| Our Family History | Name Spelling | Cushing Origins | Data and Sources |
Dennis Cussen was born in 1800 in Galbally, County Limerick, Ireland. He was a cooper, a trade he learned from his eight brothers. In 1825, he married Catherine Casey at Christ the King Catholic church in Galbally, and over the next several years they raised a family there. Catherine had also been born in Galbally, in 1806. Their Irish born children were Edmund (1826), John (1828), William (1830), Timothy (1832), Michael (1834), Johanna (1836), Patrick (1839), and Ellen (1841). In about 1842, the Cussen family boarded a ship for St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada, spending seven weeks at sea. Shortly afterwards, they moved to the Boston area. In 1845, they were living in Stoughton, Massachusetts, about 12 miles southwest of Boston. Reportedly, some of the older children were left behind, but this now seems unlikely.
Dennis worked as a cooper for Downers Oil Manufacturing Company
(manufacturer of "oil and sperm candles") in Boston (100 State St.
in 1847, possibly 27 Broad in 1845). He probably made barrels for
whale oil. Two more children, Dennis (1845) and Mary (1847) were
born in Stoughton. In about 1848, the family moved to Milwaukee,
and then to a farm in Fort Winnebago, near Portage, Wisconsin. I haven't
researched land records in Portage yet, but we do know from the plat
maps and few deeds that we have that Dennis and Catherine owned a
large amount of land adjacent to the Fox River. (The Cushing
farms extended approximately 8 miles south and 12 miles north
of the present day Clark Road, from Currie Road east to the Fox River.)
Our family history tells us that Dennis opened a blacksmith
shop, but the US population census tells us that he was a farmer.
16 year old George and 9 year old Henry are part of the family in 1850.
I'm not sure whether these are two additional sons or whether these are
other names for Michael and Patrick, respectively, who are not among
the Cussen children in the 1850 census. In Fort Winnebago, the youngest
members of the family, Francis (1850) and Adam (1853), were born. 
Dennis
(father) passed away in 1872. Catherine lived with Dennis Jr. and his
family until her death in 1888. Both are buried at St. Mary's cemetery in
Portage. (In 2003, a group of their descendants met to place and consecrate a marker over their graves in the St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery.)
The Irish-born children: In 1850, Edmund and William were renting rooms (a room?) of their own in Stoughton. There was a large boot factory in town, where they worked as boot makers. It appears that Edmund is the only member of the family who remained in Stoughton. In 1871, he married Mary Anne Barrett. She passed away in 1882 and by 1885 Edmund had moved to a farm in Frontier County, Nebraska, near his younger brothers, Francis and Adam, between the Platte and Republican rivers in the south-central area of the state. In 1892, after his brothers had left the area, Edmund became ill and the guardianship of his estate was turned over to a neighbor, J.H. Rosenfelt, until 1907. We have no more information on Edmund.
The first US record we have of John Cussen is his purchase of
154 acres of land near his parents in Fort Winnebago in 1856.
(The property extended approximately
8 miles south of the present day Clark Road, from the Fox River
west about 8 miles.) Later that year, he married 
Bridget
Ryan in Hartford, Connecticut, and they returned to Fort Winnebago.
John became a prominent and respected member of the Portage community,
achieving success both as a harness-maker and through the "operation
of his land" (leasing his farmland?). He and Bridget had 12
children: Mary (1858), John (1860), Edward (1862), Honora (1863),
James I (1864), Nellie (1866), Frank (1868), Rose (1872), Esther (1874),
James II (1875), Thomas (1876), and Monica (1877). John passed away in
1908; Bridget in 1914. They are buried in St. Mary's cemetery in Portage.
