, the miners would take a small car, initially pulled by mules who were guided by "mule skinners" like Uncle Barney, to the coal face, sometimes several miles away. These were called "man trips". At the appropriate place, two miners ("buddy system") would jump off and begin digging and then loading the coal into small rail cars/trucks. As each car was loaded, one of the two miners would affix his tag to the car and thus receive credit at the surface for the coal. They alternated tags as each car was loaded and hauled to the surface.

11AM - the two buddies would take a short break for lunch.

Until 2:30PM - the men would continue to dig and load the coal, usually producing between 3-6 ton of coal per day per miner (contrary to the amount in the song). They often worked in very dark, very dank and water-filled mines filled with coal dust.

Was it dangerous in these early mines?? You be the judge. Between 1903, when accurate records were started, and 1939, over 39,000 men died in the mines, most of them (28,000) from cave-ins and slate falling on the men. There were few if any warning signals when deadly gases began to accumulate. One early method was to have canaries in cages in different sections of the mines. Canaries, of course, sing all the time. When the birds stopped singing, the miners knew they had precious few minutes to evacuate before the methane or other deadly gases overcame them! It was said that the canary would die in three minutes and the men had but ten minutes more!

There really was a "company store" owned by the Union Supply Company (another Frick company) which was an ingenious way for Clay Frick to preserve his cash flow while retaining complete economic control and domination over his laborers. In the last 1800's, Frick decided to purchase all of the goods which his laborers required (food, dry goods, etc.) on his (Frick's) credit, which was an amazing financial maneuver at that time for a relatively unknown entrepreneur. Frick then resold the goods at retail (and often at inflated prices) to his laborers, who were required to buy everything at the company store on their own "credit", which of course, was "settled" each Friday out of their paychecks. If the laborers had anything left over, instead of receiving U.S. greenbacks (cash), they received Frick's "script" (see Attachment 15), which was specially issued Frick Company paper money, which of course, could only be used in the company store or to pay the company rent on your house! As a general rule, the laborer families never did get out of debt, and thus, the often-heard association of these people with the term "indentured servitude." Thus, Frick made marvelous use of the "float" involved, that is, he never had to use any of his cash to pay the laborers wages! He also kept the families always beholding to the Company and the Store. Sometime in the early 1900's, the "script" and required purchases ceased, but of course by that time, Frick was a very wealthy man and his laborers were solidly "in his debt!"

As MMM recalled from her 8 years working in the Store in the 1940-1950 era, each Friday Mr. Christopher, the Store manager, would check the accounts. God forbid that any family had become "over-drafted", that is, had exceeded their credit limit. If so, the excess was taken out of their paycheck until their account was brought current, thus restricting the amount available for rent payments and/or other necessities. One such necessity for many of the miners was a trip down the hill to the "Twin Arches," the Edenborn Works pub which still exists today (although as residences) on the west side of Rt. 166 at the bottom of Tate Street. On a more benevolent side, some larger families (8-10 children for example) were often given a "new half" that is, every second week they could roll over 1/2 of their debt. In either event, the company store made sure the laborers were forever indebted to Frick. The Edenborn Company Store was eventually burned (or was more likely torched) to the ground. The workers and their families really did owe their "souls to the company store" as the song stated. Interestingly, at least as of 1982, the locals never removed the concrete foundation of the company store, perhaps as a reminder of things past! By 1997, the area as well as the original coal mine shaft area had been taken over by another mining company, which was "strip mining" the coal.

The Edenborn mine was finally closed in 1944. Some of the houses were sold in 1945, with MMM's mother-in-law Bubba Malesky, buying #294 for $1,900. MMM, John, Jr's eldest daughter, still lives (as of 1997) in this house in Edenborn, although she has now taken over the other side of the duplex also. Originally, each structure contained a side by side duplex. In the 1950's, several former homeowners sued U.S. Steel and were awarded their houses by the court, given the fact that the $9/month rent that they paid for the "privilege" of living in the Company houses had more than adequately paid for the house many times over! Many of these houses did not have indoor plumbing until the 1960's! The current value of MMM's double house is estimated at about $25,000. $9 a month compounded at just 3% far exceeds this $12,500 (for a single residence), and yet MMM and her husband's family have been paying rent for over 50 years!

