Individual Irishmen appeared early on the scene in Illinois. They came
in a military capacity. Having no government of their own to serve, they
served others. The Irishman who had the distinction of first figuring in
our annals was a Chevalier Macarty, who succeeded LaBussoniere in 1751,
in the command of the first French fortress erected in the Mississippi
valley—that of Chartres. He came from New Orleans with a small military
force, and remained in charge until 1764, when he delivered up that
stronghold to the English, according to the treaty of 1763, by which
France yielded up all her Canadian possessions by right of conquest to
her ancient enemy.
Canada at that time extended to the Ohio river on the south and to the
Mississippi on the west. There was not yet any map bearing the name of
the Empire state of the West. There was only a tribe of Indians
inhabiting a portion of the immense Northwest named the “Illini,” that
had its name given to the territory at the dividing up. Beyond the
Mississippi was Spanish territory.
Under the French and Spanish systems of colonization at that date,
Indian missions, military posts and towns went together. Old Kaskaskia,
in what is now Randolph county, was the first seat of civilization in
the great Mississippi basin, and was for a time the capital of the
territory. Here many stirring events took place for many eventful years.
In addition to a mission and a fort near by, it was made of greater
importance with a legislature.
Pere Marquette, the apostle of several states, laid its foundation in
the year 1675, one hundred years before the breaking out of the war for
American independence. Here savages and whites commingled. Also, the
soldiers of France, Great Britain and America. And wherever there are
soldiers there is to be found the ubiquitous Irishman. There was to be
found French contentment, savage resentment and pioneer endurance.
Vincennes, Pittsburg and Detroit were its nearest neighbors on the great
Western expanse. But, like the sites of Tyre and Sidon, famous in
ancient history, it exists no more, the encroaching waters of the
Mississippi having washed it away and made it a memory.
After the capitulation of Quebec in 1763 the British claimed ownership
of the whole of the French territory known as Canada, and prepared to
garrison all the forts the French had erected, including Detroit,
Peoria, Vincennes, Chartres, Cahokia, Kaskaskia, etc. The last-named
three were situated on the Mississippi river, and somewhat contiguous.
On the 27th day of February, 1764, a Major Loftus of the British army,
then on duty in Florida, was ordered to proceed to Fort Chartres and
take possession of it. His name indicates his Irish origin, but if there
be any mistake in this, there certainly was not in his soldiers. They
were of the Twenty-second British regiment, and were mostly Irishmen.
Here, then, was presented the peculiar spectacle of one Irish commander
in the service of a country not his own being required to evacuate his
command to another Irishman in the service of a different country not
his own. It reminds the writer somewhat of the siege of Quebec by
Richard Montgomery, an Irishman in the service of the United States,
when he asked its British commander, Sir Guy Carleton, another Irishman,
and an old schoolmate, to surrender to the Continental Congress. But
Major Loftus was not fortunate any more than General Montgomery. On the
way he and his command were attacked by the Indians, who killed many of
the soldiers, the remainder escaping down the Mississippi. Thus was the
first Irish blood spilled in the Mississippi valley.
Then another Irish officer, also in the British service, named George
Croghan, was ordered by Governor Murray to go forward and secure the
desired possession. Croghan had been quite a conspicuous figure in the
British interest in those days in America. He ranked as major, and had
been for many years a trader among the Western Indians. Hardly another
white man was in the prairie country before him. In describing the
country afterwards, he said it looked like an ocean. The ground was
exceedingly rich and full of all kinds of game, and at any time, in half
an hour, he could kill all he wanted. He was commanded to go from Fort
Pitt to make the way clear for the British advance to Forts Cahokia and
Chartres. It was not the French alone that were to be considered, but
the Indian chieftains as well. He first sent forward a Lieutenant Fraser
to see the way clear, but the latter received rough treatment at
Kaskaskia and returned unsuccessful.
