This is the sixth volume of the Journal of the Society. It continues the series so auspiciously begun years ago and which has been added to annually. These six volumes represent a great amount of work and contain a vast deal of historical material relative to the Irish element in the composition of the American people. As we progress with our researches, even we ourselves are quite astonished at the facts brought to light, facts showing in a far greater degree than anticipated, how tremendously important was the part taken by the Irish element in American colonial life and in the early and subsequent career of the republic itself. The present volume sets forth much matter of interest and value in this regard, and is in every way a worthy companion for the volumes of the Journal that have preceded it.

Boston, Mass., December 31, 1906.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY, A. D. 1906.

President-General,

Rear Admiral John McGowan, U. S. N. (retired),

Washington, D. C.

Vice-President-General,

Hon. Franklin M. Danaher,

Albany, N. Y.

Secretary General,

Thomas Hamilton Murray,

36 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.

Treasurer-General,

Michael F. Dooley,

Of the Union Trust Co., Providence, R. I.

Librarian and Archivist,

Thomas B. Lawler,

Of Ginn & Company, publishers, Boston and New York.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL,

The foregoing and

Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York City.
Hon. William McAdoo, New York City.
Hon. Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass.
Patrick F. Magrath, Binghamton, N. Y.
Rev. John J. McCoy, LL. D., Worcester, Mass.
Thomas Addis Emmet, M. D., LL. D., New York City.
Edward J. McGuire, New York City.
John F. O’Connell, Providence, R. I.
James L. O’Neill, Elizabeth, N. J.
Stephen Farrelly, New York City.
Cyrus Townsend Brady, LL. D., Toledo, Ohio.
Hon. Thomas J. Lynch, Augusta, Me.
John J. Lenehan, New York City.
Hon. Thomas Z. Lee, Providence, R. I.
Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.
Maj. John Crane, New York City.
Col. John McManus, Providence, R. I.
Hon. William Gorman, Philadelphia, Pa.
Col. C. C. Sanders, Gainesville, Ga.
John F. Doyle, New York City.

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Maine—James Cunningham, Portland.
New Hampshire—Hon. James F. Brennan, Peterborough.
Vermont—John D. Hanrahan, M. D., Rutland.
Massachusetts—Hon. Joseph H. O’Neil, Boston.
Rhode Island—Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence.
Connecticut—Dennis H. Tierney, Waterbury.
New York—Joseph I. C. Clarke, New York City.
New Jersey—John F. Kehoe, Newark.
Pennsylvania—Hugh McCaffrey, Philadelphia.
Delaware—John J. Cassidy, Wilmington.
Virginia—James W. McCarrick, Norfolk.
West Virginia—John F. Healy, Thomas, Tucker County.
South Carolina—Henry A. Molony, Charleston.
Georgia—Capt. John Flannery, Savannah.
Ohio—John Lavelle, Cleveland.
Illinois—Hon. P. T. Barry, Chicago.
Indiana—Very Rev. Andrew Morrissey, C. S. C., Notre Dame.
Iowa—Rt. Rev. Philip J. Garrigan, D. D., Sioux City.
Montana—Rt. Rev. M. C. Lenihan, D. D., Great Falls.
Minnesota—Hon. C. D. O’Brien, St. Paul.
Missouri—Julius L. Foy, St. Louis.
Kentucky—John J. Slattery, Louisville.
Kansas—Patrick H. Coney, Topeka.
Utah—Joseph Geoghegan, Salt Lake City.
Texas—Gen. A. G. Malloy, El Paso.
California—James Connolly, Coronado.

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

District of Columbia—Hon. Edward A. Moseley, Washington.
Arizona—Col. O’Brien Moore, Tucson.
Indian Territory—Joseph F. Swords, Sulphur.
Canada—Hon. Felix Carbray, Quebec.
Ireland—Dr. Michael F. Cox, Dublin.

THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER, A. D. 1906.

The annual meeting and dinner of the Society took place at the Hotel Manhattan, 42d Street and Madison Avenue, New York City, on Thursday evening, January 18, 1906. Preceding the meeting a reception was held, during which the members and guests from various cities and states exchanged greetings and congratulated each other upon the continued success of the organization.

The annual meeting was called to order by Hon. John D. Crimmins of New York City, president-general of the Society.

Thomas Hamilton Murray of Boston, Mass., secretary-general of the organization, recorded the minutes of the meeting.

Mr. Crimmins delivered an address of welcome and felicitated the Society upon its usefulness and good work in the cause of historical truth.

It was voted that, in order to save time, the reading of the records of the preceding meeting be omitted.

The annual reports of the secretary-general and the treasurer-general were then presented, and were accepted and adopted.

Appropriate action was taken on members of the Society who had died during the year.

Mr. Edward J. McGuire of New York City, paid an eloquent tribute to the late Francis C. Travers of the Society. Mr. Travers was one of the leading New York members of the organization and always took an active interest in advancing its interests and welfare.

The list of officers nominated by the executive council to serve the Society for the ensuing year, was presented and was unanimously elected, the secretary-general being authorized to cast one ballot for the same. (The ticket is set forth on pages [5] and [6] of this volume.)

Upon the result of the election being announced, Hon. Franklin M. Danaher of Albany, N. Y., the newly-chosen vice-president-general, took the chair, in the absence of Admiral McGowan, the new president-general.

Judge Danaher thanked the members for the honor bestowed upon him, and delivered a brief address along the Society’s line of work.

During the meeting attention was called to the movement to erect a monument in Washington, D. C., to Commodore John Barry, and the active interest of the members of the Society was urged in behalf of the project.

After thanks had been extended the retiring officers for their services to the Society, several new members were elected and the meeting adjourned.

The Annual Dinner.

Upon the adjournment of the business meeting, the members and guests proceeded to the banquet hall of the Manhattan for the annual dinner. Judge Danaher presided and seated on his right and left, among others, were: the retiring president-general, Hon. John D. Crimmins; Hon. Joseph T. Lawless of Norfolk, Va.; Michael F. Dooley, of the Union Trust Company, Providence, R. I.; Hon. John Hannan, mayor of Ogdensburg, N. Y.; Hon. John F. Finerty, Chicago, Ill., and other prominent gentlemen.

After grace had been said, the company began a practical discussion of the elaborate menu prepared for the occasion. Among those present were the following:

FROM NEW YORK CITY, INCLUDING BROOKLYN.

Hon. John D. Crimmins.
Rev. Henry A. Brann, D. D.
Hon. Joseph F. Daly.
Henry Wright.
Stephen J. Richardson.
F. J. Richardson.
James J. Phelan.
Thomas F. Smith.
James Kearney.
T. P. Kelly.
Edward J. McGuire.
Dr. Bryan DeF. Sheedy.
Francis D. Ward.
W. H. Mahony.
John Quinn.
Cyril Crimmins.
William F. Daly.
John J. Lenehan.
Edmond J. Curry.
John O’Sullivan.
Willis B. Dowd.
P. J. O’Leary.
James T. Ryan.
Warren E. Mosher.
D. H. McBride.
John F. Doyle.
Alfred L. Doyle.
Edward H. Daly.
E. Clinton Smith.
Richard P. Morrissey.
David Healy.
J. E. Smith, M. D.
Maurice O’Meara.
R. J. O’Donnell.
Edward M. Tierney.
F. H. Stoltzenberg, Jr.
John E. Milholland.
Dr. C. E. Byrne.
W. F. Clare.
John J. Daly.
William J. Broderick.
P. J. Hughes.
John Flanigan.
Charles V. Halley, Sr.
Charles V. Halley, Jr.
John J. Fox.
James O’Flaherty.
A. J. Meister.
Maj. E. T. McCrystal.
Matthew J. Flynn.
Robert Watchorn.
John H. Regan.
John H. Rogan.
Peter McDonnell, Jr.
John J. Ryan.
Patrick Kiernan.
T. Vincent Butler.
John Jay Joyce.
Henry L. Joyce.
James F. Roach.
J. O’Carroll.
J. R. Adams.
John J. Haigney.
H. Van Atta.
Theron Van Atta.
Frank V. A. Loucks.
John J. Sullivan.
Andrew J. Curtin.
James P. Farrell.
Daniel Moynahan.
James W. O’Brien.
George A. Fleury.
Joseph Hopkins.
George W. Sweeney.
Daniel J. Curtin.
Sylvester J. O’Sullivan.
J. D. Rohan.

PRESENT FROM OTHER PLACES.

Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, Norfolk, Va.
Hon. Franklin M. Danaher, Albany, N. Y.
Hon. John F. Finerty, Chicago, Ill.
Hon. John Hannan, Ogdensburg, N. Y.
Hon. J. J. O’Connor, Elmira, N. Y.
Hon. Thomas Z. Lee, Providence, R. I.
P. F. Magrath, Binghamton, N. Y.
James O’Sullivan, Lowell, Mass.
Rev. James O’Doherty, Haverhill, Mass.
Rev. John D. Coyle, New Haven, Conn.
Hugh N. Murphy, Newark, N. J.
Patrick Cassidy, M. D., Norwich, Conn.
Henry V. McLaughlin, M. D., Brookline, Mass.
J. F. O’Reilly, Montclair, N. J.
John F. Hayes, M. D., Waterbury, Conn.
Thomas Hamilton Murray, Boston, Mass.
Patrick Carter, Providence, R. I.
George J. Twohy, Norfolk, Va.
R. J. Donahue, Ogdensburg, N. Y.
Michael F. Dooley, Providence, R. I.
James L. O’Neill, Elizabeth, N. J.
Joseph M. Byrne, Newark, N. J.
Don C. Seitz, Cos Cob, Conn.
Bernard J. Joyce, Boston, Mass.
Dennis H. Tierney, Waterbury, Conn.
John T. F. MacDonnell, Holyoke, Mass.
Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence, R. I.
M. P. O’Connor, Binghamton, N. Y.
P. H. Garrity, Waterbury, Conn.
Richard Tillard, Newark, N. J.
Francis I. McCanna, Providence, R. I.
H. S. Tierney, Torrington, Conn.
James J. Higgins, Elizabeth, N. J.
Thomas J. Spellacy, Hartford, Conn.
John F. O’Connell, Providence, R. I.
John Haddow, Newark, N. J.
Michael J. Morkan, Hartford, Conn.
William J. Kelly, Portsmouth, N. H.
John J. McNally, Norfolk, Va.

The after-dinner exercises were of unusual interest, Judge Danaher presiding, as he had over the dinner, and the various events on the program being most enjoyable.

The leading paper of the evening was by Hon. Joseph T. Lawless of Norfolk, Va., whose subject was “Gen. Daniel Morgan of the Revolution.” It was a very able production and was highly appreciated.

Willis B. Dowd of New York City, read a paper on the “Early Irish Settlers of North Carolina,” showing much research on his part, and being a valuable contribution to the historical papers of the Society.

