CONNELLY, Dennis
1793 - 1871 (77 years)-
Name CONNELLY, Dennis Born 29 Jun 1793 Lissonuffy, County Roscommon, Ireland 
[1] - or 1795/6 using census and declaration of intent
Gender Male Census No Connelly’s in 1850 census in Kent County, RI.
Need to check Providence and Newport Counties.
Details of 1850 census, Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin:
244/244
26. Dennis Connelly, age 56, male, Tailor, value of real estate 200, birthplace: Ireland
27. Michael Connelly, age 23, male, Farmer, birthplace: Ireland
28. James Connelly, age 13, male, birthplace: Ireland
Detail of 1855 state census, Portland, Calumet County, Wisconsin:
[line 14], page 5, June 1 1855
Denis Conely white males 4, white females 1, foreign born 3
[Conelys, Higgins, and Nolans also on same page]
Details of 1860 census, Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin:
1339/1250, August 14, 1860
7. Dennis Conly, age 60, male, Farmer, value of real estate 2000, value of personal estate 300, birthplace: Ireland
8. Winfred Conly, age 55, female, birthplace: Ireland
9. John Cane, age 7, male, birthplace: Rhode Island
10. Sarah Cane, age 6, female, birthplace: Rhose Island
11. Winifred Cane. age 4, female, birthplace: Wisconsin
12. Julia Cane, age 3 female, birthplace: Wisconsin
Details of 1870 census, Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin, July 6, 1870
190/190
9. Connely, Dennis, age 80, male, white, Farmer, birthplace: Ireland, parents of foreign birth
10. Connely, Winifred, age 77, female, white, keeping house, birthplace: Ireland, parents of foreign birth
11. Cain, Dennis, age 13, male, white, birthplace: Rhode Island, parents of foreign birth
12. Cain, Ann, age 11, female, birthplace: Rhode Island, parents of foreign birthCensus 1850 Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin Census 1855 Portland, Calumet County, Wisconsin Census 1860 Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin Census 1870 Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin Buried 1871 Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin [1] - St. Augustine Cemetery, Chilton.
Died 9 May 1871 Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin [1] Person ID I2441 Shepard and John Tree Last Modified 22 Apr 2019
Father CONNELLY, Unknown Family ID F2195 Group Sheet | Family Chart
Family NOLAN, Winifred, b. Abt 1797, Lissonuffy, County Roscommon, Ireland , d. 20 Apr 1879, Chilton, Calumet County, Wisconsin (Age ~ 82 years) Married County Roscommon, Ireland Notes - According to letter from the County Roscommon Heritage and Genealogy Company, Ireland of 10 October 2001:
No marriage record for Dennis and Winifred was found.
No baptismal records for any of the children were found other than those for James, Elizabeth, and Bridget.
NOTE: if the only children whose baptisms were found are the above three, and they are the last three in the list of children, might the older siblings have been baptized at a different church or community? Did the family lived somewhere else?
Children 1. CONNELLY, ?Patrick, b. 1823, Ireland 2. CONNELLY, Michael, b. 12 Sep 1824, Ireland , d. 1902 (Age 77 years)3. CONNELLY, Mary, b. 1829, Ireland , d. 1881 (Age 52 years)4. CONNELLY, Winifred, b. 1831, Ireland , d. 12 Jul 1863, Centerville, Kent County, Rhode Island (Age 32 years)5. CONNELLY, Brigid, b. 1833, Ireland , d. Bef 1849 (Age < 15 years)6. CONNELLY, Elizabeth, b. 1834, Ireland , d. 1921, Iowa (Age 87 years)7. CONNELLY, James, b. 16 Sep 1836, d. 28 Dec 1904 (Age 68 years) Last Modified 7 Jul 2019 Family ID F1949 Group Sheet | Family Chart
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Headstones 
Dennis Connelly and Winifred Nolan Connelly Headstone
Headstone in St. Augustine cemetery Chilton, Wisconsin. Both Dennis and Winifred are on the headstone, although Winifred's inscription is near the bottom making it harder to read.
