It is a peculiar thing to study out fairly, even without setting down
aught except that which can be actually proved, what an important part
Irishmen have taken in shaping this Irish-named city which in the
estimation of those who do not stop to think, is deemed an “Anglo-Saxon”
community. This phrase, Anglo-Saxon, is now the thing, especially among
some educators. It is a handy phrase. It may mean something, but as
often means nothing in particular.
It is like the stuff coined at trial tables, such as “brain-storms” and
“Dementia Americana,” sufficient for the atmosphere of a courtroom, but
no where else on earth, where common sense is supposed to prevail. Hence
the delicious and unmeaning phrase, “Anglo-Saxon” this and “Anglo-Saxon”
that, as used by the educated few, to mislead the so-called uneducated
many. It is naturally a bold man who would call an Irishman an
Anglo-Saxon to his face, but the average American educationalist and
writer does not make such statements to the Gael in propria persona.
He does it at long range, and hides behind his school book and his
inkwell until the storm has passed by. The Irish who have influenced and
who have directed in many ways the past of Baltimore laid no claim to be
Anglo-Saxons and no one in their day sought to claim them as such. They
were rather proud of their Irish birth and descent and made no effort to
hide it. But it was a fact that it was no shame in those days to be
Irish, and nobody thought so, not even the English.
If it had been so awful to be Irish, no doubt the early settlers and
founders of the city would have never allowed it to be named Baltimore.
Prior to the Revolution the most important merchants and educators, and
even professional men in the town, were Irish by birth. They laid the
foundation of the town’s trade and commerce and built it up not only
morally and physically, but financially. The man who laid the foundation
of the town’s trade was Dr. John Stevenson, who, although a physician,
had an eye to trade, and coming direct from Ireland deemed it wise to
establish a line of ships between this city and Irish ports.
This was the beginning of Baltimore’s commerce, which for nearly
seventy-five years after Stevenson’s pioneer line was established,
almost rivalled New York’s commerce in general, and in many ways
excelled it. This will be refreshing news to many, but is not by any
means overdrawn. The work done by Stevenson in establishing trade for
Baltimore was continued by the Purviances, William Patterson, Bowly,
John O’Donnell, John Smith, William Smith, William McDonald, Robert and
John Oliver, Wm. Wilson, Talbott Jones, Isaac McKim, Robert Garrett,
Luke Tiernan, Cumberland Dugan, David Stewart, Stephen Stewart, James
Calhoun, John Sterrett, John McLure, Thomas Russell, Samuel Hughes,
William Neill, Hugh Young, Patrick Colvin, Alexander Pendergast, Patrick
Bennett, Robert Welsh, Mark Pringle, William Kennedy, James O. Law, Hugh
McElderry, Charles M. Dougherty, William Walters, John McCoy, D. J.
Foley, Hamilton Easter, Robert Neale, Hugh Birchhead, John Coulter, and
others, who, from time to time, have figured prominently in the shipping
and commercial annals of Baltimore.
Many of these men were not only the pioneers, but the leaders for years
in the matters which concerned the carrying trade of Baltimore and also
in the business concerns of the town and city. Their names are so
closely associated with the history of Baltimore for the first hundred
years of her history at least that it is impossible to disconnect them.
They were honest merchants of the old school and their methods were
direct and above suspicion. They laid the foundation of Baltimore’s
reputation for business honesty. Their trade was with the East and West
Indies, with South America and with Europe. Their white-winged clippers
sailed every known sea, and their house flags were known in every
country, aye, even by the savage African.
It is highly interesting to trace the rise and rule of these expatriated
Irish merchants who came to Baltimore, many of them with money and
business experience, driven from Ireland by England’s unjust tariff
laws, the same in character as those which now apply to our
“possessions,” Porto Rico and the Philippines, to “encourage” their
trade and commerce. These men hated England as strongly as they loved
fair play. They waxed rich and placed everything they had at the
services of their fellow citizens and of their country. They were well
aware of England’s hypocritical methods and thus when the Revolution
came on they cast their fortunes to a man with the colonies, and gave of
their blood, their experience and their means to assist the patriots.
