The Memory Keeper: May Armstrong Casey Morrison (1870-1950)
February 4, 2015
Mary Ellen “May” Armstrong Casey Morrsion at age 16 in Augusta, GA, 1886
May Armstrong Casey Morrison was her children and grandchildren’s primary source of information about her father, the Irish nationalist John Francis Armstrong (1845-1893).
May told her family that her Irish immigrant father co-owned Daly and Armstrong, a successful dry-goods store on Broad Street in Augusta, Georgia. In the 1880s, JF was active in the Irish independence movement in the United States. He smuggled money raised in the US to Ireland and was followed by British spies while he was abroad.
During his last trip to Ireland, May said that agents from Scotland Yard came to Augusta and informed her that JF had been claimed as a British subject. As such, all of his assets were to be seized by the British government.
To prove he was an American citizen, she gave them his U.S. naturalization papers. JF was later released and returned home mentally incapacitated in the summer of 1893. Soon thereafter, he was committed to the Georgia State Lunatic, Idiot, and Epileptic Asylum in Milledgeville, where he died on November 9th, 1893.
Fact-Checking May’s Oral History of JF
Recent research into JF’s life has confirmed that he was a well-known member of the Irish home rule movement in the United States in the 1880s. He was a founding member of the Irish National League of America (INLA) in 1883 and represented the INLA in a private meeting with Charles Stewart Parnell in Dublin in 1886.
In the Parnell Commission Report, published in 1890, JF was identified by British spy Thomas Miller Beach, aka Henri Le Caron, as a member of the Clan na Gael. The Clan, known internally as the United Brotherhood, was an American Fenian organization that supported the armed overthrow of British rule in Ireland. A letter JF wrote to Clan leader John Devoy in 1883 is part of the John Devoy Papers at the National Library of Ireland.
In 1891, various U.S. newspapers noted that JF was going to visit his family in County Sligo in order to rest and recuperate from a long illness. The only known reference to his detention by British authorities was in his obituary in the November 10th, 1893 edition of the Augusta Herald. It is unknown exactly when, where, or for how long British agents took him into custody. They would have visited May in Augusta during his absence between 1891 and 1893.
JF’s patient record at the Georgia State Lunatic Asylum in 1893 stated that he suffered from insanity and had spent the previous two years in an asylum in Ireland. He died at the Georgia Lunatic Asylum in early November of 1893, several months after he returned home from Ireland.
Mary Ellen “May” Armstrong Casey Morrison, 1940s
May Armstrong Casey Morrison: A Short Biography
Mary Ellen “May” Armstrong Casey Morrison was the oldest child and only daughter of John Francis and Sarah McAndrew Armstrong.
Born in Augusta, Georgia on April 29th, 1870, May took on many family responsibilities at a young age due to her mother’s poor health and her father’s business and political commitments.
In 1884 at the age of fourteen, May took the train from Augusta to Washington, Georgia to bring home her younger brother Frank. Frank had gotten sick on a trip to Ireland with his father and been sent to recuperate with family friends in the countryside.
His condition had continued to deteriorate, however, and on the train back to Augusta May woke up to find that he had died in her arms during the night. She later told her children and grandchildren that her childhood ended with Frank’s death.
When her mother died in 1887, May took over running the Armstrong family household at 1323 Broad Street. She married Dick Casey, founding editor of the Augusta Herald, in 1892 and they had four children: Frankie, Joe, Sarah, and Gerald.
In 1893, her father returned from Ireland, where he had been in an asylum, and was admitted to the Georgia State Lunatic Asylum in Milledgeville. He died there on November 9, 1893. Three years later, her husband Dick died from acute appendicitis in Augusta.
May married Henry Morrison (1871-1934), an Augusta building contractor, in 1905. They had two children, Mary Cornelia “Nippy” Morrison Breaux (1908-1979) and John Joseph Morrison (1909-1961).
Sacred Heart Cultural Center, formerly Sacred Heart Catholic Church (c. 1897-1971), in Augusta, Georgia. Cropped photo courtesy of Sir Mildred Pierce under a CC license at Flickr.com
In 1920, the family moved to 1259 Ellis Street near Sacred Heart Catholic Church. May had eight grandchildren, all of whom grew up in Augusta and four of whom grew up at her home at 1259 Ellis Street during the Great Depression.
A daily communicant at Sacred Heart Church, May died in 1950 at the age of eighty and was buried at Westover Cemetery in Augusta.
Please note that Marie Van Sant Hudson contributed substantial research for this post.
References
“After Beach All ‘Round: Mr. John F. Armstrong Contradicts the Spy’s Testimony.” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 10 February 1889, online archives, Genealogybank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 13 March 2014), citing original p. 1.