There were also addresses by Hon. John F. Finerty of Chicago, Ill., and by other gentlemen.

The evening’s exercises likewise included solo and chorus singing, with orchestral accompaniment, the selections including “The Star Spangled Banner” and “Killarney.”

ADDRESS TO THE SOCIETY BY PRESIDENT-GENERAL McGOWAN.

The following address was issued early in the year by President-General McGowan:

To the Members of the American-Irish Historical Society:

Gentlemen: Permit me to express my gratitude for the honor you have done me in electing me to be your president-general for the ensuing year. I accept the office, and will discharge its duties and responsibilities to the utmost of my ability.

To be the official head of a society such as ours is a position any man, no matter how exalted his place in life, should be proud to hold. My distinguished predecessors in the office—Meade, Moseley, Gargan, Crimmins, McAdoo—have ably presided over the Society’s affairs in the past and have reflected honor upon the organization, as honor has been reflected upon them in virtue of their being chosen to that high station.

The American-Irish Historical Society is now in its tenth year of existence. It has accomplished a vast amount of good, and the practical work it has so abundantly performed is of permanent value and utility. No organization was more needed and none has a broader or more glorious field in which to work.

The Irish chapter in American history is one of the most important and interesting in our career as a nation. It was a strong and important chapter in America for even a century before we became a nation, and has gone on increasing in importance and potency, in value and interest, as generation has succeeded generation, until today it stands unsurpassed in the respects mentioned.

As John Boyle O’Reilly once wrote,

We slight no true devotion, steal no fame

From other shrines to gild the Pilgrims’ name.

So I may say, we rob no race to gild the Irish name when we undertake to unearth the records of the past, showing what the Irish element has accomplished in the early colonial periods and in later periods when the republic was forming and had become a fact. We merely wish to claim, assert and set forth the credit which to us belongs, for the part that men and women of Irish blood took in bringing about the reign of liberty and freedom we now enjoy.

Toward people of all other race elements in the make-up of the American people—English, French, Dutch, German, etc., by whatever name they may be known or from whatever land they or their ancestors may have come—we entertain good will and desire them to have such meed of credit and of praise as to them belongs. We do not wish to praise ourselves by “masquerading in borrowed plumes,” nor have we any desire to detract one iota from the credit that is honestly that of others.

But the credit that is ours we demand and shall insist upon possessing. Our mission is “To make better known the Irish chapter in American history.” That brief statement of our principles conveys in a very few words our exact reason for existence as a society.

We are an American historical organization devoted to a work that shall place the Irish element in this great republic in its proper and merited position before the American people of which we constitute no small part, and which shall, at the same time, reflect glory upon the Irish fatherland. Our Society rests upon a generous basis. Its founders builded wisely and for the perpetuation of the heroic deeds of the past. I trust these founders will long be honored by every member of the organization.

Reviewing the work thus far accomplished by the Society, I am prompted to say a few words: With very limited financial means, we have, nevertheless, produced five handsome volumes of the Journal of the organization, two other volumes of great merit and a number of extremely interesting pamphlets. Copies of these publications have been placed in the leading libraries of the country, where they have been cordially welcomed. Our publications are in the libraries of such institutions as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, Georgetown, Princeton, and other great universities, where they are having an excellent influence.

Here in Washington our publications are in the library of Congress, in that of the George Washington University, in the Catholic University and in the newly-established Trinity College for young women. The United States Military Academy at West Point also has our works on its shelves, as has the Naval Academy at Annapolis. From many leading historical societies come reports of our publications being received by them.

Many of the great public libraries—North, South, East and West are in receipt of the works issued by our Society, and the same are in constant demand for consultation and reference. Among these public libraries are those of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Troy, Rochester, Oswego, Buffalo, Detroit, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Denver, San Francisco and other cities.

This is practical work. I know of no other society that in so short a time has done so much of real, lasting value as has ours. Indeed, when we consider all the circumstances, we have done astonishingly well. Many societies hoary with age, in the possession of plethoric treasuries, and constantly receiving large bequests, have done no better, if as well, from a practical viewpoint.

Our Society is fortunate in having an indefatigable secretary, who from the start has worked in season and out of season to advance the interests of the organization. A competent secretary is a priceless possession for any society, and we have been especially fortunate in this respect.

The Hon. John D. Crimmins of New York City, my immediate predecessor in the office of president-general, has always been ready with purse, services and hospitality to forward the interests of the Society, and under his administration the organization has made splendid progress. Owing to his initiative, a movement has just been started to raise a permanent fund of $10,000 for the organization. This is good news, indeed, and I have no doubt the amount will be speedily raised. With a substantial fund such as this back of it, the Society will be enabled to be of even greater service in the future than it has in the past.

The salient work of the organization must be its publications. The more we have of these the better for the cause we have at heart. While a dinner, now and then, is desirable, the organization must never deteriorate into a mere dining club. Too many societies, started with the most comprehensive program, have done this and lost sight of their original purposes. Our Society differs from others in that it is established for historical purposes, to make original research into the records and documents of the past and to place the result of its researches in permanent, tangible form. Careful and frequent publications will enable us to do this.

A great deal depends upon the continued issuance of the annual volume of the Journal of our Society. That work has thus far been, and will continue to be, of the greatest possible utility. It gives the Society a recognized standing in the community that would be difficult to obtain by any other means. Its advent, year by year, therefore, is of prime importance.

Speaking incidentally, I may say that I would like to see special attention given during the year to a study of the material bearing upon the reputed voyages to these shores of the Irish missionary, Brendan. These voyages, attributed to a period many centuries preceding Christopher Columbus, appear to be fully as well authenticated as those of the Northmen to Vinland. Indeed, the Norse sagas mention remote Irish comers to these shores and duly credit a land here once known as Great Ireland. De Roo, in his recent work, the History of America Before Columbus, goes into this subject in a very entertaining manner. As a rule, our school text-books on history, while accepting implicitly the narratives relative to the Northmen and Vinland, find no room in their pages to even allude to Brendan and his voyages, although, as I have intimated, the latter seem to rest upon as secure an historical basis as the former. Mr. Justin Winsor and other distinguished writers, however, make special mention of the subject and treat the latter with respect.

The history of the early Irish in Virginia is also deserving of our special attention. Irish names are found in the Old Dominion prior to the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, while in the Plymouth colony itself, Governor Bradford tells us, numbers of Irish arrived a few years after the coming of the Mayflower. The war against the Indian king, Philip, 1675–’76, found Irish enlisted on the side of the colonists, showing that at that period sons of old Hibernia were numerous and active here. These and other early periods and movements furnish our Society ample material for consideration.

As American history progresses, the material increases in volume and is greatly multiplied as the Revolution eventuates. But these facts are well known to you and require no lengthy narrative of detail on my part. I merely briefly refer to them in order, by way of review, to indicate the abundance of material awaiting development at our hands.

I am delighted with the project now under way by the Society to erect a bronze tablet in the Rhode Island state capitol to the memory of Maj.-Gen. John Sullivan. The idea is a most felicitous one and deserves the heartiest commendation. Sullivan was one of the great soldiers of the Revolution. The placing of the forthcoming tablet will be a merited tribute to his patriotism and military skill while in command of the Rhode Island department and during the entire period of the war.

There are many other great Americans of Irish blood who deserve like honors, and doubtless the Society will, from time to time, erect tablets to their memory or commemorate them in some other worthy manner. The suggestion that the occasion of the dedication of the Sullivan tablet be made a field day by the Society is a happy one, and will, I trust, be fully carried out.

As our Society grows in numbers and prosperity, the question of permanent headquarters will demand consideration. Books and pamphlets will accumulate by gift or purchase and a place will be needed where these can be displayed for consultation by the members and others engaged in historical research. Where these headquarters shall be located is a subject for future action. A number of cities are deserving of consideration. In many respects, Washington, the national capital, would be the ideal place, while, New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other cities, also present special advantages. But this whole matter can be fully considered at some future time.

The Society recalls with pleasure its visit to Washington a few years ago, when it was cordially received at the White House by our distinguished fellow-member, President Roosevelt. I hope that during my term as head of the organization the Society will again have occasion to visit the national capital and once more partake of Washington hospitality.

Again expressing my gratitude for the honor you have conferred upon me and hoping that I shall have, while president-general, the generous assistance of every member of the Society, I remain

Yours fraternally,

John McGowan,

President-General.

Washington, D. C., February 25, 1906.

RECEPTION TO THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL.

A brilliant event under the patronage of the Society took place in New York City on April 26, 1906. The occasion was a reception to Admiral John McGowan, U. S. N., the newly-elected president-general. The exercises took place in the residence of the Hon. John D. Crimmins, and will long be remembered by the large assemblage participating. Admiral McGowan resides in Washington, D. C., and the reception was held in order to give him and the members of the Society an opportunity to exchange mutual greetings.

The reception was participated in by judges, prominent clergymen, distinguished members of the medical, law, journalistic and other professions, as well as by leading bankers and gentlemen prominent in mercantile life.

Admiral McGowan received in the magnificent drawing-room of Mr. Crimmins’ home, the introductions being made by Mr. Crimmins, who was assisted by Thomas Hamilton Murray of Boston, the national secretary of the Society.

The following is a copy of the notice sent to each member:

AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Reception to Rear-Admiral John McGowan, U. S. N., President-General.

Dear Sir: It gives me great pleasure to notify you that a reception to Rear-Admiral John McGowan, U. S. N., President-General of our Society, will take place in New York City on Thursday evening, April 26, 1906, at 8 o’clock.

Owing to the kindness of our fellow member, the Hon. John D. Crimmins, the reception will be held at the home of the latter, 40 East 68th Street, and it is hoped that every member of the Society who possibly can will be present on this occasion.

Few events under the auspices of the organization will possess as much interest as this, and all who participate in the forthcoming reception to our President-General will find it a red-letter event in the history of the Society. Each member is at liberty to invite a friend to accompany him to the exercises.

Kindly inform the Secretary, upon receipt of this notice, whether you will attend the reception, as it is desirable to know, approximately, how many will be present.

Fraternally,

Thomas Hamilton Murray,

Secretary-General.

36 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass.,

April 5, 1906.

Among those present from New York City, were: Hon. James Fitzgerald, a justice of the New York Supreme Court; Hon. Edward F. O’Dwyer, chief justice of the New York City court; Hon. Samuel Adams, Robert E. Danvers, M. E. Bannin, Richard Deeves, John J. Rooney, William F. Clare, M. J. Drummond, Cyril Crimmins, J. Henry Haggerty, Nathaniel Doyle, Col. James Quinlan, formerly of Meagher’s Irish Brigade; Sylvester J. O’Sullivan, James O’Flaherty, Robert T. Dyas, Edward J. McGuire, John W. Donovan, Dr. Hugh M. Cox, Henry Wright, Rev. Dr. Henry A. Brann, John A. Brann, John Jay Joyce, Willis B. Dowd, Rt. Rev. Mgr. Charles McCready, William J. Broderick, J. J. Hickey, W. E. Callahan, Charles V. Halley, J. H. Rohan, John J. Ryan, Thomas S. Lonergan, John O’Sullivan, Owen J. Brady, James J. Phelan, and other people of note.

