Part 6

This was the beginning of Baltimore’s commerce, which for nearly seventy-five years after Stevenson’s pioneer line was established, almost rivalled New York’s commerce in general, and in many ways excelled it. This will be refreshing news to many, but is not by any means overdrawn. The work done by Stevenson in establishing trade for Baltimore was continued by the Purviances, William Patterson, Bowly, John O’Donnell, John Smith, William Smith, William McDonald, Robert and John Oliver, Wm. Wilson, Talbott Jones, Isaac McKim, Robert Garrett, Luke Tiernan, Cumberland Dugan, David Stewart, Stephen Stewart, James Calhoun, John Sterrett, John McLure, Thomas Russell, Samuel Hughes, William Neill, Hugh Young, Patrick Colvin, Alexander Pendergast, Patrick Bennett, Robert Welsh, Mark Pringle, William Kennedy, James O. Law, Hugh McElderry, Charles M. Dougherty, William Walters, John McCoy, D. J. Foley, Hamilton Easter, Robert Neale, Hugh Birchhead, John Coulter, and others, who, from time to time, have figured prominently in the shipping and commercial annals of Baltimore.

Many of these men were not only the pioneers, but the leaders for years in the matters which concerned the carrying trade of Baltimore and also in the business concerns of the town and city. Their names are so closely associated with the history of Baltimore for the first hundred years of her history at least that it is impossible to disconnect them. They were honest merchants of the old school and their methods were direct and above suspicion. They laid the foundation of Baltimore’s reputation for business honesty. Their trade was with the East and West Indies, with South America and with Europe. Their white-winged clippers sailed every known sea, and their house flags were known in every country, aye, even by the savage African.

It is highly interesting to trace the rise and rule of these expatriated Irish merchants who came to Baltimore, many of them with money and business experience, driven from Ireland by England’s unjust tariff laws, the same in character as those which now apply to our “possessions,” Porto Rico and the Philippines, to “encourage” their trade and commerce. These men hated England as strongly as they loved fair play. They waxed rich and placed everything they had at the services of their fellow citizens and of their country. They were well aware of England’s hypocritical methods and thus when the Revolution came on they cast their fortunes to a man with the colonies, and gave of their blood, their experience and their means to assist the patriots.

During the Revolution, in Baltimore and Maryland they were prominent in all works of importance. Thus we see Samuel Purviance, the chief man of the town; Purviance was a leading merchant. He was chairman of the Committee on Correspondence, a sort of Ways and Means Committee, and as such he raised supplies for the patriotic cause and supervised methods of defense. His services to the patriot cause were vast, and he was frequently complimented by Washington and the Continental Congress for his services. He was largely instrumental in helping Lafayette to clothe his half-starved and half-clothed army when on its way to the South to prosecute that historic campaign which ended in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Thus he played a prominent part in one of the historic events in history, and considering the present status of this republic, the most momentous campaign in history. The Irish merchants who contributed to this fund to buy cloth and make uniforms for Lafayette’s ragged army were Messrs. Purviance, William Patterson, John McLure, Daniel Bowly, Ridgely and Pringle, James Calhoun, James McHenry, Charles Carroll, Wm. Smith, Alex. Donaldson, Samuel Hughes, Russell & Hughes, William Neill, John Smith, William Smith, Hugh Young and Robert Patter Purviance. William Smith and William Patterson and other Irish merchants were also prominent in the committee work during the Revolution, and if it had failed, would have no doubt decorated the short end of a hangman’s rope for their love of liberty. The services of Charles Carroll of Carrollton and of his cousin, Charles Carroll, of Mount Clare, to the patriot cause and to the city and state, even the nation, it is needless to recount here, as they are well known.

