By the time William Doonan relocated his family to the Temiskaming district of northern Ontario, he was no longer a young man. Newspaper accounts place the family’s move from Michigan to Pense Township by about 1908, when William—described repeatedly as elderly—set about clearing land and establishing a farm in an isolated settlement north of New Liskeard.¹ This move explains his absence from later United States records and marks the final geographic shift of his life.

Michigan state census records show that by 1894 William and Rosa Susan Smith were raising a growing family together, firmly established in Bay County.² Those records reflect a household that expanded steadily through the 1880s and 1890s, before economic pressure, family conflict, and William’s advancing age appear to have pushed the family toward a more marginal existence.

Life in Pense Township proved difficult. A June 1910 newspaper account described the settlement as one marked by deep hostility among neighbors, with William Doonan’s farm identified as the center of repeated disputes.³ One incident escalated into violence when neighbors attempted to cross his fields with a wagon and were refused permission. A fight followed in which George Ellis was struck unconscious by William Doonan, described in the article as “Doonan senior.” William was arrested and tried at North Bay, though the court was compelled to cover witness expenses because the family lacked the means to do so. He was ultimately released on a suspended sentence due to his age.⁴

These reports are notable not simply for the violence described, but for what they reveal about William’s condition. The articles consistently emphasize his age, poverty, and the fragile social position of the family. They also record a pattern of accusations and counter-accusations involving livestock, property damage, and threats—suggesting a man under strain in a community where tolerance was wearing thin.⁵

By 1913, William’s health had clearly deteriorated. Newspaper accounts from the Temiskaming district reported his death by suicide, following a period of illness and mental decline.⁶ The articles avoid sensational language, but the circumstances described point to a man worn down by years of conflict, physical decline, and isolation. His death occurred at Lady Minto Hospital, bringing his long and troubled life to an end far from the Michigan communities where he had spent most of his adulthood.⁷

William Doonan’s story is not preserved through orderly civil records or consistent census appearances. Instead, it survives through fragments: state censuses, court proceedings, and the sometimes-blunt language of small-town newspapers. Together, those sources document a life shaped by instability, conflict, and hardship—one that cannot be understood through a single record type alone.

In the end, William Doonan did not disappear from the historical record. He faded out of one jurisdiction and reappeared in another, carrying with him the same struggles that had marked his earlier years. His death closed a chapter defined not by prosperity or permanence, but by endurance in the face of circumstances that steadily narrowed his options.

Sources

¹ North Bay Nugget (North Bay, Ontario), 29 June 1910, p. 7.
² 1884 Michigan State Census, Bay County; 1894 Michigan State Census, Bay County.
³ North Bay Nugget (North Bay, Ontario), 29 June 1910, p. 7.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ Ibid.
⁶ The Temiskaming Speaker (New Liskeard, Ontario), October 1913.
⁷ Ontario death registration, Temiskaming District, 1913.

By the late 1880s, William Doonan was living in Bay County, Michigan, with his wife Rosa Susan Smith and their blended family, which included a daughter from William’s previous marriage. Although William does not appear in either the 1880 or 1900 U.S. federal census, local newspapers and state census records document a pattern of conflict that brought him repeatedly to the attention of neighbors, courts, and eventually authorities on both sides of the international border.

The earliest documented incident occurred in May 1889. The Evening Press reported that William Doonan, then residing in Monitor Township, was arrested after allegedly threatening to shoot a neighbor. According to the article, William drew a revolver during a dispute and was taken before a justice for examination.¹ This report establishes that William’s legal troubles began well before the turn of the century and involved firearms rather than minor civil disagreements.

In 1891, William’s name appeared again in the press—this time in connection with a tragedy within his wife’s family. The Bay City Daily Tribune reported on the conviction of Robert Smith for killing his brother Jude Smith, who was also Rosa’s brother. The article states that the gun involved in the homicide was afterward given to William Doonan.² The crime itself belonged solely to Robert Smith, but the transfer of the weapon placed William in possession of a firearm already associated with a notorious and widely reported act of violence. In a small community, such an association would not have gone unnoticed.

