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Patrick Lydon Solon
Biography
This is a story of Patrick L. Solon, a young Irish immigrant from County Mayo who served in the U.S. Civil War. Patrick was a son of Michael Solon and Mary "Mayme" Lydon, who were married about November, 1833 in County Mayo, Ireland. Michael and Mayme Solon's other known children included Margaret, John and Thomas Solon. Patrick Solon was born July 14, 1845 (although one transcription of his gravestone appears to indicate June 12, 1846). At about age 9, Patrick arrived in his new country in the company of his brother & sister, Margaret and Thomas Solon. By the time Patrick was age 17 he was serving as a private in the Wisconsin 2nd Cavalry Regiment.
On the heels of a Great Famine which devastated their homeland, the Solon family made their way to a new land. Patrick's father Michael may have died in County Mayo during the Famine, since he does not appear to make the trip to the U.S. Instead, we find Patrick's mother Mary leaving Ireland with her son John, and in the company of her parents, in 1851. By 1855 the other children, Margaret, Thomas, and Patrick Solon, made their way to the Unitied States with the help of Mary Solon's father John Lydon, and her brother James Lydon.
Patrick shares a bit of the immigration story in a letter to the Bureau of Pensions dated Janury 7, 1918, asking for assistance on the estate of his brother John. In it Patrick states, "Myself and a younger brother (Tom) and a sister of 17 (Margaret) started from Kiltatomaugh or thereabouts where my uncle John Brennan lived. Then we went to there to Sligo then sailed over to Liverpool and arrived in the winter of 1852 or thereabouts. My mother came out a couple of years before we did and was working for John Lidon / Lydon and earned money to bring us over. John Lydon's son James Lydon brought over a crew and his sister and my brother John Solon... We came over on the Benjamin Adams ship."
Patrick's account is corroborated in two extant immmigrant ship listings. The first is that of the ship "America" arriving from Liverpool to New York on May 5, 1851. Among the passengers aboard the America included James Loyden (age 32), John Loyden (61), Bridget Loyden (60), Bridget Loyden (16) and Maria Loyden (6), Mary Solun (30), John Solun (9). Patrick's mother Mary and his brother John are listed here with the Lydons.
The next is the ship "Benjamin Adams", which arrived from Liverpool to New York on February 19, 1855. Aboard the Adams were Margaret (22), Thomas (13), and Pat (11) Solan. Listed along with them included a James Linnon (26) and Catherine Brennan (16).
According to land records John and James Lydon purchased property near Waldwick, Iowa County, Wisconsin, during the 1850's . John and Bridget Lydon, parents of Mary Solon, are found living there according to the 1860 Wisconsin census for Waldwick. Young Patrick SOLON was working as a labourer on the nearby Calahan farm. Patrick's mother Mary and brother Thomas are found in the same census living across the Iowa County border in Blue River, now
Castle Rock township, Grant County, Iowa. They were living with Patrick's sister Margaret SOLON and her new husband Michael Nolan.
By January 1862 Patrick Solon enlisted in Company F, 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Calvary. This regiment was organized at Camp Washburn in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. About the year 1898 Patrick wrote an article in a local Iowa newpaper about his military service. This article is reproduced below, where legible, and describes some of the experiences he had during his service in the Civil War, where he enlisted twice and earned the rank of 2nd lieutenant by the time he was mustered out on November 10, 1865.
Following the war Patrick returned to the Highland, Iowa County, Wisconsin area. As family tradition relates, just before Patrick had gone to war, he was said to have gone to confession and had acquainted himself with Mary McGuire, who was working for the local parish priest. Mary was a daughter of James P. and Bridget (Colgan/Culligan) McGuire, natives of County Cavan, Ireland, who were living in Highland. Patrick married Mary Annette MCGUIRE on November 12, 1866, and they lived in the Highland area.