They were Irish-Americans, however, and not ashamed of it, and their influence in the city and its environs were considerable along all lines. William Patterson gave Patterson Park to the city, and also contributed largely to the foundation of many public enterprises, some of which survive today as monuments to the activities of himself and his fellow Irishmen. Prime among those monuments is the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Isaac McKim, another Irishman, founded the first free school set up in Baltimore. It still stands at Baltimore and Aisquith streets a monument to him, and has been in its day a strong sphere of influence. John Oliver, another Gael, founded the Oliver Hibernian Free School, which has been for nearly a century a wide center of influence for good. It was the first school established in the United States for the exclusive education of Irish-Americans, and was established at a time when Americans of other races were without free schools of any kind. Prominent in the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of the Northern Central Railroad were other Irish merchants and professional men, such as Robert Garrett, Alexander and George Brown, the latter of whom conceived the idea of building the road; Isaac McKim, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John V. L. McMahon, the Irish American lawyer, who drew that first railroad charter ever drawn for the Baltimore and Ohio, which has served as a model ever since; Patrick McCauley, the Irish educator; Talbott Jones, Robert Oliver and others. These men gave not only their influence to these roads, but their money. How well they built, facts establish. John O’Donnell, the Irishman, was the man who named Canton, on the southeast side of the basin, because he thought it looked like Canton, China; and he was the first president of the Baltimore Gas Light Company. What that company has developed into the present shows. His son, Gen. Columbus O’Donnell, was for many years the honored president of the company.

Gen. Wm. McDonald was the first man to run packets on the Chesapeake Bay, and also the first to run steam vessels. And thus he was the founder of Baltimore’s great bay trade. That he was a man of influence the conditions of the present prove. He may have builded better than he knew, but he built greatly. Alexander Brown, Robert Garrett and Isaac McKim were practically the founders of the banking business of this city, and with others of the great Irish business men influenced the financial interests of Baltimore for many years. In fact, their descendants have a powerful influence in banking matters locally at this time. Every one is familiar with the tremendous influence exercised in railroad circles for many years by the Irish-American, John W. Garrett, and his son, Robert Garrett. There can be no question about those facts.

In the religious concerns of the city the Irish have ever played an important part. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic church in this country, the first bishop and archbishop of which was John Carroll, an Irish-American. Since his day the Irish have been in the forefront in Catholic affairs in Baltimore, and the pewholders and attendants at the Cathedral and other Catholic churches have included many of Baltimore’s leading citizens. St. Mary’s Seminary has educated hundreds of Catholic priests who have gone out and labored for the salvation of souls. Of these Levites the great and almost overwhelming majority have been Irish-Americans.

Many of these good men have spent their lives in this city and have proven great sources of influence for upliftment to their fellowmen. The Irish names of the priests and bishops who have labored here in Baltimore would make a respectable directory for information on the municipality’s work for the betterment of men. Many will recall the names of the saintly McColgan, Dolan, McManus, Coskery, Slattery, McCoy, Dougherty, Malloy, Dugan, Gaitley, McDevitt, and many others of equal note who have served prominently in this city and have been towers of strength to their co-religionists. The stature of Archbishop Carroll in his day was heroic, and he was regarded as one of the chief citizens of the republic, as his famous successor, Cardinal Gibbons, is today.

The similarity between Dr. Carroll and the cardinal on the lines of personal influence is remarkable. What Dr. Carroll was in his day a century ago, the cardinal is today, and the person who is familiar with the cardinal’s character knows what power and inspiration that is for good. Other prelates who were of Irish extraction and who labored here were Archbishops Neale and the illustrious Kenrick, the latter one of the greatest of church writers and a strong man of his day. In other denominations we have Dr. Patrick Allison, the first pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, and a remarkable man in many ways, who was the friend of Dr. Carroll, and his contemporary. Rev. John Glendy, a native of Ireland, who was a rebel in 1798, and had to fly for his life to this country, was the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an orator of unusual ability. In their day they were strong men, and exercised an overmastering influence for good upon their flocks. Rev. John Healey was the first Baptist minister in Baltimore town, and founded the first Baptist chapel. He ministered here for many years and was without doubt an influential man. The congregations of the Presbyterian and Baptist churches included a number of prominent Irish business and professional men, in fact the cream of the business men of the town and city belonged to them. Hence they were widespread centers of influence and they have so remained.

