Margaret Doonan was born into a family that already knew how quickly life could fracture.
She was the daughter of William Doonan and Rosetta “Rose” Smith — a household still living with the consequences of the violent death of Rose’s brother Jude at the hands of another brother. That history formed the emotional landscape of Margaret’s childhood, one we have already explored through the lives of her parents.
Margaret was born on 2 June 1888 in Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan, at a time when her parents were part of the steady movement of families through Michigan’s lumber and farming communities.¹
And then, as the family began to move north into Ontario, Margaret made a different choice.
She stayed.
The Michigan Line
While her parents and most of her siblings eventually settled in Canada, Margaret remained in Michigan with her husband, William Henry Lacy, whom she married in Midland County on 28 May 1907.²
That decision created the divide that would shape the family for generations — a Canadian branch descending from her parents and a Michigan branch descending from Margaret.
But she did not disappear from the Canadian story.
Border-crossing notices in local newspapers and family photographs document her frequent trips to Ontario to visit her parents and siblings. She did not follow them permanently, but she maintained the relationships in person, again and again, across an international boundary.
She became the living link between the two halves of the family.
A Young Family in Bay County
Margaret and William began married life in Bay County, where their first children were born in Garfield Township and the Crump area.³
Their daughter Elizabeth Sabria Lacy — known in the family as Sabria — was born 24 January 1909.⁴
Motherhood for Margaret was marked by a pattern that repeated with painful regularity. Between 1908 and 1918, four of her children died:
- Milo in infancy in 1908
- Ira in 1910
- Howard in 1916
- Dorothy in 1918
Each death is documented in Michigan death records, each a separate entry in the public record — and each a private loss within the same decade of her life.⁵
The surviving children — Sabria, Eva, Cora, and Martin — would carry her line forward.
Widowhood in Saginaw
By 1920 the family had moved to the city of Saginaw, where William worked to support the household in an industrial economy very different from the rural communities where their marriage began.⁶
On 7 July 1924, William Henry Lacy died in Saginaw at the age of forty-six.⁷
Margaret was thirty-six years old.
City directory entries from the mid-1920s place her at 3369 Glenwood Avenue, an address that would remain associated with her for years.⁸
This is the moment when she stopped being defined primarily as a daughter or a wife and became the central figure holding her household together.
A Second Start — and Grandpa Jack
Margaret married Stephen Wolverton in Tuscola County in October 1927; the marriage ended in divorce in Saginaw in September 1929.⁹
Five days later she married John William Phillips in Saginaw.¹⁰
He is remembered not by his formal name but as Grandpa Jack — the name that tells us he became part of the lived family memory, not just the documentary record.
The 1930 and 1940 censuses show Margaret and John together in Saginaw, once again in a stable household on Glenwood Avenue.¹¹
The Border That Remained Open
Even as she built that stability, Margaret continued to travel to Canada to see her parents and siblings.
Her father died in Timiskaming District, Ontario, in 1913.¹²
Her sister Emily died in Montreal in 1917.¹³
Her mother died in Cobalt, Ontario, in 1952.¹⁴
Margaret did not move north — but she never allowed the distance to become separation.
The First Diagnosis
Margaret died on 12 October 1950 in Saginaw.
Her Michigan death certificate records the cause as diabetes mellitus, following a diabetic coma of forty-eight hours.¹⁵
She is the earliest person in this family line for whom that diagnosis is documented.
That fact places her not only in the past but in a continuing medical history that reaches into later generations — including my own.
What She Built
Margaret grew up in a family defined by violence, migration, and loss.
She spent her adult life creating something different:
- a fixed home in Saginaw
- a surviving line of children and grandchildren
- a living connection between the Michigan and Ontario branches
Every Michigan descendant of this family traces back to one decision — her choice to remain.
She was the one who stayed.
And in ways she could never have known, she is still present — not only in the records we read, but in the inheritance carried forward by her descendants.
Sources
- Michigan birth records, Bay County, for Margaret Doonan; 1894 Michigan state census, Beaver Township.
- Midland County, Michigan, marriage record: William Henry Lacy and Margaret Doonan, 28 May 1907.
- 1910 U.S. census, Garfield Township, Bay County, Michigan.
- Michigan birth record, Elizabeth Sabria Lacy, 24 January 1909, Crump, Bay County.
- Michigan death records: Milo W. Lacy (1908); Ira Gerald Lacy (1910); Howard Guy Lacy (1916); Dorothy Helen Lacy (1918).
- 1920 U.S. census, Saginaw, Saginaw County, Michigan.
- Michigan death record, William Henry Lacy, 7 July 1924, Saginaw.
- Saginaw city directories, mid-1920s, listing Margaret Lacy/Phillips at 3369 Glenwood Avenue.
- Tuscola County marriage record, Margaret Lacy and Stephen Wolverton, 1927; Saginaw County divorce record, 9 September 1929.
- Saginaw County marriage record, Margaret Lacy and John William Phillips, 14 September 1929.
- 1930 and 1940 U.S. censuses, Saginaw, Saginaw County, Michigan.
- Ontario death record, William Doonan, 1913, Timiskaming District.
- Quebec death record, Emily Doonan, 1917, Montreal.
- Ontario death record, Susan Rosetta (Smith) Doonan, 1952, Cobalt.
- Michigan death certificate, Margaret Phillips, 12 October 1950.
The Tumbleweed 