Connecticut and the Irish Great Hunger of 1845-1850

Vol. XXXI — No. 2 — 2019

This drawing from the Illus- trated London News depicts Irish families waiting to board a ship for America during the Great Hunger in the late 1840s and the early 1850s. Thou- sands of Irish found a new home in Connecticut.

Connecticut and the Irish Great Hunger of 1845-1850

n April 1848, the New Englander, a New Haven-based jour- of the American industrial revolution. Manufacturing was rapidly nal of current events, published a lengthy article describing supplanting agriculture as the mainstay of the economy in both I the starvation and suffering rampant in Ireland for the urban and rural sections of the state. The Irish refugees found fourth consecutive year. One sentence in the article told simply work in all of the factories and the Irish women labored as domes- but effectively how Connecticut was being affected by the tragedy tic servants. across the Atlantic Ocean: “We have heard the cry of the famishing The going was not easy. “New England taken as a whole,” sug- … and we have even encountered in the streets of our own cities, gested one writer in the North American Review in 1851, “is the the gaunt, haggard forms of men, women and children who fled hardest soil for an Irishman to take root and flourish in. The set- from the jaws of famine at home … ” tled habits of the people, the untainted English descent of the great Turning the clock back 171 years to a time when “gaunt” and majority, discrepancies of religious faith and forms and a jealousy “haggard” Irish refugees wandered about the streets of Connecti- of foreign intermixture of any kind all operate against those who cut is a sort of jolting reminder. The Irish Great Hunger which was would seek to engraft themselves on the Yankee stem …” the cause of that wandering was not just a terrible event in a fara- Nativist politicians and journalists did, indeed, rail against the way land, but also a significant milestone in Connecticut history. dangers supposedly posed by these strange Celts just as they For more than 200 years in colonial times and the early national would later rail against newcomers from southern and eastern period, Connecticut had remained a fortress of Puritan religion, Europe, Asia, the Mideast and Latin America politics and culture, The people driven from Ireland by the famine But the Connecticut Yankees and the Irish newcomers found were the first of many waves of immigrants who in the latter years ways to negotiate the differences and to this day Connecticut re- of the 19th century and early years of the 20th century trans- mains one of the most Irish of the 50 states. For that reason, this formed Connecticut into a state filled with diversity. entire issue of The Shanachie is devoted to the Irish refugees from The number of Irish in the state multiplied from approximately the Great Hunger and to the Yankees of Connecticut who made 5,000 in 1845 at the beginning of the Great Hunger to 27,200 just room for them. five years later, according to the returns of the 1850 U.S. census. For the same reason, page 8 of this issue contains a coupon And that was only the beginning of the impact of the Great Hunger. which readers can use to become members of the Great Hunger From 1850 to 1860, the state’s Irish population doubled again to Museum in Hamden. Founded in 2000 by Quinnipiac University, 55,000. By 1870, the number of Irish natives in the state had again the museum is the only such facility in the United States to pre- increased significantly to 70,630, about 13 percent of the entire serve the history of the famine and the role that America and es- state population of 537.000. pecially Connecticut played in adopting those Irish fleeing from The Irish arrival in large numbers coincided with the beginning that terrible tragedy.