Their descendants to this day include many of Baltimore’s leading citizens in all lines of activity. The first Methodist preacher that we know of who preached in the vicinity of this city was Robert Strawbridge, the Irishman. He preached about the countryside, it being as much a felony for a Methodist preacher to preach as it was for a Catholic priest to say mass in his day in Maryland. We know that there were several well-known Irishmen who were among the first members of the first M. E. church, old Light Street, now Mount Vernon Place Church; among them being Patrick Colvin and Patrick Bennett. This Colvin afterwards was buried from the old Light Street church, which caught fire during his funeral, and was burned to the ground. His daughter founded the old Colvin Institute in his honor, and Colvin Street is named after him. He was an influential merchant as well as a leading Methodist.

The first mayor of the city, James Calhoun, was an Irish-American. The first secretary of the navy from Maryland was an Irishman, James McHenry, after whom the fort is named. It is well to remark that Fort Carroll is also named after Charles Carroll, the Irish-American. The first secretary of state and attorney-general from Maryland was Robert Smith, son of John Smith, the Irishman. Gen. Samuel Smith, the Revolutionary hero, who served more years than any other from this state in the United States Senate, also commanded the forces at the battle of North Point and the defense of Fort McHenry. The first and only chief justice of the United States from Maryland was Roger Brooke Taney, the Irish-American, who was also an attorney-general of the United States. One of the two secretaries of the navy from this state was John Pendleton Kennedy, the Irish-American. All of these facts serve to show that the Irish have played some part in public affairs in this city and state.

Past and present, the Irish element has been so closely identified with the history of Baltimore that it has played an important part in influencing every detail of the life of the city. Deny it as some will, the influence is still apparent in the city’s spheres, probably not so prominently as in the long ago, but still markedly. Prosperity has somewhat dulled the ambition of the local Gael, but that he is still in evidence, commercially, religiously, professionally, socially and industrially, the shallowest of investigations will prove. The readiness of the Irishman to assimilate with other nationalities in our country may have had something to do with the disappearance from the prominent places which they formerly occupied of the leading families of the city who bear the names of the splendid men who at one time led in the city’s advance. But considerable of the wealth and the influence of the city is still held by the descendants of these old pioneers, and by those who have succeeded them in the life of the City of the Calverts.

LOOKING BACK AT OLD CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

Extract from an address by Prof. Charles Eliot Norton at a meeting of the Cambridge (Mass.) Historical Society, October 30, 1905: “But even a greater change than that from country village to suburban town has taken place here in Old Cambridge in the last seventy years. The people have changed. In my boyhood the population was practically all of New England origin, and in large proportion Cambridge-born, and inheritors of Old Cambridge traditions. The fruitful invasion of barbarians had not begun. The foreign-born people could be counted up on the fingers. There was Rule, the excellent Scotch gardener, who was not without points of resemblance to Andrew Fairservice; there was Sweetman, the one Irish day-laborer, faithful and intelligent, trained as a boy in one of the ‘hedge-schools’ of his native Ireland, and ready to lean on his spade and put the troublesome schoolboy to a test on the Odes of Horace, or even on the _Arma virumque cano_; and at the heart of the village was the hair-cutter, Marcus Reamie, from some unknown foreign land, with his shop full, in a boy’s eyes, of treasures, some of his own collecting, some of them brought from distant romantic parts of the world by his sailor son. There were doubtless other foreigners, but I do not recall them, except a few teachers of languages in the college, of whom three filled in these and later years an important place in the life of the town,—Dr. Beck, Dr. Follen and Mr. Sales.”

A BIT OF NEW YORK HISTORY.

