Catherine Temple Boland

BIRTH: 1852 • Mount Forest, Arthur, Ontario, Canada
DEATH:  31 Oct 1926 • Sheyenne, Eddy, North Dakota
MARRIED: 30 Oct 1833 • Patrick Joseph Boland

Catherine Temple was born in 1852, the only child to Kieran Temple (1810-1878) of County Offaly, Ireland and Margaret Donovan Dineen (abt 1810-1892) of County Cork, Ireland. At her birth, she joined a blended family of 7 half siblings, 3 from her mother's first marriage and 4 from her father's.

The Temple Family

The Temple family came from Strawberry Hill, Barony of Garrycastle, County Offaly (formerly Kings County), Ireland. There were three brothers and two sisters: Keiran, James, Martin, Mary, and Ann.

An excerpt from a letter written to Bertille Hughes Kerndt by Vincent Egan dated 8/3/1972, he describes what the brothers did after they arrived in Canada: 

The three brothers left Ireland in 1841 for Canada. They made their way inland to Guelph, Ontario, a small inland border settlement about 500 miles west of Quebec City. They found work in the wood and lumber mills and five years later took up government land, forty miles north of Guelph. It was free and open for settlement similar to what existed in North Dakota years later. Each brother took up 150 acres. The farms were side by side. They worked around Guelph in the winter and in summer went to their new farms and began clearing the land (it was bush land) and building small houses. In a few years they had cleared some land and had a place to live. They then moved up to their farms and lived there the rest of their lives. Each brother married native Irish girls and had families. The brothers were writing the sisters in Ireland and telling them about Canada. In 1847 (Black ’47) they decided to leave Ireland and join their brothers. They took up land near the brothers, 200 acres and there they lived out their lives. 

Kieran's first wife was Margaret Madden (1809-1847). They were married in Kilronan, Roscommon, Ireland, on September 23, 1838. They had four children together, two before they left Ireland:

• Thomas (1839-1893) b. Offaly, Ireland
• Mary (1841- unk) b. Offaly, Ireland
• Agnes (1846-1935) b. Arthur, Wellington, Ontario
• Michael (1847-1915) b. Arthur, Wellington, Ontario

Margaret Madden Temple died in about 1847, around the time of the birth of her son Michael. Pregnancy was dangerous in those days and it's not a stretch to assume she died from complications due to childbirth.  

In 1848, Kieran Temple married Margaret Donovan Dineen, another immigrant from Ireland. Her husband, Patrick Sr., died on the ship from County Cork, Ireland in 1847. Margaret Donovan Dinneen brought 3 children to the marriage:

• Patrick Dineen (1833-1880) b. County Cork, Ireland
• Mary Ellen Dineen (1844-1909) b. County Cork, Ireland
• Daniel Dinnen (1842-1924) b. County Cork, Ireland

Arthur Township in 1850 was just beginning to be settled, with a little over 1,000 residents. It was a dense forest of trees and the settlers, mostly Irish, had to clear the land to make way for dwellings and farms. Most of the Irish settlers had little or no experience in clearing land, as they had come from small farm villages back home. The first settlers endured hardships we can't even imagine. They are best described in a quote from George Cushing, the Township Clerk. He said,

“Imagine a settler from the ‘Old Land’ without any knowledge of clearing land, unskilled in the use of the axe, no keen lance-toothed saws to be had, like we have at present, commencing to clear a fifty or a hundred acre lot of this dense and mighty forest. Many stories of hardships endured in the old log shanties without proper doors and wolves howling in the forest; no flour in the house for six weeks, and potatoes the only bill of fare; the carrying on the back of sacks of flour all the way from Fergus; men shouldering their heavy grain cradles and walking thirty miles and more to Guelph in a day for the harvest”.

The work was grueling and many gave up. Kieran and his brothers persevered and were able to carve out homes and farms for their growing families. In 1847, at the peak of the potato famine, their sisters joined them from Ireland.

In the 1861 Canada Census, the Kieran Temple family was living in a log dwelling, much like the one pictured above. Catherine was 11 years old and likely schooled at home or in one of the many one-room school houses that were established as settlements grew. The Canadian government set about organizing requirements and a system for education. Many in Upper Canada believed that religion and education belonged together, so the establishment of separate Catholic and Protestant schools were common. The Temples and the Bolands were Roman Catholic, a statistical minority in the area at the time. Over 80% of residents were Protestant. 