Puritan humanitarian & priest aided Connecticut relief effort

uring the famine, the people of Ire- and dying: “Shall these people starve when nian and the Jamestown — that were taken D land had no greater friend than a there are in the United States 106,000,000 out of mothballs and sent to Ireland. The Connecticut Yankee named Elihu Burritt. bushels of wheat, 163,500,000 of oats, residents of the Great Hill section of Derby Born in New Britain in 1810, Burritt’s roots 417,750,000 of Indians corn? … Forbid it, donated eight barrels of corn and one bar- went back to 1650 when his Puritan ances- heaven! Let all the ships in the Atlantic rel of rye; those of Southbury, five barrels tors were among the settlers of Stratford. ports, waiting for freight, spread their and one bag of corn; two barrels of rye flour As an apprentice blacksmith, Burritt was wings and fly to the relief of Ireland.” and one barrel of rye. also a lover of learning studying languages, Burritt’s letters and dairy entries were math, astronomy and the sciences. He even- important but not alone in mobilizing help Ecumenical spirit tually went to Worcester, Mass., started a for Ireland in the United States. Especially Rural communities pitched in too. In newspaper, the Christian Citizen, and began during the early years of the famine stories Wethersfield, “a friend of the Irish” gave $5. to write and work in humanitarian projects and editorials in Connecticut newspapers The people of Rockville pledged $255.24. In such as abolition of slavery, temperance Farmington, a mother, moved by a and peace initiatives. letter in a newspaper about two Irish In 1846, he traveled to England to children dying in their sleep, went organize the League of Universal Broth- door to door seeking donations. In the erhood. In London, he followed reports ecumenical spirit, Protestants in Vol- of the Great Hunger engulfing Ireland untown donated $15 and Catholics and subsequently went there to see for $12. In Hartford, appeals from the pul- himself and write accounts of the suf- pits of city churches raised more than fering for his newspaper. $1,000: Unitarian Church, $91; Meth- In Dublin in early 1847, he wrote, “At odist Episcopal, $30; Universalist noon I went to the soup kitchen and Church, $33; North Church, $171.33; there first came into contact with the St. John’s Church, $143; Christ Church, famine-stricken people. A crowd of hag- $365; Centre Church, $344.56. gared, unwashed and ragged people Ecumenism worked also in Norfolk in crowded the narrow passage … Chil- Litchfield County where the campaign dren with old rusty tin cups, basins and to aid the Irish was led by Edward boilers were almost trampled upon in Elihu Burritt Theobald Matthew Ryan, an Irish immigrant businessman, the struggle for food.” and the Rev. Joseph Eldridge, pastor of In Kilkenny, he wrote, “The country was the Congregational Church. Ryan and created sympathy which led to an outpour- beautiful and nature seems to have done all his kinfolk John, Matthew and Charles Ryan ing of aid from every corner of the state. that she could for the happiness of humani- were natives of Kilkenny. In 1836, they ty. But the people … appeared to be worse By March 1847, parishes in the Catholic bought a woolen mill in Norfolk and later a housed and fed than the beasts … “ Diocese of Hartford had sent $3,600 which general store. Irish residents met at the was divided among the four archdioceses in store and pledged $225 for Irish relief. ‘Distress and destitution’ Ireland for the suffering peasants. Among Meanwhile, Eldridge not only urged his the individual parish contributions were congregation to contribute, but pledged $15 In Cork, he wrote, “The country people Hartford, $898; New Haven, $664; Bridge- himself. His wife pledged another $5 and are pouring in from every direction … port and Norwalk, $222; Norwich and New other members of the parish added $80. 30,000 are now living on charity … The London, $223. work-house is filled to overflowing and The Congregationalists and Catholics At a public meeting in New London, the about 5,000 are around its premises … This combined their donation and sent them to aldermen appointed a 20-person commit- morning we renewed our work of visiting New York where the money was used to tee which in turn conducted a street-by- the abodes of distress and destitution. In purchase flour which was shipped specifi- street collection. Bolstered by circulation of almost every hovel we entered, some one cally to Father Theobald Matthew, the fa- a letter titled “Address to the Ladies of was lying prostrate with fever … There they mous temperance priest. Father Matthew, America,” from women in County Cork, the lay upon the most filthy straw …” who had studied in Kilkenny and was as- collection totaled $780.65. signed there when ordained as a Capuchin Burritt understood clearly the economics An editorial that appeared in the New priest, responded to Ryan, “How delightful that made such suffering possible. Under Haven Palladium thanking Ireland for to see good men of every religious creed the guise of laissez-faire — a free market providing “so many stout hands to build our thus acting in the spirit of the Saviour, system — English merchants were making railroads and forward our internal im- whose precept is, ‘My dear little children, top dollar selling wheat and livestock provements,” was an incentive that encour- love one another’ ... How I desire to take by grown in Ireland to England and European aged residents to donate $875, $250 and the hand and to my bosom the truly Chris- nations while Irish families starved to $327 in three canvasses. tian minister, the excellent Mr. Eldridge. death. In some communities, residents donated May the Lord bless him and all who sympa- He urged Americans to mount a crusade food for two U.S. Navy ships — the Macedo- thize with the sorrows of afflicted Ireland.” to prevent the continuation of the suffering 2 Tidal wave of emigrants fled to Land of Steady Habits

