LEADING EVENTS IN THE CAREER OF THE SOCIETY FOR 1907, OR OF SPECIAL
INTEREST TO THE MEMBERS.
January. Hon. James H. Higgins, mayor of Pawtucket, is this month
inaugurated governor of Rhode Island. Hon. Patrick J.
McCarthy is inaugurated mayor of Providence, R. I.
It is stated that the Rev. Joshua P. L. Bodfish, for the
past twenty years rector of St. John’s Church, Canton,
Mass., celebrates his seventieth year by resigning his
pastorate, with the permission of Archbishop O’Connell.
Father Bodfish purposes to devote the rest of his life
to literary and charitable work. He is a member of the
American-Irish Historical Society, comes of old Puritan
stock, and is a veteran of the Civil War.
Jan. 3. Gunner Cornelius Cronin (U. S. N.) retired, has been
promoted to be a chief gunner on the retired list to rank
with, but after, ensign, from June 29, 1906, in accordance
with the provisions of the naval appropriation act
approved on that date.
Jan. 3. Chief Boatswain J. S. Croghan is by naval orders detached
from the _Franklin_ and ordered to command the _Wasp_.
Boatswain J. Clancy is detached from the _Franklin_ and
ordered to the _Wasp_.
Jan. 8. Capt. D. P. Foley of the revenue cutter service is a member
of the board which is announced to meet at Baltimore, Md.,
today, to consider applications.
Jan. 11. Julius L. Foy, a St. Louis (Mo.) member of the society,
dies.
Jan. 24. Col. John Y. F. Blake, who led an Irish corps against the
British army in the Boer War, was found dead today in his
home, New York City, from gas asphyxiation. His death is
believed to have been the result of accident, as there was
no evidence of self destruction. Colonel Blake had served
a long period in the United States army.
Jan. 24. Annual meeting and dinner of the Society. It was held at the
Hotel Brunswick, Boston, Mass. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick of
Boston presides.
February. This month appears the statement: Colonel Paul St. C.
Murphy, a Brooklyn man, has assumed command of the Marine
Corps stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Colonel Murphy
succeeds Lieutenant-Colonel Mahoney, who has been assigned
to the Marine Corps in the Philippine Islands. Colonel
Mahoney has been in command of the local barracks for
nearly two years.
Feb. 2. Death of Rt. Rev. William Stang, D. D., Roman Catholic
bishop of Fall River, Mass. Bishop Stang was a member of
the Society.
Feb. 9. Death in New Bedford, Mass., of John B. Sullivan, a member
of the Society.
Feb. 21. Hon. John Cunneen, former attorney-general of New York
state, dies at his home in Buffalo.
March. Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, Mass., widow of Colonel
Shaw, died this month. She was a daughter of Ogden
Haggerty of New York.
At the sale of the Doherty estate, New York City, Stephen
McPartland, of McPartland & O’Flaherty, paid $382,550 for
a plot 100x100, at the southwest corner of 8th Avenue and
43d Street. This was at the rate of over $38 per square
foot.
March. Brigadier-General Richard Comba (U. S. A.), retired, died
in the Presidio, San Francisco, of heart disease. He was
seventy years old. He was placed on the retired list when
he reached the age limit, after a service of forty-six
years. Few officers in the army saw more active service
than General Comba. Born in County Limerick, Ireland,
he entered the army as a private in 1855, when eighteen
years old. For eight years he served as a private and
a non-commissioned officer, and received his first
commission as second lieutenant in 1863. He served with
distinction through the Civil War, and was brevetted for
gallantry at Gettysburg. At the close of the war he
remained in the army, and served during many Indian
campaigns, the promotions coming slowly. He was in command
of the Twelfth Infantry in the Santiago campaign, and
was later brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in
the Philippines, in command of the Fifth Infantry, and
until he retired was in command of the Province of Arba,
Northern Luzon. General Comba came of good old Gaelic
stock (the family being that of a branch of the O’Sullivan
clan).
March 5. James S. Haley is re-elected mayor of Montpelier, Vt. James
W. Ryan is chosen mayor of Vergennes, Vt.
March 15. Judge Thomas Maloney, who was private secretary to President
Andrew Johnson, died on this date at Ogden, Utah, where he
had lived for many years.
March 16. Statue in Philadelphia to Commodore John Barry is unveiled
today. The exercises were of a very impressive character.
March 18. Vice-President Fairbanks addresses the Irish Fellowship Club
of Chicago. He speaks on the Irish race in America.
April. Charles N. Harris, a member of the Society, is this
month appointed a city magistrate of New York by Mayor
McClellan.
April 3. Ex-Congressman Joseph H. Walker, Worcester, Mass., died this
morning. He was born in Boston, 1829. His second wife was
a daughter of Michael Kelley of New Hampton, N. H.
April 8. Hon. John D. Crimmins has sold today a collection of
autographs and literary treasures. Letters and documents
covering the Revolutionary War period were among this
collection. The sale attracted much interest. Death of
Col. Frances E. Lacey, a retired officer of the U. S. A.,
who had been residing with his son in New York City.
Colonel Lacey served with distinction throughout the Civil
War, with the Second Infantry, and participated in many
great battles. He remained in the service at the
reorganization in 1866, and was transferred to the Tenth
Infantry, in which organization he remained for
twenty-seven years, being the ranking officer in point of
service in the regiment. He was then a major and assigned
to the Seventeenth Infantry, and was at Columbus barracks.