It was said that Chief Pontiac was egged on to kill him, but he escaped
without serious injury. Then Colonel Croghan, who was also a British
deputy superintendent of Indian affairs, went forward himself. He left
Fort Pitt (now Pittsburg) on May 15, 1765, accompanied by a party of
friendly Indians. His progress was uninterrupted until he arrived at a
small promontory on the Wabash, where he disembarked. On June 8, six
miles below the stream he was suddenly attacked by a band of Kickapoos,
eighty in number. In the fight which followed Croghan lost two white men
and three Indians, while most of his party, including himself, were
wounded. A surrender was unavoidable, and the victorious Kickapoos
plundered the entire party. Subsequently the Indians confessed they had
made a great mistake, and expressed sorrow for what had happened. They
supposed, they said, that the friendly Indians accompanying Croghan were
their deadly enemies, the Cherokees. They brought their prisoners in
safety to Vincennes on the Wabash, where the Indians, many of whom had
friendly acquaintance with Croghan, strongly condemned the Kickapoos,
and the latter in turn expressed deep sorrow for what they persisted in
calling a blunder.
Further on the way he received a message from St. Ange, the late French
commander, cordially inviting him to advance to Fort Chartres. He had
proceeded but a short distance on his way, however, when he was met by a
delegation of chiefs, representing various tribes of Indians, among whom
was the hitherto implacable Pontiac, the great warrior, at the head of a
large band of Ottawa braves, offering their services as an escort. At
this juncture, and under this condition of things, Croghan did not deem
it necessary to proceed further in person, the British claim to the
territory being acknowledged by both French and Indians. This happy
result showed that the Irishman must have used his diplomatic powers to
excellent advantage. He then betook himself to Detroit to attend to
other important business in the interest of his royal master, leaving
his command in charge of another officer.
Accompanied by Pontiac, Croghan crossed to Fort Miami and, descending
the Miami, held conferences with the different tribes dwelling in the
immense forests which sheltered the banks of the stream. Passing thence
up the Detroit, he arrived at the fort on the 17th of August, where he
found a vast concourse of neighboring tribes. The fear of punishment and
the long privations they had suffered from the suspension of their trade
had banished every thought of hostility, and all were anxious for peace
and its attendant blessings. After numerous interviews with the
different tribes in the old town hall where Pontiac first essayed the
execution of his treachery, Croghan called a final meeting on the 27th
of August. Imitating the forest eloquence with which he had long been
familiar, he thus addressed the convention:
“Children, we are very glad to see so many of you present at your
ancient council fire, which has been neglected for some time past. Since
then high winds have blown and raised heavy clouds over your country. I
now by this belt rekindle your ancient fires and throw dry wood upon
them that the blaze may ascend to heaven, so that all nations may see it
and know that you live in peace with your fathers, the English. By this
belt I disperse all the black clouds from over your heads that the sun
may shine clear on your women and children, and that those unborn may
enjoy the blessings of this general peace, now so happily settled
between your fathers, the English, and you and all your younger brethren
toward the sunsetting.”
The following was Pontiac’s reply: “Father, we have all smoked together
out of this peace pipe, and as the great Spirit has brought us together
for good, I declare to all the nations that I have made peace with the
English. In the presence of all the tribes now assembled I take the king
of England for my father and dedicate this to his use that henceforth we
may visit him and smoke together in peace.”
The object of Croghan’s visit being thus accomplished he was prepared to
depart, but before doing so he exacted a promise from Pontiac that the
following spring he would appear at Oswego and enter into a treaty with
Sir William Johnson in behalf of the Western nations associated with him
in the late war.
In September, 1768, came John Wilkins, lieutenant-colonel of “His
Majesty’s Eighteenth or Royal Regiment of Ireland,” and commandant
throughout the Illinois country. Several companies of this regiment came
with him from Philadelphia and occupied quarters at Kaskaskia. The
experience of those troops was not good, but it was common to that of
all new comers in the aguish “American Bottom.” The sickness among them
was not only very great, but very fatal. At one time, out of five
companies only a corporal and six men were found fit for duty.