More than a decade later, William again surfaced in Bay City newspapers amid renewed conflict. In June 1905, the Bay City Times reported that a complaint had been filed by a neighbor, John Doe, alleging that William approached him with an open knife and made threats. The matter was adjourned rather than immediately resolved.³ A follow-up article published the following month described a contentious courtroom proceeding in which testimony referenced both a knife and a fence rail used as evidence. That report states William was convicted before a justice and that he appealed the decision.⁴ These accounts show William actively entangled in the local court system, though not always with swift or final resolution.

By 1910, William Doonan was no longer appearing in Michigan newspapers. Instead, his name surfaced in Ontario. In May 1910, the North Bay Nugget reported on William in connection with firearm possession, revisiting earlier concerns about weapons and violent associations tied to the Smith family tragedy.⁵ The Temiskaming Speaker published a related account shortly thereafter, further documenting community concern and official attention.⁶ Later that summer, the North Bay Nugget followed up on William’s legal situation, indicating that the matter continued to draw notice weeks after the initial report.⁷

These Canadian newspaper reports demonstrate that William’s conflicts did not end with his departure from Michigan. Rather, they followed him across the border, suggesting a continuity of reputation that transcended geography. The repetition of firearm-related concerns—spanning from 1889 in Monitor Township to 1910 in Ontario—forms one of the most consistent threads in the surviving documentary record.

William’s absence from the 1900 U.S. federal census remains unexplained. Whether this reflects deliberate avoidance, temporary relocation, or simple enumerator omission cannot be determined from existing evidence. What can be established is that William Doonan was repeatedly involved in disputes serious enough to attract legal and press attention over a span of more than twenty years.

The broader context of the Smith family violence is essential to understanding how William’s story was perceived by others. Rosa Susan Smith’s brother Jude Smith was killed by another brother, Robert Smith.⁸ While William was not responsible for that homicide, his later possession of the gun used in the crime and his own documented disputes involving weapons ensured that the shadow of that tragedy remained close.

By 1910, William Doonan was a man known to authorities in multiple jurisdictions, his name intertwined with firearms, courtrooms, and unresolved tensions. His story does not resolve neatly—but the records leave little doubt that his reputation was forged as much by conflict as by kinship.

Sources

¹ Evening Press (Bay City, Michigan), 9 May 1889, p. 8.
² Bay City Daily Tribune (Bay City, Michigan), 13 May 1891, p. 4.
³ Bay City Times (Bay City, Michigan), 18 May 1905, p. 1, “Show Him His Heart.”
⁴ Bay City Times (Bay City, Michigan), 19 June 1905, p. 6, “Meant Business.”
⁵ North Bay Nugget (North Bay, Ontario), 19 May 1910, p. 1.
⁶ The Temiskaming Speaker (New Liskeard, Ontario), 20 May 1910, p. 4.
⁷ North Bay Nugget (North Bay, Ontario), 29 June 1910, p. 7.
⁸ Nancy Little, “Jude Smith’s Legacy,” The Tumbleweed, 14 March 2018, https://familytumbleweed.blog/2018/03/14/jude-smiths-legacy/.

William Doonan was born on 29 September 1837 in Hillier Township, Prince Edward County, Upper Canada, the son of James Doonan and Prudence Mary Morton.¹ His early life unfolded within a large family that soon migrated westward into Hastings County, Ontario, where William appears alongside his parents and siblings in mid-nineteenth-century records.² These early movements reflect the broader patterns of rural settlement and land hunger that shaped many Canadian families of the period.

By the 1860s, William was living independently. In the 1861 census of Canada, he appears in Hungerford Township, Hastings County, identified as a single man and a member of the Church of England.³ Within a few years, he crossed the border into Michigan, joining the steady stream of Canadian migrants drawn to land opportunities in the Saginaw Bay region.