The office of the "Coal and Iron Police" was located directly across from one of the Edenborn houses occupied by his grandparents, according to Ed Coll, Sr. They were a group of "thugs" (who, interestingly enough, always patrolled in-groups of threes) who were brought in by Frick to retain "absolute control" over the miners. They were not above a good "bashing" if an of the "micks" or other ethnic immigrants got out of line. The activities of these "police" have probably shed more of a dark spell over Frick's record than anything else he did with the possible exception of some of the great strikes, which of course, the "police" participated in.

The Coll family moved quite often within one of the "patches" as did the other families, a fact that seems odd at first, until you realize that the family rent was based on the number of rooms in the house. So, if grandma was living with you in her old age and needed a separate room, and then she died, you buried her and then moved into a smaller house, since you needed one less room on which to pay rent.

The Coll family had some interesting jobs within the mines and even in local politics. In a conversation in later years with his grandson Ed Sr., John Sr. recalled his activities as an official on a committee that tried to negotiate with Frick a 25 cents per day increase in the miners' wages. John Sr. represented the "IWW" which was the International Workers of the World (some would say a predecessor of the AFL-CIO), although it was also known in the local vernacular as the "I Won't Work" group or the "Wobblies" which may have also had some connection to the American Communist Party. Frick agreed, but only if the IWW would reduce absenteeism on Mondays to some figure below the then prevailing 25%!! It seemed that after Friday paydays, the workers had great difficulty making it to work on Mondays. There is no record of either the raise or the reduced absenteeism having ever occurred! Other verbal Coll family lore has it that John Sr. was also a key lieutenant of John L. Lewis who of course, organized the miners and other workers after the turn of the century. Whether any of this lore can be supported by factual research is still unclear to this writer! As previously mentioned, Uncle Barney was a "mule skinner" and Denis was a "driver" according to the 1910 Census.

Much has been written about the fortune and legacy left by Henry Clay Frick, but a closer inspection of the record shows some interesting aspects. Clay was, in fact, a ruthless and cunning businessman, as evidenced by his skillful manipulation of the economics of the "company store". His goal, which he achieved, was to be a millionaire by age 30! But he also was very astute as it pertained to his miners. His main patches (Broadford, Adelaide, Star Works and Edenborn) all had the newest and finest equipment, the houses and towns were meticulously designed, built and operated, the safety records were always the best. Frick also encouraged family life, holding contests for Best Garden, Best House, etc. in the patch. Frick promoted within and always paid the best wages (even if they were still at a poverty level). In tough times, when the price of coke went down, he would extend credit at the store, reaching a high of $840,000 in Edenborn at one point in 1933. That was serious money in those days. And finally, the miners could retire with a pension after 25 years. As a result, the first strike in a Frick patch did not occur until 1933 and they conspicuously avoided the big strikes of 1894 and the early '20's! One could therefore deduce that our forefathers were either very lucky to have landed in a Frick patch or very smart. This scribe of course prefers the latter interpretation!

When "unionization" finally came to the coal industry, the Colls seemed to have had a small part in it. All was well in the Frick mines, as mentioned above, until the new United Mine Workers and John L. Lewis targeted the Frick mines in the early '30's and, in fact, went after them with a vengeance, as one observer has written. For the first three weeks of the general strike in 1933, Edenborn was not affected. But by July, things began to heat up. A mob of 200 men from another patch attacked the early shift at Edenborn, while another mob shot 6 miners at Star Junction (where Uncle Charlie was working after he was married). Frick reacted by shuttering all of his mines to avoid further bloodshed. In September, the operators and the U.S. government signed a "Master Code" which in effect, unionized all mines. However, before President Roosevelt signed the Code into law, he struck out the part about miners being able to choose anyone to represent them. Thus, the main issue (unionization) was not settled, and Frick continued to use his own men in the mines without union representation. Frick finally signed the Code in October but it took several more months before all of his mines reopened. When the next union vote was taken, all but nine Frick mines elected to be represented by the union. Within a few years, all mines were UMW mines! In retrospect, most historians feel that Lewis, "Old King Coal" may not have been such a good thing for the industry. While he did improve wages and working conditions in many of the mines, he also called eight strikes in five years and the miner's actual take-home pay was less that before (due to union dues, etc.)

