Steve VanderVeen: Bernard Donnelly shared everything with his … – HollandSentinel.com
The Donnellys gave Holland both a great business and a great business philosophy.
Bernard Donnelly was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1843. When he was seven years old, he came to America. To understand why, we need to go back in time.
More:The innovation of Engbertus VanderVeen
More:The perseverance of Dirk Van Raalte
Ireland had been a Catholic country since the 400s. Protestants from England began arriving in the 1500s. Among them were the Arthur Guinness family, which opened the Guinness Brewery in 1579.
In 1801, in part to stop Catholic uprisings, the British government formed the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland and tightened its control. As a result, the Protestant minority marginalized the mostly poor, Catholic majority population.
In the 1840s, the Potato Famine struck northern Europe. One million, or 12 percent, of the Irish population starved to death, and two million people emigrated, shrinking the population of Ireland from eight million to five million.
Bernard Donnelly was one of those who emigrated.
He ended up in Chicago. At 17, he was working in the Chicago stockyards for Amour-Cudahy, one of the largest meatpackers in the world. Its plant was three stories tall, and its chill rooms could hold 200,000 pounds of dressed meat.
In 1873, Bernard married Mary Anne Louise Flanigan. By 1885, he was a manager at the Amour-Cudahy plant. Part of his work included taking sailing vessels to the west coast of Michigan, where he distributed his employer’s meat products.
In 1879, Bernard Patrick — the third of Bernard and Mary Anne’s six children — was born. Unfortunately, Bernard died in 1890 at the early age of 47.
Bernard Patrick grew up on the south side of Chicago, where present day I-94 meets the Chicago Skyway. There, he attended Christian Brothers High School. He married Mary Catherine Fenlon in 1903 and worked at Chicago’s Kinsella Glass Company, a maker of mirrors.
In 1905, because Kinsella wanted to get closer to the West Michigan furniture companies — Bay View, Holland Furniture, Charles Limbert, Ottawa Furniture, Star, Berkey and Gay, and Sligh — they offered two of their employees, Bernard Patrick and John Kelly, the opportunity to start a factory in Holland.
Initially, that meant much travel for Bernard, as he split his time between his home in Chicago and the factory in Holland.
In Holland, Bernard and Kelley built a glass factory on the northwest corner of River Avenue and Third Street. Then, in 1910, when Kinsella was experiencing financial difficulties, the partners bought the Holland branch, naming it Donnelly-Kelley Glass Company, with Bernard the primary owner.
Generous as well as devout Catholics, Bernard and Kelley were founding members of St. Francis Catholic Church, and also served on the building committee, which Bernard chaired.
In addition to his gifts of time and money, Hollanders could tell Bernard was a successful businessperson. At first, the family lived at 155 12th St., then 284 Maple St. In 1915, Bernard purchased 1,000 feet of frontage on Lake Michigan south of New Holland Street, which he named Delvin Grove.
There, according to one of his children, they engaged in berry picking, conversations, making jam, playing tennis and cards, pumping the washing machine lever, singing songs, swatting flies, and taking robust walks — and every day, they ended supper with the family kneeling and saying the rosary.
Subscribe:Get all your breaking news and unlimited access to our local coverage
Because Mary liked to travel, the family experienced much of America. They spent time horseback riding in North Carolina, fishing for trout on Glenn Lake in Michigan, visiting the cliff dwellings in Arizona, driving the desert road from Arizona to California, having Thanksgiving dinner in New York City, and spending Easter in Ashville, North Carolina.
They also loved their new home in Holland. But because the Donnelly family was Catholic — and from a very Irish Catholic district of Chicago — and the family’s neighbors were now Dutch Calvinist Protestants, there were tensions.
The family’s plan was to share everything with their neighbors, except their religion. One story will make this clear: Bernard loved horseback riding; and, given his busy work schedule, would reserve Sundays for that pleasure. One Sunday, one of his neighbors stopped him and asked: “Sir, do you not know that it is against religion to ride a horse on Sunday?”
To which Bernard answered as he rode off: “Sir, (it’s) not against my religion.”
— Community Columnist Steve VanderVeen is a resident of Holland. Contact him through start-upacademeinc.com.