I came across this account of my Callanan's who emigrated from
Tipperary to Keeseville, NY via Quebec at
http://news.nnyln.com. While searching I also
found references to Callanans of
Plattsburgh, NY with connections to Springfield, MA who I don't believe are connected
to my family, but may be of interest to
others.
It's a great site if you have connnections
to northern NY.
Adirondack Record - Elizabethtown Post
April 26, 1934
AU SABLE FORKS N. Y.
Francis Callanan of Keeseville, the
guest speaker at last Thursday's lunch-
eon meeting of the Au Sable Forks
Rotary Club, gave that organization
and its guests an all too short talk
on the history of Keeseville, as it per-
tains to the Callanan family, which
arrived in Keeseville from Quebec in
1850. In tracing the family history,
the speaker said that his grandparents
arrived in Quebec as emigrants in
1850, and that about the time of their
arrival Peter Comstock of Black Brook
went to Quebec in search of laborers
to work in the woods in this section
of the Adirondacks. The Callanans
and a number of other emigrants were
hired by Comstock, and they made the
trip from Quebec to Keeseville by land
and water. When they arrived in
Keeseville one of the party was ill,
and they found it difficult to secure a
place to stay, the people of that community
fearing the man was ill with
ship fever or some other communi-
cable disease. A physician was called
to care for the sick man and he
promptly informed the people that
there was nothing to fear from the
illness; that his trouble was nothing
serious. At that time the old stone
arch bridge, one of the landmarks of
Keeseville was in course of construction,
and his grandfather was offered
a job getting out stone from the nearby
quarry for the structure. The pay
was to be 75 cents a day, and with
prospects of this "enormous" pay and
visions of future untold wealth, he
went to work in the quarry, abandoning
the thought of going into the
woods to cut lumber. Michael J. Callanan,
father of the speaker, was born
in Keeseville in 1856, and went to
school in Keeseville for a few years,
but finally forced to abandon school
in order to help support the family,
getting a job in the horse nail works
in that village at $1.25 a week. A
little later he went to work for a
man by the name of Matthews, learning
the tinsmith trade at Matthews'
shop, then located where the present
Keeseville postoffice stands. At the
completion of his apprenticeship he
formed a co-partnership with Michael
Quinn under the firm name of Quinn
& Callanan, Mr. Callanan finally purchasing
the interest of his partner in
in the business, then located in the
stone building adjoining the present
office of the Callanan business. Michael
Callanan eventually branched
out into the contracting business, and
from this engaged in several other enterprises,
including the laying of the
road-bed for the track of the D. & H.
from Rogers station through Au
Sable Forks and to the plant of the
J. &. J. Rogers Company. Among the
construction enterprises in which Mr.
Callanan was interested was the building
of the sulphite and paper mills
of the Rogers Company, Hotel Cham-
plain at Bluff Point and extensive re-
pairs to the state capitol at Albany.
Mr. Callanan was one of the principal
stockholders of the Keeseville, Ausable
Chasm and Lake Champrain railroad,
operated between Keeseville and
Port Kent. The speaker told of the
many vicissitudes of this which finally
lead up to its abandonment. He
was also a member of the Starks &
Callanan Hardware Company, which
started in a small way at Saranac
Lake and has grown until its whole-
sale business covers five counties in
this section. The speaker told of
many other interesting incidents in
the life and business career of his father,
who was for many years a famil-
lar figure throughout the North Country,
and whose word was "as good as
his bond" wherever he was known.
At the close of his talk the speaker
was warmly applauded by the assembled
Rotarians, in whose name
President V. K. Moore thanked the
speaker for his interesting address
and expressed the hope that he would
again at some future time return to
this village as the guest of the club.
Mike McDonald