Thomas F. Meehan in _N. Y. Catholic News_.

There was considerable popular opposition manifested [in New York City in 1829 and thereabouts] to the change of the cemetery from about St. Patrick’s to the Fifth Avenue, or Middle Road, as it was then called, site. In the [N. Y.] _Truth Teller_ appears the following:

CATHOLIC BURIAL GROUND.

In giving publicity to the following communication we beg it may be distinctly understood that we express no opinion of our own upon the subject. The writer has left his name with the editor of this paper, and our columns are open to any correspondent who may feel disposed to do the same:

“_To the Editor of the Truth Teller_:

“NEW YORK, March 24, 1829.

“SIR: The subject of procuring a suitable place for a general Catholic burial ground in this city has, for a long time, excited a deep interest among us. I beg leave, therefore, to suggest a few remarks on the best method to be adopted for the accomplishment of so desirable an object, before any definite measures are taken for a permanent location.

“It appears by a hand-bill circulated a few days ago, that the trustees of St. Patrick’s Church, without consulting the Catholics of this city, have bought a tract of land opposite the Botanic Garden, a distance of between four and five miles from the city hall; that the nature of the soil is entirely unfit for the said purpose; and that this place has been actually appropriated by them for a general Catholic burial ground.

“Query? Have the trustees of that church or any of the other Catholic churches in this city the right to act definitely upon this general subject without previously ascertaining the opinion and obtaining the consent of the heads of families belonging to this Catholic community?

[Illustration:

CAPT. MARTIN L. CRIMMINS.

Sixteenth U. S. Infantry, formerly of the Nineteenth Infantry.

MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY.

A Son of the Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York City. ]

“This question ought to be fairly discussed before any final decision is made on the location of the contemplated cemetery; and I hope the columns of your widely circulated paper will be always open for the discussion of this point of general interest.

“This affair, in the humble opinion of the writer, ought to be managed by a separate board, composed of the Right Rev. Bishop of the diocese and two members from each congregation, duly elected by the pewholders of the several Catholic churches of this city, with power to select the ground, the location, to make regulations, etc., etc. This suggestion is made with the view of ascertaining the sense of the Catholics of this city (who have very liberally contributed to the support of their several churches and charitable institutions) respecting this interesting question which agitates their minds.

“Very respectfully, your obt. serv’t, “A SUBSCRIBER.

“And a Catholic resident of the city of New York.”

At the meeting of the trustees on March 6, 1833, every member present pledged himself to use his utmost endeavor “in finding and prosecuting the invaders of the vault out of town,” which seems to indicate that the opposition to the up-town movement had taken a very radical turn. Previous to this, however, the idea of locating the graveyard there was abandoned, and on August 29, 1832, a committee of five trustees appointed to provide “a good and convenient location for a new graveyard,” paid $37,050 to Alderman Charles Henry Hall for the block bounded by East Eleventh and Twelfth streets, First Avenue and Avenue A.

It is related that Mr. Hall soon after repented of his bargain and offered to pay $50,000 if the block were deeded back to him. The offer was refused, but 100 feet in depth on three sides of the plot was sold to lighten the debt and the rest of the land, 413x206 feet, was devoted to cemetery purposes. Permission for the first interment was given on March 13, 1833, and from that date until the old Eleventh Street burial ground was officially closed in August, 1848, the total number of interments made in its limits was 41,016. As has been stated, the interments in St. Patrick’s graveyard, from May 25, 1813, to March, 1833, were 32,153, so that in these two old downtown graveyards in thirty-five years, a total of 73,169 Catholics were buried. These figures are taken from Archbishop Corrigan’s paper on “The Catholic Cemeteries of New York” and are therefore official. The Avenue A end of the Eleventh Street plot was originally a hollow and had to be filled in about eighteen feet above the level at the time of its purchase.

