The early 1880’s were a rather prosperous time for the United States and for Ohio. The mining industry was booming, thanks to large deposits of iron ore and coal in Ohio. It was an era of Ohio supremacy, with Ohians Rutherford B. Hayes succeeded by James Garfield to the Presidency. It would make sense than that the Irish-born Michael Lowry and his family would settle where they could work, and Leetonia, Ohio was such a place.

Michael and his wife Bridget (Conley) had at least six children including daughters Bridget (b. 1847), Mary Lee (b. 1854), Anna (b. 1858) and Margaret (b. 1861) and two sons, Edward (b. 1855) and Michael (b. 1868). In 1880, just Michael was living at home with his parents.

Supervisor’s District: 8

Commentary:
Unlike later census’s, this doesn’t indicate who provided the information to the enumerator. It’s difficult to assess because while father and son are listed as coal miners, there are check marks near their names indicating that they were unemployed in the last year. That field is supposed to indicate how many months they’ve been unemployed, but the enumerator only put a check mark. So, they may not have been working and could have been home to answer the questions.

The census indicates an 1825 birth date for Bridget, which is consistent with my records. The 1824 year of birth indicated from this census record for Michael is different from the 1830 I obtained from his death certificate. This record indicates son Michael’s year of birth as being 1864, while his death certificate lists it as being 1868, which is what I put in my Ancestry.com Family Tree. I doubt a coal miner would be 12 years old, so 1864 is probably closer to his actual birth date.

Sources:
1880 U.S. census, Leetonia, Ohio, population schedule, Salem, enumeration district (ED) 58, sheet 32 (penned), dwelling 285, family 294, Micheal Lowry; digital image, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Dec 2012); NARA microfilm Roll 1002