Rooney Family Tree

A WPA Interview

BROWN, ELIZA (ROONEY)

Eliza (Rooney) Brown was born in the Gatineau River district in Ontario, Canada in the year 1854, a daughter of Patrick and Elenor (Tracy) Rooney. As a little girl she saw her father, a lumber contractor, clear the timber for their home on the Gatineau River on what is today part of the city of Ottawa.

In 1862, Patrick and Eleanor (Tracy) Rooney migrated to Minnesota by ox team, taking up a homestead in Raymond township, Stearns county. The Padua church of today is located on part of this original homestead and she herself planted some of the trees that now adorn the church yard. The old Red River Trail passed their home and here the young lady for years saw the ox teams, freight laden, plod their weary way toward the Red River Valley and the Dakotas.

On September 10, 1872, Eliza Rooney was married to John A Brown, a young man who had seen service on Mississippi River packets, transporting supplies for the Union soldiers during the civil war. The young couple settled on what is now known as the "Old Brown Farm", fourteen miles south of Sauk Centre. On this farm ten children were born. They are John A. Jr. who died in 1925; William A.; Henry H.; George F.; Thomas A.; Emily;

Eliza (Rooney) Brown's life might stand out as a beacon light to people of successive generations, to those who know only the trials of their own times. It was her pioneer spirit, the spirit of the ox-team and covered wagon days, that prompter her to carry on, when in 1893 her husband died, leaving her with ten small children, the oldest 18 and the youngest 2 years old, with their living to be made from the farm .

Eliza Brown went into the fields with her boys and carved out for her family their living and education. Eliza Brown carried on, doing a man's work on the farm, driving a team of horses fourteen miles to Sauk Centre each week to do her shopping, doing a mother's work in her home, raising a family. She was of the Catholic faith.

The last few years Eliza Brown made her home with her children in Sauk Centre. She died August 15, 1936 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Robert Malloy.

OBITUARY:

Sept. 10, 1936 Herald
Mrs. Eliza T. Brown Buried
Services Held At St. Paul's Church
Thursday Morning Largely Attended

Funeral services for Mrs. Eliza Brown, pioneer resident of Stearns County who passed away in this city on August 30th, were held in St. Paul's Catholic Church Thursday, September 3, and the thronged church together with the hundreds of people who viewed the remains at her home at tested to the love and esteem in which the lady was held.

A Solemn Requiem High Mass was celebrated. Rt. Rev. Monsignor August Plachta, Rector Mayer, of Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church was Deacon of the Mass and Reverend Vincent Fettgather, of Brooten, Minn. was Subdeacon of the Mass. the funeral sermon was preached by Rt. Rev. Monsignor Plachta.

The three priests accompanied the remains to Calvary Cemetery where the Ritual for the Dead was recited.
Mrs. Eliza T. Brown was born near Ottawa, Canada, March 21st, 1856. Her father was John Rooney. Her mother's maiden name was Eleanor Tracy . More than 70 years ago, she came with her parents to what is now the Padua district in this county. Here later the young lady was married to John A. Brown and with him built up the farm known today as the Old Brown Farm. On this farm their ten children were born.

Besides the ten children the deceased is survived by one sister, Mrs. Catherine McKenna, Seattle,Wa., and by thirty-one grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.

The active pall bearers were Mr. Thomas Kinsella and the following nephews of the deceased: George and Frank Brown, William Riley, Joseph Egan and Frank Hoffman.

Honorary pall bearers were Dr. J.A. Dubois, J.F. Cooper, O.W. Winslow, William M. P., Henry Borgmann all of Sauk Centre and Mr. Charles Riley, Sedan. Minnesota.