Part 7

On October 29, 1845, the Alsop farm of about 115 acres in Newtown, Long Island, was purchased for a new place of burial, and at a special meeting of the trustees of St. Patrick’s on July 31, 1848, it was ordered that “the cemetery at Newtown Creek, recently consecrated in part should be called Calvary, and placed at the disposal of the public; that after August 2 the Eleventh Street burial ground as well as the free vault at Fiftieth Street, should be permanently closed.” Calvary Cemetery began to be used August 4, 1848, when the first interment, that of Esther Ennis, was made. Subsequent purchases of land made the territory consecrated to the burial of the dead more than 300 acres. From August, 1848, to January, 1898, there were 644,761 interments there.

From January, 1898, to the present, there have been about 200,000 interments, thus making in round numbers 850,000 interments in all so far at Calvary Cemetery.

THE KELTS OF COLONIAL BOSTON.

BY THOMAS ACKLAND, BOSTON, MASS.

I am going to unfold for you a chapter of unwritten history; to tell you in a brief way the story of the part played by men of Erin in the early life of this city—from the time of its settlement in the year 1630 down to the opening of the Revolution.

Historical works do not touch the narrative, Cullen’s _Story of the Irish in Boston_ excepted. Yet even that, admirable as it is and much as it contains, falls far short of giving a complete account. I know not the reasons for this inexcusable neglect of historians, but I have my opinions on the matter.

The story should have been written for two reasons at least; (1) because the Irish were here in large numbers at the period of which I am treating; and (2) they rendered important services to the community.

[Illustration:

JAMES E. SULLIVAN, M. D.,

Providence, R. I.

A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY. ]

This paper will develop some interesting and striking facts concerning the early history of Boston, and to Americans of Irish blood, unless they be students of colonial history, it would prove a revelation were they to read it. You will see from this narrative that the Irish of those by-gone days were not all hewers of wood and drawers of water, despite the tremendous handicaps of racial and religious hostility and the disproportion of the numbers in comparison to the English.

On the contrary, some of them shone as patriots and statesmen; in the fields of art and invention; and in various ways of lesser importance there were many whose names deserve recording in a discourse of this nature.

Some years ago I became interested in a letter which appeared in one of our daily papers containing a few facts about the pioneer store-keeper of Boston—the first person to start a business here and thus earn for himself the title of “The Father of Boston Merchants.” The reason for my interest lay in the fact that he was an Irishman. His name was John Cogan.

Histories of Boston and the chapters on colonial Boston in the histories of the United States, as might be expected, both ignore the story of John Cogan, and you would search the city in vain were you looking for a memorial of any sort to him. Neither is there tablet nor memorial of any sort marking the site of that humble little shop, which was the first link of the great chain of mercantile establishments which have followed in its wake. Historical spots of even less interest are, and properly, suitably marked, but for some reason the site of Boston’s first place of business has been ignored by our municipal authorities and historical societies.

I determined to try to rescue John Cogan’s name from the practical oblivion which enshrouded it and discover details of his career sufficient for a newspaper or magazine article. My researches into the musty records of the past were well rewarded and my discoveries I hope to give the public through some reputable magazine or journal in the near future.

It was while engaged in this long and laborious work that I discovered a new vein, as it were, in Boston’s history, and following it up I found much of the material which goes to make up this paper and which suggested its preparation.

Had it been our good fortune to have had a directory containing the names of the residents of Boston each year since its settlement we would have found in every one of those works, with perhaps the exception of the first two, Keltic names, and in the entire period of which I treat some thousands of them.

Undoubtedly these statements surprise you. Naturally. Yet I could easily make them good. And furthermore I believe it to be quite likely that if we made a careful research among the names of the Kelts in colonial Boston that we could easily duplicate ten per cent or more of those borne by readers of this article.

Of the thousands of these names I have compiled I select a few for illustration—Blake, Barrett, Boyce, Bryan, Bishop, Boyle and Burk; Collins, Carey, Connell, Conner, Casey and Cunningham; Drury and Downing; Flannagan; Griffin; Healy, Hart, Harkins and Hurley; Kennedy; Lynch and Lane; Murphy, Moore, Martin, Mackey and McLean; Norton and Neale; Power and Powell; Strain; Timmins; Welch.

The children of Erin began coming here from practically the foundation of Boston. As Cullen says: “English of all things, it (Boston) was of necessity anti-Irish, and classed this unfortunate people with the heathen tribes of the forest; yet, among her earliest records appears the distinctively Irish names of Cogan, Barry, Connors, MacCarty, Kelly; throughout her colonial history, when the wild Irish, the Pope, the Devil and the Pretender were classed together and hated in the lump, the Irish were in their midst, though Irish Catholicity remained till near the Revolution almost unrepresented.”