Present from other places were: Rt. Rev. Mgr. William Byrne, D. D., V. G., Boston, Mass.; Rt. Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, D. D., Lynn, Mass.; Rev. Gerald P. Coghlan, Philadelphia, Pa.; Hon. P.T. Barry, Chicago, Ill.; Hon. Patrick Garvan, Hartford, Conn.; James L. O’Neill, Elizabeth, N. J.; Hon. Thomas Z. Lee, Providence, R. I.; Thomas A. O’Gorman, Providence; John F. O’Connell, Providence; Dr. J. F. Hayes, Waterbury, Conn.; P. F. Magrath, Binghamton, N. Y.; James J. Higgins, Elizabeth, N. J.; City Clerk Kenah, Elizabeth; Hon. P. J. Ryan, Elizabeth; John Moriarty, Waterbury, Conn.; Prof. J. E. Madigan, Waterbury; Philip A. Curran, Waterbury; William M. Sweeny, Astoria, L. I., N. Y., a son of the late Gen. Thomas W. Sweeny; Dr. A. J. Anderson, Astoria, L. I., N. Y.; Fire Commissioner Cox, Elizabeth, N. J.; Dr. John D. Hanrahan, Rutland, Vt.; William P. Connery, Lynn, Mass., and a number of others.

Letters expressing interest in the occasion, and regretting inability to be present, were received from Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, Norfolk, Va.; Hon. Thomas H. Carter, Washington, D. C.; Hon. Andrew C. Smith, M. D., Portland, Ore.; Hon. Patrick Egan, New York City; Hon. Edward A. Moseley, Washington, D. C.; Hon. M. T. Moloney, Ottawa, Ill.; Hon. Franklin M. Danaher, Albany, N. Y.; Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, D. D., Los Angeles, Cal.; Rt. Rev. Mgr. D. J. O’Connell, S. T. D., Washington, D. C.; Brig-Gen. Michael Cooney, U. S. A. (retired), Washington, D. C.; Rev. John J. McCoy, LL. D., Worcester, Mass.; John J. Lenehan, New York City; William Doogue, Boston, Mass.; James A. Fogarty, New Haven, Conn.; Michael J. Ward, Brookline, Mass.; William Lyman, New York City; James Connolly, Coronado, Cal.; M. P. O’Connor, Binghamton, N. Y.; R. J. Donahue, Ogdensburg, N. Y.; James G. Hickey, Boston, Mass.; Patrick H. Garrity, Waterbury, Conn.; P. C. Walsh, Jr., Newark, N. J.; Rev. M. J. Cooke, Fall River, Mass.; F. L. Dunne, Boston, Mass.; J. J. O’Connor, Elmira, N. Y.; J. T. Gibbons, New Orleans, La.; Maurice O’Meara, New York City; Rev. J. C. Harrington, Lynn, Mass.; D. H. Tierney, Waterbury, Conn.; Rev. D. W. Fitzgerald, Penacook (Concord), N. H.; Dr. J. E. Sullivan, Providence, R. I.; W. H. Mahony, New York City; Gustav W. Lembeck, Jersey City, N. J.; Myles Tierney, New York City; Roger G. Sullivan, Manchester, N. H.; Richard W. Meade, New York City; John L. Carroll, Newark, N. J.; W. J. O’Hagan, Charleston, S. C.; James McMahon, New York City; John C. Griffin, Skowhegan, Me.; Stephen Farrelly, New York City; M. J. Morkan, Hartford, Conn.; Osborne Howes, Boston, Mass.; James W. Kenney, Boston, Mass.; P. J. Byrnes, New York City; Frank S. O’Neil, Binghamton, N. Y.; D. H. McBride, New York City; Rev. J. P. McCaughan, Warren, Mass.; Hon. George J. Gillespie, New York City; J. A. O’Keefe, Lynn, Mass.; Laurence Clancy, Oswego, N. Y., and Patrick J. Lawlor, Waterbury, Conn.

The company inspected Mr. Crimmins’ splendid library and his costly collections of rare old manuscripts and original letters. Among the latter were notes written by Washington, Adams, Calhoun, Jackson, Jefferson, Carroll, and other historic personages.

Among the Washington letters was one in which the father of his country mentions his contemplated purchase of an Irish wolfdog, on the recommendation of Lafayette. In a letter by Andrew Jackson occurs this sentence: “For you know my parents were Irish.” This very effectually disposes of those who have classed Jackson as “Scotch-Irish.”

Attention was called to Cyrus Townsend Brady’s new work, The True Andrew Jackson, which is dedicated to Mr. Crimmins and the American-Irish Historical Society, Doctor Brady being a member of the latter. Much interest was also displayed in a new volume by Mr. Crimmins himself, entitled Irish-American Historical Miscellany, which has recently been brought out. It is a volume of some five hundred pages and is replete with interesting data.

After the exercises in the drawing-room, lunch was served, and was followed by addresses, readings and musical selections. The whole occasion was one of unusual interest.

SOME HISTORICAL PAPERS.

PATRIOTS BEARING IRISH NAMES WHO WERE CONFINED ABOARD THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.

BY THE HON. JOHN D. CRIMMINS, NEW YORK CITY.[^[1]]

[1]. From Mr. Crimmins’ recent book, Irish-American Historical Miscellany. (New York, 1905.)

The horrors of the Jersey prison ship have often been told. The Jersey and other hulks, used by the British, were anchored near the Wallabout, Brooklyn, N. Y. Many thousands of prisoners perished on these ships by cruelty and disease. The conduct of their captors was inhumane and dastardly. It is not surprising, therefore, that the mortality was so great.

William Burke, a prisoner aboard the Jersey, at one time, has left a record in which he states that he was confined on the ship fourteen months, and that he saw, among other cruelties, many American prisoners put to death by the bayonet. This cruel treatment was never relaxed by the English or Scots, but sometimes the more humane Hessians evinced pity for the unfortunate sufferers. Burke says:

“During that period, among other cruelties which were committed, I have known many of the American prisoners put to death by the bayonet: in particular, I well recollect, that it was the custom on board the ship for but one prisoner at a time to be admitted on deck at night, besides the guards or sentinels. One night, while the prisoners were many of them assembled at the grate at the hatchway, for the purpose of obtaining fresh air, and waiting their turn to go on deck, one of the sentinels thrust his bayonet down among them, and in the morning twenty-five of them were found wounded, and stuck in the head, and dead of the wounds they had thus received. I further recollect that this was the case several mornings, when sometimes five, sometimes six, and sometimes eight or ten, were found dead by the same means.”

It is estimated that over eleven thousand prisoners perished, from all causes, aboard these ships during the Revolution. The dead would be carried ashore and carelessly buried in the sand, their bodies, in many cases, to be uncovered by returning tides. For many years after, the bones of these martyrs were visible along the shore.

About 1801, John Jackson sold to the United States, through Francis Childs, a middleman, forty acres of the Wallabout for $40,000. About this time large numbers of Irish refugees arrived and located in New York and Brooklyn. They bought some land of Jackson at, or near, the Wallabout, the settlement being named “Vinegar Hill.”

During the summer of 1805, a Mr. Aycrigg, shocked at the exposed remains of the prison-ship victims, made a contract with an Irishman residing at Wallabout, to “collect all the human bones as far as may be without digging,” and deliver the same to him. This was done, and these bones were a portion of those interred in the vault patriotically erected by Tammany.

Among the patriots imprisoned aboard the Jersey were a great many Irish. In 1888, the Society of Old Brooklynites published a pamphlet dealing with the Jersey, and giving the names of several thousand persons who had been confined therein, many of whom perished. A copy of this pamphlet is in the possession of the New York Historical Society. From that authoritative source we have compiled the following list of patriots, bearing Irish names, who were confined on the Jersey:

