The line of Patrick McCollor is the line I have the most information on, however, I am hoping much
more information can be gathered as a result of this web site on Edward's side of the family.
About Patrick I
There is much more about Patrick on the history page of this site. I will pick up here where the
history page leaves off, and thankfully credit Clair Nelson's book, cited below, for much of this information.
"Settled" may be a poor choice of words for this
heading. Patrick and Bridget moved back and forth between Canada and Maine repeatedly during the course of their lives. After
farming and logging in the area around Solon and Madison, ME, for about ten years (and several children), they packed up and
moved to Canada in 1825, so that Barney and Nancy could go to the Catholic school at St. George. The area in Maine where they
had settled had very few Irish settlers, and even fewer Catholics, and, according to Nelson, Bridget was a devout Catholic.
After only a year, they moved back to Madison.
After
a year in Madison had passed, they made the short move to Solon, ME in about 1827, where they began farming east of town,
in a place referred to as "Parkman Hill". They stayed here about five years later, they made another short move,
this time to Anson, ME. Sometime prior to Michael's birth in late 1836, they had moved once again to St. George, Canada
for the school.
They were
in Canada for only a year or two, before moving back to Maine! Back to Madison, where two more sons were born. Moving with
ten children must have been difficult enough, perhaps it was because there were now twelve total, Bridget and Patrick finally,
finally, settled in for a longer stay.
After raising their children for about seven years in Madison, they moved yet again, this time with only the youngest
ten children, in 1845. This would be the last move for Bridget. She died there in 1848.
Farming became very difficult for Patrick without a wife
to take care of all his children, the youngest of which was still under 10 years old. Nancy was all grown up and married,
and raising a family of her own. Barney, by that time, had already died, a result of being injured during his service in the
Mexican-American War.
Two years after Bridget
passed, in 1850, he moved one last time, back to Solon, Maine. Back on Parkman Hill, he continued to farm and to raise
his children.
After Patrick
retired, he moved in with his son, Edward and Edward's family, where he was said to be active right up to the end. One
family story, attributed to Patrick's grandson, Lawrence McCollor, told of Patrick still ice skating with his grandchildren
well after he had entered his nineties!
Patrick, a tough old bird, loved to ice skate with the grandchildren, even into his late nineties. One day, he fell
on the ice, and broke his leg or hip. He developed pneumonia soon after, and died. The exact date is not yet known to me,
but it was believed to be in 1879.