There was a wooden fence around the property at first and this was replaced by the iron railing that now encloses it. The high brick wall around St. Patrick’s was put up just before the anti-Catholic excitement of 1836 and served as a protection to the old church that largely helped, when manned by stout defenders, to awe the mob that assembled to plunder and destroy it. In the same year, June 5, 1836, it was determined to rebuild St. Peter’s Church in Barclay Street. The graves in the little space about the church were opened and most of the remains reinterred in St. Patrick’s graveyard. Some of the pioneers were left undisturbed and still repose under the walls of the new church built over the old site.

The dead who sleep about the walls of old St. Patrick’s made up the very flower of the pioneer families, mainly Irish, who built up the church in New York. Among the long list are the first pastors and their assistants, Fathers Michael O’Gorman, Richard Bulger, Charles Brennan and Peter Malou—who was a general in the Belgium army and then a Jesuit. One of his sons became a bishop in his native land—Fathers Luke Berry, of St. Mary’s; Gregory B. Pardow, an uncle of the Jesuit of our day; James Neale, Carberry J. Byrne, Thomas C. Levins, John N. Smith of St. James’ and Dr. John Power, V. G. The remains of the bishops of the See, except the first, were transferred from old St. Patrick’s to the crypt of the Fifth Avenue Cathedral after it was opened.

The parents of Cardinal McCloskey were buried in old St. Patrick’s and so were a son of the famous French general, Moreau, Capt. Pierre Laudais, of the navy, who fought with Paul Jones in the Revolution; Thomas, the father of the great lawyer, Charles O’Conor; Thomas S. Brady, father of James T. and Judge John R. Brady; Capt. James McKeon, of the army in 1812 and father of John McKeon; Andrew Morris, Stephen Jumel, Dominick Lynch and his numerous children; John B. Lasala, the Denmans, the Hargous, Binsse, Coughlan, Brandegee, De Londe, Shea, O’Brien and other prominent old New York families.

In the Eleventh Street graveyard the 41,016 dead are of a later period, but include many names of special local interest on the old stones, such as the Murphy, Lynch, Carroll, Hanly, Sweeney, Bradley, Davey, McMahon, Holahan, and other families. A local character, who died September 26, 1838, and was buried here, was an Italian named Joseph Bonfanti, who kept what might be called the first “department store” in New York. It was located at 297 Broadway, and it was his boast that no one could go into his store and ask for anything in fancy articles he could not produce for sale. He advertised in rhymes and some of the efforts in this direction are wonderful productions. Local fame had it that he kept poets on salary to supply his needs in this direction. His tombstone told that he was born in Monticello, December 9, 1798, was “universally esteemed as an affectionate husband, a kind father and a sincere friend,” and that,—

“Cheerful he journeyed through life’s chequered wild, Honest, sincere, benevolent, mild. As husband, father, friend, fulfilled his part, Affection’s smile the sunshine of his heart.”

Capt. John McMahon had a monument erected to him by the Montgomery Guards, of whom he was commander. He was a native of Limerick, Ireland, and died aged 37 years on April 17, 1849.

Another epitaph was as follows:

“This tomb was erected by Rosanna, widow of John Connolly, Jr., carpenter, of Gargin, parish of Killaly, County of Galway, Ireland, in memory of the most affectionate of husbands, who died in New York on the 6th day of March, 1841, aged —— years; as also her daughter Mary, who died on the 10th of August, 18—, aged —— months, as also her son, Michael, who died on the 1st of August, 1840, aged —— months.

“This stone has been sent her by her father-in-law as a token of respect for her and love for his son John, her husband. May their souls rest in peace.

“Dated Galway, Ireland, 1846. This stone has been sent her by her father-in-law, Michael Connolly.”

The stone to the memory of James, son of Denis and Winifred Hanley, who died November 28, 1839, gave this advice:

“Weep not for me, my parents dear, I am not dead but sleepeth here. As I am now so you will be; Prepare for death and follow me.”