After the birth of Patrick and Mary Solon's first three children, Michael (1868), and twins James (1869) and John (who died at birth), the family relocated to a farm in northwest Iowa. In the 1870 census the family is found in the O'Brien post office area of Sioux township, Sioux County, Iowa. After apparently farming for a short time in neighboring Plymouth county, where another son named John was said to have been born (source: Iowa 1895 census), the family homesteaded near Rock Valley, Sioux County, Iowa. One of these early farms was subsidized by Patrick's service in the military.
As mentioned in his Civil War article (below), conditions for farming in the early 1870's were extremely poor and many farmers including Patrick lost
their farms. It was around this time-frame that children John Nicholas (1871), Elizabeth Margaret (1873), Mary Annette (1875) and Emma Jane (1877) were born.
Around 1878 Patrick purchased another farm in Sioux County and made it into a successful operation, being able to eventually payoff the farm by the time he wrote his Civil War article. In the 1880 census the family was located on a farm in Rock township, Sioux County. During this time, the remaining children were born: Thomas Edward (1879), Matthew Charles (1881), Katheryn Ellen (1883) and Bridget Isabella (1885). The 1885 Iowa census still shows them living in Rock township, and the 1895 Iowa census still finds them in Sioux County.
By the 1900 census Patrick and Mary were living in Sioux township, Sioux County, Iowa. Of their eleven children, 8 of the 9 surviving children were living with or near them at the time. Their daughter Elizabeth had married Andrew Manning earlier the same year and they were farming nearby. Their son Michael had been tragically killed in a bridge building accident in 1897, his body apparently never recovered.
Patrick and Mary Solon retired from farming to the town of Larchwood, Lyon County, Iowa in 1905 and lived their remaining years there. The couple lived to celebrate their golden anniversary in 1916. Patrick Solon died on April 07, 1920 and Mary soon followed, passing away on August 08, 1920. They are both buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Larchwood, Iowa.
Sources:
1 - Larchwood Cemetery records
2 - Patrick's letter to the Bureau of Pensions in 1918.
3 - 1872-1972 Larchwood Centennial
4 - "Famed War Eagle" Civil War article written by Patrick
Patrick L Solon Civil War Newspaper Article
Civil War Memories
By Patrick L Solon (written circa 1898 in northwest Iowa)
It is fortyseven years since the American eagle was in his prime. Boys and
girls were busy then as well as now. Soldiers were busy then too-- getting
up supplies and nourishment for the sick and destitute comrades. I was one
of them. I had the honor of being a second lieutenant in the "Army of the
American Eagle". My commission has much to say about Old Abe. I saw him on
his perch when his regiment was marching through Memphis, Tennessee. I
belonged to the Second Wisconsin Veteran Volunteers Cavalry from the
twenty first of January 1862 until November tenth 1865. Our regiment was
organized in Camp Washburn at Milwaukee Wisconsin. In the spring of 1862
we were sent down to Jefferson barracks and supplied with horses and
drilled regularly every day. About the first of June we were sent up to
Jefferson City by steam boats. From there we marched to Helena, Arkansas
-- about 600 miles -- though we did not geet ...... wounded. They made a
mistake on our strength. Four companies of infantry we had with us. We
left four companies of our regiment at Springfield, Missouri to fight
guerrillas. They were away from us two years or more. We had two wagons
for each company and 150 for General Curtiss’ army that we expected to
meet at Batesville, Missouri. We stopped and sent fifteen or twenty men to
Batesville to notify General Curtis that we were fifteen miles south.
The soldiers were beaten back by the enemy so we moved along south with
our small band and a long train of supplies for General Curtiss’ army of
30,000 strong. As good luck would have it our advance came just in time
as this large army’s rear guard were taking up their pontoon bridges
that they has laid across the White River. It was a good thing for us
because we would have been gobbled up ... can have .. idea of this little
band cut in two with such a long train. They charged three times but the
longer they would wait between charges the stronger our lines were
getting. It was General Curtiss’ army of 30,000 strong that they attacked.
Our supplies gave out three days before we got to Helena. We were very
hungry. We had been very healthy on this long march but when we got to
Helena we had lots of sickness caused by poor water. It took strong men
to stand that water. Really there were not enough well men on our regiment
to stand guard -- in August.
