'Michael Francis Donovan. Born on September 2, 1867 in Southampton, England. Married on August 12, 1891 in Charlestown, MA to Catherine Lawlor. Died on April 7, 1923 in Somerville, MA of a heart attack. Michael arrived in Boston on May 17, 1872 with his mother, Mary Nagle Donovan and five of his siblings on the ship, Palmyra, from Liverpool, England. His father, John Donovan, and older brother Simon had come the previous year to make enough money to send for the rest of the family. Michael and Catherine had four children--Molly, Frank, Charles, and Catherine. Michael's older brother Simon got into the dock business, unloading ships. Michael eventually joined with Simon and they started the Boston Stevedore Company. After Simon died from diabetes in 1911, Michael ran the company and changed the name to MF Donovan & Sons. When I wrote to the 'Ask the Globe' column in the mid-1980s inquiring about whether Michael was Dock Commissioner of Boston, I received this reply: 'Founder of the Boston Stevedore Co. and a longtime member of Charlestown's Democratic Ward Committee, Donovan was named to the dock commissioner's job by 'Honey Fitz' before the outbreak of World War I. During the war, he was charged with loading millions of dollars' worth of steel, iron, food, horses, and other materials on ships bound for England and France. When the United States entered the war, Donovan took a gang of longshoreman to Baltimore to load vessels with munitions, food, and supplies for the American Expeditionary Force. Back in Boston he supervised the loading of transports for the U.S. Army Quartermasters at the Boston Army Base. At the end of the war he was on hand in Boston, Baltimore, and New York to oversee the unloading of supplies and equipment sent back from Europe. Donovan died in 1923 after a heart attack. He was 55.' Michael F. Donovan (also known as 'Mickey the Hustler') was full of vim and vigor. He loved life and lived it to its fullest. He was a man's man--loved the life around the docks. Perhaps because his father was a dock worker in Southampton and later in Boston. Unfortunately, his children were not interested in the business. My grandfather, Charles S. Donovan, became a lawyer. His brother, Frank, ran the business until the crash of 1929 when everything was lost. I hope I have some of Michael's spirit in me, I'm glad he's my great-grandfather. Pictured: Michael Francis Donovan.'
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