Capt. Hugh Lord became the next commander of the Royal Irish regiment,
and continued so until the year 1775. The British governor at Kaskaskia
at this time was a Chevalier Rocheblave, strange to say, a Frenchman. It
was at this time that the colonists began to defy George III, and the
Irish soldiers of the old French outposts were persistent in showing
sympathy for them, and their leaning toward the American cause was such
that poor old Rocheblave declared it worried him to see men of British
birth giving him more trouble than the French. After a time most of the
Irish soldiers of Britain were drawn off for service elsewhere, and the
French residents were organized into militia. Their captain was one
Richard McCarty, a resident of Cahokia. There was another McCarty who
built a water mill on the Cahokia creek near Illinoistown at a later
date, who was known as “English McCarty.”
In 1777 Irish-Americans began to appear on the scene, with the invasion
of Gen. George Rogers Clark, the Virginian. What Clark’s ancestry was
remains in some doubt. His biographer, English, thinks his ancestors
came from Albion, but is able to give no particulars. At any rate, he
conquered that portion of British territory that had formerly belonged
to the French, and from which five sovereign states of the Union have
been carved. His army was composed of Virginians and Pennsylvanians,
many of whom were Irish either by birth or by blood. He was materially
assisted by the French settlers, under the leadership of Father Gibault,
the republican priest of Kaskaskia. To the latter and one Col. Francis
Vigo, a native of Sardinia, who was married to an Irish lady (a Miss
Shannon), was the success of the Virginian invasion mostly due, and the
annexation of the prairie country to American territory.
Clark affiliated very closely with the Irish. It is due to him to say
that he was a brave and generous man, whose services to his young
country can never be forgotten. His invasion of this wilderness and its
conquest, it must be remembered, was under the direction of Gov. Patrick
Henry of Virginia, and to him alone he was responsible. The first of his
Irish relatives to deserve notice was William Croghan, a nephew of Maj.
George Croghan, the British officer already alluded to. He cherished no
love in his heart for Great Britain or her monarch. He had resigned the
British for the American service. He left Ireland for America when quite
young, and was long in the employ of the British as an Indian agent,
like his uncle. He joined the American forces at Pittsburg and witnessed
the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. He married Lucy Clark Rogers,
sister of the famous general. When he joined the American forces he was
assigned to Colonel Werder’s Virginia regiment, shortly after the battle
of Long Island, and continued in active service for years.
He was promoted to the rank of major in 1778, and was assigned to Col.
John Neville’s Fourth Virginia regiment and participated in the battle
of Monmouth. He marched with the Virginia troops to Charleston, S. C.,
where the whole American army at that place was compelled to surrender
to the enemy. In 1781 he was paroled and went to Virginia with his
friend, Col. Jonathan Clark, brother of the general, and for a time was
the guest of Colonel Clark’s father in Caroline county. It was there he
met the woman who was destined to be his wife. He was afterwards a
delegate to the Kentucky convention of 1789–’90, and was one of the
commissioners to divide the land allotted to the soldiers engaged in the
conquest of the Northwest. He left six sons and two daughters.
One of his daughters became the wife of Thomas Jessup, adjutant-general,
U. S. A. His son George married a Miss Livingston, of the noted New York
family. This son George greatly distinguished himself at the battle of
Tippecanoe in 1811, and subsequently in the Mexican War. He was a major
at the time of his defense of Fort Stephenson at Lower Sandusky, and
Congress presented him with a medal for his gallantry. A splendid
monument has been erected to his memory at Fremont, Ohio. The elder
Croghan died in 1822, and his widow in 1838.
Frances Eleanor Clark, youngest daughter of the old hero, married Dr.
James O’Fallon, whom the memoir says was a finely-educated Irishman who
came to America shortly before the Revolution. He was an officer during
the War for Independence, and was the founder of the well-known O’Fallon
family of St. Louis, which has been so conspicuous in the history of
that great city. There is also a town named after one of the members of
this family in St. Clair county, this state. To his two grandsons, John
and Benjamin O’Fallon, General Clark willed 3,000 acres of land.
Another nephew and heir of the general was George Rogers Clark Sullivan,
who was honorably identified with Indian affairs during the territorial
period, and who left a long line of prominent descendants, after one of
which is named Sullivan county in that state.