That winter we started to Little Rock, Arkansas. We got only as far as
Cleronton on the White river when the gun boats came down and told us
that Little Rock was taken. Then we went back to Helena and in the spring
of 1863 we went to Memphis Tennessee -- 150 miles up the river. That was
a very busy summer. Regiment after regiment was ordered to Vicksburg
from Memphis and elsewhere -- north by land and water. In June I was
sunstruck and brought to Jefferson hospital. It was two days before
I regained consciousness. Before I was fit for duty our regiment was
ordered to Vicksburg to join the happy crew so I was detailed as a
nurse. All the patients that could go from Memphis to St. Louis were
sent up there so we had hard work ahead of us. But it was nothing
compared to the boat load after boat load that came up from Vicksburg
after the charge of General Sheridan on Vicksburg. We nurses had to
carry crippled soldiers who could not be carried in a hack or bus day
after day. We had to carry them about sixty rods up from the levy on
stretchers. I joined my regiment at Christmas at Red Bone, Mississippi,
nine miles southeast from Vicksburg. In 1864 we came into Vicksburg
and stationed pickets around that second Gibraltar. If I remember
right the ditch was six feet deep and eight feet wide and twelve feet
from the surface -- which would make it eighteen feet high. Gunny
sacks were filled with earth.
In the winter of 1864 we came up to Memphis Tennessee. We did a good deal
of scouting from Memphis. ... In April ... Louisiana we had a hot time.
In July we had a meeting. The Colonel was blamed for our having to go so
far way from home. We called at his tent and abused him and ordered him
to leave the regiment. At last he came out and asked who was at the head
of this trouble. The First Sergeant spoke up and said that he was because
he was entitled to promotion to Lieutenant in his company instead of the
Colonel transferring a sergeant from ... company. It was eleven o’clock
at night. The Colonel told us to go to our quarters and he would let us
know in the morning. So he sent a blank around and officers and privates
of each company signed it asking him to leave the regiment -- except the
company that he was captain of when he first went out.
He went to General Custer and presented the petition to him. All officers
were guarded night and day for two weeks -- Sergeants and Corporals were
reduced to the ranks. We Privates had a jollification with nothing to do.
The Colonel finally came out ahead and went around to all the officers
with a petition for them to apologize. Then we were all re-enlisted
except the Sergeant. He was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot
along with another man from the Third Iowa Cavalry who had deserted
and then insulted some citizens. They brought him to General Custer and
he and the Sergeant were taken out into a big plantation. Their grave
was dug. Four thousand soldiers were in a square with drawn swords and
all marched by in file to see the Iowa Cavalryman drop back dead in his
coffin, but our Sergeant was taken up from his coffin and his sentence
changed to three years in the Dry Tortugas with no pay. About seven years
ago I met and shook hands with him at the National Encampment in St.
Paul.
Well we had more fun during our two months stay in Alexander. There was
4,000 cavalry and no infantry -- Third United States colored Cavalry and
Third Iowa Cavalry and Second Wisconsin Cavalry. The other regiment
I have forgotten. One day a colored boy was lying asleep along the
levy of the Red river and a large alligator was coming up the bank to
have a feast on the boy. The colored Sergeant shot him and he commenced
rolling down the bank into the river. Well one of our boys was spearing
fish. He ran and held the alligator from rolling into the river. Well our
boys got ropes and the colored boys got theirs and each claimed the
alligator. After an hour of work we got it. It was a regular .. of war.
The alligator was thirteen feet and eight inches long.
Well we broke camp at Alexander and marched to Austin, Texas. Our orders
were if any man wanted to leave the ranks he was to leave his horse.....
.... acre ready to break. Oxen were worth $150 and wagons $100 and
everything else in proportion. On November 18, 1867, I got married.
