Church Record Sunday - Founding of Catholic Church in Clinton County, Ohio

A 1915 history of Clinton County, Ohio by Albert J. Brown says that the first Roman Catholic mass celebrated in Clinton County, Ohio in August 1852 had ten attendees: Michael Devaney, wife, and daughter, Timothy Coakley, Patrick Creedon, Jeremiah Coakley and wife, Catherine Knaughton, and two young men whose names were not recorded.

Fourteen years later, it appears that some of the same people petitioned the people of Clinton County for donations to build a church there. This excerpt is from a long article published in the Wilmington Clinton Republican on April 15, 1864. It lists the names of those making the appeal as Michael Divany, J. Coakly, James Monaghan, W. Maher, Jno. Kiefe, James Doyle, J. Miller, P. Credin, John Durkin, I. Egan, Jos. Strotman, B. Senton.

My guess is that this is the same Michael Devaney, Jeremiah Coakley, and Patrick Creedan that were at the first mass in Clinton County in 1852. Patrick was my 3x great-grandfather and my Creedan family had ties to the Coakley and Keefe families.

This gives me a few more names to investigate in Clinton County. I believe my Creedan/Creeden family may be related to the Coakley and Keefe families, but haven't found definite proof yet. So far, I know that Patrick Creedan was married to a Mary Coakley and that Timothy Keefe was the trustee for Patrick's estate. Timothy was the son of Johannah Creedon.