In Gen. George Rogers Clark’s force for the conquest of Kaskaskia,
Cahokia, and Vincennes were many men with Irish names, and when we take
into account the Irish then so very numerous in Pennsylvania and
Virginia, it would not be surprising if one half of it was composed of
Irishmen and Irish-Americans. In this force were 236 privates, besides
officers. Some of the names of the latter are as follows: Major Thomas
Quirk (who was originally a sergeant in Captain McHarrod’s company and
rendered some military service on the frontier before and after the
Illinois campaign). Clark’s biographer says, “Quirk was a brave and a
fine-looking Irishman.” He died in Louisville, Kentucky, in the fall of
1803. He was allotted 4,312 acres of land for his valuable army
services.
Capt. John Montgomery, who is stated in one place to be “an Irishman
full of fight,” was one of Clark’s most valued officers, and had been
one of the celebrated party of “Long Hunters.”
Col. John Campbell, who was one of the commissioners for the allotment
of Clark’s land grant of 149,000 acres, to the men engaged in his
Illinois campaigns, was an Irishman by birth, and a man accredited with
much force of character. He was a member of the Kentucky convention of
1792, and a member of the legislature. He died without issue. After
Campbell came James F. Moore, Alex. Breckenridge, Richard Taylor, and
Robert Breckenridge, as land commissioners. James F. Moore had been a
soldier under Clark, and also, subsequently, a member of the Kentucky
house of representatives.
Here are names that are suggestive of subsequent presidents of the
United States. Richard Taylor was a native of Virginia, of Irish
extraction. He removed in 1785 to Kentucky; was a soldier of the
Revolution, holding the rank of lieutenant-colonel at its close. He was
the father of the hero of the Rio Grande, Gen. Zachary Taylor, twelfth
president of the United States. Robert Breckenridge, also of Irish
extraction, was a member of the Kentucky legislature, and speaker of the
house of representatives several times. He was the ancestor of John C.
Breckenridge, vice-president with James Buchanan, and subsequently a
presidential candidate himself.
Col. Archibald Lochrey was county lieutenant of Westmoreland county,
Pennsylvania, and started with his command from Carnahan’s block-house
August, 1781, to join Gen. Clark’s Illinois forces, with a company of
volunteer riflemen raised by Capt. Robert Orr; two companies of rangers
under Capt. Thomas Stockley, and a company of horse under Capt. William
Campbell, for the reduction of Detroit, then in the possession of the
British. Stockley was met and defeated by Indians in the British
service. In fact, the whole of Col. Lochrey’s expedition was defeated,
forty-one men being killed, and the rest taken prisoners. When certain
facts with regard to the British forces became known at Kaskaskia, it
was determined to raise a small American force and make a raid against
Fort St. Joseph, a British post situated on the St. Joseph river.
The company consisted of only seventeen men and was commanded by Thomas
Brady, a patriotic Irish-American citizen of Cahokia, who had emigrated
thither from Pennsylvania, and who was described as being “both restless
and daring.” He marched across the country in October and succeeded in
eluding the Indian guards and capturing the place, taking a few British
prisoners, together with a large quantity of goods. Being
over-confident, on his return he was attacked by a force of
Pottawattomies and British traders, hastily organized for the purpose,
and while lying encamped on the Calumet river, near Chicago, was
defeated. Two of his men were killed, two wounded, and ten taken
prisoners. Brady, with two others, suceeded in making their escape, and
returned to Cahokia. But he did not rest until he organized another
expedition to rescue his friends and avenge his defeat. He was joined by
a party of Spaniards from the west side of the Mississippi, then Spanish
territory, and retook the place without striking a blow, and the Spanish
flag for a short time replaced the British. The event was a small one,
but Spain had the hardihood to demand the country on account of it.
This Thomas Brady, and one William Arundel (an Irishman from Canada, and
an Indian trader in Cahokia in 1783) and Capt. Richard McCarty, already
mentioned, and a small party of hunters that joined General Clark’s
expedition in 1778, were the only white men in Illinois territory
besides the French Canadians, and a few old soldiers, at the time of
Clark’s conquest. They resided at Cahokia. Brady was afterwards sheriff
of St. Clair county.
