Patrick Shortt & family

SHORTT, LYONS, WELCH, DENNY, DEENEY, SHORT

Posted By: Patricia Bollozos (email)
Date: 2/21/2017 at 16:28:12

Patrick Shortt made a monumental decision at the age of forty-seven years old to leave his native land of Ireland and seek out the opportunities available in America. Patrick and his wife Bridget Elizabeth (Lyons) Shortt with their ten children, departed Liverpool, England on the ship, 'The Constitution'. The family arrived shortly before Christmas, on December 22, 1854 in New York.

The family lived the next few years in New Jersey, where Patrick found work. Soon after the birth of their son, William in 1859 in New Jersey, they located to Iowa. Settling in French Creek, where Bridget’s sister Ann (Lyons) Welch was residing.

Patrick was engaged in what he knew best, agriculture. Over his lifetime he acquired two hundred acres of farmland in section 22 of French Creek. Their eleven children grew up on the family farm and attended local schools. Patrick instilled in his children the value of hard work.

Tragedy struck the family in 1864, when their first-born son, Lawrence, died at the age of twenty-seven years. He was born in County Kildare, Ireland in 1837, immigrating with his family in 1854. He became a naturalized citizen on October 1, 1860, according to the U.S. Nationalization Records 1791-1992. Lawrence was never married and lived with his parents. He is buried in the family plot at Lycurgus Cemetery, Allamakee county, Iowa.

Bridget and her sons, John, Patrick, Jr. and William continued to manage the farm after Patrick’s death in 1879. John and Patrick, Jr. eventually married and bought farms of their own in French Creek. William married Elizabeth Ellen Denney and inherited the family farm.

Patrick and Bridget Shortt are buried next to their son Lawrence at Lycurgus Cemetery. The epitaph on their headstone: Born in Parish of Kill, County Kildare, Ireland.

~The biography was compiled by the contributor using the following references & resources: IAGenWeb Project; New York Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island) 1820-1957; Plat book Allamakee County, 1886; U.S. Indexed County Land Ownership Maps 1860-1918; Ancestry. Com and Find A Grave.