Barry, Samuel
Black, James
Black, John
Black, Philip
Black, Timothy
Blake, James
Boyle, John
Brady, John
Broderick, William
Brown, Michael
Brown, Patrick
Bryan, Edward
Bryan, John
Bryan, Mathew
Bryan, William
Buckley, Cornelius
Buckley, Daniel
Buckley, Francis
Buckley, John
Burk, Thomas
Burke, James
Burke, William
Burn, William
Burns, Edward
Burns, John
Butler, Daniel
Butler, Francis
Butler, James
Butler, John
Byrnes, Hugh
Cain, David
Cain, Thomas
Callaghan, Daniel
Campbell, Philip
Cannady, James
Cannady, William
Carney, Anthony
Carney, Hugh
Carr, William
Carolin, Joseph
Carrall, Robert
Carroll, James
Carroll, John
Carroll, Michael
Casey, Edward
Casey, Richard
Casey, William
Christie, James
Cochran, James
Cogan, Thomas
Coleman, David
Collins, James
Collins, John
Collins, Joseph
Collohan, Daniel
Connell, John
Connelly, John
Conner, George
Conner, James
Conner, John
Conner, Robert
Conner, William
Connolly, Patrick
Connolly, Samuel
Connor, John
Conway, John
Conway, Thomas
Corrigan, Bernard
Corrigan, John
Cox, Joseph
Cox, William
Crane, Philip
Cullen, William
Cunningham, Bartholomew
Cunningham, Cornelius
Cunningham, James
Cunningham, Joseph
Cunningham, William
Curry, Anthony
Curry, William
Dailey, Patrick
Daily, James
Daily, William
Darcey, W.
Daunivan, William
Delany, Edward
Doherty, John
Doherty, Thomas
Donalin, Nicholas
Donogan, John
Dorgan, Patrick
Dorgan, Timothy
Dowling, Henry
Downey, John
Downing, Peter
Doyle, Peter
Doyle, William
Dring, Thomas
Duffy, Thomas
Dunn, Peter
Durphey, Patrick
Dwyer, John
Dwyer, Timothy
Dyer, Patrick
Fallen, Thomas
Filler, Patrick
Finagan, Bartholomew
Finn, Dennis
Finn, John
Fitzgerald, Edward
Fitzgerald, Patrick
Flinn, John
Ford, Bartholomew
Ford, Daniel
Ford, Martin
Ford, Philip
Fox, William
Fury, John
Gallager, Andrew
Gallaspie, John
Goff, Patrick
Grogan, John
Griffin, Joseph
Griffin, Peter
Haggarty, James
Hallahan, James
Halley, John
Hanagan, James
Hanagan, Stephen
Hand, Joseph
Hanegan, John
Hanes, Patrick
Hart, Cornelius
Hart, John
Hayes, John
Hayes, Thomas
Hays, Patrick
Hensey, Patrick
Higgins, George
Higgins, William
Hogan, Roger
Hogan, Stephen
Hughes, John
Hughes, Joseph
Hughes, Peter
Hughes, Thomas
Jordan, John
Jordan, Peter
Joyce, John
Kane, Barney
Kane, Edward
Kane, John
Kane, Patrick
Kane, Thomas
Kelley, John
Kelley, Michael
Kelley, Oliver
Kelley, Patrick
Kelley, William
Kelly, Hugh
Kelly, James
Kelly, John
Kelly, John K.
Kennedy, James
Kennedy, William
Kenney, John
Lafferty, Dennis
Lally, Sampson
Lane, William
Larkin, Thomas
Leary, Cornelius
Lee, Peter
Loggard, Patrick
Loney, Peter
Lowery, John
Lynch, Timothy
Lyon, Peter
Lyons, Daniel
Lyons, Michael
Macguire, Anthony
Malone, John
Marley, James
Martin, Daniel
Martin, James
Martin, John
Martin, Michael
Martin, Joseph
Martin, Philip
Martin, Thomas
Maxfield, Patrick
Maxwell, James
Maxwell, William
McCampsey, Mathew
McCanery, John
McCann, Edward
McCarty, Andrew
McCarty, Cornelius
McCarty, William
McCash, John M.
McClain, Francis
McClanegan, James
McClavey, Daniel
McClemens, Patrick
McCloskey, Patrick
McCloud, Murphy
McCloud, Peter
McClure, James
McClure, William
McConnell, James
McCormac, Hugh
McCormick, James
McCormick, John
McCowen, William
McCoy, George
McCoy, Peter
McCoy, Samuel
McCrea, Roderick
McCrady, John
McCulla, Patrick
McCullough, William
McCullum, Patrick
McDaniel, James
McDaniel, John
McDavid, John
McDermott, William
McDonald, John
McDonald, William
McDonough, Patrick
McEvin, John
McFall, James
McFarland, Daniel
McGandy, William
McGee, John
McGerr, James
McGill, Arthur
McGill, James
McGinness, Henry
McGinnis, James
McGoggin, John
McGowen, James
McHenry, Barnaby
McKay, Patrick
McKenney, James
McKeon, Thomas
McLain, Edward
McLaughlin, Philip
McLaughlin, Peter
McLayne, Daniel
McMichal, James
McNamee, Francis
McNeal, John
McNeil, James
McNeil, William
McQueen, William
McQuillian, Charles
McWaters, Samuel
Melone, William
Mungen, Michael
Mitchell, Anthony
Mitchell, James
Mitchell, John
Molloy, James
Morgan, Thomas
Montgomery, James
Montgomery, John
Moore, James
Moore, Joseph
Moore, Patrick
Moore, Thomas
Mooney, Hugh
Morris, Andrew
Morris, James
Morris, John
Muckelroy, Philip
Mullen, Jacob
Mullin, Robert
Mullin, William
Mulloy, Edward
Mulloy, Francis
Mulloy, Silvanus
Murphy, Daniel
Murphy, John
Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Thomas
Murray, Bryan
Murray, Charles
Murray, Daniel
Murray, John
Murray, Thomas
Murray, William
Neville, Francis
Neville, Michael
Norton, John
Norton, Nicholas
Norton, Peter
O’Brien, Cornelius
O’Brien, Edward
O’Brien, John
O’Bryen, William
O’Hara, Patrick
O’Neil, John
Orsley, Patrick
Power, Patrick
Power, Stephen
Powers, Richard
Quinn, Samuel
Reed, John
Rafferty, Patrick
Regan, Julian
Reid, Hugh
Reynolds, Thomas
Riley, James
Riley, Philip
Riordan, Daniel
Roach, Joseph
Roach, Lawrence
Rowe, William
Rowland, Patrick
Ryan, Frank
Ryan, Jacob
Ryan, Michael
Ryan, Peter
Ryan, Thomas
Sullivan, John
Sullivan, Parks
Sweeney, John
Thompson, Patrick
Tobin, Thomas
Toy, Thomas
Tracy, Benjamin
Tracy, Nathaniel
Twoomey, Dailey
Walsh, Patrick
Ward, Francis
Waters, Thomas
Welch, James
Welch, Mathew
Welch, Robert
Welsh, David
Welsh, John
Wen, Patrick
Whelan, Michael
Wilson, Patrick

Many other Irish names could be added, but sufficient have been given to establish the fact that a large number of the sons of Erin were among those who suffered the rigors of the Jersey prison ship.

Capt. Thomas Dring, who was a prisoner aboard the Jersey, tells us in his Recollections many startling facts about that terrible ship. He says: “Silence was a stranger to our dark abode. There were continual noises during the night. The groans of the sick and dying; the curses poured out by the weary and exhausted upon our inhuman keepers; the restlessness caused by the suffocating heat and the confined and poisonous air, mingled with the wild and incoherent ravings of delirium, were the sounds which, every night, were raised around us in all directions.”

And another writer states that the lower hold, and the orlop deck, were such a terror that no man would venture down into them. Dysentery, smallpox and yellow fever broke out, and “while so many were sick with raging fever, there was a loud cry for water; but none could be had except on the upper deck, and but one was allowed to ascend at a time. The suffering then from the rage of thirst during the night, was very great. Nor was it at all times safe to attempt to go up. Provoked by the continual cry to be allowed to ascend, when there was already one on deck, the sentry would push them back with his bayonet.”

Stiles in his History of the City of Brooklyn, narrates a scene that took place on the Jersey, July 4, 1782. He says: “A very serious conflict with the guard occurred ... in consequence of the prisoners attempting to celebrate the day with such observances and amusements as their condition permitted. Upon going on deck in the morning, they displayed thirteen little national flags in a row upon the booms, which were immediately torn down and trampled under the feet of the guard, which on that day happened to consist of Scotchmen. Deigning no notice of this, the prisoners proceeded to amuse themselves with patriotic songs, speeches and cheers, all the while avoiding whatever could be construed into an intentional insult of the guard; which, however, at an unusually early hour in the afternoon, drove them below at the point of the bayonet, and closed the hatches. Between decks, the prisoners now continued their singing, etc., until about nine o’clock in the evening. An order to desist not having been promptly complied with, the hatches were suddenly removed and the guards descended among them, with lanterns and cutlasses in their hands. Then ensued a scene of terror. The helpless prisoners, retreating from the hatchways as far as their crowded condition would permit, were followed by the guards, who mercilessly hacked, cut, and wounded everyone within their reach; and then ascending again to the upper deck, fastened down the hatches upon the poor victims of their cruel rage, leaving them to languish through the long, sultry summer night, without water to cool their parched throats, and without lights by which they might have dressed their wounds. And to add to their torment, it was not until the middle of the next forenoon that the prisoners were allowed to go on deck and slake their thirst, or to receive their rations of food, which, that day, they were obliged to eat uncooked. Ten corpses were found below on the morning which succeeded that memorable fourth of July, and many others were badly wounded.”

An especially affecting incident is told regarding one prisoner, who died on the ship: “Two young men, brothers, belonging to a rifle corps, were made prisoners and sent on board the Jersey. The elder took the fever and, in a few days, became delirious. One night (his end was fast approaching) he became calm and sensible, and lamenting his hard fate and the absence of his mother, begged for a little water. His brother, with tears, entreated the guard to give him some, but in vain. The sick youth was soon in his last struggles, when his brother offered the guard a guinea for an inch of candle, only that he might see him die. Even this was denied. ‘Now,’ said he, drying up his tears, ‘if it please God that I ever regain my liberty, I’ll be a most bitter enemy!’ He regained his liberty, rejoined the army, and when the war ended he had eight large and one hundred and twenty-seven small notches on his rifle stock.”

The Pennsylvania Packet, September 4, 1781, published a letter from the Jersey, which said: “We bury six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and eleven men in a day; we have two hundred more sick and falling sick every day.” This will illustrate the terrible mortality aboard the ship.

In his Recollections of Brooklyn and New York in 1776, Johnson says of the prisoners dying on the Jersey: “It was no uncommon thing to see five or six dead bodies brought on shore in a single morning, when a small excavation would be dug at the foot of the hill, the bodies be thrown in and a man with a shovel would cover them by shovelling sand down the hill upon them. Many were buried in a ravine of the hill; some on the farm. The whole shore, from Rennie’s Point to Mr. Remsen’s dooryard was a place of graves; as were also the slope of the hill near the house ...; the shore from Mr. Ramsen’s barn along the mill pond, to Rapelje’s, and the sandy island between the floodgates and the mill-dam, while a few were buried on the shore on the east side of the Wallabout. Thus did Death reign here, from 1776 until the peace. The whole Wallabout was a sickly place during the war. The atmosphere seemed to be charged with foul air from the prison ships, and with the effluvia of the dead bodies washed out of their graves by the tides. We believe that more than half of the dead buried on the outer side of the mill-pond, were washed out by the waves at high tide, during northeasterly winds. The bones of the dead lay exposed along the beach, drying and bleaching in the sun, and whitening the shore, till reached by the power of a succeeding storm; as the agitated waters receded, the bones receded with them into the deep.... We have, ourselves, examined many of the skulls lying on the shore. From the teeth, they appeared to be the remains of men in the prime of life.”

“The Jersey at length,” declares Stiles, “became so crowded, and the increase of disease among the prisoners so rapid, that even the hospital ships were inadequate for their reception. In this emergency, bunks were erected on the larboard side of the upper deck of the Jersey for the accommodation of the sick between decks. The horrors of the old hulk were now increased a hundred-fold. Foul air, confinement, darkness, hunger, thirst, the slow poison of the malarious locality in which the ship was anchored, the torments of vermin, the suffocating heat alternating with cold and, above all, the almost total absence of hope, performed their deadly work unchecked. ‘The whole ship, from her keel to the taffrail, was equally affected, and contained pestilence sufficient to desolate a world—disease and death were wrought into her very timbers.’”

“There was, indeed,” Stiles remarks, “one condition upon which these hapless sufferers might have escaped the torture of this slow but certain death, and that was enlistment into the British service. This chance was daily offered them by the recruiting officers who visited the ship, but their persuasions and offers were almost invariably treated with contempt, and that, too, by men who fully expected to die where they were. In spite of their untold physical sufferings, which might well have shaken the resolution of the strongest; in spite of the insinuations of the British that they were neglected by their government—insinuations which seemed to be corroborated by the very facts of their condition; in defiance of threats of even harsher treatment, and regardless of promises of food and clothing—objects most tempting to men in their condition; but few, comparatively, sought relief from their woes by the betrayal of their honor. And these few went forth into liberty followed by the execrations and undisguised contempt of the suffering heroes whom they left behind. It was this calm, unfaltering, unconquerable spirit of patriotism—defying torture, starvation, loathsome disease, and the prospect of a neglected and forgotten grave—which sanctifies to every American heart the scene of their suffering in the Wallabout, and which will render the sad story of the ‘prison ships’ one of ever-increasing interest to all future generations.”

