USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
The cause of the Irish patriots ended disastrously, and the old story of treachery, imprisonment, and death was repeated, and many brave Irish fellows fell victims to England's hatred.
McGee escaped from Ireland and arrived in New York Oct. 10, 1848, and on the 26th of the same month the first number of the New York "Nation " appeared. McGee was then a disappointed man, and charged the failure of the rising to the Irish prelates and priests. A long and disagreeable controversy ensued between McGee and Archbishop Hughes, of New York, who took up the defence, and maintained that the action of the Irish clergy was right, just, and patriotic in saving from indiscriminate slaughter those who had no means of either offence or defence. McGee's standing was very much injured and his influence weakened with the best portion of his countrymen in America, and his paper suffered thereby. He started the " American Celt" in Boston in 1850, but afterwards trans- ferred it to Buffalo, and later to New York City.
The tone of the new journal was more conservative, the mis- haps, disappointments, and difficulties which McGee had met soft- ened his aspirations and brought deeper and more mature thought to his solution of political questions and policies. The " American Celt" became popular, and had a beneficent influence on the Irish in America and Ireland. He became engaged in the colonization scheme, which has since been successfully carried on by Bishops Ireland, Spaulding, and others. It is claimed that McGee was the
233
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
original projector of this enterprise. Archbishop Hughes, it is said, denounced the plan of colonization as mapped out by McGee, for reasons which his wisdom foresaw. This opposition, together with financial embarrassment, led McGee to accept an invitation from the Irish in Montreal to come and reside among them. They gave him sufficient real estate to make him eligible to Parliament, and he was successfully elected, after a hot contest.
He started a paper, the "New Era; " also studied law, and was admitted to the Lower Canadian Bar. His masterly abilities and breadth of statesmanship won him place and fame in Parliament above all his contemporaries. In 1865 he was presented by his con- stituents in Montreal with a beautiful residence in that city, as a sub- stantial mark of their high esteem. He was President of the Executive Council, and also acting Provincial Secretary in 1862. He was sent to Paris in 1867 as one of the Canadian Commissioners to the great Exposition, and afterwards travelled over portions of the Continent. At that time he was Minister of Agriculture and Emi- gration ; before he returned home he was a leader in the delibera- tions which the representatives of the Canadian government had with the home government in regard to the plan of confederation, which McGee had developed and urged throughout the provinces. The project was approved and perfected, - the Dominion of Canada was established. McGee was offered a seat in the Cabinet, but he declined, in order that a fellow-Celt from Nova Scotia might have the honor.
McGee antagonized the Fenians of his day by denouncing them, especially those who had advocated the invasion of Canada. It is alleged that he was regarded by them as a traitor to his country and its cause. They induced Barney Devlin, an able Montreal advocate, to contest McGee's seat in Parliament; a bitter contest followed ; McGee was returned, but not by a majority of his countrymen, and he took his seat in the first Parliament of the Dominion Government. The anxieties, irritations, labors, and sorrows of those years at length impaired his health and confined him for some three months to his room.
234
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
Shortly after his recovery, his brilliant life was brought to an untimely end. He was assassinated on April 7, 1867, on his way home from the Parliament House, Ottawa, after having delivered one of his wonderful speeches.
The career of this remarkable man is unique and striking. As an unknown boy he came to America, not having had the advan- tage of a collegiate education, and only the training and experience which could be had in those days in an unimportant town in Ireland. Yet, although but just seventeen, he leaps into an important position in the cultivated city of Boston, and develops a power as a strong, able, vigorous, and classical writer, that placed him with the best in the land. As a statesman, orator, poet, and writer, he has had few equals. His vast fund of knowledge on every conceivable subject was supplemented by an inexhaustible command of language, chaste, beautiful, felicitous, and pointed, illumined by a brilliant imagination and filled with poetic fancies. He was unrivalled as a conversation- alist, overflowing with wit, humor, anecdotes; consonant with this was his wonderful popularity as an after-dinner speaker, in which he was unapproachable. But while these qualities gave softness to his character, they did not take away from the intenseness of his oratory or the breadth, massiveness, and solidity of his political views.