rish people were accustomed to crop I failures and most of them could sur- vive one bad season. But when the potato crop was destroyed by a fungus in three out of four years — 1845, 1846 and 1848 — about a million out of Ireland’s eight million plus population died. That the deaths were not double that many was due only to the fact that an esti- mated 1.1 million Irish emigrated. The vast majority — about 80 percent — came to the United States, while others settled in Cana- da and Australia. While they were de- scribed as “emigrants,” they were more truthfully “refugees,” people fleeing for their lives from a homeland they loved. The outflow was actually greater after the years of the crop failures. From 1845 to 1848 about 582,000 fled. In 1851 and 1852, a total of 623,301 left with 1852, the largest In May 1851, a reporter of the Illustrated London News witnessed this scene: a priest immigration: 368,764. giving a blessing to half a dozen families … “He had a word of advice to Pat,” the re- porter wrote, “a caution to Nelly, a suggestion to Mick ... he promised Dan to take care Costs and dangers of emigration of the ‘old woman’ until the £5 came in spring to send her over to America ... Then en- The cost of a steerage ticket was £3 or £4. sued a scene of tears and lamentations … The priest stood surrounded by the old and In the best of circumstances the voyage to young, the strong and infirm ... and he turned his moistened eyes to heaven and asked New York or Boston was six weeks. In bad the blessing of the Almighty upon the wanderers during their long and weary journey. weather, it could be two months or more. In Many were the tears brushed quietly from the sunburned cheeks …” steerage, the usual practice was for four people to sleep in a six-foot square com- the ship on to New York. to pieces. Several rowboats made it safely partment. Only one ship, the New London whaling to land, but 99 passengers died. Even to the last moment, passengers were vessel Dromo is recorded as bringing emi- In the 10 years from 1845 to 1855, an not safe from landlords, tax collectors and grants from Ireland to a Connecticut port. astounding 892,000 Irish entered the Unit- sheriffs. In Galway City, the ship Albion was In the spring of 1847, the Dromo sailed to ed States through New York City. Before about to sail for New York in March 1847 Norfolk, Va., to take on cargo, possibly relief being allowed to disembark, they passed when a bailiff came aboard with a warrant supplies for Ireland. It returned late that through the quarantine station on Staten for a passenger who owed his landlord the summer, docking at New London with 43 Island. Thousands were detained at two price of one hundred weight of meal. The male and 31 female emigrants. The New hospitals there suffering from ship’s fever passenger resisted and the bailiff came back London Morning News reported the passen- and other maladies. first with a squad of policemen, then with a gers to be “much superior to the great body In the spring of 1847, Boston authorities detachment of soldiers of the 49th Regi- of Irish emigrants … in good health and took over Deer Island in the city’s harbor ment who conveyed the passenger to the spirits and will mostly leave in a few days and constructed shanties so sick Irish emi- city jail where he remained without money for their different destinations.” grants could be removed from South Bos- to pay the debt. Shipwrecks ton. By year’s end, papers published the Passengers also were subjected to all names of 350 who died on the island. During the famine years, 59 emigrant kinds of scams. One of the few accounts left That same spring, the first ships to arrive vessels were shipwrecked, some before by those who came to Connecticut is that of at Grosse Isle, the Canadian quarantine their voyage had fairly begun. The Ocean Phil Reilly who emigrated in 1851, and later station in the St. Lawrence River near Que- Monarch caught fire in the Mersey River as became a policeman in New Haven. Reilly bec, carried almost 700 Irish emigrants it was leaving Liverpool on Aug. 14, 1848. wrote: “We reached St. John, New Bruns- with ship’s fever and other diseases. By the Of 322 steerage passengers, 176 perished. wick. The povisions had become exhausted end of May, 36 emigrant ships were backed and to get rid of the expense of feeding the The brig Carrick sailing from Sligo to Que- up in the middle of the river waiting to un- passengers any further, the captain boldly bec was wrecked on the Gaspe Peninsula in load 13,000 emigrants. When the ships announced that he had arrived in New May 1847 with loss of 132 passengers. finally docked, the quarantine station was York.” When passengers learned of the de- The St. John sailed from Galway in Sep- so overtaxed that sick passengers were ception, they locked the captain up and tember 1848 bound for Boston with 120 merely left on the beach to die. It is estimat- brought authorities aboard. A compromise emigrants. It arrived safely off Province- ed that 3,000 died there in the summer of was arranged to provide provisions and sail town on Oct. 7, but that night a fierce gale 1847. drove it toward Grampus Ledge and tore it

