But What if it Is?: The Unexpected Fall of a Brick Wall, part 3

See parts 1 and parts 2 for the back story!

What we knew previously: 
      Philip McCall was born 6 May 1860 in Pennsylvania to Irish parents
The new information: 
      He has siblings named Thomas McCall and Mrs. Matthew Flannigan

First up, identifying Mrs. Matthew Flannigan.
A search of the 1900 US census for Minneapolis. I found Matt J. and Mary Flanigan.1  Further searching revealed a marriage record between Matthew Flannigan and Mary McCaull on 6 September 1898 in Hennepin County, Minnesota.2  According to censuses and her 1926 death record, Mary (McCall) Flannigan was born about 1858 in Iowa.

A Little Help from Thomas 
The newspaper article first identifying Thomas McCall as the murdered man also gave some biographical information: "He was born in McGregor, Iowa, was 45 years of age and unmarried."3  This would make Thomas born about 1857. Now to check for McCalls in McGregor, Iowa.

Found!
McGregor, Iowa is in Clayton County. A quick census search quickly found a McCall family with children Thomas, Philip and Mary for 1870.4  The family turned up again in 1880, still in McGregor.5  They were a bit harder to find in 1860 due to phonetic spelling, but eventually found.6  The lost 1890 census is once again making things difficult. The McCall family as found on US census records:
    Patrick McCall, b. ca 1820-1830, Ireland
    Catherine McCall, b. abt 1830, Ireland
       Thomas McCall, b. abt 1854, New York
       Philip McCall, b. abt 1856, Pennsylvania
       Mary Ann McCall, b. abt 1858, Iowa
       Catherine McCall, b. abt 1861, Iowa
       Rose McCall, b. abt 1864, Iowa
       John McCall, b. abt 1865, Iowa
       James McCall, b. abt 1868, Iowa

The census records search also yielded two Mortality schedules. The 1880 Mortality schedule listed James McCall, age 11, died of drowning in July [1879].7  The 1870 Mortality schedule revealed another child, Margaret McCall, who was 3 month old when she died in July [1869] of the "Bloody flux."8

The next stop was FamilySearch and a quick look at what records for Clayton County, Iowa have been microfilmed (and which of those have been digitized).  Looks like I need to plan a trip to my local Family History Center to view the images due to use agreements.

One last thing I like to do is check the USGenWeb for the county to see what resources they have online and what repositories are in the county.  Turns out that there is a McGregor Historical Museum.9  I spent some time poking around their website and stumbled upon another lovely bit of usefulness: the newspapers for the county have been digitized and made online!10  Patrick McCall served on the McGregor City Council, 1876-1877 and appears regularly during those years. Unfortunately he met a sad end only a few years later in 1882.11

After quite a bit more researching I was able to flush out Philip McCall's family.

Patrick McCall, b. ca 1820-1830, Ireland; m. bef. 1854; d. 23 May 1882, McGregor, Clayton
                            County, Iowa.
Catherine King, b. abt. 1830, Ireland; ?
     Thomas McCall, b. abt. 1854, New York; d. ?
     Philip McCall, b. abt. [6 May?] 1856, Pennsylvania; d. ca 1906-1909?
     Mary Ann McCall, b. 9 Jul 1858, McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa; m. Matthew J. Flannigan (1857-1913), 6 Sep 1898, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., Minnesota; d. 23 Nov 1926, Minneapolis, Hennepin Co., Minnesota. No children.
     Catherine McCall, b. abt. 1861, McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa.
     Rose McCall, b. ca May 1864, McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa; m. John W. Boden (1863-bef 1900), 5 Apr 1888, McGregor; d. 23 Nov 1930, Dubuque, Dubuque Co., Iowa.
     John McCall, b. abt. 1865, McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa.
     James McCall, b. abt. 1868 & d. Jul 1879, McGregor, Clayton Co., Iowa.
     Margaret McCall, b. 15 Mar 1869 & d. Jul 1869, McGregor, Clayon Co., Iowa.

To-Do List

• Follow Catherine Sr., Thomas, Catherine Jr., and John to their end.
• Locate the archives for the former St. Mary's Catholic Church, McGregor, Iowa. Some abstractions online have baptism records for some of the children as well as a burial record for Patrick.
• Trace the family before they reached McGregor. The eldest (Thomas) was born about 1854 in New York and the second child (Philip) about 1856 in Pennsylvania. Hopefully this will also lead to a marriage record for Patrick and Catherine.
• Patrick's obituary lists military service during the Civil War, but gives incomplete/incorrect information. Need to research and verify.
• Locate immigration for Patrick and Catherine from Ireland to the United States.
• Flush out their FANs in McGregor. Are they related to any of the other McCalls (or anyone else) in the surrounding areas?

______________________________________________________________________________
Sources
1. 1900 U.S. census, Hennepin County, Minnesota, population schedule, Minneapolis ward 7, enumeration district (ED) 76, sheet 1A, dwelling 9, family 10, Matt. J. Flanigan; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 August 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T623.
2. Hennepin County, Minnesota, "Marriage Licenses," book 78, no. 176, Matthew Flannigan to Mary McCaull, 1898; "Minnesota, County Marriages, 1860-1949," digital images, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : downloaded 12 August 2019); citing FHL microfilm 1,380,438.

3. "Thos. M'Call the Dead Man," The Star Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota), 16 October 1902, p. 6; digital images, Newspapers.com (http://startribune.newspapers.com : downloaded 12 August 2019).

4. 1870 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, population schedule, McGregor ward 4, pp. 2-3, folio 384 (stamped), dwelling 16, family 18, Patrick McCall; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 12 August 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M593, roll 383.

5. 1880 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, population schedule, McGregor, enumeration district (ED) 142, p. 21A, folio 488 (stamped), dwelling 214, family 224, Patrick McCall; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : downloaded 12 August 2019); citing http://National Archives and Records Administration microfilm (NARA) publication T9, roll 333.

6. 1860 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, population schedule, McGregor, p. p. 68, dwelling 344, family 497, Patrick McCoe; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 2 August 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication M653, roll 315.

7. 1880 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, mortality schedule, McGregor, enumeration district (ED) 142, p. 1, line 4, family 214, James McCall; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 12 August 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T1156, roll 59.

8. 1870 U.S. census, Clayton County, Iowa, mortality schedule, McGregory ward 4, p. 1, line 1, family 18, Margaret McCall; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : downloaded 12 August 2019); citing National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) microfilm publication T1156, roll 56.

9. McGregor Historical Museum, https://www.mcgregormuseum.org/

10. http://claytoncounty.advantage-preservation.com/

11. "Patrick McCall," obituary, The North Iowa Times (McGregor, Iowa), 25 May 1882, p. 3, col. 4; digital images, Clayton County Advantage Preservation (http://claytoncounty.advantage-preservation.com/ : downloaded 14 August 2019); citing collections from the McGregor Historical Museum.