The tragedy of wash-woman "Bridget" Daley, & her five children, in the "Milwaukee Seebote", and the "Germania" ...

The name "Bridget" was used as a casual pejorative label for Irish women in the 19th c., yet four (4) German papers carried this brief story and others like it, to make the plight of Milwaukee's immigrant working poor visible to the community. I was relieved to find a church burial record for Mrs. Margaret Daley, but there is no civil death record, or coroner's report, or a cemetery record, or similar story in the English language papers.

   Sudden Death. - Bridget Daly, a widow living at the corner of Jefferson and Chicago Streets, returned home Friday evening after spending the entire day doing laundry at the American House Hotel. She collapsed in the hallway and was found dead. A stroke caused her death. The deceased leaves behind five children, the youngest of whom is only three years old. 

 

 

Burial register of St. John Cathedral (Milwaukee, WI)

June 1874. Margaret Daley. On the 5th of June 1874, Margaretta Daley, about 40 years old.