3 Irish provided manpower for state’s industrial revolution

n Irish visitor to Connecticut in 1848 kees to do the work. wrote that when manufacturing One constant hazard was that of having began to replace farming as the main com- a limb sucked into machinery that had no ponent of the state’s economy, “Irishmen protective devices. Irishman Timothy Mu- were called in to dig the deep foundations lan lost his left arm in a water wheel at of huge factories, to blast the rocks, to build Whitlocks Works at Plymouth Hollow. In the dams; and when the great structures Stamford, Barney McIntyre died after his arose, the children of Irishmen were called leg was drawn into a machine used for roll- to tend the spindles or the furnaces.” ing metal at the Mianus Iron Works. A 16- The Hartford Times in 1855 put a dollar year-old Irishman, Frank Downes, died in a value on the benefits of the massive Irish similar mishap at a New Haven lock factory influx triggered by the Great Hunger. “The as did Nicholas Welch at a woolen mill in foreign emigration is of incalculable value Middletown. to this country,” the newspaper wrote. Not all Irish emigrants flocked into Explosions were frequent and deadly. At “Without it, our canals, railroads and other cities and labored in factories. In the the gas works in New Haven, John Bary and great works would be seriously retarded. 1840s and 1850s, Irish emigrants set- Thomas Lane were severely burned when a Without it, our manufacturers could never tled in rural Southbury, CT, and bought drum they were about to clean exploded. In compete with foreign labor and would be farms. In the 1860s, six farms owned Stamford, the explosion of an eight-ton compelled to shut their factories. It is worth by Irish families were spread along steam boiler at the Cove Extract Works more to our national prosperity than an Dublin Hill Road in the White Oak Dis- killed, among others, Irish emigrant William annual donation of $50,000,000 in gold.” trict of the town. The sign is not only a Dawson, and severely wounded his brother The most urgent need of the state at that street marker but a reminder of the Michael. The explosion destroyed the build- moment in its history was manpower; the history of those who fled Ireland dur- ing, lifted the boiler 20 feet in the air and most pressing need of the Irish refugees ing the years of the Great Hunger. deposited it 60 feet away. The Dawsons had was what they never had in centuries of arrived in the United States just three English occupation of their homeland — a months before. The worst boiler explosion chance to prosper. Hugh O’Brien, Patrick McWade and John of that era was at the Fales & Gray car facto- Carney are among many Irish working in ry in Hartford in March 1854. The blast Emigrant guide praised Connecticut the gunpowder plant. In Greenwich, Rory ripped through a section of the factory Mckintyre, Thomas McNally James Dyer and where 100 men were working. Eighteen Father John O’Hanlon in a book published James McBride work in a wire factory. In in 1851, The Irish Emigrant’s Guide to the were killed, seven of them Irish. Fifty were nearby Norwalk, John McKeads, Henry injured, United States, painted an impressive picture Grady, Frank Bresnan and others make a of the employment opportunities waiting living in shoe factories. In Newtown, a comb Ships and railroads for those Irish who settled in Connecticut. manufacturer named Douglas Squires also “The valley of the Connecticut River is ex- ran a boardinghouse where lived Irish-born In the harbor at Bridgeport, Irishman tremely fertile and the remainder of the soil employees Owen Feney, Michael and John Michael Gulick died after being struck on good and well cultivated …,” O’Hanlon Hayes, Daniel Kelly and John Sinen. the head by a loose coal tub while at work wrote, “All kind of manufacturies are car- on a ship in November 1853. He had been Mines and quarries employed numerous ried on such as those of cotton and woolen saving money to enable his wife and four Irishmen. The work force at Ames mines goods, iron works, leather, paper, coaches, children to join him and was intending to and ironworks in Salisbury, Litchfield Coun- weapons, clocks, axes, buttons, hats, combs send for them soon. ty, included 31 Irish miners, two colliers, 10 and tinware … In 1840, there were 116 forge men, two furnace men and two refin- During the famine era, railroad construc- cotton and 115 woolen factories … and the ers. The census lists more than 25 Irishmen tion was booming in Connecticut. The fever- value of manufactured goods $13,669,139.” working at the copper mine in Bristol. The ish nature of the work as communities vied The returns of the 1850 U.S. census are brownstone quarries in Portland across the for valuable freight and passenger connec- full of evidence of the linkage of the indus- Connecticut River from Middletown had a tions was captured by the New Haven Palla- trial revolution in Connecticut and the dias- workforce of 1,500 men. So many of them dium’s description of a scene in October pora of Irish fleeing starvation. In Norwich, were Irish that Portland became a town 1848 when the last few miles linking New Irish brothers Peter, Patrick and James where the Irish language was spoken and Haven and Bridgeport were being laid” Donley, all in their 20s, are listed with at even taught in the schools. “Night and day for the last weeks the hands least 25 other Irishmen working in the of the Northampton Company have plied Industrial work in that era was character- woolen factory. In Enfield, Irish natives the shovel and rails and accomplished in ized by long hours and dangerous condi- Patrick Slowey, a loom cleaner, Alexander seven days a labor which one unacquainted tions. One Connecticut axe manufacturer McMaster, a spinner, Francis Murphy, a day with modern advances in the art of annihi- said he employed Irish grinders because the laborer, and Dennis Clark, a weaver, are lating valleys and hills would have thought death rate from accidents was so high that with many others listed as employees of the could not have been accomplished in a he had trouble finding New England Yan- carpet mill. In the same town, John Riley, month.”

