Married: September 28, 1832 Cathedral Church of Saint Peters, Delaware
Died:April 26, 1899 Wilmington, Delaware, of Paralysis

Father: Francois Petit Demange b.1774
Mother: Marie Anne Henry b.1775

Husband: Michael Callahan b.1815


Children
Joseph H. Callahan b.c.1837
Amelia J. Callahan b.c. 1840
Daniel Callahan b. 5/30/1841 Delaware
Elisabeth Callahan b.c.1843
Francis P. Callahan b.c.1845
Charles Callahan b.1848
Fanny Callahan b.c.1851
Mary Callahan b. 6/24/1855

Notes:

-Mary Callahan immigrated at seven years old on the ship "April", one of the most notorious ship voyages ever made across the Atlantic. After leaving their home in France, and taking the 450 mile trip north over land to the sea, the PetitdeMange family would have boarded the ship in mid-June 1817, probably expecting to arrive in Philadelphia at the end of July 1817, some 45 days later. As fate would have it, this 45 day voyage lasted for six *months*. The ship was indeed ready to sail June 20th, but they waited until June 26th to lift anchor on their way. They had great difficulty getting past the immediate sandbars in their path, being stuck at least once, but finally cleared free two weeks later, July 8th heading towards the entrance of the North Sea. There was great celebrations on the ship at this point that they were on their way finally. However, a case of "ship's fever" illness started spreading among the passengers. They dropped anchor at the island of Texel. The delay and the deaths caused the ship's owners to worry they were going to lose money on the voyage. While anchored, they collected up another 700 passengers to cram onto the already full ship. Many of them were already ill and diseased, and while the ship had adequate food for 600; there were now more than 1100 passengers onboard. This small 1810s ship was crammed with about as many passengers as rode the Titanic. The captain deboarded ship to find more supplies, which he did; but when he returned to the ship--now July 29--to find that not only was there ship's fever running rampant, but 100 passengers were sick with typhus. By the first week in August, reports of illness were coming from the majority of the passengers. The passengers were essentially trapped, not allowed to deboard for the locals did not want their disease spreading. The Captain was being pushed to set sail every day by management, but he refused to do so, as there were immigrants dying every day. The Amsterdam government's health inspectors finally ordered the sick passengers off the ship and sent them to quarrantine. By August 15th, 1817 all of the sick passengers were removed, but the healthy passengers were still refused permission to set sail for fear of spreading illness aboard and locally. The Captain wrote in his diary "I became so hardened to the terrible sights I witnessed, that my emotions were left unmoved even when a boatload of corpses was brought to shore for burial. I realized starkly the brevity of man's earthly existence. Indeed I was unmoved when my own people died; in fact I was not even afraid of becoming sick and it seemed like death could not touch me. My conscience was seared shut. I lived without fear" In the upcoming days, 10, then 20 and 30 people were dying daily, and many jumped overboard to commit suicide because of the smell (which could be smelled for miles around) and despair. The cemetery filled up, and the costs to feed and medicate the sick was overwhelming. Eventually, the government wanted to be free of this death ship floating offshore in their harbor, and the secretary of state dispatched 10,000 flourins currency to do anything to allow the ship to sail. They directed the ship to a nearby uninhabited island so the passengers could be removed and the ship sterilized. Another 20,000 flourins was provided by the government. By September 2, 1817, 406 passengers had died with another few hundred very ill. At least 50 orphans were left without anyone to care for them, and the cold was starting to settle in for the year. By September 8th, the ship was cleaned, and the inspectors came on board to check that sufficient provisions were present and sealed. A single seal was found to be broken on one of the provisions, and the ship was seized with the captain being sent to court where he was fined for breaking into provisions. By September 15th, new substitute crew arrived at the ship, and although one women went mad and tried to murder all the children aboard, the sickness was finally starting to resolve. There was only 1 death a day at this point. On October 11, 1817, now *three months* after they set sail, the ship lifted anchor with now 620 passengers (about 1 cubic yard of space per passenger), and the ship was finally at sea. Unfortunately, the trans-atlantic voyage was a rough one, with storms damaging the main mast, and breaking two other masts entirely which were repaired on the ocean. After a 10 week on-sea voyage, land was sighted December 20th. On Christmas Day, they were at the mouth of the Delaware River, and on New Year's Day, January 1st, arrived at New Castle, Delaware--about _6 months_ after originally boarding, which was 6 months of hell, they finally left the ship for the last time. Mary's mother and three siblings survived the voyage, but her father and brother Jean Baptiste, did not.