Among other names of officers that are likely to have been Irish or
Irish-American in Clark’s army, are those of Col. Benjamin Logan, Capt.
John Baily, Capt. Robert Orr, Capt. William Campbell, Col. William
Davis, Lieut. Martin Carney, Thomas Dalton, and Major Denny.
General Clark wrote a letter to the governor of Virginia (Patrick Henry)
from Kentucky on October 12, 1782, in which he said, “I had the pleasure
of receiving your letter by Major Walls and Mr. Kearney, the 30th of
July past, at which time the gentlemen arrived with stores all safe,
after surmounting uncommon difficulties. They arrived in time to save
troops from deserting.” This shows that the Irish were pretty well in
evidence both in Virginia and the Northwest at that period.
Subjoined is a list of the privates taken from one page only of the
printed roster of Clark’s soldiers of the Illinois expedition, that were
entitled to receive, each, 108 acres of land, as printed in English’s
life of General Clark: Moses Lunsford, Abraham Lusado, Richard Luttrell,
John Lyons, Joseph Lyne, Francis McDermott, David McDonald, John McGar,
Alex. McIntyre, Geo. McMannus, Sr.; John McMannus, Jr., Samuel McMullen,
James McNutt, Florence Mahoney, Jonas Manifee, Patrick Marr, Charles
Martin, Nathaniel Mersham, Abraham Miller, John Montgomery, James
Monroe, John Moore, Thomas Moore, John Murphy, and Edward Murray.
James Curry was the name of one of Clark’s soldiers who proved himself a
rather extraordinary fellow, and a fearless pioneer. A band of Indians
had wounded a comrade of his named Levi Teel, in his own house, when
Curry was present. Seeing the enemy coming he jumped up into the loft of
the house, with the hope of driving them away before Teel could have
time to open the door to admit them. He shot three times and killed an
Indian every time. He then got down to see what had happened to Teel,
and found him transfixed by one of his hands with a spear to the floor.
Curry got up again into the loft and tumbled the whole roof down,
weight-poles and all, on the Indians, who were standing at the door with
spears in their hands. Their chief was killed, and the others ran away.
Curry hurried to Kaskaskia for help, and at last saved himself and
companions from death. He was at the capture of Fort Gage and Sackville,
the names given by the British to the old French forts. Curry was a
great athlete, contending in all sorts of games, and was not unlike
Thomas Higgins, another great Irish Indian-fighter of a later date. In
all desperate and hazardous services, Clark chose him first of all, to
act in places of peril and danger. Curry and Joseph Anderson, who
afterwards lived and died on Nine Mile Creek, Randolph county, went out
hunting, and the Indians, it is supposed, killed Curry, as he went out
from their camp and never returned. This was the sad end of one of our
bravest and most patriotic Irish-American heroes, “the noble-hearted
James Curry,” as he is styled in history, and whose services were so
conspicuous in the conquest of Illinois. His body was never recovered.
Edward Bulger was a private in Capt. Joseph Bowman’s company in the
Illinois campaign. He was afterwards an ensign in Capt. William Harrod’s
expedition against Vincennes, and in General Clark’s first expedition
against the Indians in Ohio. He was mortally wounded in the battle of
Blue Licks, 1782, at which time he had been promoted to the rank of
major. He was one of the early explorers of Kentucky, where he was with
Hite, Bowman, and others in the spring of 1775. These were probably the
first white visitors to what subsequently became Warren county. Hugh
Lynch was another of this party, and William Buchanan another. Daniel
Murray was the name of an Irishman who supplied provisions for Clark’s
Illinois army.