During the Revolution, in Baltimore and Maryland they were prominent in
all works of importance. Thus we see Samuel Purviance, the chief man of
the town; Purviance was a leading merchant. He was chairman of the
Committee on Correspondence, a sort of Ways and Means Committee, and as
such he raised supplies for the patriotic cause and supervised methods
of defense. His services to the patriot cause were vast, and he was
frequently complimented by Washington and the Continental Congress for
his services. He was largely instrumental in helping Lafayette to clothe
his half-starved and half-clothed army when on its way to the South to
prosecute that historic campaign which ended in the surrender of
Cornwallis at Yorktown.
Thus he played a prominent part in one of the historic events in
history, and considering the present status of this republic, the most
momentous campaign in history. The Irish merchants who contributed to
this fund to buy cloth and make uniforms for Lafayette’s ragged army
were Messrs. Purviance, William Patterson, John McLure, Daniel Bowly,
Ridgely and Pringle, James Calhoun, James McHenry, Charles Carroll, Wm.
Smith, Alex. Donaldson, Samuel Hughes, Russell & Hughes, William Neill,
John Smith, William Smith, Hugh Young and Robert Patter Purviance.
William Smith and William Patterson and other Irish merchants were also
prominent in the committee work during the Revolution, and if it had
failed, would have no doubt decorated the short end of a hangman’s rope
for their love of liberty. The services of Charles Carroll of Carrollton
and of his cousin, Charles Carroll, of Mount Clare, to the patriot cause
and to the city and state, even the nation, it is needless to recount
here, as they are well known.
They were Irish-Americans, however, and not ashamed of it, and their
influence in the city and its environs were considerable along all
lines. William Patterson gave Patterson Park to the city, and also
contributed largely to the foundation of many public enterprises, some
of which survive today as monuments to the activities of himself and his
fellow Irishmen. Prime among those monuments is the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad. Isaac McKim, another Irishman, founded the first free school
set up in Baltimore. It still stands at Baltimore and Aisquith streets a
monument to him, and has been in its day a strong sphere of influence.
John Oliver, another Gael, founded the Oliver Hibernian Free School,
which has been for nearly a century a wide center of influence for good.
It was the first school established in the United States for the
exclusive education of Irish-Americans, and was established at a time
when Americans of other races were without free schools of any kind.
Prominent in the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of
the Northern Central Railroad were other Irish merchants and
professional men, such as Robert Garrett, Alexander and George Brown,
the latter of whom conceived the idea of building the road; Isaac McKim,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John V. L. McMahon, the Irish American
lawyer, who drew that first railroad charter ever drawn for the
Baltimore and Ohio, which has served as a model ever since; Patrick
McCauley, the Irish educator; Talbott Jones, Robert Oliver and others.
These men gave not only their influence to these roads, but their money.
How well they built, facts establish. John O’Donnell, the Irishman, was
the man who named Canton, on the southeast side of the basin, because he
thought it looked like Canton, China; and he was the first president of
the Baltimore Gas Light Company. What that company has developed into
the present shows. His son, Gen. Columbus O’Donnell, was for many years
the honored president of the company.
Gen. Wm. McDonald was the first man to run packets on the Chesapeake
Bay, and also the first to run steam vessels. And thus he was the
founder of Baltimore’s great bay trade. That he was a man of influence
the conditions of the present prove. He may have builded better than he
knew, but he built greatly. Alexander Brown, Robert Garrett and Isaac
McKim were practically the founders of the banking business of this
city, and with others of the great Irish business men influenced the
financial interests of Baltimore for many years. In fact, their
descendants have a powerful influence in banking matters locally at this
time. Every one is familiar with the tremendous influence exercised in
railroad circles for many years by the Irish-American, John W. Garrett,
and his son, Robert Garrett. There can be no question about those facts.
In the religious concerns of the city the Irish have ever played an
important part. The city is the seat of the Roman Catholic church in
this country, the first bishop and archbishop of which was John Carroll,
an Irish-American. Since his day the Irish have been in the forefront in
Catholic affairs in Baltimore, and the pewholders and attendants at the
Cathedral and other Catholic churches have included many of Baltimore’s
leading citizens. St. Mary’s Seminary has educated hundreds of Catholic
priests who have gone out and labored for the salvation of souls. Of
these Levites the great and almost overwhelming majority have been
Irish-Americans.