William Cussen married Winifred Nugent in about 1852 in Stoughton, where they started a family before coming to Wisconsin in the early 1860s. Born in Stoughton were Martha I (1854-56), Katharine (1855), William I (1857), Martha II (1859), and Dennis (1861). Born in Fort Winnebago were Honora (1863), John (1865), William II (1867), Frank (1871?), Margaret (1871?), Mary (1871?), Mary (1872), and James (1875). (Frank, Margaret, and Mary were not triplets. Variations in ages reported in various documents confuses their years of birth.) William and Winifred also acquired a farm in Fort Winnebago, probably from his parents. Winifred passed away in 1893, William in 1904. They are buried in Portage.
We have no US information on Timothy, Michael, or Patrick Cussen. Johanna and George are last seen with their parents in 1850, Ellen in 1860. Henry died in 1859 at the age of 22 and is buried in Portage.
The American-born children: 
Dennis, Jr. lived
with his parents, eventually taking over the farm. (He is listed as head
of household in 1870.) In 1873 he married Alice Gleason, daughter of
Kearun and Alice, who had been working as a servant for his brother,
William, in 1870. Alice was born in Ireland and had immigrated to the
United States with her family in about 1850. She and Dennis had 14
children, several of whom remained unmarried and on the farm their whole
lives. Several others settled in Chicago, while others spread across the
country (California, North Dakota, Montana, Virginia, ...) Their children
were Rennie (aka Vincent, Walter, and Kieran, b. 1874), Mary (1875),
John (1876), Joseph (1877), Wilfred (1879), Kathryn (1861), Charles (1882),
Alfred (1883), Alice (1884), Clara (1886), Homer (1887), Loreda (1889),
Agnes (1893), and Philip (1894). Alice passed away in 1921, 94 year old
Dennis in 1938. Both are buried in Portage. Their son, John, ran the
farm until his death in 1944.
Mary Cushing wed Civil War veteran Gabriel Lupient in nearby Sauk County in
1865. They
homesteaded a farm near Dorchester, Wisconsin and raised their family
there. In 1890, they moved to Marshfield, where they remained until their
deaths in 1902 and 1921, respectively. Their six chilren were
Lettitia (1867), Frank (1868), Fred (1871), Moses (1873), George (1879),
and Anolia (1896). (Read Sandy Coggeshall's excellent and extensive History of the Lupient Family for more information.)
Francis, my great grandfather, began an apprenticeship under blacksmith James Collins in the city of Portage in 1867, and was living there in 1870. He and youngest brother Adam headed west in about 1875, at the ages of 25 and 22.
Other Cushings in Portage: There was another Irish Cushing family in the Portage area. Edmond, Thomas, Daniel, and Bartholomew Cushing were brothers from Limerick Co., Ireland, who emmigrated to New York in the 1840s, with their wives Ellen, Elizabeth, Mary, and Elizabeth, respectively. They all moved to the Portage area in about 1852: Edmond and Bartholomew moved to Lewiston; Thomas and Daniel moved to Portage. (Click here for more information.)
Caseys in Portage: We do not yet know anything about Catherine Casey Cussen's family. It is interesting that there are a few Casey families in the Fort Winnebago area, including a Casey family on a farm adjacent to Dennis & Catherine's. The heads of these families are near Catherine's age (possibly siblings?), were born in Ireland, and immigrated in about 1850.
Portage: To read about the history of Fort Winnebago and Portage and some historic sites to see while visiting there, click here.
Off to Nebraska:
Because different sources claim different years for certain events,
there is some uncertainty in exactly when Francis and Adam Cushing went to
Nebraska, or even if they traveled together, but it was about 1875. I
don't know if they were part of a much larger party, but Adam probably
traveled with the Patchen family, since he
married Eliza Patchen in Waseca, Minnesota in 1875 and her family also
moved to Arapahoe, in south-central Nebraska, in the 1870s.
Adam was thought to be a pioneer school teacher in Arapahoe, but is
shown as a farmer in nearby Burton's Bend in the 1880 US census. Their
first daughter, Ella (1876), died in 1880. Frank (1881) and Adam Jr.
