Our Story

Catherine "Kate" Minitor was born and raised in Washington, DC of Irish parents, Samuel McCardell and Mary Jane Ellison. In 1894 at the age of 24 she maried William Austin DeLaVergne at St Stephen's Church in Washington, DC. William and his younger brother John grew up at St. Joseph's Orphan's Asylum after both their parents died in May 1879. Catherine and William had two sons, but by 1899 she was a widow with two very young children (ages 2 and 4).

In December 1906 Catherine married John Frances McCarron, born in Pennsylvania, eleven years her junior and the son of Irish immigrants. By the 1910 census they were living in a home they owned at 2142 Pennsylvania Avenue. Both had their own businesses, John (29) as a "Keeper" for an automobile livery and Catherine (40) as a dressmaker with her own shop. Living in the home with them were Catherine's two sons, John's brother Joseph McCarron (25, a chauffer at an auto livery), Catherine's sister Mary E "Mollie" Minitor (also a seamstress, 41) and Catherine's niece Nonie A Minitor (25, a dressmaker born in Maryland).

Family history says that Catherine McCarron and her niece Nonie Minitor McCarron sewed dresses for the first ladies of the day. Their homes were conviently located near the White House. [Catherine was an aunt of Mary Catherine Smith Ripple.]

The 1920 census indicates that Joseph McCarron(36) and Nonie Minitor (33) were married and had a daughter, but still lived in the same home on Pennsylvania Avenue with John (55) and Catherine (50), as is Mary E Minitor (49) and a host of boarders. Nonie is shown as the owner of the dressmaking shop.

By 1940 John and Catherine have their home to themselves, with John unable to work and Catherine keeping house. Catherine died in January 1942; John lived until 1953 and is buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery.