Biographies
STEPHEN JOSEPH ROONEY
The genealogical records of the Rooney
family lead back to Ireland, where, August 14, 1826, John Rooney was born to
the union of John and Ann (Garland) Rooney, lifelong residents of the Emerald
isle. In a large family he was the youngest child, and the death of his
father leaving the family in discouraging financial condition was the cause of
his early inurement to labor. From His
childhood days he has been familiar with hard work, and even now, although far
beyond the usual period of activity, he has not allowed himself to lead a life
of ease and indolence. At the age of twenty-one years he sailed from
Liverpool to New York, where he landed without special incident.
From there he proceeded to Boston, near which city, at
Roxbury, he visited a sister, Mrs. Mary Hoey.
Two months later he joined a brother, Peter, in Alabama. November 20,
1849, he sailed from New Orleans for Chagres,
Panama. From the Isthmus he proceeded up the Pacific ocean
to San Francisco, where he landed January 27, 1850. On the 2d of February
he arrived in Sacramento.
It had been the intention of Mr. Rooney to
engage in mining, and he lost no time in hastening to the camps indicated by
current rumor to be the most flattering in prospects. For nine months he
remained at Georgetown, Eldorado county,
and there he met with exceptional success. About that time a friend from
Alabama, John Hopper by name, obtained from him and his partner, Mr. Smith, the
sum of $10,000 without security. The money soon was lost, and the two men
thus involved in the loss were forced finally to take as total reimbursement
the equity in one hundred and sixty acres in Sacramento county.
On the land they sowed a crop of barley that brought them almost $10,000, so
that much to their surprise they lost nothing by their unfortunate loan.
The Alabama mine in Eldorado county,
owned by Mr. Rooney, yielded as much as $800 per day, and by 1853, he had
netted $25,000. With that surprising amount to his credit, it was natural that
he decided to establish a home of his own. Returning to Alabama in 1853
he married Miss Mary Clark, who was born in Ireland and came to the United
States in 1850 with her mother.
The family of John and Mary (Clark) Rooney
included four sons and one daughter. The eldest, John Jr., died February
4, 1885, at the age of twenty-four years. Peter W. married Mary
Powers. Stephen J., of this review, is next in order. James married
Miss Mary Brown of Sacramento and they have eight children. The only
daughter, Mary, is the wife of Thomas O'Neil of Sacramento. The father,
who died in this county, was widely known among the early settlers of the
county. Prior to the Civil war he supported Stephen A. Douglas, but in
1864 he voted for Abraham Lincoln for president, believing the hope of the
country to rest in that great statesman and patriot. After 1868 he
regularly voted the Democratic ticket at all elections.
At the homestead on the Coloma road, five
miles from Sacramento, occurred the birth of Stephen Joseph Rooney and there he
passed the uneventful years of childhood. After having completed the
grammar school studies he entered Sacramento Institute and later was a student
at St. Mary's college in San Francisco. Interested in agriculture, he
gave his mature years to the raising of farm products and the growing of
hops. At one time he served as deputy under Sheriff O'Neil of Sacramento county. In common with the other members of his family
he cherished a devoted allegiance to the Roman Catholic church.
November 23, 1887, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Tackney,
a native of the county and the daughter of John and Maria Tackney,
natives respectively of Canada and Ireland. From an early day the family
lived in California, where Mr. Tackney followed the
occupation of a hotel keeper. There are three living children in the Tackney family, namely: Mrs. Rooney, residing at No.
1114 Twenty-fifth street, Sacramento; Mrs. A. Westlake, also of Sacramento, and
Charles. Mrs. Rooney is the mother of three children, viz:
William J., born February 12, 1889; Stephen J., Jr., September 18, 1891, and
Margaret, August 3, 1893. The daughter is an accomplished musician and
teaches that art in the capital city.
During the excitement caused by the
discovery of gold in the north Stephen Joseph Rooney determined to go to Alaska
and attempt to regain a fortune his father had recently lost. With that
ardent hope he followed his brother and Lee Brown to the gold fields in
1898. When he had landed at Skagway he assumed charge of a pack-train
between that harbor and Lake Bennett. However, from the very outset
misfortune seems to have marked him for her own.
A number of valuable pack animals had been lost with the steamship
Corona. A quantity of forage and provisions was lost in another vessel
which went down. Finally, when his high hopes had begun to sink beneath
the weight of repeated reverses, he fell ill with spinal meningitis and died
far from the loved ones at home. The body was brought back to California
by his brother and was interred in a local cemetery amid expressions of deep
regret on the part of his host of early friends, all of whom united in
deploring the demise of this popular citizen and in tendering to his family
their most sincere sympathies in their bereavement. Since his death Mrs.
Rooney has continued to reside in Sacramento, where she has engaged in raising
hops, having met with a fair degree of success.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 693-696. Historic
Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.