Kentucky was admitted to the Union as a state June 1, 1792, but long
before that time Irishmen had invaded the “Dark and Bloody Ground.”
Indeed, when Daniel Boone took time to write a little history for future
generations, on one occasion, by carving in the bark of a tree with his
jack-knife: “Here D. Boone Cilled a Bar,” it is not improbable that an
Irishman was within speaking distance.
Simon Kenton, the companion of Boone, and who came to Kentucky in 1771,
was of Irish parentage. His father was born in County Donegal. Another
Irish companion was Michael Stoner. Kenton’s life was even more romantic
than Boone’s. While yet a minor he fled from his state because he
believed he had killed a rival for the hand of a fair Virginia damsel,
and, coming to the wilds of Kentucky, assumed the name of Simon Butler.
To recount his many deeds of personal bravery and privation would fill a
volume. Indeed, it was asserted by many that he was the greatest Indian
fighter the country ever produced.
In 1782, hearing that the man he had struck down with his fist was still
alive, he resumed his name, and in 1795 served as major under Gen.
Anthony Wayne. He founded Kenton’s Station and Maysville, and planted
the first corn raised in the state north of Kentucky river. Michael
Stoner, one of his companions, and Thomas Kennedy, another Irishman,
built a cabin and made some improvements on Stoner’s fork of Licking
river, in Bourbon county, in 1774. Future generations are indebted to
men of Irish blood for many of the early settlements of this state, made
under so much difficulty, and it would be impossible to fully treat the
subject in one paper or in a dozen, so romantic are many of the
characters.
Kentucky was only a colony or county of Virginia up to 1791, and the
latter state exercised full control over its lands until Gen. George
Rogers Clark disputed this right shortly before the state was admitted
to the Union. The records show that with the surveying parties sent out
by the state of Virginia to this territory were many men bearing Irish
names, not “Scotch-Irish,” but plain Irish.
Col. George Croghan, an Irishman, writing in his journal June 1, 1765,
says: “We arrived within a mile of the falls of the Ohio (Louisville)
where we encamped after coming 50 miles this day.” This was even before
Boone’s time. Colonel Croghan was a connection by marriage of Gen.
George Rogers Clark, who reduced the British possessions in the entire
Northwest and made it first possible for the United States, instead of
England, to acquire this territory. If General Clark was not an Irishman
himself, his records show that he had many Irishmen with him as
soldiers. His sister married William Croghan.
The first survey made of Louisville was in 1773 by Capt. Thomas Bullitt;
his associates were John Fitzpatrick, James, George and Robert McAfee.
Dr. John Connolly owned two thousand acres of land in Louisville in
1773. Col. John Campbell, a native of Ireland and a resident of
Louisville about this time, was afterward a member of the first state
constitutional convention, held in Danville in 1797.
Colonel Campbell was an Irish Presbyterian and proud that he was Irish.
He never mentioned once in any of his letters or speeches that he was
“Scotch-Irish,” though he made many speeches and wrote many letters. He
was speaker of the Kentucky house of representatives and afterward a
member of congress. He was often a delegate to the Presbyterian Synods
in Kentucky and was always spoken of as an Irishman, without any prefix,
though he was born in the province of Ulster. Colonel Campbell was a
pioneer of whom the Irish might well feel proud. He was an intense
patriot, and being a large landowner, sent for many of his countrymen to
come to Louisville, and this was another cause for swelling the early
Irish immigration to Kentucky.
William H. English spent much money and five years of his life writing a
history of the “Conquest of the Northwest Territory,” by George Rogers
Clark and his associates. While Mr. English may perhaps be forgotten by
future generations as the man who was the running mate of Gen. Winfield
S. Hancock on the Democratic presidential ticket of 1880, he will ever
be remembered by reason of the publication of this most accurate and
valuable history. He, during twenty years, collected while a congressman
and at other times, the names of nearly all the soldiers who were with
General Clark in his fights with the British and Indians, beginning in
1780, several years before Kentucky was a state. He devotes seven
hundred pages to the deeds of Clark and his men, and they deserve all of
it. It would take a good deal of space to give the Irish names in this
roll of Clark’s soldiers.