The corner-stone of a vault for the reception of so many of the bones of the martyred dead as could be collected, was laid in April, 1808, by Tammany. The event was made the occasion of a great demonstration. There was a big military and civic parade, artillery salutes and other features. Major Aycrigg was marshal of the day and an eloquent oration was delivered by Joseph D. Fay of Tammany. On May 26, 1808, the vault being completed, the bones were removed thereto, the event being signalized by another great demonstration. There were thirteen coffins filled with bones of the dead, and 104 veterans of the Revolution acted as pall-bearers. Stiles informs us that “The procession, after passing through various streets, reached the East River, where, at different places, boats had been provided for crossing to Brooklyn. Thirteen large open boats transported the thirteen tribes of the Tammany Society, each containing one tribe, one coffin, and the pall-bearers.” The scene was most inspiring. “At Brooklyn ferry the procession formed again ... and arrived at the tomb of the martyrs amidst a vast and mighty assemblage. A stage had been here erected for the orator, trimmed with black crape. The coffins were placed in front, and the pall-bearers took their seats beneath the eye of the orator. There was an invocation by Rev. Ralph Williston, and the orator of the day was Dr. Benjamin DeWitt. The coffins were huge in size and each bore the name of one of the thirteen original states.”

COMMERCE BETWEEN IRELAND AND RHODE ISLAND.

BY THOMAS HAMILTON MURRAY, BOSTON, MASS.

Including Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island has a long extent of coast line. There are in the state 90,000 acres of safe anchorage, varying in depth from six feet to twenty fathoms. The state has the Atlantic Ocean as its southern boundary. Of its cities and towns some twenty border on deep, salt water. It is not surprising, therefore, that Rhode Island early attained maritime importance.

For many years ships were sent all over the world from Providence, Warren, Bristol and Newport. Their sails whitened many seas. These Rhode Island mariners were a hardy race and worthy of the great merchants for whom they sailed.

Before the year 1700, their vessels had already become numerous. In due time they were known in Barbadoes, Jamaica, St. Kitt’s, Nevis, Montserrat and Bermuda. Their sailors cheerily sang in the ports of Madeira, Fayal, Surinam and Curaçao, and were welcomed even in India and China.

The slave trade was the object of some of these voyages, commerce of others, while the fisheries engaged the attention of the rest. In 1738, Newport alone had over one hundred vessels engaged in business throughout the world. In 1763, the same place sent out 182 vessels on foreign voyages in addition to the 352 coastwise and fishing vessels. These were manned, all told, by 2,200 seamen. In June and July, 1774, the vessels arriving at Newport from foreign voyages numbered 64, in addition to 132 coastwise and 17 whalers.

Providence was also a great port. An address to Congress, in 1790, stated that there “is a greater number of vessels belonging to this port (Providence) than to New York,” and that “it is a place of more navigation than any of its size in the Union.” Fortunes were rapidly made by merchants engaged in the foreign trade, while domestic commerce also brought in its wealth. In reaching out to trade with the world Rhode Island merchants, unlike some “historians” of today, did not forget Ireland.

Several Rhode Island vessels made regular voyages to and from Irish ports. Others made occasional ones, or touched at Belfast, Newry, Dublin, Londonderry, Cork or Waterford, on their way to or from British and other ports. A list of fifteen vessels engaged regularly or occasionally in the Irish trade, is here given: Ships, Hope, Mary, Neptune, Tristram, Nancy, Robert Burns, Catherine and Faithful Stewart; brigs, Little John, Betsy, Recovery, Sally, Lydia and Happy Return; schooner, Mayflower. There were probably many others, but these fifteen are sufficient to illustrate the point.

Among the captains were Rathbun, Davis, Ambrose, Taggart, Dring, Warner, Crawford, Staples, Coffin, Noyes, Allen, Smith, Cook, McCansland, Coggeshall and Howland.

Of the foregoing vessels, the Mary and Little John belonged to George Gibbs of Newport; the Hope to Samuel Fowler of Newport; the Betsy to Charles Handy and the Recovery to Chris. Ellery, both also of Newport. These five vessels are specifically mentioned in the Newport Historical Magazine as making regular voyages to Ireland. From time to time the Newport Mercury chronicles the arrival from Ireland, or departure therefor, of other ships and brigs. These were all in addition to those sailing between Ireland and Providence.

Among the articles imported from Ireland to Rhode Island at various times, were linen and woolen goods, Irish poplins, cambrics, lawns, silks, hosiery, sheetings, etc. Irish butter, beef and other food products, were also imported. The Newport Mercury, August 3, 1772, contains an advertisement in which, among other things, “Irish beef” is announced for sale. In the Providence Gazette, November 20, 1762, appears the following:

“By the Newport packet from New York, we are informed, for certain, that there are 2000 Firkins of the Best Irish Rose butter, arrived there.—A quantity of it is expected to be imported into this town, which we are confident will fall the price of that commodity.” Under date of December 25, 1762, the Gazette says: “Since our last, we hear that a vessel has arrived at Newport from Ireland, with 1300 Firkins of butter—Captain Champlain, the master of her, died soon after he came out.” In December, 1764, a vessel from Ireland mistook her bearings and went ashore on Block Island. The following notice of the disaster was published in the Gazette, January 12, 1765:

“On the 25th of last month, in the day time, a large double-decked brig, loaded with beef, pork, butter, and candles, bound from Ireland to Halifax run ashore on the north part of Block Island, where she soon beat to pieces; the people were all saved except the boatswain, who perished on the deck, which he would not be permitted to quit with the rest.—About 500 barrels of the cargo, with some other articles, were also saved. The master’s name we cannot learn.”

The name of the wrecked brig is believed to have been the Golden Grove. Her Irish cargo was in the nature of supplies for the British garrison at Halifax. The fact that the cargo consisted of beef, pork, butter and candles, indicate that those articles were exported from Ireland in considerable quantities at that period.

Speaking of this wreck, recalls the fact that in 1763, the year before, a Rhode Island vessel was stranded on the Irish coast. She was the Samuel and Joseph, Captain Brown, bound for Amsterdam. In November and December, 1766, the Providence Gazette contained this advertisement:

FOR BELFAST,

THE SHIP

Catherine, Thomas Allen, commander; Takes in her cargo at Newport, and will be ready to sail by the 12^th Day of January.—For freight or passage, apply to said Captain on board or to Mr. Benjamin Greene, in Newport.

Providence, Nov. 7, 1766.

June 15, 1772, the Newport Mercury notes the arrival at Newport of “the brig Joseph, Captain Pie, bound to New York in 49 days from Waterford in Ireland.” July 19, 1773, the same paper states that “Last Thursday arrived the brig Sally, Capt. John Murphy, in 30 days from Jamaica.” She brought several passengers. This was probably the Sally that at another time is mentioned as having reached Dublin under Captain Davis. The Providence Gazette, February 24, 1776, has this interesting note: “Arrived from Ireland, but last from Barbadoes, the sloop N. York packet, Capt. John Freers, who informs that the people in Ireland and Barbadoes are very warm in the cause of America.” The Gazette also published the following:

FOR LONDONDERRY,

THE SHIP

FAITHFUL STEWART,

Captain McCausland:

Will sail from Newport in ten days.—For Passage apply to Messieurs Clark and Nightingale, in Providence, or the Captain on board.

Providence, Jan. 29, 1785.

Special attention is called to the fact that “passage” is advertised in connection with these voyages. This is good evidence that passengers sailed direct for Rhode Island from Ireland. Some of these were probably merchants or their agents engaged in the Irish trade. The fact that such accommodations were provided, likewise justifies the conclusion that immigrants also came direct from Ireland to Rhode Island, and in considerable numbers, too. These immigrants, in all probability, landed, some in Newport and others in Providence. It may be, too, that Warren, Bristol, Westerly and other places, likewise received direct Irish accessions from this source. Further on will be found additional evidence of direct immigration from Ireland.

Another advertisement in the Providence Gazette reads as follows:

FOR DUBLIN

THE GOOD SHIP

TRISTRAM,

Gideon Crawford, Commander.

Now lying at Mrs. Hayley’s Wharff, will sail in 10 or 12 days. For Freight or Passage apply to the Master on board or to Joseph and William Russell. She has good accommodations for Passengers.

Providence, Jan. 14, 1786.

Here again “passage” is advertised, it will be noted. Soon after a news item appeared in the Gazette, stating that “the ship Tristram, Captain Crawford, sails this day for Dublin.” It appears that the Tristram made many voyages to and from Ireland. On April 26, 1788, over two years after the trip just mentioned, the Gazette had the following budget of marine news:

The ship Tristram, Capt. Warner, of this port, is arrived at Dublin.—The ship Mary, Capt. Rathbun, and Brig Little John, Capt. Ambrose, of Newport, are also arrived at Dublin.—The Brig Recovery, Capt. Taggart, of Newport, is arrived at Newry.

In June, 1791, Joseph and William Russell of Providence had an assortment of Irish linens “Just imported in the ship Tristram from Dublin.” The Gazette, under date of Providence, April 13, 1776, says: “Capt. Cook, from Belfast, informs that recruiting parties had been beating up there from September till January to reinforce the ministerial army in America, but they had only inlisted ten men.” This helps the reader to form a good idea as to the direction of Irish sympathies at that time.

The quotations in the remainder of this chapter are from the Providence Gazette. A news paragraph, dated Newport, states that on “Monday last arrived here the ship Mary, Captain Ambrose, in fifty-nine days from Cork.” On February 14, 1789, under the head of Providence, we are told that “On Wednesday also arrived the brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, from Dublin, Isle of May, and St. Eustatia.” The Happy Return has frequent mention, sometimes as arriving from Dublin and again from other ports. But there came a time when she returned no more. The incident occurred in 1790, and is thus narrated: “The brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, of this port (Providence), bound for Dublin, is lost near that port. The crew and a part of the cargo were saved.” In April, 1790, is chronicled the arrival at Dublin of the brig Sally, Captain Davis, of Providence, “after a short passage of twenty two days.” In November of the same year, the ship Tristram, Captain Warner, is again mentioned as having cleared for Dublin from Providence. Among the arrivals in the port of Providence in May, 1791, was the “ship Tristram, Warner, Dublin.” In November, 1791, the Tristram, commanded by Captain Holowell, departed from Providence for Newry. December 14, 1792, the brig Betsy left Providence for Newry and in May of the next year, her arrival at Providence is noted “from Newry, which she left the 5th of March, having touched at the Cape de Verds.”

In April, 1796, the brig Lydia, Capt. John Cook, arrived at Providence from Cork in forty-nine days. We find it recorded December 21, 1799, that “A ship from Cork put into Newport on Sunday evening last, and sailed next morning. She brought Cork papers to the 24th of October.” Elsewhere it is stated that earlier in that year the ship Palmyra, Captain Trotter, of Providence, for Hamburg, put into “the Cove of Cork.”