Everything was very high -- wheat $2.50 per bushel, hogs $0.13 per pound
dressed, corn $0.90, oats $0.80, barley $2.25 -- but I was not lucky enough
to have those things. I came to Sioux County in 1870 and homesteaded
what is the old Colonel Jensen farm. The summer of 1870 was the driest
summer I ever saw. There were good crops in 1871 although there was not
much broke -- and also in 1872 but the next three years the grasshoppers
took most of the crop. I was one of the hundreds that lost their
homestead. All that a man could borrow to it was $500 -- pay 12%
interest and pay it in every six months. Now the same .....
I bought a Sioux County farm twenty years ago at $10 per acre. Now it is
worth a good deal more than that. I did not think 35 years ago that I
would sometime own a section of land -- all paid for after once getting
a free home from Uncle Sam and losing it. The grasshoppers ruined
thousands of good industrious people and left them paying interest ever
since. It was up hill business and nip and tuck and a good many cases to
hold what I had. It takes time and hardship to raise five boys and five
girls and send them to school. My oldest son would be 30 years old if he
had lived. He was a bridge builder and lost his life with 25 others while
building a bridge at Louisville, Kentucky. He was working for the
Phoenix Bridge company when the false work gave way and let the new
structure and all the men into the river. I have had the pleasure of
calling four school ma’ams my children. Four of my boys are farmers.
I got $17 a month from Uncle Sam and it has gone a great way in helping
educate my family. My wife and I are enjoying good health and hope the
same of all readers of this article.
The Other Solon Family
Observations by Dennis Walsh
Kathryn Solon, daughter of Patrick and Mary (Lydon) Solon, married John E. McEnroe and lived in Algona, Iowa. John McEnroe was a son of
James McEnroe and Catherine Solon, and a grandson of Patrick Solon (1816-1902) and Mary Cobry (1819-1906). Both Patrick and Mary (Cobry) Solon are buried in the Catholic Cemetery at Algona, Iowa. Their origin in Ireland was very likely in County Mayo, where both their surnames indicate a strong historical preference. The elder Patrick Solon may have been related in some way to Michael Solon, father of younger Patrick Solon mentioned above.
Patrick and Mary (Cobry) Solon, and their family, arrived in New York harbor aboard the ship Benjamin Adams on July 20, 1861 (the same ship other Solon family members arrived in six years prior). Their children, all born in Ireland, included John, Ann, Mary, Honora, Catherine, Michael, and Patrick. Their family was living in DeKalb Co., Illinois according to the 1870 U.S. census. It was in Dekalb Co., Illinois their daughter Catherine Solon married James McEnroe on July 22, 1866.
James and Catherine McEnroe moved to Kossuth Co., Iowa by the latter 1870's and it is there they are found in the 1880 census, with their 4 month old son John E. as well as mother-in-law Mary Solan. By the 1900 Kossuth County census, both Patrick and Mary Solon are listed in the household of James and Catherine McEnroe. According to their gravestones Patrick Solon died in 1902 followed by Mary Cobry Solon in 1906.
Kiltimagh - Our Life and Times
A book written by Peter Sobolewski and Betty Solan
Long before the town of Kiltimagh was heard of - the town appeared on a map
for the first time in 1813 - the parish of Killedan held sway. It was part
of the Barony of Gallen, formed by the Normans in 1239. Before that, the
territory was known as Gailenga. The name "Gailenga" comes from the
nickname of a third-century Celtic chieftain, Cormac, son of Tadh Mac Céin,
and means "the fouling or desecration of honour".
The Vikings, Normans and English came, plundered and confiscated. The Penal
Laws brought virulent Protestant/Catholic friction and, for a down-trodden
peasantry, the Pastorini Prophecies which foretold the downfall of
Protestantism and the universal victory of Roman Catholics in 1825.
When the potato crop failed, famine carried away 400 souls in Killedan
parish in the six months to April 1847. And in the following year Lord
Lucan evicted 1,208 families from his Mayo holdings.
By 1870, Kiltimagh was on the move and boasted six slated houses in the
main street. There was further famine and agrarian unrest in 1876. But the
era of the landlord was passing and Catholic small-holders were taking over.
Kiltimagh today has a population of about 2,500.
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In Service with the 2nd Wisconsin Regiment Cavalry
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