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Notes - Influx of white settlers into the county became heavy the year that Wisconsin became a state. The possibility of purchasing land at a low cost combined with the idea of freedom and the opportunity for advancement which the new country offered attracted settlers into the primitive forest, some directly from their native European haunts in Germany or Ireland, others from eastern communities where they had first settled.
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The Nolan and Higgens came in 1848 and 1849 and settled on the Stony Brook and Manitowoc River.
Michael Connely arrived in 1850 and after this a steady stream of Irish families poured in. In the years 1848 and 1849 the plank road from Sheboygan to Fond du Lac was being built. Many Irish families worked on it and saved a little money which they invested in land.
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From the "James Connelly-Margaret Higgins Family" book compiled by Colleen Connelly Kamas and Terrence M Connelly and distributed at the first Connelly family reunion held at Tilden, Nebraska on Aug 2, 1977:
"Dennis Connelly was a descendant, probably a grandson of Thomas Connelly. Thomas Connelly came from County Ulster in Northern Ireland. A census taken there in 1740 states that he was a cottier -- 4 children under 14, 2 over 14 -- papist. In 1750, the Thomas Connelly family along with other Catholic families including the Wades, left Northern Ireland because of religious persecution. They came to County Roscommon and County Longford. The Connellys settled at Strokestown, in County Roscommon. (Research by Marion Preece in Public Records, Four Courts, Dublin, Ireland)...Strokestown is about 90 miles west of Dublin, in a beautiful farming area near the Shannon River. At one time it was the home of the Mahon family who were wealthy land owners. In 1994, the stables at the Mahon estate were made into the 'Famine Museum' which commemorates the Great Irish Famine of the 1840's. In the 'Famine Museum' there is a ledger, protected under glass, with the following entry:
'Rental of the Estate of Strokestown, 1-May-1842--#5 Dennis Connealy.'
There are records in Strokestown of the baptisms of three of Dennis and Winifred's children:
Brigid, January 21, 1833
Elizabeth, June 4, 1834
James, September 16, 1836
Elizabeth Connelly Wade was about 13 when the family left Ireland in 1847. Many years later, she told her granddaughter, Marion Preece, that in Ireland her family was not poor. She could remember her mother, Winifred, handing out food to the starving people in the streets and bringing an old woman who was starving to death into her home and caring for her.
The Connellys and the Wades came to America in 1847. They arrived in New York and went to East Greenwich, Rhode Island where they lived until the early 1850's when they settled in Stony Brook near Stanton Mills, which was later known as Chilton, Wisconsin.
We know of five children in the Dennis Connelly family. There are nine years between the first and second of these. Patrick Connelly may have been one of the children, (see family tree). He was two years older than Michael.
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From "Home Brood (Brewed)" Recollections by Eileen Connelly Toppin:
"It appears that the Connelly and Higgins family both went to Warren, RI (near Providence) in 1846. Their next move was to Stanton Mills, Wisconsin (later called Chilton) around 1855."
Sources:
1. Marion Preece, granddaughter of Elizabeth Connelly.
2. Genevieve Moehn, granddaughter of Michael Connelly.
3. 'The Famine Museum' sent us a copy of the page from the 1842 ledger, thanks to Pat Conger, great, great grandson of Dennis, who discovered it there in 1994.
4. 'CHILTON TIMES' researched by Michael Higgins, great grandson of Peter Higgins.
5. Heritage Center at Strokestown, County Roscommon, Ireland"
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There were times when travel was put to a halt as the roads became impassible because of the rain. [2, 3]
- Influx of white settlers into the county became heavy the year that Wisconsin became a state. The possibility of purchasing land at a low cost combined with the idea of freedom and the opportunity for advancement which the new country offered attracted settlers into the primitive forest, some directly from their native European haunts in Germany or Ireland, others from eastern communities where they had first settled.
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Sources