REV. HENRY GILES.
Henry Giles, an able and distinguished divine, was born at Crockford, in the County Wexford, Ireland, Nov. 1, 1809; died near Boston, July, 1882. He was educated at home, amidst various religious beliefs. This unsettled his religious views for awhile; but he finally joined the Unitarians, and was called to the pastorate of a church at Greenock, Scotland, afterwards to Liverpool. He came to the United States in 1841, and his solid talents were quickly recognized, and he became a popular preacher and lecturer. His works include " Irish Lectures and Essays" (2 vols., Boston, 1845), " Christian Thoughts in Life," "Illustrations on Genius in Some of its Applications to Society and Culture." Giles was a clear, versatile,
235
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
and powerful writer. He wrote a great deal for contemporary litera- ture in the best periodicals of the country. He passed many days here in Boston, and those of us who can remember him on the lecture platform, as he first stepped forward to speak, will agree that the delightful and genuine surprise he gave grew to singularly strong admiration, when, from a commonplace-appearing citizen he grandly rose to oratorical heights.
THOMAS J. GARGAN.
Among the able men of Boston who have become distinguished for their superior achievements in public life and by their eminent abilities at the bar, few indeed of the Irish race have attained so deservedly conspicuous a place as Thomas J. Gargan. His wise counsel and good judgment in political affairs have been sought and followed by leading Democrats, and they have affixed the seal of com- mendation to his many valuable acts. Mr. Gargan was born of Irish parents, at the West End, in Boston, 1844. His parents emigrated? from Ireland and settled in Boston in 1825. Thomas was one of nine children, and he attended the public schools until he graduated as a medal scholar from the Phillips Grammar School. He continued his studies under the private instructions of the Rev. Peter Kruse,, S.J., and subsequently attended the Boston University Law School, where he graduated, receiving the degree of LL.B., after which he studied law in the office of Hon. Henry W. Paine, and in due time. was admitted to practice.
Early in life he displayed the oratorical gifts which have won the admiration of distinguished men both at home and abroad. He was not seventeen years old when he delivered an " Essay on the Irish in the War for the Union," under the auspices of the Cheverus Literary Insti- tute, an organization of which he was a leading member, and which brought out many interesting exhibitions at that time in Boston, notably one given at the Boston Theatre for the poor of Ireland. He engaged in the United States service at the breaking out of the late war, being then only eighteen years of age. He enlisted in Company C,
236
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
Fifty-fifth Mass. Volunteers- an Irish regiment; he was elected and commissioned as lieutenant of Company C, which was afterwards consolidated with the Forty-eighth Massachusetts. He received an honorable discharge from the War Department.
After his return from the war, Mr. Gargan entered into the duties of his profession, and his practice steadily grew to proportions and success far beyond his own anticipations. He first appeared as a public speaker during the war, before he had reached his majority. A war meeting was held, at which Hon. Otis Norcross presided; and during the proceedings an attack was made by an ex-Know-Nothing upon the loyalty and patriotism of adopted citizens, to which Mr. Gargan replied with so much ability and eloquence, citing examples and statistics to prove their devotion to their adopted country, that at the suggestion of Mr. Norcross, and by the unanimous vote of the meeting, Mr. Gargan's name was added to the Union committee. The first year that he voted, he was nominated and elected by both parties as warden of the ward wherein he resided (old Ward 3), and shortly afterwards he was chosen to the Legislature, serving in the years 1868, 1870, and 1876. During these terms he served on the Committees of Public Charities, Probate and Chancery, Rules and Orders, and Manufactures, besides several important special com- mittees. In 1872 he was a delegate-at-large from this State to the National Convention at Baltimore, Md.