-THE COLL'S "AMERICAN" FAMILY IS STARTED

Their first US born child was Alice, who was born in Feb. of 1884, to be followed by John Jr. in 1889, Charles in 1893, Cecilia in 1895 and Hugh in 1898. All were born in Broadford or Adelaide, even though their birth certificates all indicate births in Adelaide. Apparently during that time, Bridget lost three children at childbirth or early on (one of who was Anna Catherine born 10/14/86). Most of the young Coll boys followed their father into the coal mines. It was said that at age 12, the boys would make $0.25 a day for their labors, which was gradually increased to $1.25 when they were 21! Few if any of the boys made it past 4th or 5th grade in school, due to the need to work and support the family (and thus pay back their family's "Company bill.")

Probably because of his height (6'2"-6'3") John Sr. was a "coke puller or coke raker" in the Frick Company coke ovens at Adelaide. As such, he was the worker who used the long-handled rake and thonged shovel (see picture of the Adelaide coke pullers taken in 1899), once the coke furnace was opened (they sealed the opening by using bricks to block it off), to move the hot coke to a bin where it could be cooled for shipping. After the Adelaide coal mine was closed in 1922, the Colls moved to 612 Lincoln Street in the city of Monongahelia (see map-Location #9) and worked in the Star Mine, while others went to the Robena mine (Map #10) which was near Carmichaels (west of Masontown). Robena was reportedly the largest coal mine in the world at that time.

John and Bridget Sr. moved to Edenborn in 1927 (AKA Edenborn Works which has, to this day, a McClellandtown post office mailing address) where they lived with John Jr., Aunt Bridgie and bachelor Uncle Barney at house #341, the #308, and finally #19 (see pictures of all the houses on preceding pages). Tom Coll, youngest child of John and Bridget Jr. was born at #341, just after his mother had returned to the house from picking up the mail. John Sr. died at noon in #308 on January 10, 1942 (see attached death certificate) and was buried in St. Joseph's Cemetery (on the east side of Connellsville at the top of the hill) from All Saints Church, as was Bridget Sr. who died in 1946 in house # 19! Although not much is known about the background of Grandma Bridget Boyle Coll ("Nanny"), it was often said that "she was about the nicest person one could ever know." The same was never spoken, however, about her husband of 70+ years!

Somewhere before 1903 (MMM remembers that her grandfather was paralyzed for 39 years before his death), John Sr. either: 1) fell of a coal train (presumably one that was used to transport miners back and forth from the coal shaft entrances), or 2) actually fell down a coal shaft, or 3) as his daughter Cecelia remembered in 1982, fell down the steps in his home (after some inhibition of spirits). Given the fact that he received a company pension and did not work in the mines themselves (remember, he was a coke puller), alternative #1 was probably what happened. We have researched many (but not all) of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mines annual reports (see Attachment 18), which detail each and every accident in the patches, but so far have been unable to locate the report on John Sr. Copies of these annual reports for several of the pertinent years are scarce and hard to locate. His broken hip never properly healed, probably due to the scarcity of good medical assistance available at the time (remember, this was well before any form of Workmen's Compensation laws existed). John Sr. was paid $11/month in disability pay/pension for the rest of his life. After the accident and assuming the MMM's memory is accurate, John Sr. had a stroke in 1903 which paralyzed him for life. He spent those last years confined to a bedroom in the various houses occupied by his son John Jr., John's feisty and petite wife, also a Bridget (Mulry), but affectionately known to the family as "Aunt Bridgie" their children (MMM, Madelyn and Tom), Uncle Barney and Nanny. Aunt Bridgie was force with which to be reckoned, as John Sr. found out on many occasions. She probably did not weigh more that 90 pounds soaking wet (see picture), had a noticeable limp due to one leg being shorter at birth, but held her own in her own house and with her bed-ridden but volatile father-in-law.

Some of the Coll boys were apparently quite intimidated by their father. As Aunt Cecilia (cele) said in 1982 (at age 87), after a long and pensive moment on the front porch of her daughter's (Bernadette Hanley) house in Masontown, "my father was one of the meanest men whom God ever placed on this earth", a statement which caused this writer to nearly fall off his seat! There were other stories that had the boys being required to turn over to John Sr. each Friday their hard-earned week's wages, a dollar or whatever, immediately after they were paid. If they delayed or were short, John Sr. would supposedly threaten them with an iron fire poker which he kept near his bed, and action which had a big effect on the boys, even though they had to know that their father could not get out of bed! Bridget Sr.'s role and position in all of this is not clear at all and needs further input from others.

