John E. Cronin (1844-1872)

John E. Cronin was the third child born to James Cronin and Johanna (Honora) Leary both Irish immigrants who came to the United States in 1842. By the time he was nine years of age his family left Groton, Massachusetts and settled in the small Irish community of Maple Grove, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin. Cronin was said to have been well educated, and at the age of fifteen was working as a printer for the Manitowoc Pilot Newspaper, then he relocated to Milwaukee where he worked as a school teacher, bookkeeper and in the Milwaukee Advertiser Newspaper warehouse for many years. Cronin married in Milwaukee in 1868 and the newly married couple traveled back to Maple Grove where he opened and operated a general store. This then is the narrative of the life and times of John E. Cronin and his two children.