The schooner Mayflower left Providence for Dublin in February, 1801. In 1809, among the departures from the port of Providence was the “Ship Neptune, Staples, Ireland.” The same year it is stated that the “ship Nancy, of Rhode Island, 14 days from Richmond for Cork, was spoke July 6, lat. 43:52.” In October, 1809, the brig Orient arrived at New York “53 days from Dublin. Left there among others, ship Nancy, Capt. Noyes, just arrived from Providence.” These Rhode Island captains became great favorites in Irish ports. They were frequently entertained and were treated in a hospitable manner generally. In 1811, Capt. Peregrine Howland of Newport, died in Belfast. He was in his thirty-ninth year at the time, and his passing away caused much sorrow. The ship Robert Burns, Captain Coffin, arrived at Newport January 3, 1820, “in 39 days from Ireland.” The ship George Washington, of Providence, is noted as having arrived at Cork March 26, 1820, “from Madeira in 15 days.” She was commanded by Captain Allen. Under a Newport date of January 6, 1820, we find the following: “Arrived on Tuesday last, in distress, ship William and Jane, Brown, from N. York, with flaxseed, bound to Londonderry,—Sailed from N. York, Dec. 24, and next day the ship sprung a leak, which continued to increase, and was compelled to throw over part of the cargo, and put into this port.”

It will thus be seen that flaxseed was exported to Ireland from this country. That is perhaps what Black & Stewart, Irish merchants of Providence, intended to do with the “2000 bushels of good and well clean’d flax seed” they advertised for in 1763.

From facts here adduced it will be seen that for a great many years, until Irish manufacturing industries were crushed by English law, commercial relations existed between Ireland and Rhode Island. Irish goods and Irish passengers were landed on the wharves in Newport and Providence, while outgoing ships took goods and passengers for the old land. Too long have these facts been forgotten or ignored. But a new era has dawned and the sun of investigation will yet bring forth even greater and more interesting developments.

IRISH SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

BY MICHAEL J. O’BRIEN, NEW YORK CITY.

John Burns, a native of the city of Dublin, where he was born in 1730, was a prominent character in Pennsylvania history. He emigrated to Philadelphia when quite young. He prospered in business in that city, where we are told “he took a prominent part in all local and national questions, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with many positions of trust.” He was the first governor of Pennsylvania elected after the adoption of the federal constitution, and “retained in a high degree the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens till his death.”

One of the very earliest white settlers in Greene County was Thomas Hughes, who emigrated from Donegal with his wife, Bridget O’Neill, to Virginia. One of his descendants, Thomas Hughes, wrote the memoirs of his family in 1880, in which he said: “The motive that sent our first ancestor to this country from his native Irish home was of this character, i. e., a desire for religious freedom; he was a devout Catholic.” “Settling,” he continues, “in the valley of Virginia, in Loudoun County, before the year 1739, Thomas Hughes, son of Felime or Felix, and his wife, with his brother Felime or Felix, all from Inver, in Donegal, Ulster, first laid the foundations of his family in this country.”

“Thomas Hughes was a noted hunter, and in one of his expeditions into the backwoods, which lasted for several months, he spent some time in what is now Greene County, Pennsylvania, the soil and general appearance of which pleased him so well that he determined to make his future home there. This he did in 1771, and was one of the very first white settlers in that country. He located where Carmichaelstown now stands, but several years afterwards exchanged farms with a party named Carmichael, and called his new place Jefferson, after his old county in Virginia.”

His nephew, Felix Hughes, also settled in Pennsylvania, where he erected a fort or blockhouse as protection against the Indians and wild animals. It was a building of only one story and a half, of hewn logs and rough boards, and as an instance of the primitiveness of the period when this Irish pioneer settled in this locality, this building was looked upon as “an elegant house!” His wife’s name was Cinthia Kaighn (or Kane). In 1780, he set out with others to Kentucky to look up lands, but the party was attacked by Indians while descending the Ohio and, after a narrow escape, Hughes returned to Greene County, where he spent the remainder of his days. He and his father were buried in Neill’s burying ground, near Carmichaelstown. Their descendants are still found in considerable numbers in Greene and Fayette counties, Pennsylvania.

A prominent Irish Catholic who settled early on Sherman’s Creek, was Henry Gass. He and his brother erected log cabins on Indian lands in Perry County, but were dispossessed from there in 1750, when they located at Falling Springs.

Patrick Gass, who was born in the latter place in 1771, and who is said to have been the first white man to make an overland trip to the Pacific, is presumed to have been a son of Henry Gass. The original name, of course, was Prendergast.

Among the earlier Irish inhabitants of Carlisle is found the Prendergrass family, whose name is identified with almost all the larger settlements west of Carlisle. Kline’s Carlisle Gazette of November 29, 1797, gave an account of the death of the aged Philip Prendergrass, which occurred two weeks previously, in which it described him as “an old inhabitant of this borough.” The name is found on the “list of taxables” in 1762. He took part in the expedition of Kitanning, in 1756, to repulse the Indians. It was a member of this family, Garrett Prendergrass who, in February, 1770, purchased the ground now occupied by the city of Allegheny, from the Six Nations. The old Prendergrass homestead was near Hanover, and is still occupied by the family. It was built in the last century by an Irishman names Byrnes, who married into the family.

Wing’s History of Cumberland County mentions John and Charles McManus, as settlers in Carlisle in 1762, the latter as “one of the oldest, most progressive and successful business men in the community.”

“The large and commodious dwelling he erected on East Street,” says Ganss, one of the historians of Carlisle, “still remains as a monument of post-colonial massiveness, spaciousness and solidity, with its marble slab conspicuously placed in the second story, bearing the date of its erection, 1797, and the name of its builder, and which gives evidence not only of enterprise and wealth, but cultured taste. Originally, he was proprietor of one of the largest distilleries in the county, and amassed a sufficient competence which permitted him to live, if not in luxury, at least in ease and comfort. After the death of Mrs. Mary McManus (born 1703, died 1809), the name becomes less prominent, although that of Charles is still found on the pew list of the Catholic Church as late as 1823. The descendants drifted to Mexico and Philadelphia. The former branch of the family, in the course of time, founded the prosperous and famed banking firm of McManus & Co., an institution of international reputation and the largest and most prominent in our sister republic. The Philadelphia family likewise, achieved more than ordinary success in life.”

Here we have a conspicuous example of the class of men whom Ireland gave to America in her early days.

John Frazer, who was born at Glassborough, County Monaghan, in 1709, left Ireland in 1735 and located in Philadelphia. In course of time he became a very wealthy man. He was a shipping merchant, owning several vessels engaged in the West Indian trade. He married Mary Smith, who was born in Cleary, County Monaghan. He died in Philadelphia in 1765. His son, Patrick Frazer, commanded a company of the Fourth Pennsylvania, a regiment under the command of Anthony Wayne. He became lieutenant-colonel of the Fifth Pennsylvania, and was brigadier-general of Pennsylvania militia. His grandson, Robert Frazer, was a distinguished lawyer at Thornbury, Pa.

John McCord emigrated from Ireland in 1750, and settled in Sherman’s Valley, Pa. His father also located at Landisburg, Pa., about the same time, and on his farm a fort was erected for protection against the Redmen in the Indian war of 1755. It is still known as McCord’s Fort.

David Milligan came from Ireland to Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in 1766. He and his two brothers, John and James, served in the Fifth Battalion of Cumberland Militia through the Revolutionary War. David was twice taken prisoner. All these were in active service up to 1778. Their brother, Thomas, and their mother, joined them from Ireland in 1785.

Robert Guthrie, a name Anglicized from McGrath, was born in Derry; settled with his family in Lancaster County in 1744. His wife’s name was Brighid Dougherty, a native of Carndonagh, County Donegal. Their son was a lieutenant-colonel in Colonel Brodhead’s regiment through the Revolutionary War. He was in the expedition against the Six Nations, and with Harbison’s company of rangers in the border wars against the Indians. His great-grandson was mayor of Pittsburg in 1897.

Roger Connor, a native of Cork, settled at Lancaster in 1740. He established a hat factory there and purchased lands in many parts of the province, principally in Lancaster, Carlisle and York. He had Irishmen in his employ, too, and in the Philadelphia Mercury of November 24, 1743, he advertised for “Patrick Dollard, a hatter by trade, aged about twenty years, a lusty, well-set fellow, etc.” Patrick was a redemptioner and had left the service of his countryman before his term had expired. It was Roger Connor who gave the land on which St. Mary’s Church, in Lancaster, was built. His name appears on the list of subscribers to the fund for the relief of the sufferers by the Boston massacre in the Revolution. He died at Lancaster in 1776.

John and Charles Connor also settled in Lancaster about 1740, and are thought to have been kinsmen of Roger. In 1758, Charles went to Philadelphia and his name appears on the list of the early contributors to St. Mary’s Church. He died in 1775 and bequeathed his property to his nephew, Charles, son of Cornelius O’Connor, of Carrigtwohill, County Cork.

Another family named Connor lived in Ashton Township, Chester County. Charles Connor died there in 1750.

Thomas G. Connor, son of another Charles Connor, who was born at Philadelphia in 1786, is buried in Mount Vernon Cemetery, Philadelphia. His wife’s name was Martha Fitzgerald.

Morgan Connor, or O’Connor, was one of the early settlers in Pennsylvania. In the Pennsylvania Archives, Vol. X, he is referred to as “among the first to enter the service of his country as lieutenant in Captain George Nagle’s company, in Colonel Thompson’s regiment.” After the campaign of 1775–’76 he was ordered south as a brigade major for Gen. John Armstrong. He served with credit down to the winter of 1779, and on his return in that year he became lieutenant-colonel of Hartley’s regiment and subsequently colonel of the Eleventh Regiment. He was lost at sea in 1780, on a voyage to the West Indies. According to Volume I, No. 47, Register of Wills Office, Philadelphia, letters of administration on O’Connor’s estate were granted to Dennis McCarthy, on September 8, 1780, when McCarthy, Bryan O’Hara and Patrick Byrne gave a bond in the sum of £3,000.

In a pamphlet issued by Benjamin Franklin in 1744, entitled, Plain Talk, or Serious Considerations on the Present State of the City of Philadelphia and Province of Pennsylvania, appears a letter written in that year by Governor Morris of New Jersey, to Governor Clinton of New York, in which he said: “There are here a Popish chapel and numbers of Irish and Germans that are Papists, and I am told that should the French land 1,500 or 2,000 men, they would in that province soon get ten or twelve thousands together, which would in that case be not a little dangerous to these and neighboring colonies.”

Edward McGuire, who belonged to the staff of General McGuire in Austria, came to Philadelphia in 1751, with wines, in which he had invested his patrimony. He was the son of Constantine McGuire and Julia MacEllengot of the County of Kerry. He established himself in business in Philadelphia, but subsequently went to Alexandria, Va., thence to Winchester in 1753, where he built a hotel and gave the ground for and built the Catholic Church at Winchester in 1790. He died in 1806. His descendants were lawyers, doctors and ministers, some of whom married into the best old Virginia families.