4 Irish women in demand as domestic servants

ere was a poor Irish housemaid … Irish natives, 8 percent of the town’s popu- Pomfret, a rural village in eastern Connecti- who touched our feelings ex- lation of 4,651. Irishwomen outnumbered cut, 28 Irish-born women are listed living tremely,” wrote an Englishwoman, Lady Irishmen 213 to 163. Of the Irishwomen, 58 with farm families. And in New London, Emeline Stuart Wortley, regarding an en- were listed as having occupations; 57 of nine Irish women live in the homes of offic- counter at a hotel in Bridgeport during a them were servants. The only Irishwoman ers of the U.S. army garrison at Fort Trum- tour of America in 1850. “We had watched not a servant was a nurse. bull. Two are in home of Major George Tay- her with compassion in the pouring rain The Irish female servants were mostly lor, commandant of the post. milking the cows … When she came in with young: nine were age 15-19; 28 were 20- Despite their presence in so many homes, our tea, we asked her questions about her 24; nine were 25-29; nine were 30-45. Two the Irish servants were often maligned in leaving Ireland, and she appeared delighted of them were under the age of 15. They very nasty ways. The nativism that periodi- to talk about the ‘ould country’ … She were employed in a wide variety of house- cally raises its ugly head in the United seemed to think it the most beauteous and holds including those of: grocers, lawyers, States was hard on them, portraying them charming place on the face of the globe. in some artwork as looking like apes, “Every time we saw her after that, we had heavyset and muscular and dull in intellec- a little talk about ‘the fair Emerald Isle.’ and tual capacity. … when I gave her a little gratuity, she fairly burst into tears and thanked me most ‘Raw Irish peasantry’ heartily; but, I verily believe, more for talk- In a book about housekeeping, the famous ing to her about the ‘beautiful ‘ould coun- sisters Catharine Beecher and Harriet Bee- try,’ and displaying interest in her simple cher Stowe of Hartford complained about history, than for the trifle I presented her “the raw Irish peasantry,” who, they de- with. She sobbed out as we took leave, ‘Och, clared were not only incompetent but over- sure my heart warmed toward ye from the bearing. They said an Irish servant could first, when I found ye was from the ‘ould not accomplish from dawn to sunset the countries,’ thus cordially uniting the land of work that a girl of New England Puritan the Saxon with her own far-off Erin.” stock could finish by noontime. The Bee- Bright, efficient and caring chers described one Irish servant as “a creature of immense bone and muscle, but Those two paragraphs say much about of heavy, unawakened brain.” one of the most universal stereotypes of Those comments were nasty and de- Irish-American history: the Irish servant meaning, but they were based to an extent girl, thousands of whom found refuge in the upon an unfortunate reality: Irish girls, United States from the horror of the Great thanks to centuries of English rule in Ire- Hunger. The paragraph sketches a portrait land, did come from backgrounds less than of a bright, efficient and caring young fe- ideal to prepare them for domestic service. male exiled to difficult and menial labor in a The standard of living of Irish peasants was country far distant and far different from far below that of affluent New England fam- the land of her birth, and longing for any ilies and Irish servants entered the home of contact that would remind her of hearth For all the valuable work Irish men and their new employers without understand- and home. women did, nativists could not resist ing of the latest appliances much less the The New York Tribune estimated in 1845 depicting them as simians, that is, look- niceties of fine living. ing like apes and monkeys. that of the 10,000 to 12,000 domestic serv- To nativists, their lack of sophistication ants in New York City, 7,000 to 8,000 were was the least of the flaws of Irish servants. Irish. The figures certainly grew substan- farmers, manufacturers, clergymen, and a boardinghouse keeper. Far more serious was their Catholicism. tially in New York during the huge influx of Rumors spread of Irish housemaids who What is known for certain in Norwalk, the famine era. And the number of Irish rushed babies off to be baptized Catholics thanks to the error of the census taker, can women servants in Connecticut at that time as soon as the family turned its back and reasonably be inferred in other Connecticut was almost certainly in the thousands too. who told family secrets to priests in the towns and cities, namely that when young A mistake by a census taker in Norwalk in confessional. One Protestant in Boston Irish-born women are found living in the 1850 provides some evidence. The instruc- warned that a servant girl “had heard me homes of other families, it is likely they are tions for census takers that year were to list and others talking over the subject of pop- there as servants. the name, place of birth and occupation of ery occasionally” and “the priest made her every male, but only the name and place of In cities, dozens of Irish women are thus tell what she had heard … Many a rich fam- birth, but not the occupation of females. In listed. In the returns for Waterbury, one ily in Boston and all their private affairs are Norwalk, a census taker erred and listed the page alone lists 25 Irish women in the thus exposed to the Roman priesthood by occupations of women as well as men. homes of clerks, machinists, merchants, the Catholic servants they employ.” There were in Norwalk that year, 3,766 carriage makers, joiners and physicians. In

