“Some Exemplary Women” of Montana

Some Exemplary Women of Montana
They were not born nor reared up in Montana, but they lived among us for a shorter or longer time; they edified us by their virtues, and, if not from Montana by birth, they became Montana’s by death, having ended their days in our midst, and their remains lying at rest in Montana soil. But as we must hasten on to bring our work to a close, we can do no more than mention the names of three or four of these good Christians, with whose sterling worth we have been made better acquainted by years of intercourse as director of their souls. We refer to Margaret Hanratty, Mary Flanagan, and Ellen Nagle, who exemplified, each in herself, the valiant woman described in Prov. xxxi, and the price of whom, as said therein, is as of things brought “from far off and from the uttermost coasts.”

Margaret Louisa Hanratty was born in St. Louis, Mo., December 23, 1821. She married quite young, and was left a widow after bringing forth two sons and one daughter. She came to Montana with the latter (Mrs. C. D. Curtis of this city) in 1872, and died the death of the just in our midst October 13, 1882, after a long and painful sickness, which she bore to the last with a patient, nay, cheerful endurance that only Christian heroes possess.

Mary Flanagan was born in the south of Ireland and came to America in the thirties. She first lived in New York, then for a time in Iowa. The fruit of their marriage were a son, Mr. M. J. Flanagan of Fort Benton and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Power, the accomplished wife of’ Hon. T. C. Power, U. S. Senator from our State. She came to Montana in 1869 and resided at Fort Benton for several years. Later on she moved to Helena and here, August 14, 1883, the Vigil of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady, she went to her rest. We never met with a more retired and unassuming disposition than Mary Flanagan’s, or with one who had a keener practical Catholic sense, or who cared less for the shams of life than she.

Ellen Healy, afterwards Ellen Nagle by marriage, was born in Brooklyn, New York, June 6, 1826. The family moved first to Chicago, when that Metropolis of the West was in its incipiency, then to Beloit, Wisconsin, and lastly to Galena, Illinois, where Ellen married George Nagle, a worthy son of County Kerry, Ireland. The ceremony was performed by Rev. Petiot of St. Michael’s Church, June 10, 1844. Later on she passed to Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin, where she lived up to 1884, at which time she came to Montana. Her marriage was blessed with ten children, four sons and six daughters, two of them, a boy and a girl, dying in their infancy. Two of her sons and five of her daughters live in our midst and are well and favorably known by the whole community. She passed away in this city November 22, 1890, just two years after burying her husband, he having been laid to rest also in our midst November 22, 1888. “The just that walketh in his simplicity shall leave behind him blessed children.” (Prov. xx, 7.) These words of Holy Writ are the best eulogy, not less of Ellen and George Nagle than of their sons and daughters.

The last we shall mention is Matilda Galen, who died in our midst December 27, 1891. She was born in the County of Fermanagh, Ireland, September 7, 1837, of James Gillogly and Ellen Burke, and married in 1860 Hugh Galen, with whom she came to Montana from Idaho in the fall of 1866. She was a woman of sterling worth and more than ordinary industry, and her devotedness to the cause of religion, not less than her many deeds of kindliness and mercy toward the needy and sorrowing, will ever commend her to the grateful remembrance of our people. His Eminence Cardinal James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore, has written a most useful and popular work, “The Faith of our Fathers.” We are under the impression that not only here in Montana, but in many other places as well, there would be very little of the faith of our fathers, were it not for the faith of our mothers.

L.B. Palladino, S.J., Indian and White in the Northwest: A History of Catholicity in Montana, 1831-1891 (Second Edition) (Lancaster, PA: Wickersham Publishing Co., 1922), 401-404.