Mary Ann Craig Lenz Skahill

SKAHILL CRAIG

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 10/16/2010 at 23:07:50

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Mary Ann Craig Lenz Skahill
By Mrs. Lucy Lenz Topf

Mary Ann Craig was born July 1, 1876, to Owen and Bridget Spelman Craig. Owen was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1830, and died in Danbury, Woodbury County, Iowa, September 5, 1910. Bridget Spelman was born in County Mayo, Ireland, and died in Danbury in 1904. Both are buried in St Mary’s Cemetery, Danbury, Iowa. They lived in neighboring counties in Ireland but never met until after working in a factory in England and coming to the United States. Bridget and Owen met in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and were married there August 16, 1857.

The two oldest Craig sons, born in Philadelphia, died in infancy from scarlet fever. Frank was also born in Philadelphia; John was born in Boston, Massachusetts; and William in Illinois. The youngest covered wagon to Danbury, Iowa, settling on a farm in Morgan Township. Mary Ann’s mother told her that when she was a little baby, lying on the floor, there was a large snake in the room but it did not find the baby. Mary’s schooling started in the little black school on the Lacey farm.

Farms were all prairie with red-root shrubbery. Mary’s little brother, Frank, dug them out and used roots and all for firewood. Then he helped break up the prairie. Later he went to Des Moines where he lived, worked, and died; he married and had several children. Mary went to Des Moines when she was twelve years old and lived with him until she made her first confession and First Communion. After finishing the eight grades in the country school, her parents sent her to Danbury to St Patrick’s School. She worked for her room and board at Grafford’s boarding house in Danbury.

Mary graduated with St Patrick’s first graduating class in 1895. Her classmates were Henry Fitzpatrick, Mrs John Uhl, and Mrs Jim Donery. When they celebrated their 60th anniversary in 1955, she flew from California to attend. After graduation she passed the teachers tests and was hired to teach the Lenz school. She was on a bob sled ride with the neighboring young people one night when Philip Lenz got in. He said, ‘I’m going to sit beside my wife’, and sat beside Mary Ann Craig! They were married April 14, 1896, in St Patrick’s Church, Danbury, Woodbury County, Iowa.

Philip and Mary Ann lived on a farm one mile west of Danbury; Philip’s father lived with them. Their first daughter, Alice, was born February 18, 1897. Four more daughters, Lucy, Catherine, Ellen, and Ann, were born before their son, Philip, Jr. Philip’s father, Nicholas, died suddenly, out in the barn on the farm where his first grandson was born in 1910. Another son, Joseph, born in 1916, died 1931. Philip died from the European flu, February 1, 1919. Burial was St Mary’s Cemetery, Danbury, on February 2, 1919.

Mary married William Skahill, October 2, 1923. He had three sons, Gerald, Alfred, and Merlin. Gerald was ordained a priest, May 18, 1940. His father died suddenly on May 20, 1940.

Mary moved to Monterey Park, California in 1941. Her son, Phil, and family lived there. Alice died December 27, 1977. Catherine ‘Mrs Gus Uehle’ and Ann, ‘Mrs Robert Kelley’ live in California. Mary died there April 27, 1969, and was buried in St Mary’s Cemetery, Danbury, beside Philip Lenz.