5 Refugees brought Catholic faith with them

n April 4, 1844, the year before the became the first resident pastor of the Cath- a group of 15 to 25 Catholics in Stamford O famine began in Ireland, Father olic church in Waterbury with responsibil- who complained of his infrequent visits William Tyler was installed as first bishop ity for missions in towns up and down the although he had said Mass there on 11 Sun- of the Catholic Diocese of Hartford. The new Naugatuck River Valley. days in one year. diocese included Connecticut and Rhode Until that year, Catholics in Waterbury Bishop Tyler died in 1849 and his suc- Island, and was carved from the Boston who wished to attend Mass did so in the cessor, Bishop Bernard O’Reilly in 1851 Diocese, which had been founded in 1808. private home of one layman, Michael Ne- added a new dimension to the spread of Established to provide for the slow but ville. Masses were said there only when Catholicism by arranging for five Irish Sis- steady increase of Catholics in southern Father James Smyth peri- ters of Mercy to come to New England, no one could have predicted odically rode his sorrel Connecticut from the Dio- that within two years the new diocese horse the 20 miles north- cese of Pittsburgh. Led by would be confronted with a tidal wave of west from New Haven. Mother Frances Warde, a refugees fleeing from the Great Hunger in Fortunately in summer native of County Leix, Sis- Ireland. 1847, Waterbury’s Episco- ters Teresa Murray, Baptist Bishop Tyler’s original flock totaled just palians put their St. John’s Coleman, Camillus Byrne under 10,000 souls, 4,817 in Connecticut, Church up for sale in order and Lucy Lyons established 5,180 in Rhode Island. But by 1847, just to build a bigger house of both convents and subse- halfway through the Great Hunger, a Baptist worship. The Catholic com- quently schools in Hartford periodical was amazed at the multiplication munity jumped at the op- and New Haven. of Catholics: “We can remember the time portunity and paid $1,500 The sudden burst of Ca- when there was not a single half dozen Ro- for St. John’s and hired a tholicism in what was New man Catholics in Hartford … Now we have a contractor to move it to the England’s most Puritanical Catholic congregation of some 1,500 … and corner of East Main and stronghold caused much we hear of their establishing more churches Dublin streets. debate and controversy. A in many of the manufacturing towns in the Father O’Neill arrived in letter to the editor of the state …” town that autumn. He Hartford Courant in 1855 Witnessing the dedication of St. John’s boarded with the Neville painted an alarming situa- Catholic Church in Middletown in 1852, an family and assumed the tion. “The Roman Hierar- observer wrote: “Dedication of churches to double challenges of estab- chy is an organization man- This caricature of a Catho- Catholic worship are now almost of weekly lishing what eventually aged in secret for the ag- lic bishop shows him arriv- occurrence throughout the country, but became Immaculate Con- grandizement of an Apos- ing in America wearing a nowhere more so than in the Diocese of ception parish while trans- tate Priesthood and wholly papal crown and carrying Hartford … Localities in this state where forming the Episcopalian antagonistic to Human Vatican decrees and other five or six years since a Catholic priest was house of worship into a Rights,” charged the writer propaganda. a rare sight, are now supplied with church- Catholic church. “So ener- who signed his letter es, pastors and congregations … ” getically did he labor,” “American.” Bishop Tyler left no stone unturned to reported one historian of the Hartford Dio- A Farmington resident, using the initials deal with the crisis. In a plea for financial cese, “and so generously did his flock coop- M.A.L., wrote a five stanza poem titled support to the Society for the Propagation erate that on Christmas Day 1847, he had “Papists in Our Midst” on the dangers of the of the Faith in Paris, he wrote, “Almost the happiness of offering for the first time Catholic clergy. The final stanza summa- without exception (the Catholics are) Irish within its walls the Holy Sacrifice of the rized: who have been driven to this country by Mass …” “Watch then husbands, fathers, brothers! poverty … A great number arrive every year Another of the original priests from All “Watch this hated Romish faith! … They readily undertake the hardest la- Hallows College was Father Luke Daly, a “Watch, ye wives, sisters, mothers! bour to make a living and readily contribute native of County Cavan. Assigned first to “Watch! And fight it unto death.” to support the priests who serve them. But Holy Trinity Church in Hartford, Daly in they are poor and need support to build May 1849 became the first pastor of St. Other Protestants set about to convert churches and school-houses and to estab- Mary’s Church in New Britain with his terri- the Irish Catholics, while admitting it to be a lish religious institutions …” tory including Farmington, Plainville, New- difficult task. James H. Cooley, described as “Missionary to the Irish Romanists in Wa- In a visit to Ireland in 1847, Tyler was ington, Bristol, Forestville, Collinsville, New terbury,” wrote in the American and Chris- able to enlist the first of many Irish-born Hartford, Tariffville and Simsbury. tian Union newspaper: “Your missionary priests for the Hartford Diocese from All Father James Lynch, another All Hallows has been in the field six months. He has Hallows College at Drumcondra near Dub- graduate, ministered to towns in western made an average 100 visits a month among lin. The college was founded in 1842 specif- Connecticut. In 1845, he came from Bridge- the lowly, held 45 prayer meetings, ically to train seminarians for foreign mis- port in Fairfield County to say Mass in the preached 35 times and lectured five times sions. Father Michael O’Neill was one of home of Bridget Dunning in Sharon in Li- on Romanism. We have had during that those recruits. Fresh out of Drumcondra, he tchfield County. He also was responsible for time six conversions.”

