My Genealogy Back to Daniel McNamara of County Clare, Ireland
The following is my genealogy to my ancestor Daniel McNamara:
- Margie Ruth Johnson McCarter (1929 – present) – my mother
- Bettie Ruth McNamara Johnson (1905 – 1979)
- Emmitt Parnell McNamara (1882 – 1962)
- John McNamara (1844 – 1906)
- Daniel McNamara (1804 – ?)
Regarding Daniel McNamara and his son John, there is this information at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13078469/John-McNamara :
The parents were married in 1837, and reared a family of nine children: Welsh, a resident of Fort Dodge, Iowa; James, of County Clare, Ireland; John, our subject; Bridget, wife of Patrick Flaherty, of Fort Dodge, Iowa; Dennis, a resident of Ennis, Texas; Daniel, of Hempstead; Ellen, wife of… Read More John Broughton, of Ireland; Michael and Margaret deceased. The subject of this notice was born in county Clare, Ireland, April 16, 1844 and at the age of twenty-one years he emigrated to this country, landing in New York in October, 1865. A few months later be went on a visit to an uncle in Waco, New York; thence to the oil country in Pennsylvania, where he was engaged in oil and railroad work; next to Fort Dodge, Iowa; afterward to Houston, Texas, where he was engaged in railroading four years, and was the first man to run an engine into Waco on the Texas Central; and thence to his present location, sixteen miles from east Waco. He now owns 575 acres of good land, 130 acres of which is tinder a fine state of cultivation. He came to this county with comparatively nothing, and he is now worth $9,000.
Mr. McNamara was married in Corsicana, January 19, 1875, to Ruth, a daughter of John and Minnie Childress. To this union has been born twelve children, namely: Daniel, deceased; John, Guy, Addis, Emmit Parnell, and the remainder died in infancy. Mr. McNamara affiliates with the Democratic party, and both lie and his wife are members of the Catholic Church.”
It would seem that John McNamara’s brothers Dennis and Daniel were also likely employed by Houston and Texas Central Railway, each settling at different points along its route. As noted at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_and_Texas_Central_Railway , “in 1867, the H&TC railroad company took control of the Washington County Railroad (1856–1868). That railroad consisted of 25 miles (40 km) of railroad line between Brenham, Texas and Hempstead, Texas…” John’s brother Daniel thus settled in Hempstead, Texas. As also noted there, “in 1871, the railroad track of the original Houston & Central Texas Railway line appeared in Corsicana.” In 1875 John McNamara married Ruth Childress of Corsicana. John helped run this railroad into Waco, where he and his wife Ruth settled. John’s brother Dennis settled in Ennis, Texas. As we read at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis,_Texas :
“In 1872 the Houston and Central Texas Railroad (H&TC) arrived at the spot that would become Ennis. The city is named for Cornelius Ennis, an official of the railroad. Ennis served as Mayor of Houston (1856–57), and as a director of the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway and H&TC.[4] Between 1874 and 1890, the population grew from 300 to 3,000. … In 1891, the H&TC chose Ennis as its northern division headquarters in an agreement requiring that Ennis provide water for the railroad. The machine shops and roundhouse employed several hundred men. One condition of the agreement was that as long as Ennis was able to furnish water the shops could not be moved from the community. The city built the first of three lakes for this purpose in 1892, followed by another in 1895, and the last in 1940.”
So working in the railroad industry brought John McNamara to the Waco, Texas area, and supplied him with the money to buy land in that area. This land then provided him to turn to the occupation of farming, an occupation of his ancestors back in Ireland.
Information on the McNamara clan of Ireland is found at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_named_MacNamara :
“McNamara is a surname of Irish origin. It originated from the region of County Clare. The name began with the chieftain Cumara, of Maghadhair in county Clare. Cumara is a contracted form of Conmara – hound of the sea. His son, Domhnall, who died in 1099, adopted the surname Mac Conmara, or son of Cumara, thus becoming the very first MacNamara. The name has survived relatively unmodified as MacConmara in Irish and Mac (or Mc) Namara in English, to this day.”
The relation and descent of the McNamaras among the families of Ireland is addressed at http://www.libraryireland.com/Pedigrees1/Macnamara1Heber.php .