The Breen Family

This history is written by Meg McGowan. Family members are free to cite it with permission and proper attribution. Look for active links over individual names. These will take you to the person's entry on WikiTree.

To Minnesota

Among the Irish families that were attracted to Stevens and Swift Counties in Minnesota in the late 1870s by the Irish Colonization Bureau were the Breens.

Daniel Breen and his wife Sarah were both born in Ireland had immigrated to Port Henry, New York, by 1850, perhaps at the time of the Great Famine in Ireland a few years earlier. Daniel worked in the mines and two children were born there--Bridget in 1848 and Patrick Joseph (P. J.) in 1850.

Sarah's mother was also living with the family in 1850. Her name was listed as Mary McGuire on the 1850 census but other sources have Sarah's family name as McGinn. The Breens moved to Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin between 1850 and 1853 to take up farming. Fort Winnebago is in Columbia County a few miles north of Portage. Columbia Co had been organized in 1846 and Fort Winnebago attracted many Irish settlers. It is not clear whether Mary McGuire/McGinn made the move with them.

Breen Children

Several more children were born in Fort Winnebago: Thomas in 1853, Anne in 1856, James in 1858, and Mary Agnes in 1860. The family suffered a tragedy in 1863, when Bridget, Thomas and Ann died within the space of three weeks. A year later, in 1864, the youngest child, Sarah, was born.

The father, Daniel Breen, died in 1874 in Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin, when P. J. was 24 and Sarah was ten years old. At the time of Daniel's death, the value of his real estate property was listed as $1600 and personal property $200. The farm was slightly larger than 80 acres. The family gave up their farm and moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in about 1877, and after two years there, moved to western Minnesota.

Western MN

Mary Breen was hired as a teacher in 1879 in School District No. 3 in Moore Township, when she was about 18 years old. A copy of her teacher's contract shows that she was to teach for 3 1/2 or 4 months for the sum of thirty dollars per month, beginning on September 29, 1879. The other members of the Breen family were (Patrick) Joseph Breen, age 30, living with his widowed mother Sarah age 56, and his brother and sisters, James 21, Mary 19, and Sarah 16.

About this same time, 16-year old Sarah became the first teacher in school district no. 31 in Stevens County. The district was organized on June 15, 1880 and her oldest brother Joseph (P.J) was the school district clerk.

The Breens were neighbors of widows Ellen and Jane McGowan in Moore township. One of Sarah Breen's students was nine-year-old Nellie McGowan, Jane's daughter. We can speculate that the two matriarchs-Ellen McGowan and Sarah Breen may have encouraged a marriage between Ellen son's Patrick McGowan and Sarah's daughter Sarah. The marriage took place in August 1881, when Sarah was 17 and Patrick was 28.

Most of the Breen family left Stevens County within the next few years. P. J. married and became principal of the school in Watertown, Minnesota, about 15 miles from Minneapolis,

Mother Sarah and her elder daughter Mary Agnes initially joined P. J. in Watertown but moved to Birch Cooley in Renville County, when Mary was hired in 1883 as the first teacher in newly formed district no. 96, the Franklin school. She taught for one year before returning with her mother to Watertown. She married Harvey Molsed in Watertown, and they later moved to South Dakota where their daughter Agnes was born. Mary Agnes taught for more than ten years in Milbank, South Dakota, after her marriage ended, and she later lived with her widowed daughter and granddaughter.

Mother Sarah died in Watertown in 1888 and is buried with her husband and three young children in Portage, Wisconsin.

No further record has yet been found for James.

Twin Cities

P.J and his wife Mary Jane had two children in Watertown, but moved to Minneapolis about the time their oldest child became ill and died in Minneapolis. P. J. took a teaching position, and the family resided at 2126 Willow Ave. North. By 1891, P.J. had gone into the insurance business and he also got involved in Hennepin County politics. In 1892, he was named to the Hennepin Co. Third Ward district committee, and two years later, was nominated as the Democratic candidate for county Superintendent of Schools a candidacy which was apparently unsuccessful.

In 1901 the family moved to 2223 Russell Ave. North where they lived for many years. There were now three children, Joseph, age 14, Genevieve (Rose) 10, and Emma, 7. Joseph became an attorney, but died in 1915 at the age of 29 of tuberculosis. Emma had also succumbed to the disease four years earlier at age 18. P. J. died in 1932; his widow Mary Jane, four years later. Their daughter Genevieve Rose, remained in the house at 2223 Russell Ave. North while employed as a high school teacher. She died in 1950.

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