Part 4

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.”

Footnote 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).

Footnote 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).

_Lieutenants En Second._

Darcy (Louis). Fitz Harris (Guillaume). Browne (Thomas). Taaffe (Christophe). Fennell (Jean). Hussey (Jean).

Le chevalier Whyte Seyslip (Nicolas). Swigny (Edmond). O’Farell (Emanuel). O’Farell (Jacques).

_Sous-Lieutenants._

Maclosky (Jacques). De Morgan (Jean-Baptiste). Mac Sheehy (Patrice). Fitzgerald (Edouard). Shee (Guillaume). O’Farell (Emmanuel). Fitzmaurice (Joseph). O’Reilly (Charles). Macdonald (Jean-Baptiste). O’Meara (Daniel). Khnopff (Louis). Mahony (Denis). Sheldon (Guillaume). O’Moran (Charles). Owens (Henry). Strange (Patrice). Purdon (Henry). Murphy (Patrice). Dehays (Thomas).

RÉGIMENT DE WALSH.[4]

Footnote 4:

The officers of but one battalion of the regiment of Walsh are given here.

_État-Major._

_Major._

O’Brien (Thadée).

_Quartier-Maitre Tresorier._

Bancelin (Charles).

_Capitaines._

De Fitz Maurice (Thomas). Le chevalier de Walsh (Charles). O’Niel (Jean). De Nagle (Jacques). O’Brien (Jean). D’Arcy (Jacques).

_Capitaines En Second._

Stack (Edouard). Bellew (Laurent). O’Croly (Charles). O’Driscol (Jacques). Le chevalier O’Connor (Armand).

_Lieutenants._

Plunkett (François). O’Riordan (Jacques). Keating (Guillaume). Barry (Richard).

_Lieutenants En Second._

O’Sheil (Jacques). O’Meara (Jean-Baptiste). O’Gorman (Charles). Meighan (Georges). Mac-Carthy (Eugène).

_Sous-Lieutenants._

Keating (Jean). Cruice (James). O’Crowly (Felix). Darell (Philippe). O’Flyn (Jacques). Barker (William). Traut (Thomas). Barry (David). O’Cahill (Louis). Tobin (Jacques).

M. Macarty de Marteigue, commandant of _Le Magnifque_, 1782. Du Fay de Carty, an ensign aboard _Le Magnifque_, 1782. Abbe Maccabe, chaplain of _L’Annibal_, 1779–1781. Roger Morrison, chaplain of _L’Andromaque_, 1778–’79, and of _L’Eveille_, 1780–’82. Abbe Bartholome Omahony (O’Mahony), chaplain of _L’Ivelly_. Abbe Dowd, “Irlandais,” a chaplain of _Le Jason_. Macarty, an ensign aboard _Le Conquerant_, 1780–’82. De Rochefermoy (Mathieu), a lieutenant in the regiment de Bourbonnais.

CONCERNING “THOMAS THE IRISHMAN.”[5]

Editorial in the _Irish-American_, New York, October 14, 1905.

Footnote 5:

On page 121, Vol. V, Journal of the American-Irish Historical Society: “Thomas the Irishman” is mentioned as in the Dutch records of New York. Thus, Hon. Peter Stuyvesant, Director-General of New Netherland, writing to Capt. Martin Cregier, 1663, says: “Your letter by Thomas the Irishman has just been received.” ... On August 5, 1663, Captain Cregier writes in his journal: “Thomas the Irishman arrived here at the Redoubt from the Manhatans.” On September 1, 1663, Captain Cregier writes: “Thomas the Irishman and Claesje Hoorn arrived with their yachts at the Kill from the Manhatan,” and on the 17th of the same month the captain writes: “Thomas the Irishman arrived today.” The foregoing references may be found in _Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York_, edited by Fernow, Vol. XIII, Albany, 1881.

In the preparation for an exhaustive history of early New York Mr. Dingman Versteeg, archivist of the Holland Society, has been able to trace out many heretofore lacking details of the record of the Irishman who was so prominent here in Governor Stuyvesant’s time.

His name was Thomas Lewis, and he must have gone to Holland from Ireland some time previous to 1657. How long he remained there does not appear, but, in that year, he was sent from Amsterdam under contract to the Dutch West Indies Company as a carpenter to New Amsterdam, as this city (New York) was then called. His name was transformed in the records to Thomas Lodewicksen, a sort of Latin-Dutch combination.

For three years after this he does not seem to have made much stir here, and then he appears as the captain of a bark plying between this city and Albany. A man of such standing in this community at that time was a real captain of industry and a citizen of substance.

The favor and regard in which Lewis was held by Governor Stuyvesant is evidenced by the fact that his bark was used to transport troops in the Esopus war of 1663, and on it Stuyvesant made his headquarters, so dating a number of letters still extant.