Barney P. Moran Family of Birmingham - Illinois Murrin Line
Birmingham, Alabama (from an old stereo view card)
Kate Moran's husband.
Alice Moran listed on memorial (click to enlarge).
Barney P. Murrin obituary
Death notice. click to enlarge.
The Moran family of Birmingham, Alabama, traces its lineage to James and Bridget Murrin of Belvidere, Illinois. James and Bridget had three known children: (1) Bernard or “Barney”, (2) Bridget who married Edward Brannan or Brennan; and (3) Catherine who married Francis “Frank” McGonigle. Catherine and Frank McGonigle are our great-grandparents.
“Barney Murrin” was known as “Barney Moran” in Birmingham, Alabama. Why Barney changed his surname is unknown. Mary Rita Jacobsen would pronounce “Murrin” as “mew-rin”. We have written about Mother Theresa (Agnes O’Brian) before. Her grandparents were Peter McGonigle and Ann Murrin. Mother Theresa pronounced “Murrin” as “mo-ren”. The 1876 Birmingham City Directory lists one “Barney Moren” as grocer.
Shortly after the US Civil War Barney Murrin moved to Alabama. When exactly is not known. We believe he moved south seeking financial opportunity. Barney’s estate was worth $200,000, which included prime property in downtown Birmingham. This amount was considered an enormous sum of money in he early part of the 20th century.
Barney had five children by two wives. In 1873 Barney married Alice Power (or Powers) at Birmingham. The marriage record shows his surname as “Murrin”. Alice and Barney had three children - Alice, James and Catherine (aka “Kate”). Alice Power Moran appears to have died in the 1880 decade. In the latter part of this same decade Barney married Kate Askin at Belvidere, Illinois. Kate and Barney had two children - Mabel and Bernard “Barney” Patrick. On Mabel Moran’s death certificate it lists her mother’s name as “Mary Bell Askin”. “Kate Askin” is the name found on Barney’s marriage license.
The 1900 US Census shows Barney and his children still living in Birmingham. Although Barney’s marital status displays “Married”, there is no wife listed. Barney’s daughter, Alice, died in 191 from internal bleeding after falling off a horse. In 1909 Barney died and we assume his second wife, Kate, was also deceased. Barney’s daughter, Kate, assumed guardianship over her two youngest siblings (Mabel and Bernard “Barney” Patrick).
Daughter Kate married Dr. Baxter Rittenberry in Birmingham. Daughter Mabel (or Maybelle) married Isaac Wharton. In 1912 Barney Patrick entered aviator school at Miami, Florida, for flight training. Son James’ father is unknown. It is not certain if either boy married.
This write-up includes news articles taken from Alabama newspapers about this family. Also, we included death records for Catherine “Kate” (Moran) Rittenberry and Mabel (Moran) Wharton. Included is a record for Barney Murrin’s marriage to Alice Power. Barney’s second marriage record appears elsewhere on our website. Although Barney Sr. died in Birmingham, he is buried in he Murrin family plot inside St. James Cemetery at Belvidere, Illinois. After Reconstruction many southern locales barred “carpetbagger” burials. Consequently, Barney’s remains were moved to Illinois for his final rest.
Murrin and it's variants are anglicized forms of the Irish surname O'Muireain, meaning descendant of Muireain. Muireain was a commonly used Christian name meaning "sea fair".They belong to the Ui Fiachrach group of families of North Mayo and Sligo, but today are to be found in and around Killybegs, County, Donegal.
The origins of U.S. 231, however, go back a few years to one of the few women to make an impact on the Good Roads Movement of the early auto days. In era when government support for roads was limited, private individuals and groups promoted the cause of good roads by identifying long-distance routes, giving them a colorful name, and promoting their improvement and use. Miss Alma Rittenberry (as she was known) of Birmingham, Alabama, originated the Jackson Highway, one of the earliest named trails to be proposed by a woman. A member of the Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association, the Poetry Society of Alabama, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Miss Rittenberry conceived the route in 1911 to honor General and President Andrew Jackson. Her linked Chicago and New Orleans. Although she promoted the route tirelessly through the Jackson Highway Association, she gradually lost control of the route, which was shifted to run through eastern Mississippi, with a branch to Montgomery and Selma.
The final break came in January 1917 when the organization came under the control of men who supported a routing of the branch between Birmingham and Nashville via Gadsden and Huntsville instead of the "bee-line" route via Decatur advocated by Miss Rittenberry. Feeling betrayed by the men who had "played thunder" with her association, she resigned, saying, "If Andrew Jackson knew the unchivalrous act of you men, he would turn in his grave; he was at least courteous to women." A week later, she formed a rival association to support a new route, initially called the North-South National Bee-Line Highway. It shared termini with the Jackson Highway, but followed her preferred routing south of Nashville, including her bee-line routing in Alabama from Montgomery to Mobile. At the insistence of interests in Dothan, she agreed to a southeastern branch to Florida.
When the U.S. system was approved in 1926, it incorporated much of her new trail (U.S. 31 from Montgomery to Nashville, U.S. 41 from Nashville to Chicago). The branch from Montgomery to Florida was numbered U.S. 231. When Miss Rittenberry died in 1930, her sister Mary said:
To her, life was a rainbow of hope with the proverbial pot of gold at the end. She was impulsive and quick tempered, but ever true to her better self. Capable and honest, she hated sham and to the end she remained the Captain of her own soul. Her good roads work reflect this eulogy.
(Meanwhile, the Jackson Highway Association failed to follow through on its plans. By 1923, when a good roads booster from Indianapolis decided to follow the route, she reported, "it had fallen into almost complete obscurity and disuse.")
Rittenberrys from "Alabama and her People"
1926. Dorothy Mcgonigle, Chicago, weds in air. Click to enlarge.
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