Dennis Dohney

Three brothers (Thomas (Patrick) , Walter, and Dennis), were the children of Walter Doheny and Catherine Connelly of Fethard, Carrigeen County / Tipperary Ireland. They left for (Middletown and Friendsville areas) Susquehanna County, PA in 1840. Supposedly the reason they left Ireland was that Thomas ran afoul of the English authorities and had his home and goods confiscated. There is a strong possibility that they may have been brothers or first cousins of Michael Doheny, of Young Irelander fame.

The Dohenys were related to Morriseys of Ballyfowloo & Boland from Thurles or Fethard.

The brothers Thomas, Dennis, and Walter, moved west to St. Paul, Minnesota in June 1851. In the Spring of 1852, they boarded a boat named the “Black Oak”, and traveled up the Minnesota River from St. Paul. They disembarked 50 miles from St. Paul, landing at a point to be named “Doheny’s Landing”. They each began their pioneer life by planting an axe in separate white oak trees that then marked their homesteads. This beautiful area would later be called Jessenland Township, (in Sibley County, MN); said to be named after the rich land of Goshen, home of the Israelites in Egypt.

Thomas Doheny returned to PA in 1852, to retrieve his family, and the families of his brothers in 1853. The other Irish families, about a dozen of them, either came with them or followed over the next year or two. These formed the core of the Irish settlement in Jessenland, Green Isle, Faxon, and Washington Lake townships of Sibley County. Sibley became a county in 1858 when MN became a state.

Dennis was inducted on September 16, 1862 at the age of 33. He served in the G Mounted Rangers. He was discharged on November 28, 1863.

Probably associated with St. Thomas Catholic Church Jessenland established in 1871; Research: LDS microfilm # 1703913, 1704015 (1859-1990).