6 Families shattered in headlong flight from starvation

he floodtide of refugees from the and towns in America. Their work, pub- sailed from Dublin, the 4th of May last with T Great Hunger in Ireland separated lished in several volumes by the Irish stud- Mary Banan, maiden name, Mary Lawless, thousands of families, in part because the ies program at Northeastern University and from the parish of Allen, Co. Kildare. … ad- impoverished Irish came to America not in the New England Historic Genealogical dress James Banan, Falls Village, Ct. families but individually. A father or moth- Society, is a testament to the magnitude of Aug. 14, 1847 — Information wanted of er would scrimp to save enough money for sufferings during and after the famine. William Collins of Templebrien, Co. Cork, passage, then save what money they could Listed below is just a tiny sample of the who left home last May for Boston, in com- and send it home to pay fare for family Connecticut ads in the Boston Pilot. pany with his son and son-in-law, … ad- members, one by one if necessary. dress his son John Collins, Derby, New Ha- The sometimes heartbreaking hardships “Information wanted” ven County, Ct. can be found in various documents from Dec 23, 1848 – Information wanted of June 8, 1850 — Information wanted of that era. On one page of the 1850 census Patrick Sullivan, 20 years old, native of Thomas Donahue of Ballyegran, Co. Limer- returns for New London, CT, a hand writ- County Kerry, who sailed from Cove of ick, town of Rossmore, who sailed from ten note records the names James, William Cork, 10 November 1847, in ship Malvina, Liverpool in November 1848. Last heard of and Thomas Kelly, ages 30, 3 and 2; and Capt. Maloney; was wrecked and driven in Ohio … address his brother, William, care James and Mary Kane, 32 and 31, Jonathan back to Cork; sailed again on 6 January of Michael Smyth, West Cornwall, Ct. Kane, 1. The note reads: “These persons 1848, and not heard from since. Infor- Aug. 25, 1849 — Information wanted of constituted a family on 1 June 1850 … Yes- mation respecting him will be thankfully Patrick Heraty of Co. Mayo, who landed at terday, Aug. 9, it is understood they dis- received by his father, Michael Sullivan, Boston about the 1st of July last … address persed, some to Massachusetts, some to Bristol Coppermine, Hartford County, Ct. his sister. Direct to Mrs. Mary Burke, New New York.” The list of deaths that occurred April 28, 1849 – Information wanted of London, Ct. during the census taking suggests why the Ellen and John McCanna age 12, of Dun- family was thus broken up — the death of Aug. 12, 1848 — Information wanted of drum, Co. Armagh, These children left the Roseanna Kelly, apparently the mother. Thomas and Patrick Conlon, the former Bellevue Hospital, April 17, 1847, Their who came to this country about May 1846 Another case of an uprooted Irish immi- father, Daniel McKenna, died in the hospital and the latter about a year after. When last grant family was reported in North Haven on the 27th of the same month … (Contact) heard they were living in the vicinity of where a town official noted: “Some time their mother Ellen McCanna, (address) to Boston. Direct to Winifred Conlon, care of last September or October an Irish family James McCleland, Norwich, Ct. Prof. John Johnston, Middletown, Ct. on their way to Boston stopped at North Jan. 6, 1849 — Information wanted of Haven with a sick child unable to go further Patrick McAneny, Ennis, County Clare, who Mother, child united in Willimantic and within a day or two another of the fam- was in the employ of Mr. Carmichael, con- ily was taken sick and both under the doc- It is impossible to know