Yet this fact is disputed. One well known newspaper writer of Boston, an Irishman, too, declares: “It is quite safe to say that there were no Irish at that time (1630) among the settlers.”

Now that assertion may or may not be true. But I would say in reply to it that if the Irish were not here as early as 1630 there was at least one representative of the race in the colony in 1632[4] and another in 1634[5], both prominent, too, by the way, and Irish have been here ever since.

Footnote 4:

John Cogan, already alluded to.

Footnote 5:

William Hibbens.

The gentleman referred to also says: “Up to that time (1647) there was practically no infusion of Irish blood in New England.” In reply to that I would answer that if the other large centers of New England had as many Kelts as did Boston up to and including 1647—and I would not be surprised if they had—this gentleman’s statement would stand disproved.

Under Cromwell’s government many Irish people were sent to New England. On their arrival they were sold as servants or slaves by those at whose charge they were brought here. This slavery, however, was only temporary, and generally for a period of four years. It was distinctly understood that this service of the Irish was to be in direct payment for the trouble and expense of transporting them.

The men of Irish blood were not prominent in the early story of the colony, with a few exceptions. But that was neither their fault nor to their discredit. The reasons for this were in brief the racial antipathy on the part of the colonists; their hatred of the religion professed by the mass of the Kelts; the social ostracism of the English toward the children of Erin; the legislation in Ireland which forced the natives into, and kept them in, ignorance from an educational standpoint; their poverty, another heritage of England’s misrule of their country and the smallness of their numbers in comparison with the English settlers.

But time works wonders and brings its revenges! The erstwhile tiny English and Puritan colony has become a great city, one of the greatest in America, in fact, and the stronghold of the Catholic and Kelt. Only the other day it was governed by a man of that faith and blood, and he was the successor of four other mayors born in Ireland or descended from Irish people, while the majority of the leading city officials were of the same class.

In the professions and business life also men of Irish blood are making a good showing here. And as to religion, our clergy of Keltic blood outnumber those of all other nationalities and so do they all the non-Catholic ministers combined.

I know you will be now interested to hear of John Cogan, to whom I referred in the beginning of this paper. For a quarter of a century he was prominently identified with the colony—from 1632 until his death in 1658. He probably came from Cork. The late John B. Reagan, of Dorchester, noted for his historical research regarding the Irish in America, said of the first of Boston’s Keltic citizens: “Among those who came over in the so-called Winthrop fleet, composed of ‘people from all parts,’ were several merchants from the maritime ports of Ireland, of whom John Cogan was one.”

In my researches for details of Cogan’s career I found this reference to him, from Lechford’s Notebook: “Whether John Cogan, of Boston, Mass., was related to this family (the Cogans of Chard, Eng.,) or not I do not know. He appears to have been from Devonshire, as in 1639 he gave Isaac Northcut, of Honiton, a power of attorney to receive any legacy under the will of his mother, Eleanor Cogan, of Tiverton, in Devon.” Still, this would not prove that Cogan was English, as thousands of Irish have settled in England from an early period.

Cogan was virtually one of the founders of Boston, one of its leading citizens, one of its wealthiest and most enterprising, and a pillar and one of the founders of the First Church. And I am glad to say that the colonists were sensible enough to so far overcome their prejudices as to appreciate what sort of man he was, for they honored him with numerous public offices and positions of trust.

He was a member of the first board of selectmen and served in that capacity for a long time; a juror in the Court of Assistants; one of a committee to allot land for the inhabitants to plant on and of another committee to allot land on the Neck and in East Boston; one of a committee to erect fortifications on Fort Hill and its treasurer; a member of the grand jury; a surveyor of the highways; a constable. The full list of offices he held would be too long to give here.

He opened the first store in 1633 or 1634. It stood on Washington Street opposite the Old State House, on the northeast corner. Colonial records fail to state what class of goods our pioneer store-keeper dealt in, or how long he conducted his shop, or whether he made it a success, which I venture to predict, in view of his career, he did.

He proved himself a shrewd and energetic business man and became wealthy for the times in which he lived. He was the proprietor of a large amount of real estate, including two stores and half an acre of land, which is now covered by the store of Houghton & Dutton, and corn mills in Charlestown and Malden.

He was one of the builders of Long wharf, the oldest in Boston and the one with the most interesting history. He served as sergeant in that organization of, as somebody has facetiously dubbed them, “bottle-scared veterans,” the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

Among his benefactions was a gift of 70 acres to Harvard College. I might state in passing that Cogan was one of the settlers of Dorchester, which colony was founded in the same year as was Boston, 1630, and lived there until his removal here in 1632.