For two years (1873-74) he was the President of the Charitable Irish Society, and is still a member of that, as well as many other important charitable associations. He was mainly instrumental in obtaining the charter for the Emigrant Savings Bank, after a hard fight and severe opposition; he was its treasurer for two years and a half. In 1875 he served as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Poor of Boston. His legal practice has extended to cases of some of the most prominent and wealthy men, and also to large and powerful corporations, in the management of which he has been very successful.
Mr. Gargan, when a young man, had few superiors of his age as a debater, then being very ready in reply, and fortifying any position
Moms Mily Thomas gargan
237
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
which he took by a strong array of facts. In February, 1876, he de- livered the annual oration before the Mechanic Apprentices' Library Association, -an address which has been pronounced by competent critics as one of the best ever delivered before the society; and another very powerful speech of his was that made in opposition to the bill brought up in the House, a year earlier, taxing church property.
He rapidly developed his oratorical power, and carefully culti- vated the best points in public speaking which were used by the masters of the rostrum ; and he is recognized to-day by the press and people as an orator, eloquent, masterly, and learned. His manner before a jury or public assemblage is pleasing and graceful; with finely modulated voice, that commands immediate 'attention, he interests his hearers at once, and wins their sympathy from the be- ginning to the close of his discourses, which, by the way, always afford abundant evidence of extensive reading, much thought and culture, besides being strong in facts, sound and logical in argu- ment.
In the spring of 1881 Mr. Gargan met General Grant, and spent many pleasant hours with him in Mexico. His impressions of General Grant, which appeared in the Boston "Daily Globe " of August 3, 1885, were uniquely descriptive of the dead hero, and caused considerable and favorable comment throughout the country. At the banquet given in honor of General Grant by the Mexican Government, in the Tivoli of San Cosme, in May, 1881, the Mexican dignitaries attended in a body; Mr. Gargan was present, with Col. Thomas B. Lewis and Mr. Albert K. Owen. Mr. Gargan had the honor of acting as president of the feast; he presided most hand- somely, and made a characteristic speech, full of wit and wisdom. Among his many speeches, the most notable are the following: The one made at Marblehead in 1882, at the ratification meeting of Butler and Bowerman; the Bay State dinner speech, in 1884, on which occasion Washington's birthday was commemorated by the Demo- cratic State Central Committee; the argument made by him on be- half of Archbishop Williams, in the Lawrence Church case, upon the
238
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
decision of which rested the title of all the Catholic Church property in New England. The case went to the Supreme Court, and was won by Mr. Gargan. The Memorial-day oration, delivered at Win- chendon, May 30, 1883. He made a spirited, eloquent, and telling arraignment of Blaine in a speech delivered at Faneuil Hall during the campaign of 1884.
He delivered the Fourth of July oration in 1885, which, for the beauty and newness of its summary, brilliancy of style, and copious- ness of historical minutiæ, ranks among the best ever given to Bos- tonians. Mr. Gargan's witty extempore speech at Tremont Temple, Oct. 21, 1885, ratifying the candidacy of Hon. Frederick O. Prince, attracted much attention ; his oration at Halifax, in January, 1886, at the banquet given by the Charitable Irish Society of that place, to celebrate the centenary of the organization, and at which he responded for the Charitable Irish Society of Boston, was eventful, and won en- comiums for him from both the foreign and American press. His versatility in the field of journalism has been shown by numerous articles written for the Boston press on Irish subjects, and special correspondence relating to the Franco-Prussian War, which he penned while sojourning in Ireland and France.
THE MOST REV. JOHN J. WILLIAMS.