The big social event for the Coll Family was usually held every other Sunday, where the "aunts" and Nanny would make enormous meals, usually of beef roast and potatoes (MMM remembers having to go to the market and order 12 pounds of beef roast!) and usually at Aunt Bridgie's house at 206 N. First Street in Masontown (just down Rt. 21 from Edenborn). Most could tell where they "fit" in the social "pecking" order by observing the following: not only when you ate, but more importantly, where you ate! Obviously, the elders Always sat at the main dining room table and ate first. The next generation was then fed, sometimes at the same table, after the elders had risen, but more often at the kitchen table and on the back porch. The only exception seemed to be Aunt Anna and her two children (Denis' wife, who was not from the coal mine region but rather was from Pittsburgh). She would "insist" that her boys (Ed Sr. and Ray Coll Sr.) be seated at the main table with she and Denis. The family always joked about her "high fallutin' ways"! And finally, the "we ones" usually ate wherever they could find a level place to sit and dine. The food was always great and plentiful, the discussions lively and animated, and in fact, much of the family "lore" was passed on at these events.

The Colls had some rather "different" potions, elixirs, traditions and beliefs, probably brought over from the "Old Sod." John Sr. used to mix a spoonful of sugar and clear carbon oil for sore throats and colds. Fried onions were cooked in lard, placed in Cloths and laid on chests to clear congestions. A raw potato was rubbed on a wart and then buried in the yard under the porch to rid the person of the unwanted growth. The "wee ones" stomped the juice out of sauerkraut and the juice was saved by the women and used to relieve any child's constipation! And finally, Nanny was convinced that cucumbers were poisonous while Grandfather John insisted that a dark haired man had to open the door first, on New Year's Eve, in order to insure good luck for the upcoming year.

The exception to all of the Coll Family lore concerned anything to do with John Sr. It is amazing to look back now on this family and realize how little, if anything, most of the third and younger generations know about their male progenitor, who brought the family all the way from Ireland. We are still searching for a verified picture of old John Sr. although we do have several of Nanny (see above).

John and Bridget Sr. lived out the remainder of their lives at the Edenborn houses of John and Bridget Jr. until Granddad passed away at age 90 in 1942, followed in 4 years by Nanny at age 93. Both are buried in the St. Joseph's Catholic Cemetery at the top of the hill in Connellsville, PA. in the "Irish section" of the cemetery (enter the main cemetery gate, go straight ahead; near the end of the burial section on the left, walk left to the rear of that section-Section53). Also buried in the family plot are: Barney and Mary. John and Bridget Jr. are buried in the St. Agnes section of All Saints Cemetery in Leckrons, PA near Masontown. Some pertinent records can be found at The Immaculate Conception Church in Connellsville (see attached), which coincidentally, was the "Irish" parish in the old days.

DENIS - THE ELDEST SON

Apparently, Denis was the first (and only) son to leave the coal mines. Family lore has it that he left the mines at age 15, which would be about 1891, but this is doubtful since he was listed on the family 1910 Census as residing in Adelaide. By the 1920 Census, he had married and moved to Pittsburgh. Our guess would be that he somehow met his wife Anna O'Toole (who was from Braddock, a section of Pittsburgh) sometime around 1912 or so, shortly after which they were married and their first child Edward Sr. was born in November 1913. The family's stories of "Aunt Anna" are legend and manifold in both their texture and portent for the future (see Legacy of John and Bridget at end). It is not clear how Denis and Anna actually met but it was clear that Anna was a "formidable" woman as more than one observer has commented. She apparently declared that they would not live the remainder of their lives in the coal mines and would seek a better life in the big city. This was even more remarkable for several reasons. Denis was in his mid-30's while Anna was only about 20 at the time of their marriage. Secondly, it was unheard of in those tough economic times for a male child, especially the eldest, to leave the coal mines and remove one source of family income. Given Denis' age at the time of departure, the economic aspect may not have been as severe as the idea that someone would actually want "out" of the coalminer's way of life! Keep in mind that there still are Colls working in the coal mines as of 1998. If you think about this action by Denis, it must have taken some nerve for the eldest son to leave the family (and take with him his share of the family support requirements). Our best guess is that given Denis' personality viz his father's, the two more than likely didn't get along well! But Aunt Anna was clearly the driving force behind the move, and for that, this author thanks her!