Major Lacey was in Columbus for two and one-half years
from 1895. He was later made a lieutenant-colonel of the
Third Infantry and retired in 1897 as a colonel on pay.
Colonel Lacey was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1833. He
came to Columbus while a young man in time to join the
forces of the Union. He was full of pluck and energy and
made a model soldier. His promotions came rapidly. Colonel
Lacey leaves three sons and one daughter, George B., who
resides in Columbus; R. E., who resides in Columbus;
Captain Francis E., of the First Infantry, now in the
Philippines; Mrs. F. S. Cuchen, wife of Captain Cuchen of
Governor’s Island. Interment was made at the National
Cemetery, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Colonel Lacey was a
strong Irish Nationalist, and for many years a member of
the Robert Emmet Association of Columbus, O. At a regular
meeting of the association appropriate resolutions on his
death were adopted.
April 9. Osborne Howes, Brookline, Mass., a member of the Society,
died today. He was a descendant of David O’Killia, who
settled on Cape Cod, Mass., as early as 1657.
April 14. _The Boston Sunday Herald_ today has an article, in
connection with the coming Jamestown exposition, relative
to John Boyle O’Reilly’s visit to the Dismal Swamp in
1888, or thereabouts, in company with Edward A. Moseley,
Esq.
April 19. _The New York Times_ of this date has the following: “At
the instigation of President McGowan, there will be
introduced at the meeting of the aldermen on next Tuesday
a resolution asking Mayor McClellan to see what can be
done through the United States Department of State toward
recovering from the British government part of the records
of the City Fathers of proceedings in the Revolutionary
period, and which the British took with them when they
evacuated New York. Mr. McGowan has learned that the
aldermanic records for that period are all that are
required to make complete the city’s record of the
legislative work done by the municipal authorities. There
is a record showing that the missing papers were taken
away by the English, and Mr. McGowan believes that if the
British authorities were asked to return them they would
either do so or would at least permit a copy of them to be
made.”
April 20. At a meeting of the Fitchburg, Mass., Bar Association this
morning, Mayor James H. McMahon presiding, resolutions
were adopted for presentation to Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr.,
favoring the appointment of an associate judge of
Worcester County probate court from the northern part of
the county, and a committee was appointed to present to
the governor the names of Thomas F. Gallager, judge of the
Fitchburg police court, and Clark A. Batchelder as
candidates.
April 21. Lieut.-Col. Lewis Smith (U. S. A.), of Washington, retired,
died on April 21, aged seventy-three years. He was born
in Ireland and enlisted in the army in 1851, serving as
private, corporal and sergeant until 1862, when he was
commissioned second lieutenant of the Third Artillery. In
1898, after forty-seven years’ service, he was retired
with the rank of major, but was subsequently promoted to
lieutenant-colonel.
April 22. A dispatch from Washington, D. C., announces the assignment
of Lieut. M. O’Connor to the Fifteenth U. S. Cavalry.
Gunner J. F. Carmody is assigned, by naval orders, to the
_Tacoma_.
April 23. Annual banquet tonight in New York City of the Veteran Corps
of the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. It was the anniversary of the
departure of the regiment for the seat of war on April 23,
1861. There were about 250 men in the banquet hall, but it
was a matter of comment that the great majority of these
were young men. The veterans were there, what are left
of them. The first hearty applause of the evening was
given when Lieut.Gov. Chanler entered the room. Awaiting
him at the guest table were Borough President Patrick F.
McGowan, Senator John P. Cohalan, the Rev. Dr. David G.
Wylie, Rev. Father Chidwick, Magistrate Matthew P. Breen
and his son, Henry J. Breen, Col. Edward Duffy, Justice
John Henry McCarthy, Thomas J. Byrne, William F. Baker,
president of the civil service board; Thomas E. Crimmins
and Magistrates Baker and Walsh. There were others, too.
April 27. Hon. William Shepherd, ex-mayor of Lynn, Mass., died late
today at the Carney Hospital, Boston. He was a native of
Ireland and was born in 1837. He came to this country when
a boy. He was mayor of Lynn for several terms.
April 30. Governor Higgins of Rhode Island today formally opened the
Rhode Island building at the Jamestown Exposition,
Virginia. He was introduced by Judge Blodgett of the
Supreme Court of Rhode Island and chairman of the Rhode
Island commission, as the youngest governor of any state
in the Union.
May. General Peter Leary, Jr., has written to the U. S. war
department, on behalf of residents of Baltimore, Md.,
against the proposition to dismantle Fort McHenry of its
guns. An answer has been received stating that if the city
would pay for the gun carriages it can have the guns
themselves. The war department places a value of about
$800 on ten gun carriages, seven of which are at Fort
McHenry and three at Fort Delaware. General Leary wrote
the department that there is a movement on foot to raise
the amount by popular subscription, and asked a month’s
grace before the guns are dismantled.
May 1. It is announced from Washington, D. C., that James Jeffrey
Roche of Massachusetts, U. S. consul at Genoa, has been
promoted to be consul at Berne.
May 5. Hon. Patrick Keenan, city chamberlain of New York, passed
away today, much and deservedly regretted.
[Illustration:
MR. JOHN F. DOYLE,
New York City.
]
[Illustration:
MR. JAMES J. PHELAN,
New York City.
]
[Illustration:
MR. M. R. F. McCARTHY,
Binghamton, N. Y.
]
[Illustration:
HON. CORNELIUS HORIGAN,
Biddeford, Me.
]
[Illustration:
JUDGE JOHN J. McDONOUGH,
Fall River, Mass.
]