Many of these good men have spent their lives in this city and have
proven great sources of influence for upliftment to their fellowmen. The
Irish names of the priests and bishops who have labored here in
Baltimore would make a respectable directory for information on the
municipality’s work for the betterment of men. Many will recall the
names of the saintly McColgan, Dolan, McManus, Coskery, Slattery, McCoy,
Dougherty, Malloy, Dugan, Gaitley, McDevitt, and many others of equal
note who have served prominently in this city and have been towers of
strength to their co-religionists. The stature of Archbishop Carroll in
his day was heroic, and he was regarded as one of the chief citizens of
the republic, as his famous successor, Cardinal Gibbons, is today.
The similarity between Dr. Carroll and the cardinal on the lines of
personal influence is remarkable. What Dr. Carroll was in his day a
century ago, the cardinal is today, and the person who is familiar with
the cardinal’s character knows what power and inspiration that is for
good. Other prelates who were of Irish extraction and who labored here
were Archbishops Neale and the illustrious Kenrick, the latter one of
the greatest of church writers and a strong man of his day. In other
denominations we have Dr. Patrick Allison, the first pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church, and a remarkable man in many ways, who was the
friend of Dr. Carroll, and his contemporary. Rev. John Glendy, a native
of Ireland, who was a rebel in 1798, and had to fly for his life to this
country, was the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church, and an
orator of unusual ability. In their day they were strong men, and
exercised an overmastering influence for good upon their flocks. Rev.
John Healey was the first Baptist minister in Baltimore town, and
founded the first Baptist chapel. He ministered here for many years and
was without doubt an influential man. The congregations of the
Presbyterian and Baptist churches included a number of prominent Irish
business and professional men, in fact the cream of the business men of
the town and city belonged to them. Hence they were widespread centers
of influence and they have so remained.
Their descendants to this day include many of Baltimore’s leading
citizens in all lines of activity. The first Methodist preacher that we
know of who preached in the vicinity of this city was Robert
Strawbridge, the Irishman. He preached about the countryside, it being
as much a felony for a Methodist preacher to preach as it was for a
Catholic priest to say mass in his day in Maryland. We know that there
were several well-known Irishmen who were among the first members of the
first M. E. church, old Light Street, now Mount Vernon Place Church;
among them being Patrick Colvin and Patrick Bennett. This Colvin
afterwards was buried from the old Light Street church, which caught
fire during his funeral, and was burned to the ground. His daughter
founded the old Colvin Institute in his honor, and Colvin Street is
named after him. He was an influential merchant as well as a leading
Methodist.
The first mayor of the city, James Calhoun, was an Irish-American. The
first secretary of the navy from Maryland was an Irishman, James
McHenry, after whom the fort is named. It is well to remark that Fort
Carroll is also named after Charles Carroll, the Irish-American. The
first secretary of state and attorney-general from Maryland was Robert
Smith, son of John Smith, the Irishman. Gen. Samuel Smith, the
Revolutionary hero, who served more years than any other from this state
in the United States Senate, also commanded the forces at the battle of
North Point and the defense of Fort McHenry. The first and only chief
justice of the United States from Maryland was Roger Brooke Taney, the
Irish-American, who was also an attorney-general of the United States.
One of the two secretaries of the navy from this state was John
Pendleton Kennedy, the Irish-American. All of these facts serve to show
that the Irish have played some part in public affairs in this city and
state.
Past and present, the Irish element has been so closely identified with
the history of Baltimore that it has played an important part in
influencing every detail of the life of the city. Deny it as some will,
the influence is still apparent in the city’s spheres, probably not so
prominently as in the long ago, but still markedly. Prosperity has
somewhat dulled the ambition of the local Gael, but that he is still in
evidence, commercially, religiously, professionally, socially and
industrially, the shallowest of investigations will prove. The readiness
of the Irishman to assimilate with other nationalities in our country
may have had something to do with the disappearance from the prominent
places which they formerly occupied of the leading families of the city
who bear the names of the splendid men who at one time led in the city’s
advance. But considerable of the wealth and the influence of the city is
still held by the descendants of these old pioneers, and by those who
have succeeded them in the life of the City of the Calverts.