IRISH

Entry being edited.

IRISH. The Irish born comprised the city’s largest ethnic group as early as 1835 and maintained that distinction until the mid-1850s. For Irish immigrants, eastern Iowa had many appeals. Cheap land-wooded areas cost $4 to $8 an acre, a good yoke of oxen could be purchased for $45 to $55, and for those not interested in farming, plenty of jobs were available in the LEAD mines. (1)

The January 14, 1841, edition of the Philadelphia Catholic Herald includes this letter from Charles Corkery, one of Dubuque, Iowa's first settlers:

          My sole desire is to direct the attention of Catholics 
          (Irish Catholics particularly) to the country little known, 
          and less appreciated, in the East...I have had ample 
          opportunities of bearing witness to many respectable 
          writers who unite in giving Iowa the happy (names) of 
          'The Garden of America' and "The Eldorado of the West'...
          Irishmen unite in saying that our wheat and oats are 
          nothing inferior to those in Ireland, and I have never 
          seen better potatoes in Ireland...than those raised in 
          the mining district. (2)

Mathias LORAS, bishop of the new Diocese of Dubuque, also had a strong interest in attracting Irish immigrants to Dubuque. He wrote letters to the Boston Pilot and other Eastern newspapers praising Iowa. Loras wrote in 1854 to the Pilot:

           Let good immigrants come in haste to the west of Iowa...
           they will soon make whole Catholic settlements-some Irish, 
           some German, some French. (3) 

The Rev. Terence Donaghue, vicar general of the Diocese of Dubuque, wrote to a priest in County Carlow, Ireland, appealing for more Irish settlers. Donaghue promised to teach the settlers how to grow corn, oats and potatoes and said the new immigrants must "be smart, for we are get-ahead people here." (4)

Response to the appeals was swift. In 1830, a group of 51 miners-two thirds of them Irish-settled in Dubuque, and stayed until they were driven out by troops after the return of the FOX. They drew up a set of rules known as the Miner's Compact-believed to be the first code of law in what is now Iowa. (5)

The Irish accounted for approximately one-quarter of the city’s population in the 1850 and 1860 census counts. The Irish enjoyed fairly immediate political power and elected F. K. O'Ferrall mayor for successive three terms, 1844-46. (6)

As early as 1846, the city was divided into wards. The First Ward, which made up the southern part of Dubuque, was called "Dublin" and became well-known as the home of many Irish.

Of the 13,045 inhabitants of Dubuque in 1860, 13.9 per cent or 1,800 were born in Ireland. This included 992 married adults, 317 single women, 183 single men, 98 widows, 18 widowers, and 182 children under sixteen. The 992 married adults represented 535 families. (7)

Among the men there were 305 day laborers, most of whom lived in the First Ward. In addition, there were fourteen teamsters and twelve draymen. Nine ran boarding houses or inns while another eleven were saloon keepers. Sixty-three were following the trades-carpenters, tinners, painters, bricklayers, plasterers, and stonecutters and masons. There were fifty-six miners. River and rail transportation employed some as mail agents, express drivers, ferrymen, boatmen and baggage men. (8)

There were fifteen merchants and fourteen grocers. Only one Irishman was a butcher, grain dealer, druggist, poultry dealer, or confectioner, although eighteen were shoemakers and sixteen tailors. Only eight were manufacturers of any kind. Their products included glass, carriages and wagons, stoves and cabinets. (9)

Most of the single women, 196 in all, were servants. Some worked in the boarding houses and hotels, while many worked for the wealthier families of Dubuque. Widows were more likely to be washwomen, housekeepers and dressmakers. (10)

Fifteen men could be classed as professionals. They were lawyers, printers, teachers and an editor, an architect and an engineer. Only two held government positions. (11)

Many Irish knew only poverty. Only 151 owned real estate. It was worth $543,950, or 10.8 per cent of the total in Dubuque. A total of 199 had personal property worth $99,200, or 7.4 per cent of the total. There were exceptions. J. Sullivan, a mason, had property worth $40,000; W. P. Young, glass manufacturer, $155,000; Joseph P. Nagle, saloon keeper, $20,150; Lawrence Mahoney, merchant, $117,000; Matthew Curran, day laborer, $7,150; and the widow, Ellen Sullivan, worth more than $50,000 at the age of 35. (12)

By 1860, 1,800 of Dubuque's 13,000 people were Irish born. They were day laborers, teamsters, draymen, inn and saloon-keepers. many worked in the mines, or on the railroad. There were 15 Irish merchants and 14 grocers. And a further fifteen were professionals-lawyers, printers, teachers, an architect, an editor and an engineer. (13)

Immigrants to Dubuque wanted to preserve the religious and ethnic traditions of their homelands. This made it difficult for Catholics of different backgrounds to find much in common other than their religion. The missionary priest Samuel MAZZUCHELLI was Italian, and most of the Catholics he served in what is now the tri-state area were Irish but they seemed to work well together. The relationship between Bishop Loras and Dubuque-area Irish Catholics, however, was often strained. (14)

The Irish Catholics in Dubuque often accused Loras of favoring French Catholics; when he first arrived in 1839. He preferred worshipping with the French because his English was still heavily accented. (15)

In 1852 the Irish were angered when Loras built St. Patrick's Church and proposed it remain a mission congregation and not an independent parish. The Germans had their own church-Holy Trinity. The Irish wanted nothing less even though ST. RAPHAEL'S CATHEDRAL was located in an Irish neighborhood and had a mainly Irish congregation. (16)

The Irish threatened to withholding contributions and accused Loras of demanding more contributions from the Irish Catholics for the cathedral. Loras threatened to move the center of the diocese out of Dubuque. (17)

There is substantial evidence to show that Loras went to go to great lengths to attract Irish priests and religious communities to the area. Loras personally invited the SISTERS OF CHARITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (BVM), a community of teaching sisters founded by Mary Frances CLARKE. The BVMs arrived in Dubuque in 1843. Trappist monks from Ireland established the monastery of NEW MELLERAY MONASTERY near what is now Peosta, on land Loras gave to them. Dubuque's third bishop, John HENNESSY, traveled to Limerick, Ireland on his way back from the First Vatican Council, and asked Mother Vincent Hennessy to send a group of SISTERS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (PBVM) to Dubuque. Four years later the Presentation Sisters arrived and made their first home in Key West. The first Irish bishop of Dubuque was Loras' successor-Clement SMYTH, a Trappist. When he died suddenly in 1865, he was replaced by the Irish-born Hennessy, who became Dubuque's first archbishop in 1893. (18)

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Source:

1. Lyn Jerde. Irish America Magazine March/April 1995, p. 72. Online: http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/dubuque.htm

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Jacobson, James E. "Dubuque-The Key City, The Architectural and Historical Resources of Dubuque, Iowa 1837-1955, National Register of Historic Places, June 24, 2003. Online: http://www.cityofdubuque.org/DocumentCenter/Home/View/2936

6. Calkin, Dr. Homer L. The Palimpsest, "The Irish in Iowa" Iowa City, Iowa, State Historical Society of Iowa. February, 1964. Online: http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/dubuque.htm

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid.

14. Jerde.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid.

17. Ibid.

18. Ibid.