On 4 March 1868, William Doonan entered 80 acres of land in Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan, under the Homestead Act.⁴ Over the following years, he fulfilled the requirements of residence and improvement, constructing a log house and barn, digging wells, fencing and cultivating acreage, and planting fruit trees.⁵ These records establish him not as a transient laborer but as a settler who invested sustained labor and resources into his farm.

William’s personal life during this period was complex. He married Ann Scott in Bay County on 26 December 1869.⁶ This marriage was short-lived, and no later records place Ann in William’s household. By January 1874, William had married again, this time to Maloney Jewbar.⁷ As with his first marriage, no divorce or death record has been located, but by the early 1880s Maloney no longer appears in records associated with him.

William’s third marriage, to Rosa Susan Smith, marked a turning point in his life. They were married in Bay City, Michigan, on 11 December 1882.⁸ From this point forward, Rosa is consistently identified as William’s wife in census records, newspapers, and later Ontario documents. She was the mother of nearly all of his children and remained with him through the final decades of his life.

One child, Isabel Doonan, predates William’s marriage to Rosa. Isabel appears in the 1884 Michigan state census within William and Rosa’s household.⁹ Based on her age and the date of William’s marriage to Rosa, Isabel was the child of one of William’s earlier marriages. Her presence in the household reflects the blended family structures that were not uncommon in the nineteenth century.

William and Rosa raised a large family in Bay County, and their household appears repeatedly in Michigan state census records during the 1880s and 1890s.¹⁰ During these years, William supported his family through farming and lumbering, work that was physically demanding and increasingly hazardous as he aged.

William does not appear in the 1880 or 1900 United States federal census. This absence is notable but not inexplicable. During this period, he moved frequently between Michigan and Ontario and appears instead in state and provincial records. At the turn of the twentieth century, his household was also affected by violence within his wife’s family, including the killing of Rosa Susan Smith’s brother Jude Smith by another brother, an event documented elsewhere.¹¹ Contemporary newspaper reporting later indicates that William came into possession of the firearm involved.¹² While no direct evidence links these events to census avoidance, the combination of cross-border movement, legal scrutiny, and rural residence provides a plausible explanation for the family’s absence from federal enumeration.

William’s wider family network also remained close. Census proximity and migration patterns suggest that John Doonan, who appears in nearby Michigan census records during the same period, was likely William’s brother.¹³ Although no single record explicitly states this relationship, the accumulated evidence supports a close familial connection.

By the early twentieth century, William and Rosa left Michigan and returned to Ontario, settling in the Temiskaming District. This final chapter of William Doonan’s life would be marked by increasing hardship, legal entanglements, and declining health—subjects that will be examined in the posts that follow.

Notes

1. Ontario birth records and compiled family records for William Doonan, Hillier Township, Prince Edward County, Ontario.
2. 1861 Census of Canada, Hungerford Township, Hastings County, Ontario.
3. Ibid.
4. U.S. General Land Office Records, Homestead Entry, Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan, 4 March 1868.
5. Homestead proof affidavits, Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan.
6. Bay County, Michigan, Marriage Register, 1869, marriage of William Doonan and Ann Scott.
7. Bay County, Michigan, Marriage Register, 1874, marriage of William Doonan and Maloney Jewbar.
8. Bay County, Michigan, Marriage Register, 1882, marriage of William Doonan and Rosa Susan Smith.
9. 1884 Michigan State Census, Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan.
10. 1884 and 1894 Michigan State Census records, Beaver Township, Bay County, Michigan.
11. Nancy Little, “Jude Smith’s Legacy,” The Tumbleweed, 14 March 2018.
12. North Bay Nugget, May 1910, reporting on firearm possession connected to the Smith family incident.
13. 1884 and 1894 Michigan State Census records for John Doonan, Bay County, Michigan.