Letter from Sallie Moina Shanahan Freeze to her neice Beulah "Billie" Shanahan
Murrie
[ The following was written by Sallie Shanahan Freeze [Mrs. Dan F.] and mailed to me
April 18, 1962. Signed Beulah Shanahan Murrie [Billie] ]
My father, Michael William Shanahan, was born September 29, 1841 in
Cork
County, Limerick Ireland (Irish Free State near Belfast). He had two
brothers and one sister. Their names were Dennis, Maggie and Henry.
Henry drowned in a river near his grandparents home when he was quite
young. My father's parents having died in an outbreak of plague, the
grandparents took charge of the orphans. (Let me say right here that my
sister Lena remembered our father telling her about his climbing around
on the castle walls--am not sure if it was his parents or grandparents home.)
My recollection is that my father came to this country when he was fourteen
years old. [Dennis Potter Shanahan thought he was sixteen years of age. BM]
He rebelled against Catholicism and left his home. I still don't know when,
where or how he got an eduction--but he got it. I don't know much about his
military life either, but know he served his adopted country, and was wounded
and that he had some very dear, close friends that he made during that time
--lifelong friends. One was his lieutenant, Robert McCarthy whom we were
taught to call "Uncle Bob" and who visited us during a reunion of the old
soldiers when I was a very little girl (some years after Papa's death.)
And a dear little lady, who helped take care of Papa when he was
wounded. She
was also, our Aunt "Aunt Sophia." Both
of these friends wrote to us through
the years and often times sent us boxes of Christmas gifts. (I remember Brother
(your Dad D. P. Shanahan) gathered a box of holly, with red berries on it and
mistletoe and sent to the McCarthys for Christmas. They thought that was
the grandest thing that ever happened as they didn't have anything of that
sort there.
Back to my father. I don't remember much about him but he and Mama were
married at Senatobia, Mississippi on November 15, 1868. Papa was then
27 years old. He taught school for a living. The terms in those days were
very short and the pay not much either. In between school times he tried
to farm. But he was a scholar, not a farmer and was not successful at it.
He died at the age of 47--on May 26, 1887. When I was three years old
about the only thing I remember about him was that he was sick a long time
and his bed was near the fireplace in the little house where I was born.
I also remember that he carried me about in his arms after I had burned
my feet--while Mama and a cousin fixed something to put on them.
Papa and Mama are both buried in Palestine Cemetery (Methodist) about
10 miles East of Coldwater (Luby is also buried there) Emmett and Nora
Shanahan Phillips and my husband Dan F. Freeze are also buried there and
where I too, will be some day.
My mother, Sallie Margaret Potter Shanahan loved our father, Michael William
Shanahan very devotedly and never got over his death. She lived a widow
for 35 years. To us she was perfect, kind and gentle, loveable, quiet,
reserved and everything a human can be on this earth. Pure in heart and
mind, she was a devout Christian. Sister Lena married and moved to Texas
when she was young. That left Mama and three children. Brother (Dennis)
Married August 1900; then Nora married Jan. 12, 1901, then I married
August 18, 1901. All three within a year. She made her home with Nora
and Emmett for a few years. But when Dan and I returned to Mississippi
(after 5 years in Texas) she made her home with us the last 9 or 10 years of her
life. She dies March 10, 1921.
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