how many of tractor, at Barryville Pennsylvania in June tor’s care and the whole family consisting these stories of people lost and families last. Any information respecting him will be of six persons were provided for by the dispersed ended sadly or happily, but one received by Henry Roche, New Haven, Ct., selectmen of our town for about a month.” did end with a joyous reunion at the rail- Oct. 26, 1850 — Information wanted of road station in Willimantic, CT. William, John, James and Elizabeth Moran Family members missing A young girl by herself clutching in her of the parish Of Abbeyleix, Queens County. hand a letter sent from Willimantic some One valuable resource for locating indi- They sailed from Ross in May 1847 and months before arrived at the railroad sta- viduals and families lost under such cir- landed in Montre al. When last heard from tion in that Windham County city in late cumstances were want ads in newspapers, were in Bavery, Sheffield, Canada West … 1853, according to the Derby Journal. especially Irish American newspapers. The (Contact) Ann Moran, address, Michael Boston Pilot, weekly of the Boston diocese, Neville, Waterbury Ct. The letter, reported the newspaper, indi- published in each issue columns of adver- cated it had contained a draft to pay for the Sept. 28, 1850 — Information wanted of tisements under the caption “Information little girl’s passage from Ireland. Passersby Bridget Looby, native of County Tipperary, Wanted.” The ads listed the names of those read the letter but did not know how to parish of Latin, who left Ireland 17th March being sought, details of their home towns in help the girl. Then a young woman entered last and landed either in New York, Boston Ireland, when they sailed for or landed in the station and ”looked searchingly around or Que bec. Information respecting her will America and the addresses of those who until her eye fell on the little stranger.” The be thankfully received by her brother, John placed the ads. It was hoped that the miss- young woman darted to the child and Looby, Wolcottville, Litchfield County, Ct. ing might see the ads and respond. clasped her in her arms. July 21, 1849—Information wanted of In the 1980s, a group of researchers in Mother and daughter had been separated James McCormick, a native of County Ros- Boston set out to copy and republish in a about three years before. When they left common, Frenchpark, left Greenwich, Ct., in number of volumes thousands of these the depot in Willimantic, they were en- June 1848 … his mother, Bridget McCor- advertisements. The researchers indexed twined in each other’s arms, kissing and mick, Greenwich, Ct. the ads by names, dates of immigration, pouring out with tears most tender expres- counties and towns in Ireland, and states Sept. 30, 1848 — Information wanted of sions of love and joy. John McGrath, stone mason, from Naas,

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The Shanachie

Published quarterly by the President George Waldron Connecticut Irish-American “We have kept faith Vice President Vincent McMahon Historical Society with the past; P.O. Box 185833 Secretary Patricia Heslin

Hamden, CT 06518 Treasurer Mary McMahon we have handed (203) 392-6126 Membership Chairperson Joan Murphy a tradition www.ctiahs.com Shanachie Editor Neil Hogan to the future.” [email protected] Webmaster Finbarr Moynihan https://www.facebook.com/CT Irish American Historical Society In Ireland, a Shanachie is a folklorist, historian and keeper of the traditions of the people. Padraic Pearse

Connecticut Irish-American Historical Society P.O. Box 185833 Hamden, CT 06518

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