Person:Sarah McLuen (1)

This is a copy of a school report written by Lucy Reddig Clevenger in her own handwriting about her mother Sara McCluen (Sarah McLuen).

My Mother was born in Strokestown, Rosscommon County. They had a family of 8 children. They had canopy beds and they cleaned their wood floors with sand and rubbed their floors then swept it out. The oldest boy Will McCluen came to the US and worked for his Uncle in a harness shop, and when the mother died in Ireland the home burnt down and the father was sick and getting old he couldn't keep his family so Will sent money to have some of the children brought to the US. John, Delia, Sara, my mother, and Sue and the three younger girls were sent to a boarding school My mother was 11 yrs. old. Delia & John were older. Sue was younger. They came over on a sailing boat, and they got caught in a storm which blowed them off of their course. They were on the ocean for 10 weeks. A woman died on the ship and was buried at sea. They put her in a canvas bag with sand in each end. They put her on a plank and preached a sermon and buried her in the sea. Two days out from the US they ran out of water and had to use ocean water to cook with. John and the 3 girls were sent to Rock Island, Ill. where the girls got work in homes and John got work on a farm. My father folk, Mr. & Mrs. Edward Reddig, came from Holland and settled in Pennsylvania for a while, then they moved to Rock Island, ILL. Father had 2 brothers, 1 sister. My father, John Reddig, learnt (sp) the shoe making trade repair work and made his own boots and shoes and that is where my mother & father met. They were married in 1873. My mother belonged to the Espicol (sp) church, father was Catholic so the wedding was in the Catholic church. They lived in Rock Island untill (sp) 1880, Alice, Irving and Margaret were born & baptized in Rock Island they started out for Kansas, 1880, by covered wagon to take up homesteads. My folks and his brother and the father & mother Mr. & Mrs. Edward Reddig, they came in a covered wagon and through clow (sp) which they said was so rough, just like a wash board. Mr. & Mrs. Young (Kate Young), neighbors of my father in Rock Island, came west also. I can't remember if they came then or later.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} United States. 1880 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publication T9).

   Year: 1880; Census Place: , Trego, Kansas; Roll: T9_398; Family History Film: 1254398; Page: 313.1000; Enumeration District: 314; Image: .
   Ancestry Link
   Birth date: abt 1852
   Birth place: Ireland
   Residence date:1880
   Residence place: Trego, Kansas, United States

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 United States. 1870 U.S. Census Population Schedule. (National Archives Microfilm Publications M593 and T132).

   Year: 1870; Census Place: Perry, Dallas, Iowa; Roll: M593_385; Page: 591; Image: 449.
   Ancestry Link
   Name: Sarah McLuen
   Birth: abt 1851 in Ireland