Charts

• Descendants of Patrick McManus
• McManus Timeline(Patrick, Mary & children)

Photos

• Cecilia McManus Album
• McManus Loose Photos
• McManus Photo Gallery
  (alternate gallery location)

Cemeteries Visited

• Trinity Cemetery, Erie PA
• Calvary Cemetery, Erie PA
• Erie Cemetery, Erie PA

FindaGrave

• Trinity Cemetery,
  Millcreek Tp, Erie Co., PA
  (FindaGrave)
• Calvary Cemetery
  Millcreek Tp, Erie Co., PA
• Erie Cemetery, Erie, PA

Postcard Images

• Erie PA
• Bradford PA
• Kane PA
• Esopus NY

McManus

Patrick (1799-1882) & Mary McBarron McManus (ca 1808-1890) immigrated from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Ireland shortly after 1825 and came to United States with their oldest child Elizabeth. They appeared to migrate across Pennsylvania with the expansion of the Pennsylvania Canal. Their son John was born in 1832 in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania which at the time was the western terminus of the Pennsylvania Canal and the eastern end of the Portage Railroad under construction. Its also possible they previously lived along the canal in Alexandria, Pennsylvania where a Historic American Building Survey lists the "Patrick McManus House" being built circa 1829 and deed records show Patrick selling the house in 1830.  In 1840, Patrick McManus is living in Sadsbury Township (on Conneaut Lake) and at the crossroads of the Beaver-Erie Canal and the French Creek Feeder line.  The canal system had made its way to Erie in 1844 where the McManus family can be seen in 1850 and subsequent census enumerations. 

Patrick McManus and family settled on a farm in Green Township, Erie County, Pennsylvania whose fields had just been cleared . The first to pioneer in this area were German immigrants, then came the Irish to carve out homes for their families. Patrick & Mary had a total of thirteen children of which only eight appeared to reach adulthood. The oldest child, Elizabeth (1824-1909) married Nicholas Sweeney and was left a widow with two children, she later married William Morrison; Margaret (ca 1829-1887) who married William Sheldon and moved to Kane then Bradford, Pennsylvania; John (1832-1897), who married Angeline Connaroe and became a wheelwright in Erie City and eventually the Postmaster in nearby Belle Valley; Anna (1835-   ), who married John Boyd; Thomas (ca 1839-   ); Katherine (ca 1841-1897), who married an Bernard O'Gorman and moved to the New York City area, Mary Jane (1842-1877) who married William McCullough and died tragically in a house fire;  and Matilda (ca 1850-bef 1860) of who little is known. They were a large and active family many of which were involved in railroad operations and skilled carpenters.  Three of John's children were involved in the construction of Saint Alphonsus Monastery in Esopus, New York.  His son, Eugene went on to become the Building Inspector for the city of Erie, Pennsylvania.

There are other McManus families found in Erie County, Pennsylvania in the nineteenth century.  Most notably is the family of Thomas (1805-1887) & Bridget McManus (   - 1848).  Their son John McManus' was wounded in the Civil War and subsequent pension records imply a close relationship with one of Patrick & Mary's children. Most of the members of both families are buried at Trinity Cemetery, Erie, Pennsylvania. 

Principal References

• Angeline Connaroe McManus - "Funeral Mrs M'Manus, Erie Daily Times, Erie, Erie Co., Pennsylvania, 15 May 1912, page 7.
• Mary McBarron McManus Obituary, Erie Daily Times, Erie, Erie Co, Pennsylvania, 4 Feb 1890, front page
• Elizabeth McManus Sweeney Morrison - Aged Lady Dead, Erie Daily Times, Erie, Erie Co, Pennsylvania, 7 May 1909, page 6 (courtesy Linda Waha, Erie Society for Genealogical Research)
• Eugene Joseph McManus Jr - "It Means Much to be called A 'Good Sportsman'" , newspaper article, unknown Erie, Pennsylvania newspaper or date of printing, source: family files