Ellen Kelly was born in Ireland on December 1, 1798. She and Daniel Sullivan (later O’Sullivan) were married in County Cork on January 19, 1823. The young couple spent several years in England before emigrating to the United States sometime around 1833. They had five children: James (1824 – ?), Cathrine (1826-1880), Ann (1833 – ?), Daniel (1836 – ?), and Thomas (1839-1921). Ellen died a pioneer in Columbia, Dakota Territory on March 25, 1885, one of the first settlers in Brown County.
The Great Plains of South Dakota
From Our Family: Daly-Sullivan Family History:
Daniel‘s grandchildren remembered that he and his wife, Ellen, talked to each other in the Irish language.
In the pages of his old Bible is an old piece of paper, sewn to a piece of cloth to hold it together. There is writing in longhand and Latin on it. The ink is faded, but you can make out the date: 19th Jan. 1823, which was their wedding day. Their own names are not there, but the names William Kelly, May Sullivan, and Johannah Sullivan are on it. These may have been brother and sisters of the bride and groom, and witnesses to the wedding. Kilworth is mentioned, which is a town in Cork County. The church there has no records that far back.
Kilworth, Ireland in Winter
In this same Bible their marriage and the birth of their five children are recorded in Daniel’s handwriting. He wrote it Sullivan (not O’Sullivan) as he seems to have written it later in his life.
We do not know how long they lived in Ireland, but the two oldest children, James and Cathrine, were probably born there. They moved to London, England, where Daniel taught school till they decided to come to America.
The first stop here that we know of was Detroit, Michigan. After staying there a while they went on to Flint, Michigan in a covered wagon. There were no roads through the wilderness, and there were Indians who were friendly toward them. They even gave Daniel an Indian name. Ellen lost one of her shoes on the trip, and for over a year she had to wear Indian moccasins. She did not see another white woman for a year.
When they came to Flint, it consisted of three shanties and one log house. The first white man’s house had been built there in 1819 by a man named Jacob Smith.
In 1834, Daniel Sullivan started the first school in Genessee County in the Flint settlement. It was on the bank of the Flint River near where the Hamilton Dam was later located. His first pupils were his own two children and the children of Todds, McCormacs, Stevens, Cronks, and Stows. There were twelve in all, and the parents paid him ten cents per pupil, per week. This was not enough to support a family, so the next year he turned the job over to a man named Aaron Hoyes and started a general store.
Flint River in Fall
George Beahan Daly told of stopping on his way to work to talk to Daniel at the door of his store. Daniel often mentioned his admiration for Matthew Beahan, George’s grandfather. He used to say that Matthew Beahan was the smartest Irishman who ever struck Flint.
Daniel’s sons all were storekeepers in Flint. Daniel Jr. and Thomas ran a furniture store till Thomas went to Dakota. James ran a general store there for many years.
When Thomas O’Sullivan brought his family to his claim in Dakota Territory in 1881, he brought his parents with him. So at the age of 80, Daniel pioneered again, this time to raw prairie instead of woods. They came by train to Watertown and by covered wagon to a claim east of Columbia.
Hannah’s granddaughter Lucy recalled:
“We came to Watertown, as far as the railroad came in May, 1881. It was the first train since the fall before. The people turned out to welcome the train, with tin pans and anything that would make a noise. Ma was expecting Indians but didn’t know the people would act so crazy.
Pa left us at the hotel and walked to Columbia after the team and wagon. He and John Lambert, from Flint, had bought three horses and a wagon the year before in Columbia, and Lambert had stayed all winter and cared for them. Most people had a yoke of oxen, but we had three white horses. I remember their names yet: Sam, Doc, and Silver. When he got back to Watertown he put a prairie schooner top of the wagon and we all piled in. Grandma and Grandpa Daniel Sullivan were with us.”
They stayed through the summer and then went back to Muskegon, Michigan where Thomas worked as a pattern maker in a foundry. It was in Muskegon that Daniel died on February 9, 1881, at the age of 81. His grave is there. Ellen lived on with Thomas’s family, coming back to Dakota with them in 1883. Lucy says, “The next spring, 1883, we came to Columbia. The railroad had got that far then. That summer Pa built the house on the preemption, two miles, I think, east of Walter’s Corner. They lived there till about 1886. The home place and the island I think Grandma Ellen Sullivan filed on, the island a tree claim.” Death came to her in March 1885. She was buried by the sod church and later moved to the Columbia cemetery.
Brown County, South Dakota
EARLY HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY: A LITERATURE OF THE PEOPLE by Territorial Pioneers and Descendants