Denis initially went to work for the B & O RR, where he was required to be gone for long periods of time. This may also be the link as to how Denis got to Pittsburgh and met Anna. The B & O RR, as previously noted, was easily accessible from Adelaide and went through Pittsburgh on its way to Ohio. Denis supposedly worked out of the B & O office in Hazelwood (interesting coincidence given the Gaelic definition for "Coll"), which is a section of Pittsburgh (just east of Calvary Cemetery overlooking the Monogahela) not too far from where Anna was born in the Soho district of the city, along the Monongahelia River near the University of Pittsburgh campus today. Anna either lived or worked in a parish house in Braddock as a teenage girl, again not too far from Hazelwood. Thus, one would guess that they met somewhere near these parts of Pittsburgh. (N.B. For those of you who are eagle-eyed spellers, Pittsburgh did not add the "h" until sometime after these events). It was said that Anna's father worked on the RRs as a "gandy dancer", that is, a common laborer who laid ballast, installed RR ties and the like, and that he raised his 6 children on "$1 a day". He died before Anna was married and the chore of raising the children fell to "Aunt Maggie", his widow, who, according to Ed Coll Sr. was the "cement that held the O'Toole family together and from which, Anna took her strength. Aunt Maggie was renown for having a full garden, raising chickens (and trapping rats near the Chartiers River to feed to her chickens) all of which fed her family at their new home on Carouthers Street in Heidleberg. Anna had two sisters, Bertha (Aunt Byrd) and Nelle, and 3 brothers (Luke, Martin and John).

Because of the long absences from home, Denis took a new job at which he spent 55 working for the Union or Carnegie Railroad (which was to be acquired in the future by U.S. Steel, and on which Mr. Carnegie used to transport men and materials between his many operations in Western Pennsylvania). Denis was a conductor, and would ride the train from one end to the other, get off and wait for the train to be re-loaded, and then come back to its origin in Pittsburgh.

FUTURE UPDATES OF THE COLL FAMILY HISTORY

In future updates, we will try to fill in the blanks on the other seven children of John and Bridget Sr. as well as answer some of the Big Questions(see list under Attachments) that we still don't understand. It is our intent to have additional pictures and other genealogical data on the descendants of the eight Coll second generation off-spring in the future revisions.

UNCLE BARNEY

MARY ("MADGE") BURNS

ALICE COLEMAN

JOHN AND BRIDGET, JR.

UNCLE CHARLIE

CECILIA HANLEY

UNCLE HUGH ("DEWEY")

We anticipate that this History will be updated each 3-4 years to coincide with the Coll Family reunion schedule. And perhaps, in a future update, we will try to determine how many of the male Colls actually do have blue eyes and prematurely gray hair!!!

THE LEGACY OF JOHN AND BRIDGET

John and Bridget enabled the Colls to escape repressive poverty and indentured servitude, first in Ireland and then in the new land, the land of dreams, America! They were able to provide the means for their children to receive some education, which probably did not occur in Ireland. As a result, several of their first grandchildren graduated from high school and thus enabled some of their children to graduate from college! Given what happened to others in similar circumstances, this is truly an amazing legacy that John and Bridget have left for all of us!

SUMMARY

In summary, what we know about the County Donegal Colls is that they were probably from the island Arranmore, about 3 miles off the NW coast of Ireland, originally part of County Ulster (but what is now County Donegal), where John's forebearers probably rented land from the Marquis of Conyngham. John and Bridget Huston emigrated to the Connellsville area of Western Pennsylvania sometime around 1882 with three young children (Denis, Bryan AKA Barney and Mary), where John and the boys were to work in and around the H. C. Frick Coke Company coal mines and coke ovens, initially in Broadford and then in Adelaide. John and Bridget eventually had eight more children (three of whom died at childbirth or shortly thereafter) in the U.S. all but one of whom (Barney) would in turn, start their own families. Whether the family is of true Irish stock or not is still debatable, a fact that should be resolved with more investigation centering on Arranmore and the records of the Marquis.

If you have anything to add, change or comment on, please feel free to contact Denny Coll at the address on the cover or e-mail him at "DC65Scribe@aol.com". Absolutely no "pride of authorship" is claimed in this History, so please do not be hesitant to correct misstatements or give us your opinions, pictures, stories, anecdotes or whatever!

If you have any information, comments or suggestions e-mail Denny Coll at
collfamily@geocities.com

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