LIVED IN KANSAS CITY
OVER HALF A CENTURY.
Mrs. Ellen Cronin, Who Settled at
Second and Lydia in 1855,
Is Dead.
After fifty-four years of residence in Kansas City, Mrs. Ellen Cronin, 77 years of age, died at her home, 1129 Pacific street, yesterday afternoon. Coming to Kansas City before the war of the Rebellion, and when the little settlement on the Missouri river was known as Westport Landing, Mrs. Cronin's life was an eventful one.
Down at Second street and Lydia avenue she lived for the first few years of her life here, and as the little landing grew into a thriving little town, rivaling Westport itself, she moved, with her husband, Patrick Cronin, and other members of her family, to the house in which she finally died.
During the civil war Mrs. Cronin stayed in Kansas City, while her husband wen to the front. Frequently she was molested by Union soldiers, especially when the notorious No. 11 was issued in Jackson county . It was no unusual thing for her to be awakened from her sleep by pillaging Union soldiers. To see men shot dead on the streets was a weekly occurrence with her and she volunteered her services as a nurse in the old army hospital which was then located where the Gilliss opera house is now.
Mrs. Cronin came to America from Ireland in a sailing vessel in the year of 1848, going directly to New York, where she joined her sister, Mary Divine. Soon the two girls, Mary and Ellen Divine, brought their mother and brother and sister to America, going from New York to Michigan, and then coming to Kansas City, where Ellen Divine met Patrick Cronin, whom she married.
Mrs. Cronin is survived by two daughters,Mrs. Harry Ashton, whose husband is lieutenant of hook and ladder company No. 8, and Mrs. J. M. Maher, whose husband is captain of truck No. 1, both of the Kansas City fire department.
No funeral arrangements have been made as yet.