“Augusta News,” Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), 20 August 1884, online archives, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/34217026/?terms=Armstrong : accessed 23 March 2018), citing original p. 2 [835].—-Notes: Obituary for Francis “Frank” Bernard Armstrong (16 August 1872-16 August 1884), the oldest child of John F. Armstrong and Sarah McAndrew Armstrong. Frank died on his twelfth birthday on the Washington (GA) line of the Georgia Railroad.
Casey, Frances “Frankie” Armstrong (1893-1988), daughter of JF and Sarah’s oldest child Mary Ellen “May” Armstrong Casey Morrison (1870-1950), taped interview in Augusta, GA by Tulie Wheeler Taylor, Tallahassee, FL, 1984.—-Notes: According to family stories passed down, Frank had gone to Ireland with his father and gotten sick on the trip home. He was sent to live with friends in Washington, GA to rest and get well. They sent word to Augusta that he was getting worse and his older sister May, age fourteen, was sent to bring him home. She woke on the train on 12 August 1884, his birthday, to find him dead in her arms. In a 1984 taped interview, Frances Armstrong Casey, Sarah and JF’s oldest grandchild and who was named for Frank, said that he had lived with James Benson and his family in Washington.
“Colonel Armstrong Will Go To Ireland.” Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), 18 February 1891, online archives, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 2 May 2014), citing original p. 1.—-Notes: Stated that JF had withdrawn from Daly & Armstrong due to sickness and was going to Ireland for a year to stay with relatives “in hopes of recovering his health”.
Georgia, State of. 1893 (9 Nov). “Certificate of Death: John F. Armstrong”. Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Genealogy, Central State Hospital. Digital copy.
“H. C. Morrison Died Yesterday,” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 16 November 1934, online archives, Genealogybank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 2014), citing original p. 3, col. 3.
Hudson, Marie Van Sant, United States [marievhudson@gmail.com] to Tulie Wheeler Taylor, emails, 2010 and 31 July 2018, “Georgia Lunatic Asylum patient health log: John F. Armstrong, date of death 9 November 1893,” Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (GDBH&DD), Genealogy, Central State Hospital.—-Notes: This was a digital scan of a paper copy Marie received from the GDBH&DD. According to the letter to Marie from GDBH&DD, the patient log was located at the GA State Archives in Atlanta. JF’s entry contained health notes, date of death, and where body was to be sent.
Hudson, Marie Van Sant. “Van Sant-Hudson Family Tree.” Ancestry.com. Compilation of genealogical research including historical photographs, U.S. Census data, newspaper articles, and other records. Accessed on Ancestry.com 9 July 2014.
“Ireland’s Rosy Prospects,” New York Times (NY, NY), 6 March 1886, online archives, New York Times (https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/03/06/106181806.pdf : accessed 30 July 2014 and 19 March 2018), citing original p. 4.—-Notes: Newspaper interview with John F. Armstrong about his meeting with Charles Stewart Parnell in Dublin and his trip to London for the Irish National League of America.
“Irish Americans.” Chicago Daily Tribune (Chicago, IL), 29 April 1883, online archives, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com : accessed 2014), citing original p. 9.
“Mr. Jno. Armstrong: A Prominent Citizen Passes To His Last Rest,” Augusta Herald or Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 10 November 1893, paper copy from original, possibly from microfilm, in possession of Tulie Wheeler Taylor, Tallahassee, FL.—-Notes: Obituary of John Francis Armstrong written by his son-in-law, William Celestin “Dick” Casey. Dick Casey was a founding editor of the Augusta Herald and the husband of JF’s daughter May. Information from this obituary was used in JF’s obituaries throughout the US.
“Mrs. Mae [sic] Morrison Dies in Augusta,” Southern Cross (Catholic Diocese of Savannah, GA), 20 May 1950, online archives, Catholic Diocese of Savannah, GA (http://scr.stparchive.com/Archive/SCR/SCR05201950p25.php?tags=may|morrison : accessed 10 June 2014), citing original p. 25, col. 5.—-Notes: States that Mrs. Morrison was the daughter of John F. Armstrong and Sarah Theresa McAndrew Armstrong, founding members of Sacred Heart Parish in Augusta.
“News Of Society,” Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), 25 January 1892, online archives, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/34079355/?spot=5505672 : accessed 2014), citing original p. 6, col. 1.—-Notes: Engagement announcement for May Armstrong and Dick Casey.
“Rites This Morning for Mrs. Morrison,” Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, GA), 5 May 1950, online archives, Genealogybank.com (https://www.genealogybank.com : accessed 2014), citing original p. 5, col. 3.