Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (1831-1901) was born in Philadelphia to an Irish Catholic immigrant family. His father, a doctor, died young, and his mother opened a pawnshop. Nevertheless, he grew up in comfortable surroundings. His family home often hosted groups of Catholic intellectuals.
Thanks to his mother’s hard work, he was able to attend Philadelphia’s prestigious Central High. He became a lawyer, got married, and became involved in communal building schemes. He and his wife moved to the Minnesota territory in 1857. Despite his upbringing and his family (his younger sister, Eleanor C Donnelly, was a leading Catholic writer of the era), he had sloughed off the faith in time to run successfully for lieutenant governor of Minnesota in 1860.