With General Clark came to Louisville, in 1778, John Haggin and John
Montgomery, and both were captains in his command. They landed at Corn
Island, in the Ohio river, at the head of the falls, opposite where
Louisville now stands. In 1782 there lived in Louisville, with their
families: John MacManus, Hugh Cochran, John Doyle, John Caghey, John
Cunningham, Michael Humble, John Handley, Andrew Hines, Thomas McCarty,
Thomas Purcell, James Sullivan, James Brown and John McCarland, and most
of these came with Clark. That was a pretty good Irish settlement for
those days when a man who went out to plough corn was obliged to take
his rifle along to defend himself against hostile Indians.
No one will venture to say that Matthew Lyon, born in County Wicklow, in
1746, was a “Scotch-Irishman,” though I have heard lately that some of
his descendants are now claiming that rather peculiar distinction.
Matthew Lyon brought the first printing office across the mountains to
Kentucky, and it did not come in a railroad train either. It was fetched
in a jolt wagon and a good deal of the type was “pied” before it ever
got here. From this type and press the first newspaper ever printed in
Louisville was issued. Matthew Lyon’s father was executed in Ireland for
alleged treason in 1765. The boy, aged thirteen years, was bound by
himself to the captain of the vessel which brought him across the ocean,
to work for twelve months to pay for his passage.
A Connecticut farmer gave the captain two bulls for Matthew Lyon’s
services, and he worked out his time faithfully with that farmer. Ever
afterward his great oath was “By the bulls that bought me.” Lyon county,
Ky., is named for him, and his remains lie buried at Eddyville, which
town he founded. Matthew Lyon, though once sold for two bulls, took no
mean part in the making of history for his country, not only in
Kentucky, but also in Vermont, where he went after working out his time
with the Connecticut farmer. He belonged to the Green Mountain Boys, was
a colonel in the Revolutionary War, and afterwards a member of congress
from the Granite state as well as from Kentucky. In 1798 he was
prosecuted under the Alien and Sedition laws and fined one thousand
dollars and confined in jail for four months. While in jail he was
elected to congress, and by his vote broke the deadlock which elected
Jefferson president.
Coming to Kentucky soon afterward, he was a pioneer in the wilderness
where Lyon county is now situate, and his neighbors sent him to the
legislature at Frankfort. He afterwards served in congress from Kentucky
for eight years (1803–’11). He was in 1813 appointed to an Indian agency
in Arkansas, and was elected to congress from that state. So Matthew
Lyon, a plain Irishman, claiming no Scotch prefix, has the record of
being elected to congress from three states. His son, Chittendon Lyon,
was a member of congress in 1827, and his descendants still live in the
state.
Many of the old families in Louisville are of Irish descent, but it
would take too much space to mention even a fair portion of them. In
1784 Patrick Joyes settled in Louisville, and his family grew, leaving
many descendants, one of them being the present county attorney of
Jefferson county. The original Joyes was a man of education, speaking
French, Spanish and other tongues fluently, so that at least one
Irishman was of polished intellect in the early settlement of the city.
William H. English, being a millionaire, could afford to spend a great
deal of time and money in collecting information about the Northwest
territory and Kentucky. On one of his visits to Louisville he told me
that had it not been for the Irish in Clark’s command the latter would
never have whipped the British and Indians. The Irish, fresh from
persecutions in the old country, were very bitter against the English,
and were of great help to Clark. Mr. English had a great deal of
information on this subject which has never been published. Of course,
in his history he makes no reference to nationalities except where it
was absolutely necessary, it being his purpose to simply give credit to
Clark and his soldiers for their wonderful work.
Dr. Thomas Dunn English, writing of a trip he made through the mountains
of Kentucky, on one occasion tells of an incident which shows that many
people of Irish descent in this state are ignorant of the fact. He was
riding along one day in a wagon when his companion, a lanky native boy
of the mountains, saw a rabbit run across the road. “Stop a minute,
Dock,” said the boy, “till I heave a dornick at that rabbit.” Dr.
English coming to inquire, found that the mountains of Kentucky had been
settled long ago by Irish and that “dornick” was one of the many Irish
words which survived.
