My paternal great-grandmother, Mary Coleman Henning (1849-1923), was born near Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, the daughter of John Coleman and Bridget Nolan Kendergan (1820-1884). Her early years are shrouded in mystery. Little is known about her father other than that he is supposed to have died shortly after his marriage. It seems more likely that John Coleman and Bridget Nolan were never married or that Mary Coleman was in fact the daughter of one of her mother's unmarried sisters, possibly Winifred Nolan (later Sister Mary of St. Prisca, C.S.C.).

In any event, Bridget Nolan married Walter Kendergan of Athenrye, County Galway, Ireland, and came with her new husband to Orange, New York, around 1849. It is not clear if Mary Coleman accompanied the Kendergans on this voyage or if she joined the family at some later time. In various census records, Mary adopted the surname of her stepfather ("Kendergan") although after her marriage she seems to have dropped the name in favor of "Mary Coleman Henning." Walter and Bridget Kendergan had four children: Bartholomew Kendergan (1853-1926), Celia Kendergan (1857-1935), Delia Kendergan Flynn (1859-1945), and Thomas Kendergan (1855-1877). Around 1858, the family purchased a farm in Byron, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin.

Around 1882, Mary was employed by Thomas Henning of Fond du Lac to keep house during his wife's illness. Thomas Henning's son John Nathaniel Henning (1861-1947) and Mary Coleman were married in Fond du Lac on 8 November 1882 and shortly after moved to Crow Lake, Jerauld County, Dakota Territory, where John Henning, his father, and his brother Charles filed homestead claims.

Life in the Dakotas was tough enough for early settlers, but the Henning women must have had a particularly tough time as they were left alone for extended periods while Thomas, Charles, and John "boomed" around the country working construction sites. Their travels took them to Rapid City, Deadwood, and Omaha. Late in her life, John Henning's elder daughter, Eva Marie, vividly recalled the blizzard of 1888 when the family was cut off from neighbors for a good portion of the month of March. During one period when the Henning men were away, Calamity Jane is purported to have arrived at the Henning homestead to find Mary Henning ill. Calamity Jane allegedly cooked and took care of Mary and helped nurse her back to health. Even if this story is apocryphal, it is consistent with other stories about Calamty Jane's generosity.

John Henning and Mary Coleman Henning had two daughters: Eva Marie Henning Tripp (1883-1981) and Mary Cecelia Henning Flannigan (1885-1961). Both children were born on the Henning's homestead claim in Crow Lake, Dakota Territory. After the Dakota venture failed, the Hennings traveled around the Midwest, living briefly in Omaha, Nebraska, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the 1890s, the family settled in Minonk, Illinois, moving a short time later to Toluca, Illinois. The family seems to have made important friendships in Toluca--Mary and both of her daughters kept in touch with many Tolucans for the rest of their lives.

Left to right: Eva M. Henning (1883-1981), Mary Henning Flannigan (1885-1961), and their mother, Mary Coleman Henning (1849-1923), Green Lake Wisconsin, 1912

Around 1898, following the death of John Henning's father, the family moved to Chicago's South Side and settled in the Douglas-Grand Boulevard neighborhood. Around 1899, John Henning purchased a rowhouse at 4137 Langley Avenue and operated a boarding house, for which Mary Henning did the cooking and housekeeping. John Henning's income was sporadic, so life seems to have been difficult at times. After the marriage of her daughter Mary to John Jordan Flannigan (1877-1944) in 1912, Mary and her husband purchased a home at 4068 Lake Park Avenue (formerly "Lake Avenue") in the Oakland neighborhood near Lake Michigan, where the Hennings and Flannigans lived together. Mary C. Flannigan continued to work as a theatre musician, and after her children were born (John Jordan Flannigan [1913-1986] and William Henning Flannigan [1916-1999]), Mary Coleman Henning cared for her grandchildren. Both John and William testified late in their lives to Mary's extraordinary kindness and patience. Her son-in-law John Jordan Flannigan was devoted to her, and on a particularly memorable evening in 1913 he accompanied her to Chicago's Auditorium Theatre for a recital by the great Irish tenor John McCormack.

In October 1919, her daughter Mary and son-in-law John bought their own home at 4112 Ellis Avenue, a short distance away from the Hennings' home, and Mary continued to see her grandchildren on a daily basis. In late 1922, she contracted congestive heart failiure and died 28 February 1923 in her home on Lake Park Avenue. Her funeral mass took place at Holy Angels Church on Oakwood Boulevard, and she was buried in a newly-purchased lot in Mount Carmel Cemetery, Hillside, Illinois, just west of Chicago.

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