One of the forgotten heroic men who did great service to the republic in
the Revolutionary War was Oliver Pollock, an Irishman born. He performed
the same kind of service in the West that Robert Morris performed in the
East. He financed General Clark’s military campaign in Illinois and
Indiana, and without his aid they must have been failures. He was born
in Ireland in the year 1737 and came to America with his father. On
account of his intimacy with General O’Reilly, who was then governor of
Cuba, he was able to borrow from the royal treasury of Spain the sum of
$70,000, which he lent to the state of Virginia for Clark’s use in the
campaigns mentioned. He was not reimbursed, and consequently was not
able to make good what he had borrowed, which caused his arrest and
imprisonment in Havana. He died in Mississippi in 1823.
In 1777, when Clark was approaching Kaskaskia to surprise the British,
then in possession of the fort, he took two men from a party of American
hunters led by one John Duff, that he met on the way, to act as his
spies. They had left Kaskaskia but a few days before. These men were
James Moore and Thomas Dunn, as to whose nationality, from their names,
there can be no mistake.
General St. Clair, a Scotsman, was afterwards military commander of the
Northwest. He was succeeded by General Anthony (Mad Anthony) Wayne, who
conducted the war with the Indians in 1791. Under St. Clair the battle
of Fort Henry was fought and resulted in a great American disaster. But
General Wayne gained a great victory at the Maumee Rapids on August 20,
1794, which led to the suspension of hostilities.
One of the authorities that we had recourse to in writing these annals
is the “Pioneer History of Illinois,” by ex-Governor John Reynolds, a
man of Irish parentage, born in Pennsylvania, and who filled nearly
every office, legislative, judicial, and administrative, in the state of
Illinois. His place of residence was Cahokia, a short distance north of
St. Louis, on the Illinois side.
John Reynolds in his “Pioneer Days,” described his father as “an
Irishman who hated England with a ten horse-power,” and there is no
surmise in saying that he himself hated her just as much, as he was an
ardent admirer of “Old Hickory.” Neither did he want to be set down as
an Anglo-Saxon. He repulsed the insinuation in the following emphatic
language:
“Our old enemies, the English, and their American friends, give us the
name of new Anglo-Saxons. It is true the most of the Americans are the
descendants of Europeans, but the preponderance of blood is not of the
Anglo-Saxon race. There are more of the descendants of the Irish and
Germans in the United States than of the English.” If that were true
seventy years ago, certainly it is so to a far greater extent now.
We have already alluded, in connection with Curry’s achievements as an
Indian fighter, to the name of Tom Higgins. One of his noted encounters
with Indians is described in Governor Reynolds’ book, with thrilling
effect. This noted Irish-American pioneer resided in Fayette county for
many years, where he raised a large family, and died in 1829. He
received a pension, pursued farming, and at one time was doorkeeper of
the general assembly at Vandalia.
John Edgar was a merchant at Kaskaskia, and at that time the richest man
in the territory. His wife was a lady of rare talents, and presided over
the finest and most hospitable mansion in Kaskaskia. At this house was
entertained General Lafayette, when he visited this country in 1825. Mr.
Edgar’s memory is honored by having an Illinois county named for him.
In Mrs. Robert Morrison, Kaskaskia possessed another lady of Irish
ancestry who was an ornament to Illinois society at that early day. Mrs.
Morrison was reared and educated in the city of Baltimore, and in 1805
she accompanied her brother, Colonel Donaldson, to St. Louis, then in
the far-off wilds of the West, whither he was sent as a commissioner to
investigate the title lands. She was married the following year to
Robert Morrison of Kaskaskia, which place became her residence
thereafter. Well educated, sprightly and energetic, she possessed a mind
gifted with originality, imagination, and romance. Her delight was in
the rosy field of poetry.
Her pen was seldom idle. She composed with a ready facility and her
writings possessed a high degree of merit. Her contributions to the
scientific publications of Philadelphia, and other periodicals of the
period, in both verse and prose, were much admired. Nor did the
political discussions of her day escape her ready pen.
She was a member of the Roman Catholic communion, and shed lustre on her
co-religionists. The Morrison family is one of the best known,
politically and socially, in the state. While Mrs. Edgar entertained
General Lafayette at a grand reception, Mrs. Morrison entertained him
with a grand ball on the occasion referred to.
The territory of Illinois was organized on the 16th day of June, 1809.