Some few weeks ago the daily papers chronicled the death of the oldest alumnus of Harvard College and Boston’s oldest attorney. This was Charles A. Welch of Cohasset, Mass. Welch was the descendant of John Welch, who was recorded in Boston as a tax-payer as early as 1682, and who wedded Elizabeth White. The distinguished lawyer had as his great grandfather John Welch, who served as commander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, while the father of the lawyer was a noted wood carver and made the famous codfish which adorns the State House and also the great figure-head of Andrew Jackson which ornamented the bow of the American frigate _Constitution_.

Another descendant of this John Welch of colonial Boston, and brother of the lawyer, was Edward H. Welch, who had the happiness not only of returning to the church of his ancestors, but also of becoming a member of the Society of Jesus. The lawyer and priest numbered among their cousins the present Episcopalian Bishop of Fond du Lac, the Right Reverend Charles C. Grafton; and Mrs. Abbott, wife of the late Judge Abbott. In a word, John Welch of colonial Boston was the progenitor of a distinguished family.

How many of you could tell me who made the first piano-forte in America? And the first bass-viol? And the artificial leg with joints? And the first pack of playing cards? If you don’t know, it is not a matter of surprise, for those achievements are not chronicled in our histories.

Well, I’ll tell you. There lived in Dorchester or Milton between the years 1640 and 1650 a lad named Teague Crehore, who, it is said, had been stolen from his parents in Ireland.

One of his descendants was Benjamin Crehore, who was born in Milton. He was a remarkable genius. He it was who made the first piano-forte in America, manufactured the first bass-viols and invented the artificial leg with joints.

And it was Thomas Crehore, a nephew of Benjamin Crehore and the son of William Crehore, a chair maker, and of the fifth generation of Teague Crehore, who manufactured the first playing cards in America.

Thomas Crehore was a native of Dorchester and born in 1769. At the age of thirty-two he bought the land on which he built his factory and house. The industry continued there (in Milton Lower Mills, on the Neponset River, I believe) until 1846, when the factory was burned down. Mr. Crehore died in the same year, leaving a large estate.

The Crehores and John Cogan were not the only Kelts who were business pioneers here in the early days. The first paper manufactured in America was made in Dorchester and three Irishmen, while not actually starting it, may be said to have been among the founders and promoters of the industry (their predecessors having for only a short time conducted it). These were Capt. James Boies, Jeremiah Smith and Hugh McLean. Cullen in his _Story of the Irish in Boston_, says: “If to Mr. Smith belonged the credit of being the first individual paper manufacturer, to others of his countrymen is due the fact that the Neponset River was made by them the basis of paper manufacturing in the North American colonies.”

Boies was born in Ireland in 1702 and died in Milton at the age of ninety-six years. He was with General Wolfe in the battle on the Plains of Abraham. By direction of General Washington, Captain Boies directed the work of transporting the fagots, in which 300 teams were engaged, that were used in fortifying Dorchester Heights, following which event the British evacuated Boston. Boies was one of a committee of three which drew up instructions for the representatives of the town of Milton, wherein it was voted that the colony would support the Continental Congress with their lives and their fortunes in the event of hostilities with England.

Jeremiah Smith was a native of Ireland and born in 1705. At the age of twenty-one he came to Boston and in 1737 removed to Milton. In that year he became superintendent of a paper industry started by some men, including Thomas Hancock, a few years before. Four years later he was its owner. He carried on the business until 1775, when he retired, after amassing a fortune.

Smith was an intimate friend of Governor Hutchinson and also of Governor Hancock, at whose hospitable board the wits of the day were wont to gather. Smith was seldom absent on such occasions, and if he were blessed with the characteristic Keltic wit, as presumably he was, he must have added largely to the entertainment of Hancock and his guests.

Hugh McLean, the third of the trio, was born in Ireland in 1724. He married a daughter of Boies and while in partnership with him became wealthy. He died in Milton at the age of seventy-five.

Col. John C. Linehan, in his work _The Irish Scots and the “Scotch-Irish,”_ says: “Massachusetts had received, before the Revolution, a fair proportion of the Irish, for which the race has received but little credit. * * * The chronicles of the town of Boston, Mass., are full of enactments to keep the Irish out, but it was found to be impossible. They would come despite the prejudice, for Massachusetts was the most progressive of the colonies, and these people, or many of them, being artisans, spinners, weavers, shoemakers, ropemakers, etc., their labor became welcome, and a compromise was made by obliging those of them who were well-to-do to furnish bonds for their poorer countrymen and women, to the end that they would not become public charges.”

And again: “As early as 1780 and 1790 John Sullivan, Patrick Connor and Michael Carney were associated in the manufacture of paper at Dorchester, Mass.”

