WARD / MULCAHY

John Ward was born in Ireland December 22, 1830.

He was a miner He mined gold in Columbia during the California Gold Rush.

Picture from unlabeled TinType.

Death of John Ward - San Andreas/Stockton newpaper ~Apr. 1892

John Ward, an old resident of this city and for many years an expressman about town, died last eveing after a long illness, He buried his wife a short time ago. He was a vice president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians in this city and had many friends among the old residents of Stockton.

Died - Ward -- In this city, April 8, 1892, John Ward, a native of Ireland, aged 61 years.

Cathrine Mulcahy

born

March 3, 1827

Ireland

On November 11, 1856, John and Cathrine were married. He was 25 and she, 29. It is not known where they were married at. It is speculated that it was in Ireland.

The couple immigrated to America, settling in Stockton, California.

CHILDREN

John and Cathrine Ward had four children:

Per Jennifer Silva, birth cert. says September 2, 1865 at Stockton.

Married Mary (Aunt Polly) MARTIN June 10, 1890

THE ART OF LIVING by R. A. Easton at Ashland
...Many people have been a helpful influence in my life. John Ward, who drove an express wagon, was one of the best-loved men in Stockton, California. There was no richer home in Stockton that the Ward home. As far as propety value went it did not rank high on the assessment roll. But the character home which Mr. and Mrs. Ward builded for their four children had endured with the years. It was always a good day for me when the furniture pieces he delivered from the store (where I worked) were so heavy that I might help set them up.

Two things which he told me are keenly remebered. It may be we were talking about getting money-rich. Mr. Ward said a man does not get rich because he is smarter than other men. Many men get rich because they can't help it; neither their judgemen nor smartness had anything to do with it. He illustrated his statement by saying, "Before we moved into town, we owned a ranch near the city limits. My next neighber also owned a ranch. We both wanted to sell and finally I made out to sell my place and my neighbor could not find a buyer; he still has his place and the increase in the value of the land has made him a rich man. He wanted to sell as badly as I did. It was not his smartness that caused him to hang on to his land or increase the value of it. He is rich because he could not help it; he could not sell. There was no note of regret in his voice for the reason he sold his land and his neighbor had not been able to sell and therefore became rich. He simply stated a fact that is illustrated in the lives of many people and he knew it to be true.

Another day we were out on his wagon and he said, "I gave a boy a ride this morning; after a while I said to him, "You had egg for breakfast." The boy asked, "How do you know?" "Because you have an egg on your lip." The boy looked at me and said, "You had egg for breakfast." "How do you know?" "You have egg on your mustache." Mr. Ward laughed and said, "The boy had me there for I did have egg for breakfast and had fogotten. It is often true that we see the eggstain that is on the other fellow's lips and forget the drip that is on our own chin."

MARY HOYT'S NOTES:

They did live in Columbia, CA for a period of time. He was a miner. All their children were born up there. I could never find anything to prove that they lived there except for the hand-me-down stories my mother told me. I did find a record of a John Ward as a miner, but because it had no middle initials, I wasn't sure. Evidently, he always went by that name.

Later they all moved down to Stockton, and he became an Expressman (delivery man, such as UPS, I assume). They were very active in Old St. Mary's Church and I have some church articles mentioning his name and his son, John. I also have a copy of the obituaries for both him and Catherine, which don't mention coming from Ireland. They are buried in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Stockton.

Karen, Donna, and I visited there about 4 yrs ago, and also went to Columbia. The Rangers there were very helpful, but just couldn't find anything in the records. We also went to the very old Catholic Church cemetery, checking for a grave marker, because one little daughter died up there, according to the story my mother told me that her mother told her. But the old cemetery has not been kept up and we couldn't find anything. What I would like to know, and what I got bogged down on, was finding the Naturalization Papers on both John Ward and his wife Catherine Mulcahy, who I was told were Irish immigrants. I don't know if they were married when they came to US. or met and married here. As you know I have all those old dates in that bible record.--Mary Hoyt Jan. 2000