Michael Jones and E. Backus were appointed respectively registrar and
receiver of the land office in Kaskaskia. At this time one McCawley, an
Irishman, had penetrated further into the interior of the territory than
any one else—to the crossing of the Little Wabash by the Vincennes road.
The writer cannot resist the temptation to relate an anecdote of Gen.
James Shields, a hero of the Mexican War, who cut so conspicuous a
figure in old Kaskaskia days. The anecdote he related himself, in a
lecture delivered in Chicago shortly before his death. He arrived in
Illinois on foot soon after he left Ireland for America, looking for
employment. On the way, he fell in with a young man engaged in a similar
pursuit, and who was companionable, so they traveled together. Reaching
Kaskaskia, Mr. Shields secured employment there, as a school teacher,
and remained. His companion was not so successful, and went on,
traveling in the direction of St. Louis. Shields rapidly rose from one
position of distinction to another, and when the Mexican War was
declared he was filling the position of a land commissioner at
Washington.
He hastened to Kaskaskia with President Polk’s commission in his pocket,
to raise an Illinois regiment, of which he was to be colonel. He was
successful in this, went to Mexico, and distinguished himself in several
battles, in one of which he was supposed to be mortally wounded, but
recovered. He became a general and a hero. When the war was over and he
returned to the United States he was lionized and invited to a number of
state fairs and cities as an attraction. St. Louis honored him in this
way, and made unusual preparations for his reception. The mayor and
corporation went out to receive him. His reception was most cordial. The
mayor grasped him warmly by the hand and looked him significantly in the
face. “Do you not know me, General?” “I do not, Mr. Mayor, who are you?”
“I am the man who tramped with you to Kaskaskia, many years ago, and
walked on to St. Louis.”
“Good God! I am delighted to see you,” was the exclamation of his
distinguished guest.
The Irish not only made history in those early days, but have also
written it. To the pen of John B. Dillon of Indiana, we are indebted for
the best history of the Northwest; to John Gilmary Shea of New York, we
are under obligation for a complete knowledge of the early Catholic
missions among the Indians, and ex-Governor Reynolds has narrated for us
our own pioneer story, with its varied conditions, its many deprivations
and numerous deeds of daring. For many of the incidents in this essay,
especially those relating to Gen. George Rogers Clark and his men, and
the conquest of the Northwest, I am indebted to the “Life of General
Clark,” by Mr. English of Indiana.
Were it not for the fear of making this essay too long, I might show how
fifteen to twenty names of Illinois counties have Irish associations;
what prominent parts Irishmen and the sons of Irishmen of Illinois took
in the War of 1812, the Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, and the War of
the Rebellion; how they filled gubernatorial chairs, prominent positions
in state and nation, as the representatives of the people; how they have
been foremost in the professions of law, medicine, and divinity. On the
muster roll of famous men they have three Logans, the two Reynolds,
Carlin, Kinney, Ford, Kane, Shields, Ewing, McLaughlin, Mulligan,
Medill, Ryan, and many others too numerous to mention. Not as public and
professional men alone has the Irish contingent been valuable to the
state of Illinois, but also as tillers of the soil, as miners and
manufacturers; for in the infantile condition of our commonwealth the
men of hardest muscle and most exacting toil were our Irish immigrants.
They did the excavating on our canals, and the grading on our first
railroads, and wherever hard work was to be performed, there you were
sure to find Paddy with his spade and pipe. May I not claim that that
herculean form representing “the Digger,” in the statue of Mulligan,
standing at the entrance of the Drainage Canal, near Chicago, answers
for the Irish canaler of former as well as of later days?
Nearly fifty years ago Thomas D’Arcy McGee, an Irish-American poet, and
at the time of his death a leading statesman of Canada, of wide fame and
renowned memory, wrote of the Irish prairie farmer in Illinois as
follows:
“’Tis ten long years since Eileen bawn
Adventured with her Irish boy
Across the seas and settled on
A prairie farm in Illinois.
“Sweet waves the sea of summer flowers
Around our wayside cot so coy,
Where Eileen sings away the hours
That light my task in Illinois.