(1883) were born in Nebraska. In 1877 Francis came to Arapahoe (with Adam
and the Patchens?), where he was the blacksmith, as well as an occasional
dentist and fiddler at the barn dances. In 1878, he married Eliza
Patchen's little sister, Nora Patchen, in Arapahoe.
(See photo left.) Their three children,
Kate (1880), Frank (my grandfather, John Francis, 1882), and Mary (1884),
were born in Arapahoe.
An historical account of Arapahoe talks quite a bit about Francis Cushing, the first blacksmith in town. According to this account, Frank loved horses and dreamed of buying a ranch in Oregon where he could own and raise them. The author claims that Frank's father, a wagon maker, worked with Frank and thought that raising horses was a bad idea and would have no part of it. It was after his father's death that Frank left for Oregon. We haven't figured out what this means, but the wagon maker could not have been Dennis Cussen, who died in 1872. In the 1885 state census, a young wagonmaker was living with the Cushings.
Trouble out west: In any case, in about 1890 Francis and Adam and their families joined one of the last "covered wagon" treks over the Oregon Trail toward Portland. We don't know how far they got. The story that has been passed down in the family was that Francis went to prison for killing a man in self defense in a fight in a bar. The historical account of Arapahoe says that Francis was boarding horses on his Oregon ranch, not knowing they were stolen, and was convicted of horse theft. The book also implies that Francis was the victim of some shady dealings surrounding the prosecution. Court records show that Francis and Adam and their wives were investigated for "receiving and aiding in the concealment of stolen property" in Pierce Co., Washington in December 1890. (Tacoma is in Pierce Co.; Seattle is in the next county north.) We know that charges were dropped against Flora, and that Francis went to jail. We know that Francis was extradited from Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, where his Patchen in-laws lived, to Washington. His attorney complained that he was extradited for one crime (which he was prepared to prove false), but was actually charged with a different crime for which he was not given time to find witnesses that would prove his innocence. We will probably never know what really happened, but taking all of this information together suggests the following sequence of events.
What might have happened: Francis and Adam and their families headed west. Francis and Nora bought a ranch, perhaps in Umatilla Co., Oregon, on the Columbia river separating Oregon and Washington, and began boarding horses. Adam and Sarah went on to Seattle. Some horses were boarded with Francis that turned out to be stolen, and a cart full of merchandise (shoes, slippers, handkerchiefs, combs, a carpet, ...) was left with them. Perhaps Adam sent these men with horses to Francis, since the theft took place in Pierce Co., not far from Seattle. When the true owners of the horses showed up with the sheriff, Francis provided names and addresses of those he believed to be the owners, but did not reveal the cart of goods. The addresses turned out to be false, the "owners" were never found, and the horses were turned over to the true owners. Francis and Nora were charged with horse theft, and fled to Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, where Nora's Patchen family was living. They were extradited to Washington for trial. (The horses and goods were stolen in Pierce County, giving them jurisdiction.) When their Oregon ranch was searched, the cart of stolen goods was discovered. The charges of horse theft were eventually dropped, but they were charged with receiving and concealing stolen property, because of the cart of goods. The prosecutor offered to drop charges against Nora if she agreed not to testify on Francis' behalf, easily convincing a very worried mother that her children would be without parents when both she and Francis were convicted and sent to prison. Flora agreed, and charges against her were dropped. Francis was convicted in 1891 and sent to prison for four years. Nora, with three children under the age of 12, unable to run a ranch and provide for the family, divorced Francis in 1892 and married Benjamin Nobles, a farmer. I don't know what became of Adam and Sarah.
We are now guessing that the barroom fight story was made up. A blacksmith convicted of theft would have had a very hard time attracting customers. Upon his release, Francis returned to Cambridge, Nebraska (adjacent to Arapahoe), with his 13 year old son, "Frank" (John Francis), and tried to resume his blacksmith work, but never regained his earlier stature. In 1900, Francis and John were boarders in the home of Patrick and Delia Maher.
