Anna Brophy Tunney

Anna is my 2nd great-grandmother.

November 26th, 1862 ~ November 7th, 1944

While Anna was born in Ireland, she did not live there long. By the time she was a year and a half old, she was living on American soil. It was in 1864, when her parents, William and Anna, gathered their three children (William Jr., Catherine and Anna) together to set sail on the City of Washington (pictured below). The journey from Ireland to New York would have taken up to 12 weeks on the ocean in the mid-19th century. They arrived at Ellis Island on July 28th of that same year. It is unclear how long they stayed in New York.

The "City of Washington" pictured here was the ship the Brophys took from Ireland to New York. 

On October 26th, 1882, a month before she turned twenty, Anna married Owen Tunney in Chama, New Mexico. It was here where her children were born. Her eldest child, William, was named after his maternal grandfather and was born in August of 1883. Joe, who is our direct ancestor, was born on October 24th, 1884. Joe's middle name was Owen, named after his father.

Only four years after they were married, her husband Owen passed away. As a widow, Anna became the head of the family. She never remarried.

After Owen's death in 1886, Anna and the boys moved to Colorado City, Colorado, where she opened up the Tunney Hotel. It was on Main Street and it was across from the Colorado Midland Office Building and Roundhouse. She owned it outright, without a mortgage. According to Wikipedia, Colorado City (later to become Colorado Springs) was founded during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush in 1859. The railroad spurred growth in the 1880's and by the 90's there was not only a gold processing center in town, there were over 50 coal mines where the residents worked. So, it must have been quite easy for Anna to fill her rooms with occupants.

I am uncertain of how she acquired the money to purchase the hotel. I do know that not only did her two sons live with her on the property, her mother, Anna, resided there, as well. Additionally, she had ten tenants living under roof, all with different last names, so presumably they were not families. While I do not have the specs on the hotel, it must have been a fairly large space in order to hold 14 people at a time.

Image of Old Colorado City, which is now a district in Colorado Springs.

Anna did not attend school, but she could read and write. Her children, on the other hand, did have a formal education. I am uncertain what grade level William achieved, but Joe went through two years of college, which was rather extraordinary for that time frame. While I could not find statistics for this decade, twenty years earlier in the U.S., only .01% of the population continued their education after their elementary school education. 

The boys grew up and Anna still owned the hotel in 1912. I have no records again until she lived in Los Angeles with her son William in 1942. It was then when she applied for naturalization to become an American citizen. She was 80 years old. She was described on the paper work as having fair skin, white hair, blue eyes and she had a mole on her left cheek. She was 5'2 and 140 pounds. Of course, she was 80 at the time of this description. She was likely taller in her youth and probably at one time had black hair since her hair was now white (as opposed to grey).

St. Vincent de Paul in Los Angeles was built in 1925.

After William's death in August of 1944, Anna moved to Oakland to live with Joe and his wife Winnie. On November 7th, of the same year, Anna passed away.  She was 82 years old. Even though she died in the Bay Area, her services were all held in Los Angeles. Her rosary was held two days after she passed at the Armstrong Family Mortuary, while the funeral service, which included a full Catholic Mass, was held the following day at St. Vincent's Church. She is interred in Los Angeles, as well.

Supposition:

* The Irish Potato Famine was over by the time the Brophys made there way to the United States. However, they were Catholic. Irish Catholics fled in droves to escape religious (and/or political) persecution. 

* Since she moved to the United States at such a young age, it is possible she did not have an Irish accent. That being said, the Irish were not well thought of in the 19th and early 20th centuries in this country, so it's also possible she lived in Irish communities and because of which would have obtained her Irish accent. It is unknown where she grew up. However, I could not find any records that Colorado City had a strong Irish community, so at the very least her sons would not have had an Irish accent.

* It's rather extraordinary to me that she owned such a hotel and she owned it outright. Women were not allowed to have many jobs during this time frame, and her husband died years earlier. Her father may have given her the money for it, but it still would have been an extraordinary thing for a poor Irish immigrant to find the means to obtain such a large piece of property. Of course, gold was discovered in Colorado City. Perhaps she found some herself. Her husband also died young and he worked for the railroad. What seems more likely to me, since she bought the hotel just after Owen's passing, is that Owen had some sort of accident with the railroad and she received a settlement for it. I can find no evidence to corroborate these theories, but it intrigues me to think about the possibilities.

* It fascinates me that she wanted to become a citizen at the age of 80. She was never too old to achieve her goal. I love that about her.

Anna's Parents:

I know so little about both her parents, I don't want to take up a whole page of information, unless I am able to find out more information. This is what I know:

Her father was William Brophy, born circa 1825 in Ireland and was deceased no later than 1900, but it had to be much earlier than that, because his wife, Anna, was a widow by her second husband by 1900.

Anna's mother was also called Anna (maiden name unknown) Brophy Kennedy. She was born circa 1830 in Ireland and she died somewhere between 1900 and 1910, more than likely in Colorado Springs, CO where she lived with her daughter. 

As I mentioned, Anna was a widow from her second husband by 1900. Her second husband was Mr. Kennedy, but I don't know any other information about him outside of that.

William and Anna had 3 children when they arrived at Ellis Island on July 28th, 1864. They were William (born circa 1856), Catherine (born circa 1858) and our direct-line ancestor Anna, for which this story is about.

Interesting History of Colorado City:

In its infancy, Colorado City was a haven for opium dens, prostitution and saloons. However, according to Wikipedia, "When William Jackson Palmer purchased the land for Colorado Springs, he outlawed the consumption of alcohol within the new town's borders in reaction to the businesses he found unsavory in Colorado City. In 1896 and until 1916, ordinances were passed that prohibited prostitution, opium dens, and dance halls, but brothels continued to be established after 1896. The mayor of the town had warned prostitutes to leave Colorado City by 1908 or 1909, when most of the red-light district was burned down in two separate fires. Between 1902 and 1909, there were other fires along Saloon Row and the red light district. Liquor was outlawed in Colorado City in 1916. For the bordellos that rebuilt or remained, they received continued pressure to close down until Colorado City was annexed to Colorado Springs in 1917. At that time, at least one owner, Laura Bell McDaniel, was arrested. In 1933, at the end of Prohibition, Colorado Springs lifted the ban of the sale and consumption of alcohol."

The Meaning of Her Names:

Personal Name Meaning: Anna ~ means "favor", "grace" and "beautiful". This name is popular among Christians as St. Anne was the mother of Mary and grandmother to Jesus.

Surname Meaning: Brophy  ~ Irish: Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Bróithe ‘descendant of Bróth’, a personal name or byname of unknown origin. Also Anglicized as Broy.