Acrelius, in his History of New Sweden (as Pennsylvania was sometimes called prior to the English settlement), writing of 1758, said: “Forty years back our people scarcely knew what a school was. In the later times there have come over from Ireland some Presbyterians and some Roman Catholics, who commenced with school keeping, but as soon as they saw better openings they gave that up.”

Among the early Philadelphia schoolmasters, the following advertised in the Mercury: Charles Phipps, “from Dublin,” in 1729, and James Conway, on July 17, 1729. George Brownwell also advertised his school in the same year. The schoolroom later became a dancing academy, and was opened by “Theobald Hacket, dancing master, lately come from England and Ireland.” Alexander Butler advertised his school on November 12, 1741. On June 21, 1790, John Reilly opened a school at Columbia, and in the following year his scholars were taken by Francis Dunlevy, who taught the higher branches. This was continued until 1793, when Reilly gave the entire school to Dunlevy and opened another school at Mill Creek. It is stated in the Magazine of Western History for February, 1888, that this was the first school in the American settlements of the Ohio.

Many of these Irish schoolmasters are mentioned in Wickersham’s History of Education in Pennsylvania.

An Irish schoolmaster taught school at Chester in 1741. Rev. Mr. Backhouse of that borough, wrote the London Society for Propagation of the Gospel, that the Quakers had “set up another schoolmaster, one of their own sort truly, but a native Irish bigoted Papist, in opposition to one Charles Fortesque.” The name of this Irish schoolmaster is not mentioned.

John Conly taught “an advanced school” at Byberry, Philadelphia County, before the Revolutionary War.

John Downey, who was among the first settlers of Harrisburg, according to Wickersham, taught school at Harrisburg for a number of years. He was also a justice of the peace, town clerk and member of the Assembly. In 1796, he presented Governor Mifflin a plan for a state system of education, “in which he discussed the whole subject of education, showing a wonderful sense of its importance in a government like ours and a clear conception of the nature of the system necessary to make it general.”

On May 15, 1767, Miss Mary McAllister advertised in the Philadelphia papers to open a boarding school for young ladies in that city. “Hers was the first school of the kind in Philadelphia” (Wickersham).

Thomas Neill was a schoolmaster in the Wyoming Valley before the massacre of 1778. He is described as “an Irishman of middle age, learned, a Catholic, a Free Mason, fond of dress, remarkable for his fine flow of spirits and pleasing manners, a bachelor and a schoolmaster.” He lost his life in the massacre of Wyoming.

In 1790, a number of Catholics from Maryland settled in Cambria County, Pennsylvania. “A school was opened there,” says Wickersham, “under the direction of a schoolmaster named O’Connor.”

Wickersham also states that the pioneer settler of northern Cambria County was a Captain Maguire. Other settlers who followed him from Maryland in 1790 were named Kaylor, Burns, McDale and Carroll, the descendants of the latter having been the founders of the present town of Carrolltown. The second white child born in that section is said to have been Michael Maguire. The number of places in Cambria County which bear Irish names indicate the extent of these Irish settlements. For instance, Driscoll, Carrolltown, Kaylor, Dale, Dougherty, Sheridan, Condon and Patton, called after the settlers, and Dysart and Munster, called after Irish places. Immediately to the north of Cambria, in Clearfield County, there are places names Mahaffey, McGee, McCartney, McCauley, Welshdale, Moran, Curryrun, Mitchel, Shawville, Barrett and Donegal, and in the other counties surrounding Cambria, are places called Tyrone, Armagh, Avonmore, McKee, Curryville, Kelley, Fleming, Connor, Daley, Downey, Lavansville, and so on.

James Nowlins taught school at Mauch Chunk. According to Wickersham, he was one of the first white men who located at that place.

“Paddy” Doyle taught school at Phœnixville. He is mentioned in Pennypacker’s Annals of Phœnixville. A description of him says “his nationality was revealed by a very decided brogue.”

Robert Williams, an Irishman, was a teacher at Greensburg.

John Sharpless conducted an academy on Second Street, Philadelphia, in 1791.

Rev. S. Magaw opened an academy on Spruce Street in 1800.

Philip Garrett and two other teachers opened a night school at Philadelphia in 1799, and their advertisement stated it was “for poor children and would do the teaching themselves.” Two years later their effort was organized into the “Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of Charity Schools.”

In the settlement of New Londonderry, Chester County, Samuel Blair, an Irishman, established a school in 1740. This settlement was founded fourteen years before by immigrants from Derry and Donegal. Blair is described in Pennsylvania history as “one of the most able, learned, pious, excellent and venerable men of his day.” His academy was called “the school of the prophets,” and “from it there came forth many distinguished men who did honor to their instructor and their country.”

One of the most eminent educators in the province was Dr. Samuel Finley, who arrived from Ireland in 1734 and located in Pennsylvania, where he taught school. In 1744 he founded an academy at Nottingham, Md., where some of the most distinguished men in the country laid the foundation of their education and usefulness. Among his many scholars were such men as Governor Martin of North Carolina, the famous Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, his brother, Judge Rush, Governor Henry of Maryland, and Doctor McWhorter of New Jersey. It is said “there were no better classical scholars formed anywhere in the county” than in this school. In 1761, Doctor Finley was appointed president of Princeton College. He died in 1766.

Dr. Francis Alison, of Donegal, came to Pennsylvania in 1735, and settled at New London, Chester County, where he opened a school. At the time of its establishment there was a great want of learning in the Middle Colonies, and Doctor Alison is said to have instructed all who came to him “without fee or reward.” A Dr. Patrick Allison, who was born in Lancaster County in 1740, is thought to have been a relative of the Donegal schoolmaster. He held a place “in the very first rank of the American clergy, and had scarcely an equal for his eloquence.”

The father of John W. Geary, governor of Pennsylvania from 1867 to 1873, was an Irishman who had settled early in Franklin County. He became an iron manufacturer, but having failed in business and lost his entire investment in the mines, he opened a select school in Westmoreland County, to which he devoted the remaining years of his life. His son, General Geary, commanded a Pennsylvania regiment in the Mexican War, and was commissioned governor of Kansas in 1856. He fought in the War of the Rebellion and distinguished himself for his bravery at Gettysburg. “His name will forever be associated with the great events of the brilliant Chattanooga campaign.” While in the command at Lookout Mountain, his son, Capt. Edward Geary, a youth of eighteen, was killed by his side.

William Powers, who was elected a member of the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia in 1790, is referred to in Campbell’s history of that society as “a teacher in the university.”

Benjamin Workman, who also joined in the same year, is described as a teacher of mathematics. He advertised in the Freeman’s Journal on June 28, 1786, as “from the University of Pennsylvania.”

Rev. S. B. Wylie, a native of Moylarg, County Antrim, was a teacher in a private academy at Philadelphia in 1797, in which year he fled from the wrath of the British government. He was an early member of the Society of United Irishmen in Belfast. He became professor of languages in the University of Pennsylvania and was vice-provost of that institution. He joined the Hibernian Society in 1811.

William Findlay, who was born in Ireland in 1750, came to Pennsylvania in August, 1763, and taught school in Westmoreland County for several years after his arrival. He was elected to the state Legislature from Westmoreland County, and was a member of Congress from 1791 to 1799, and again from 1803 to 1817. He was a prominent writer and pamphleteer on subjects devoted to the public welfare. He was a member of the Hibernian Society.

Among the members of the Hibernian Society who were elected in 1790, Francis Donnelly, John Barry, John Heffernan and James Kidd are described as schoolmasters in Philadelphia.

Patrick Farrall, who joined the Society in 1792, and who is described as “the first clerk in the office for settling accounts between the United States and individual states” after independence had been won, is thought to have been a Pennsylvania schoolmaster.

Andrew Porter, a member of the Hibernian Society, opened “an English and Mathematical School” in Philadelphia in 1767, in which he taught till 1776, when he was appointed a captain of marines and ordered to the frigate Effingham. He was a son of Robert Porter, who emigrated from Derry to New Hampshire in 1720, and who afterwards removed to Montgomery County, Pa. He was transferred from the marine corps to the command of the Fourth Pennsylvania Artillery, which post he held until the close of the war. He fought in several battles of the Revolutionary War at the head of his gallant regiment, and is said to have been personally commended by Washington for his conduct at the battle of Germantown. He became general of Pennsylvania militia, and took a prominent part in all movements for the welfare of his native state. Gov. David R. Porter of Pennsylvania, Gov. Bryan Porter of Michigan, and James M. Porter, secretary of war under Tyler, were grandsons of the exile from Derry, Robert Porter.

EARLY IRISH IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

BY FRANCIS J. WARD, ST. LOUIS.

In 1815 the population of St. Louis was 2,000. Billon’s Annals for 1817–’20 states: “The adult male population of that day was about 700. Of American birth 400, French and Spanish 150, and of foreign birth 150. Of these, fully two thirds, or about 100, were Irishmen, some fifteen or twenty European Frenchmen, about the same number English and Scotch, and some ten or twelve Germans.”

The tax list for 1811 shows Auguste Chouteau as the largest taxpayer, the Irish-American firm, McKnight & Brady, second. The first directory of St. Louis (1821) contains 749 names. Of these but few are Germanic. As late as 1827 there were but twenty-seven German families here.

In 1663 Marquis de Tracy was governor-general of all the French possessions in America, and another Franco-Irishman, Chevalier McCarthy, in 1751, was commandant of the French settlement of the Illinois territory, and in 1769 a native Gael, Alexander O’Reilly, had command under the Spanish.

Peter Conley appears as a witness to Laclede’s will. Charles Gratiot was a member of the firm of David McCrae & Co., at Cahokia, from 1771 to 1781. Among the earliest mortgages in St. Louis is that of Pierre Saffray to Joseph O’Neille. Mathew Kennedy, in 1771, executed a bond to Antoine Bernard, and in the will of Jan Louis Lambert, a merchant, who died here in 1771, is found memoranda of an indebtedness due Morrissey & Co. Both Kennedy and Morrissey were prominent merchants here long prior to this.

When Patrick Henry, then governor of Virginia, determined to check the progress of the English on the Western frontier, he gave the command to the son of an Irishman, Gen. George Rogers Clark. Virginia was unable to furnish the money to equip Clark’s troops for the Illinois campaign, but an Irish merchant of New Orleans, Oliver Pollock, borrowed $70,000 from Count O’Reilly, once commandant of the Louisiana territory. What Morris did in the East Pollock did in the West for the American cause. To his financial aid the United States owes the success of Clark’s Illinois campaign. That Clark had many soldiers of Irish birth in his army is shown by a deposition taken at Kaskaskia, June 11, 1779, in which are the names of Andrew McDonald, Aaron Barrett, Patrick Shine, Andrew Coil and Tarrance Mooney.