What happened to Adam: I've seen no more records of Adam or Sarah. Our family information says that Adam died in Arkansas City, Cowley Co., Kansas. I'm guessing that Adam went to Ark City to take part in the "Cherokee Outlet" in 1893. This Indian Territory was opened for homesteading on September 16. At the designated time a shot was fired and more than 100,000 people raced into the territory to claim one of the 40,000 homesteads and town lots. Our records say Adam died on September 24. I'm wondering if he was mortally injured in the race for land, or lost a dispute over who got there first. Our records say that Sarah died near Vancouver, Washington in about 1930. I've found their sons, Adam, Jr. and Frank, in census and death records in Oregon and Washington. They both died in Portland in the 1940s. The only descendants I know of are Adam, Jr.'s progeny in the Seattle area.
The Northwest Family: 
Nora and Benjamin Nobles lived in
Washington and Oregon, with Nora's daughters, Kate and Lizzie (Mary Elizabeth) Cushing,
and in 1895 had their only child, Marvin Nobles. Kate married Leon Jenkins in Portland,
Oregon, in 1899. Leon was a policeman, then the Chief of Police, and later the
Police Commissioner in Portland. He passed away in 1950. Kate passed away in 1953. They had one son, Raymond (1905-1992). Lizzie
married Roderick MacKenzie, a wealthy Canadian. They had no children and we
believe that upon his death in about 1925, his family was successful in
preventing her from inheriting any of his fortune. She was financially
dependent on her sister, Kate, until her death in 1969. Marvin married
Edith Marion in about 1914, probably in Portland where their only child,
Jim (1920-1960), was born. He also married Cora (unknown maiden name)
in the 1920s, and they adopted two sons, Dale and Jack. Nora Patchen Cushing Nobles died in
1920 in Portland, and is buried there. Benjamin Nobles died there in 1931.
[The remaining text will be updated soon to reflect new information.]
Young Frank attended Cambridge High School, where he met his future wife, Harriet, one of the five Webber girls. During his elementary and high school years, he learned the blacksmith and cooper trades, skills which served him well later in life. Frank and Harriet graduated in 1900. Frank's father's greatest wish was that his son go to college, and in 1902 Frank started at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Later that year, he and Harriet were engaged, and the following year, again at his father's urging, he enrolled at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. Harriet also transferred to St. Mary's College, a Catholic women's school adjacent to Notre Dame. Francis passed away in 1904 in Cambridge, at the home of longtime friend R.J. Trant. Then Notre Dame president Fr. Morrissey allowed J. Frank, unable to pay for his studies, to complete his degree with the request that he do his best to repay when he can. He graduated as a Civil Engineer in 1906 and later that year he and Harriet were married. Frank went on to become a prominent businessman in Chicago, President and CEO of the Great Lakes Dock & Dredge Company, and a Trustee of the University of Notre Dame. He also founded the family owned Hydraulic Dredging Company in Oakland, California. He died in 1935 in United Airlines' first major commercial airplane crash, in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Harriet continued to raise their family. A master bridge player, she spent her remaining years visiting family (sisters and children) and competing in Bridge tournaments. She remained in Chicago until about 1959, then lived with her children until she passed away in 1971. As of 2006, approximately 160 of their descendants are living. About half of them/us assembled at Notre Dame in 2006 to celebrate family and commemorate the 100th anniversary of Frank's graduation from Notre Dame.
Depending on the source of information, I have seen the family name spelled Quishian, Cushen and Cussen in Ireland, and Cushion, Cushing, and Chushing in the US. There are other variations as well. At my father's suggestion, I've adopted the convention of using the name Cussen for those born in Ireland prior to the families emigration to the US, and the name Cushing for those born in the US. For example, Dennis Cussen (born in Ireland) married Catherine Casey and their son, Francis Cushing (born in Wisconsin), was my great grandfather.
Copyright © 1999-2009 by Michael Cushing.
cushing.htm; last updated 1 May 2009