Properly speaking, I should not quote this statement in my paper, as the dates mentioned are later than the limit of time with which my subject treats; but I deemed it fitting to do so as being supplementary to those facts given about the other three Kelts engaged in the business.

Among the chaplains of the French fleet which assisted the Americans in the Revolution was Abbe Robin. He wrote a series of letters to a friend describing his travels in this country; the first, dated in Boston, contained this paragraph:

“The Irish Presbyterians, discontented with their landlord at home and attracted by similarity of sentiment, have established in this place, with some success, manufactories of linen, and have made some attempts at broadcloths; those that have been lately manufactured are close and well woven, but hard and coarse; their hat manufactories have succeeded not better than the cloths; they are thick, spongy and without firmness, and come far short of the beauty and solidity of ours.”

Now it is fair to infer that these industries were not started since the beginning of the Revolution. Those things are not done in war-times for very obvious reasons. That they had been in operation for some years may be taken for granted.

And now here is evidence showing that one of these industries was started a long time previous to the date of the Abbe’s letter. The _American Cyclopedia_ says: “Some of the Scotch-Irish settlers in Boston in 1720 introduced the linen manufacture, which exercised much interest and was greatly encouraged, spinning-schools being established.” I didn’t know until I read this paragraph that there was such an individual as a “Scotch-Irishman” in Boston in the early days. The writers of the records never found one; or if they did, failed to recognize him.

Now a word as to the alleged “Scotch-Irish” of early times in Boston: Thomas Hamilton Murray, secretary of the American-Irish Historical Society, says on the subject:

“The Massachusetts colonial records repeatedly mention the ‘Irish,’ not the Scotch-Irish. Cotton Mather in a sermon in 1700 says: ‘At length it was proposed that a colony of Irish be sent over to check the growth of this countrey.’ No prefix there * * *

“Cullen describes the arrival at Boston in 1717 of Captain Robert Temple ‘with a number of Irish Protestants.’ Captain Temple was, in 1740, elected to the Charitable Irish Society. In another place Cullen alludes to ‘the Irish spinners and weavers who landed in Boston in the early part of the eighteenth century.’”

One of the early citizens of Boston was William Hibbens, of Ireland, who came here in 1634. Like his countryman, John Cogan, he became prominent and wealthy. He was referred to in the colonial records as a gentleman. He served for a long time on the board of selectmen; as magistrate, agent of the colony in England, treasurer of the town stock; deputy to the General Court; highway surveyor; member of the commission to fortify Castle Island, and in other offices also labored for the interests of his townsmen.

Hibbens wedded Mrs. Ann Moore, a widow, and sister of Governor Bellingham. He died in 1654. Mrs. Hibbens was hung for alleged witchcraft two years later. She left her property to her two sons, John and Joseph Moore, of Ballyhorick, County Cork, Ire.

John Casey of Muddy River, as the now aristocratic town of Brookline was called in early days, was a participant in that conflict with the Indians known as King Philip’s War, fought in 1675–6. He took part in the attack on the Red Men’s fort in the Great Swamp in Rhode Island and was wounded in the engagement.

[Illustration:

BRIG.-GEN. JOHN R. McGINNESS, U.S.A. (Retired.).

Norfolk. Va. ]

The name Collins is found frequently in the early records. Edward Collins was a resident of Cambridge as early as 1646. He was a merchant. Christopher Collins, a shoemaker, lived in Dedham as early as 1645. William Collins was in Boston as early as 1646. He was the New England agent of Mathew Craddock of London, a merchant. John Collins became a “freeman” in 1646. Timothy Collins, a servant, was brought to Boston in 1764 on a schooner which came from Halifax and Cork. Four years later came a lad set down in the records as William Collen, brought here on a sloop from Windsor.

Ann Collins, a servant, arrived here from Ireland in 1767. Captain Palfrey Collins came into port in 1768. Clement Collins was one of a number of citizens who lodged their arms with the selectmen in 1774. He gave up a gun and a blunderbuss. Joseph Collins, on January 1, 1775, was nominated a watchman. In the company of which Captain Allen was commander in 1698 was Mathew Collins. In a public school kept here by Samuel Holyoke, Daniel Collins was a pupil in 1753. Thomas Collins, a farmer, came here in 1765 on a sloop from Fort Cumberland. John Collins was a constable in 1657. Henry Collins was made a freeman in 1636–7 and Edward Collins in 1640.

Healy was another name of which I find mention on numerous occasions in colonial days. William Healy, who was here as early as 1645, figured in a number of real estate transactions and had business dealings with Governor Dudley.

One of the leading Keltic families of colonial Boston was the McCarthys. Thaddeus McCarthy was here as early as 1666. He was an officer of the town in 1674 and a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1681.