The first American who settled in St. Louis after Clark’s surprise of Kaskaskia, in 1778, was Philip Fine, son of Thomas Fine, an Irish settler in Virginia. He came in 1781. Kaskaskia was the settling place of many Irish in the early days, among them being Robert Morrison, an Irish merchant, who arrived in 1792.

In 1800 occurred the murder of Adam Horne, on the Meramec. The commandant at Carondelet appointed as witnesses to the inventory John Cummings and John Donald, the witness to the order being Bartholomew Harrington.

In 1803 Governor Delassus organized two companies of militia for the protection of New Madrid, and appointed Richard Waters, captain, and George K. Reagan, lieutenant of cavalry, and Robert McCoy, captain, and John Hart, ensign of infantry. William Sullivan obtained the first tavern license issued in the town after its transfer to the Americans, and was appointed by General Harrison constable and coroner, holding in the latter capacity the first inquest. In 1816, when Chouteau laid out the first addition to the town, Sullivan purchased a half block, on which he built a residence, where he died.

Immediately after the transfer of the territory, Colonel Delassus addressed an official note to the new American officials commending, among others, the following officers who had served under him in the French service: James Mackay, commandant at St. Andrew, “an officer of knowledge, zealous and punctual”; also Mr. Mathew McKonel, Robert McKay, “a brave officer,” and Dr. Samuel Dorsey, surgeon of the fort.

After the transfer came the descendants of Irish settlers of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolinas and Tennessee, a sturdy, vigorous, independent and progressive race, to whom President Roosevelt, himself a descendant on the maternal side, pays tribute in his Winning of the West. The fathers of many of them took part in the Revolutionary War, others were those who were banished from Ireland through the same laws that forced Americans to rebel.

Among the latter was Joseph Charless, a native of Westmeath, who sought his fellow refugees, Mathew Carey and William Duane, in Philadelphia. He worked as a compositor on Duane’s Aurora, and set up for Carey the first folio edition of the Bible printed in the United States. Shortly afterward he left for Kentucky, coming later with his printer’s outfit on mulebacks to St. Louis, where he began the publication of the first newspaper printed west of the Mississippi, the Missouri Gazette, in 1808.

In 1804 came John Mullanphy, the celebrated philanthropist. His third daughter, Jane, married Charles Chambers, son of John Chambers, a United Irishman, who, with Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. William Macneven and thirteen others, after their release from a political prison, came to America, where they rose to distinction.

James Rankin was the first sheriff of St. Louis under American rule, and the first grand jury contains some Irish names, and many transfers of real estate from early settlers are recorded this year, among them that of Manuel Lisa to Patrick Cullen and Joseph Bent. Eighteen hundred and four was the year when the old Fort Bellefontaine was selected for the establishment of Jefferson Barracks, which, after its abandonment, in 1826, was left in charge of Capt. John Whistler, a native of Ireland, founder of Fort Dearborn, in 1803, now the city of Chicago, and grandfather of the famous American artist, James A. McNeil Whistler. He died in St. Louis in 1829.

This year also saw the departure of Lewis and Clark to the Rocky Mountains, Clark being a brother to Gen. Rogers Clark. Among the party were George Shannon, who afterward became United States attorney for Missouri, and Patrick Gass.

A remarkable Irishman came in 1805—Jeremiah Conners. In 1818 he was the owner of the 40–arpent lots, on which he laid out Washington Avenue. Part of his property he donated to Bishop Dubourg, in 1820, for founding St. Louis University, the first of its kind in St. Louis. At his house was organized the first Irish society established in the city, in 1818.

William Christy, whose people came from County Down, was also a famous man. He laid out the whole section known as North St. Louis. Another large Irish landholder was Patrick McMasters Dillon, who, previous to leaving Ireland, was involved in the Emmet rising. He laid out several additions to the city on lands he purchased, his last being “Dillon’s Fourth Addition,” in 1840, on a tract purchased from Fred Dent, father-in-law of President Grant. One of his daughters, Martha N., married the celebrated Capt. James B. Eads.

Among other large purchasers of real estate in the early years occur the names of James Mackay, James Conway, Mathew Boyse, John Hogan, Hugh O’Neill and John Dougherty. A famous lawyer of this time was Col. Luke E. Lawless, a native of Dublin, who came in 1816, and who, after the resignation of Judge William C. Carr from the Circuit Court, succeeded him. Still another was Nathaniel Beverly Tucker. He became judge of the Circuit Court. One of the family married John Patten Emmet, youngest son of Thomas Addis Emmet, who was appointed professor of chemistry in the University of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, the son of the union being the celebrated Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet of New York. Another legal luminary was Hamilton Rowan Gamble, whose people came from Belfast. In 1861 he was chosen provisional governor of the state.

In the first House of Representatives of the territory, S. McGrady represented Ste. Genevieve. In the legislative council occurs the name of James Flaugherty. William Neeley became president of the council. The first state Legislature met in the Missouri Hotel, built by Thomas Brady, a famous Irishman of his day.

Col. John O’Fallon, son of Dr. James O’Fallon, native of County Roscommon, surgeon under Washington, came in 1811, and resided with his uncle, General Clark. The name has become so identified with the history of the city as to need no mention. Francis Redford opened, in 1804, the first school for instruction in English. The honor of giving the grounds for its first seat of learning belongs to a native of the Emerald Isle. The proud distinction of being called the “Father of the University of Missouri” belongs to a man whose ancestors came from the County Tyrone, Dr. James Rollins.

The first bank, the Bank of St. Louis, organized in 1813, had as one of its commissioners Thomas Brady, and the second, the Bank of Missouri, had among its directors John McKnight and Mathew Kerr, and the Bank of the State of Missouri, organized in 1837, had among its directors Hugh O’Neill, Edward Walsh, Edward Dobyns and John O’Fallon. A branch of the United States Bank was started in 1819, with John O’Fallon as president.

The Merchants’ Exchange began as a debating Society, in 1836, with Edward Tracy as president and John Ford as secretary. The Millers’ Association, the first of its kind in the West, was established in 1849, among the members being John Walsh. Financial exchanges need telegraphic connections, so along came a Leitrim man, Henry O’Reilly, in 1847, who opened here the first telegraph office west of the Mississippi.

In military life the men of the “Fighting Race” were to the fore. The St. Louis Grays, the first volunteer organization, started in 1832, had for its ensign John P. Riley, but a volunteer company of light infantry preceded it in 1819, having for its captain Henry W. Conway. Other companies were added to the Grays in 1842, forming the First Regiment, St. Louis Legion, among the designations of the companies being “Montgomery Guards,” with Patrick Gorman, captain; “St. Louis Guards,” Daniel Byrne, captain; “Mound City Guards,” John H. Barrett, captain; “Morgan Riflemen,” Henry J. McKillop, captain.

In this review of the “pioneer” Irish in St. Louis, many names necessarily are omitted. Sufficient to mention men of worth in their day, such as John C. Sullivan, collector, in 1814; Judge Thomas McGuire, 1817; Captain McGunnegle, the Rankin Brothers, Hugh, Robert and David, who came hither from Ireland in 1819; Bernard Gillully, who was in partnership with Edward C. Cummings; James Clemens, Patrick Walsh, Richard K. Dowling, Thomas Hanley, Thomas M. Doherty, Mayor Ferguson, William Carr Lane, Bryan Mullanphy, and others.

Such men, indeed, were the “cream of St. Louis society” in the early part of the nineteenth century.

We hear much of the part played by the Irish in the creation and maintenance of the American republic in the military sense, but what they have contributed towards its civil, commercial, manufacturing or educational development is much overlooked and remains unknown to readers of the present day.

SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[^[2]]

From “Les Combattants Francais de la Guerre Americaine.”

[2]. Published in Paris, 1903.

Régiment de Dillon.

État-Major.

Colonel.

Le comte Dillon (Arthur).

Colonel En Second.

Le chevalier Dillon (Théobald).

Lieutenant-Colonel.

Dillon (Barthélemy).

Major.

O’Moran (Jacques).

Quartier-Maitre Tresorier.

Moncarelly (Barthélemy).

Capitaines.

Moore (Gerard).
Purdon (Simon).
Bancks (Thomas).
Nugent (Anselme).
Swigny (Paul).
Shee (Robert).
Moore (Guillaume).
O’Neill (Bernard).
O’Berin (Michel).
Taaffe (Laurent).

Capitaines En Second.

De Mandeville (Jacques).
Macquire (Philippe).
Macdermott (Thomas), ainé.
O’Reilly (Jean).
Kelly (Guillaume).
Macdermott (Thomas).
Novolan (Christophe).
O’Doyer (Denis).
Lynck (Isidore).[^[3]]
Coghlan (Therence).

[3]. Possibly intended for Lynch. Some of these attained higher rank during the war and after.

Lieutenants.

Greenlaw (Jean-Bernard).
Dillon (Thomas).
O’Keeffe (Patrice).
O’Farel (Claude).
De Macdermott (Bernard).
Welsh (Michel).
Evin (Nicolas).
Commerfort (Joseph).
Browne (Jean).
Duggan (Jean).

The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VI, 1906

THE JOURNAL
OF THE
AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY, A. D. 1906.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL,

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER, A. D. 1906.

The Annual Dinner.

FROM NEW YORK CITY, INCLUDING BROOKLYN.

PRESENT FROM OTHER PLACES.

ADDRESS TO THE SOCIETY BY PRESIDENT-GENERAL McGOWAN.

RECEPTION TO THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL.

AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

SOME HISTORICAL PAPERS.

PATRIOTS BEARING IRISH NAMES WHO WERE CONFINED ABOARD THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.

COMMERCE BETWEEN IRELAND AND RHODE ISLAND.

FOR BELFAST,

FOR LONDONDERRY,

FOR DUBLIN

IRISH SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

EARLY IRISH IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[^[2]]

The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. VI, 1906

THE JOURNALOF THEAMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

CONTENTS

AN INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY, A. D. 1906.

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL,

STATE VICE-PRESIDENTS.

OTHER VICE-PRESIDENTS.

THE ANNUAL MEETING AND DINNER, A. D. 1906.

The Annual Dinner.

FROM NEW YORK CITY, INCLUDING BROOKLYN.

PRESENT FROM OTHER PLACES.

ADDRESS TO THE SOCIETY BY PRESIDENT-GENERAL McGOWAN.

RECEPTION TO THE PRESIDENT-GENERAL.

AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

SOME HISTORICAL PAPERS.

PATRIOTS BEARING IRISH NAMES WHO WERE CONFINED ABOARD THE JERSEY PRISON SHIP.

COMMERCE BETWEEN IRELAND AND RHODE ISLAND.

FOR BELFAST,

FOR LONDONDERRY,

FOR DUBLIN

IRISH SETTLERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

EARLY IRISH IN ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[[2]]

THE JOURNAL
OF THE
AMERICAN-IRISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[^[2]]