Even before Clark came to Louisville, Simon Kenton records that, in
1775, he located in the Upper and Lower Blue Licks, where there was an
abundance of game, and he considered it a paradise. One day, to his
great astonishment, there came out of the woods toward his cabin, two
men who gave their names as Fitzpatrick and Hendricks. They had been
living in the vicinity for sometime. Fitzpatrick said he wanted to
return to Virginia, and Kenton escorted him to the Ohio river, bidding
him good-by near where the town of Maysville now stands. While Kenton
was taking Fitzpatrick to the river, Indians entered the cabin and
killed Hendricks. Michael Stoner, another Irishman, who was Boone’s
companion in 1774, told Kenton that there were a number of settlers in
the interior who were not from Virginia.
In 1775 Hugh Shannon, Patrick Jordan, John Lee and others settled at
what is now known as Lexington. It is recorded that Patrick Jordan found
a spring down the fork on which they camped. Joseph Lindsey afterward
paid Jordan two guineas to allow him to locate near the spring, and the
first clearing was made there. This is now the garden spot of the Blue
Grass region of Kentucky, where all the fine fast horses and the pretty
women and good whiskey come from. In 1775 the first roasting ears were
gathered from this clearing. John Haggin located there soon afterward,
having come down the Ohio and up the Licking river to the settlement.
There were probably other Irish people eating roasting ears in the Blue
Grass region one year before the Declaration of Independence was read in
Philadelphia, but their names have not been preserved. Certain it is
that the people living in this settlement, first peopled by the Shannons
and the Jordans, as soon as they heard of the Revolutionary battle of
Lexington, Mass., named their settlement after that battle. They were
certainly not English sympathizers to do this.
In 1775 Ben. Logan settled where the town of Stanford is. Both his
father and mother were born in Ireland. Logan was a companion of Boone.
He planted the first corn in what is now known as Lincoln county, was a
colonel in the militia, and was one of the most daring of the early
pioneers.
Daniel Boone, in 1775, found in Powell’s Valley, Richard Hogan, Hugh
McGarry, Thomas Denton, and their families. These located afterwards at
Harrodstown. Mrs. McGarry and Mrs. Hogan were the first white women to
go up Salt river, which historic stream is now so frequently mentioned
in connection with the defeated candidates after elections. The Hogans
and the McGarrys have frequently “gone up Salt river” since,
figuratively speaking, but the Indians were not waiting for them on the
banks with a tomahawk as they were for Mrs. Hogan and Mrs. McGarry in
1775.
People of Irish birth or extraction were pioneers in the educational
line in this commonwealth, even before the Declaration of Independence.
Bishop Spalding, in his notes on Kentucky, says that Mrs. William
Coomes, an excellent Catholic lady, taught school in Harrodsburg in
1775. This was before a church or a court was opened in Kentucky. Smith,
the historian, though not a Catholic, agrees with Bishop Spalding, and
says that “in the year 1775 Dr. Hart and William Coomes settled Drennon
Spring in Henry county, but afterward moved to Harrod’s Station. Dr.
Hart practised medicine, and Mrs. William Coomes opened a school for
children.” “Thus,” he observes, “the first physician and the first
school teacher in Kentucky were both Catholics.” Whether they were Irish
or not they got the credit as being of that race, as did all the
Presbyterian Irish in the early history of the state get the reputation
of being Scotch.
Joseph Doniphan taught school in Booneboro in 1779, and the children of
Daniel Boone were his pupils. Nothing is known of his early history, but
it has been asserted that his proper name was Donavon, and was corrupted
into Doniphan or Doniphant.
A writer with the leisure and means could strike a rich field in looking
up the names of the Irish connected with the early settlement of the
state, and it is no exaggeration to say that seventy-five per cent. were
of that nationality.
[Illustration:
REV. RICHARD HENEBRY, Ph. D.,
Professor of Keltic Languages and Literature, Catholic University,
WASHINGTON, D.C.
]
[Illustration:
HON. EDWIN D. McGUINNESS,
Ex-Secretary of State, Rhode Island; ex-Mayor of PROVIDENCE.
]
[Illustration:
COL. JAMES ARMSTRONG,
CHARLESTON, S. C.
]
[Illustration:
COL. WILLIAM H. DONOVAN,
LAWRENCE, MASS.
]