When I was growing up in Yorktown, Virginia, my sister and I woke up early to see what Santa Claus left us the night before. After opening our presents, we would eat Breakfast Before Casserole and then get changed to go to my maternal grandparent’s house, which was very nearby in our neighborhood. While I have fond memories of Christmas mornings with my parents and sister at home, Christmas was at Mimi and Grangy’s house. They had an open house of sorts where our family – my grandparents, my parents and sister, my aunt and uncle and three first cousins, and my great aunt – would be joined by a friends, neighbors and other folks that dropped in during the day. Good food was abundant, our grandparents spoiled us with gifts and it was always a fun, happy day.      

My routine upon arrival at my grandparent’s house was to do two things. First, I would turn down the thermostat to something bearable as my grandparents kept it really warm in that house. Second, I headed for an old rocking chair in the living room where we all soon gather and moved it to their bedroom. You see that rocking chair belonged to my 2x great-grandmother Jane “Jennie” Hamilton (1860-1945) and I didn’t want to someone to break it.

Some years later, we were at Mimi and Grangy’s house for Christmas and to my great delight my grandparents gifted me that rocking chair. It is one of my most treasured family history items. I have no idea how old it is, but it’s probably getting on 100 years old by now. My grandfather told me that when he was a boy the chair was painted white when Jennie – his grandmother – used it. She lived with them for a while. It was restored by my great-uncle Bill Wetherton – husband of my grandfather’s sister Helen who was called “Aunt Itsy.” Uncle Bill & Aunt Itsy gifted the chair to my grandfather and it sat in that living room for many years. Now it sits in my home office.

Jennie Hamilton was the very last of my ancestors to immigrate to the United States, which she did in 1878.[1] She was born 19 September 1860 in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland to Joseph and Isabelle (Hamilton) Hamilton. Yep – that’s right – both of her parents were Hamiltons (no idea if they were related). Her father married a second time after Jennie’s mother died and between the two marriages had something like 16 children born between 1850 and 1879!

Jennie arrived in New York on 4 May 1878 aboard the ship Germanic. She is listed as Jane Hamilton, 18, spinster, from Ireland and traveled “steerage” – the lowest category of passenger.[2] She made her way to Louisville, Kentucky where she is listed in the 1879 city directory working as “waiting maid” at the Louisville Female Seminary.[3]^,[4] Jennie worked for many years at this boarding and day school run by two generations of the Nold family. She had an older sister named Ellen (Hamilton) Faulkner that lived in Louisville, which may have been the reason she chose the city to make her new life.   

 Jennie Hamilton Marries and Has A Family  

Jennie soon met a young man named James McHugh and they were married at Christ Church (Episcopal) by Rev. Charles E. Craik on 20 December 1883.[5] James McHugh worked for the Louisville & Nashville railroad. Over the next seven years the couple would have three daughters. Maud Noal McHugh was born on 9 August 1885, Anna Isabel McHugh was born on 19 July 1887 and their third child was born on 14 December 1890 – a daughter her mother named James Irvin McHugh, Jr. Yes, you read that correctly. Tragically, Jennie’s husband was tragically killed a few months before her third daughter – my great-grandmother was born and she received the male moniker. She was called Irvie. James McHugh’s life and death will be the subject of a future post.

A widow with three young daughters under the age of six, Jennie (Hamilton) McHugh had to make it on her own. By 1900 Jennie was renting on 2^nd Street working as a housekeeper (at the Louisville Female Seminary for Annie F. Nold). Sadly, the census notes that her eldest daughter Maud had died and her two other daughters Anna, 12 and J.I., 9, who were both attending school, were living with her.[6]

By 1920, Jennie was retired from the Louisville Female Seminary (also called Miss Nold’s School) and living with my great-grandparents John Franklin and James Irvin (McHugh) Eisenbeis.  John and Irvie by then had two children including James I. (my grandfather), age 4 and Helen (Aunt Itsy), age 2.[7] In her later years she lived with her daughter Anna (McHugh) Fust.[8] She died in Louisville, Kentucky 15 January 1945 at the age of 84 and was interred at Cave Hill Cemetery.[9]  

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[1] 1900 United States Federal Census; Year: 1900; Census Place: Louisville Ward 6, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: T623_530; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 57; ancestry.com

[2] New York, Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957; Year: 1878; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: M237, 1820-1897; Line: 39; List Number: 422; Ancestry.com

[3] Louisville. Kentucky City Directory 1879, U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995; Ancestry.com

[4] The Ohio County News, 06 August 1879, p. 3; newspapers.com

[5] Kentucky, County Marriages, 1783-1965; Ancestry.com

[6] 1900 United States Federal Census; Year: 1900; Census Place: Louisville Ward 6, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: T623_530; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 57; ancestry.com

[7] 1920 United States Federal Census;  Year: 1920; Census Place: Louisville Ward 12, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: 31109_4300927; Page: 13B; Enumeration District: 235; Ancestry.com

[8] 1940 United States Federal Census; Year: 1940; Census Place: Louisville, Jefferson, Kentucky; Roll: T627_1365; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 121-4

[9] U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current; Ancestry.com

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