The Boland Family

Patrick Joseph Boland was born 1855 in Mount Forest, Arthur Township, Ontario to Edward Boland (1823-by 1877, Limerick, Ireland)  and Ellen McEnany (1810-1883, County Monahgan, Ireland).

The Boland family were all born in County Limerick. We know of Patrick and Edward, who settled in Arthur Township in the early 1840's, around the same time as Kieran Temple. The potato famine in Ireland made it impossible to make a living for a large family. As is true of many Irish at the time, the Boland family left Ireland for a better life.

Some of the family went on to America, but the two brothers made their way to Queen's Bush, later known as Arthur Township. They worked as professional "axemen", receiving $1 a day clearing land and building houses for other people. Because of lack of money, many Irish settlers delayed purchasing property, as it took years of saving to do so. Both Boland men eventually acquired tracts of land and began homesteading.

The Temple and Boland farms were close in proximity to one another. The two families likely socialized and worshipped together. This is likely how Kate and Pat first met one another. 

K. Temple farm, Lot 4, Con 4

Widow Bolan(d) Lot 5, Con 5

1877

Catherine Temple and Patrick Boland were married Oct 30, 1883. Patrick was 28 and Catherine 31. They set up home on the original homestead of Edward and Ellen Boland, who had both passed away by then. They had 5 children over the next 8 years, all born in Mount Forest:

• Margaret Ellen (1884-1969) m. Patrick Hughes (my great grandparents)
• Edward Thomas (1885-1920) m. Anastasia Raftis - he died of influenza in 1920
• Michael Kieran (1887-1898) died at age 10 in North Dakota
• Joseph Patrick (1889-1920) m. Mary Boniface Devaney - he died of influenza in 1920
• Mary Anastasia (1891-1969) m. William James Devaney

After arriving in Minto, they adopted a sixth child. After her son Michael died, Kate heard about a boy whose mother couldn't take care of him, so Kate and Pat took him into their home and he became a Boland. 

• John Frederick Boland, born in Minto in 1897 m. Irene Netting

L-R: Mary, Kate, Joe, Margaret, John, Edward, Patrick

circa 1905, Minto, ND

Patrick and Catherine migrated to Minto, Dakota Territory, in April 1896, where they lived for ten years before moving to Devil's Lake in 1906. They purchased a farm in the Sheyenne district and lived there until Catherine's death in 1926. They were devout members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Catherine was known as a kind neighbor and true friend, a true member of pioneer stock who "bravely met the stern requirements and many disappointments of life" (from the papers of Bertille Hughes Kerndt).

L-R: Mike Temple, Pat Boland, Mary Boland Devaney, Margaret Boland Hughes, Agnes Hughes (child), Catherine Temple Boland, Anna Raftis Boland, Kate Raftis Temple, Joe Boland, Ed Boland, Pat Hughes, Edmund Hughes (baby)

1912 Postcard

Patrick and Catherine outlived all three of their sons - Michael Kieran died when he was just 10, shortly after the family moved to North Dakota.

The Spanish Flu hit North Dakota with great intensity. On September 27, 1918, The Fargo Forum newspaper announced that there were no cases of Spanish influenza in Fargo. By October 4th, Fargo had 100 cases of flu. On October 5, Jamestown reported 1,000 cases of flu. The colleges and universities cancelled classes. Theaters, churches, and schools closed. Bismarck refused to let trains stop at the railroad station if anyone aboard had the flu. Even with these strong measures, flu continued to spread. It was during this time that both Joseph and Edward Boland became ill and died in March and April of 1920 during another wave of the flu. Shortly after Edward's death, his infant son Arnold died as well. According to Joe's obituary, his wife Bonnie also became seriously ill, but survived. They had a 2 week old daughter, Boniface Ellen who also survived. Edward's wife, Anastasia Raftis Boland, eventually moved back to Ontario with their surviving son, John Patrick. Margaret Boland Hughes and Mary Boland Devaney raised their families in the Devils Lake area. John Frederick Boland moved to California where he was employed by the Southern Pacific Railroad until 1962. 

Kate and her daughters, Margaret Boland Hughes and Mary Boland Devaney

Kate Temple Boland died on October 31, 1926 in Sheyenne, North Dakota. She was 74. She is buried in St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery in Devils Lake. Patrick died August 23, 1945 at the age of 90 in Breckenridge, Minnesota. He is buried next to Catherine in Devils Lake.

Birthplaces of Edward Boland, Ellen McEnany, Kieran Temple, Margaret Donovan

Michael Temple, Kate's half-brother

1849-1915