The Most Rev. John J. Williams, the fourth Bishop and first Archbishop of Boston, was born in Boston, Mass., April 27, 1822. After the usual classical education in Montreal and at St. Sulpice in Paris, he was elevated to the priesthood by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Fen- wick, in 1843. Among his other missions was that of the chapel on Beach street, Boston (January, 1852), which had been built in 1850 to meet the increasing Catholic population in the vicinity of the South Cove. Under his ministration the congregation grew so rapidly that in one year it was found necessary to erect a large Gothic church, which was dedicated, in 1855, by Bishop Fitzpatrick. The Very Rev. J. J. Williams was Vicar-General and pastor of this church at the time he was made Coadjutor Bishop of Boston, having also been rector of
239
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
the old Cathedral in Franklin street, which was pulled down in the fall of 1860, the last Mass being celebrated on Sunday, September 16, of that year, on which occasion the present Archbishop acted as assistant priest. In 1866 the Very Rev. John J. Williams, on account of the failing health of Bishop Fitzpatrick, was appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Boston, with the right of succession. Bishop Fitzpatrick died on Feb. 13, 1866, and on March II of the same year Bishop Williams was consecrated at St. James' Church, of which he had been so long the pastor. From Oct. 19, 1869, to June 27, 1870, Bishop Williams was in Europe attending the Vatican Council. On May 2, 1875, he received the pallium at the hands of the late Cardinal McCloskey. The Solemn High Mass was celebrated by Bishop McNierny, of Albany; Bishop De Goesbriand, of Burlington, Vt., preaching the sermon. It was the grandest religious ceremony ever seen in New England. On the same day the first American Cardinal celebrated his first Mass in Boston. The Cathedral of the Holy Cross was solemnly dedicated by Archbishop Williams, Dec. 8, 1875, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
At the time of his consecration the diocese of Boston included all the State of Massachusetts. Since then the diocese of Spring- field (including the counties of Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire, Hampden, and Worcester) and part of the diocese of Providence (including Bristol, Barnstable, and part of Plymouth counties) were created. To-day the archdiocese of Boston has over one hundred and sixty churches, three hundred and twenty priests, and twenty-five thousand children in the parochial schools. The churches through- out the archdiocese are, for the most part, objects of pride to the Catholic heart, because of their beauty and elegance. After years of patient struggle, their financial condition is such as to warrant the belief that before many years have passed they will be entirely relieved of debt. Schools are multiplying every year; the sick, the orphan, and the outcast are provided for; while last, but not least, the new Seminary at Brighton is doing excellent work in preparing candidates for the work of the priesthood. This work has been for years the subject of the Archbishop's thoughts. Not a detail of its
240
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
construction escaped his notice; and it stands to-day a monument to the zeal and piety of the clergy of Boston, their tribute of love and affection to their well-beloved Archbishop. In the building of the Cathedral he received valuable aid from the late Vicar-General P. F. Lyndon; but the Seminary is his own work, to which he has given his heart and brain.
RIGHT REV. MATTHEW HARKINS.
The Right Rev. Matthew Harkins, the second bishop of the diocese of Providence, is of Irish parentage. He was born in Boston, Nov. 17, 1845, and his parents resided in the parish of which he has recently been pastor. He attended the Brimmer and Quincy Schools, and then the Latin School, from which he graduated, with a Franklin medal, in 1862. The next scholastic year was spent in completing his classical education at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass. De- ciding that he had a vocation for the priesthood, Bishop Fitzpatrick, then the ordinary of the Boston diocese, sent him to France to pursue his philosophico-theological studies in the English College of Douay and at the Seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris. Here he studied with the most eminent teachers and divines of the Catholic Church. In 1869, after six years' study, he was ordained, and left Paris for Rome, for additional study. On his return to America, his first appointment was as curate of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Salem, Mass. After six years' labor at Salem, he was appointed, in 1876, to his first pastorate, St. Malachi's Church, Arlington, his parish also including Lexington and Belmont. Here he remained until April, 1884, when he was transferred to the large and important parish of St. James', Boston. From this church, also, Archbishop Williams and Bishop Healy were raised to Sees. Bishop Harkins is the sixth bishop which the diocese of Boston has given to the Church in New England.
He is a sound theological scholar, and was selected by Arch- bishop Williams as his theologian at the recent Plenary Council of Baltimore, where he was appointed one of the notaries. His
241
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
powers are most strongly felt as an organizer and administrator, - qualities which he possesses to an unusual degree, and which won for him his appointment as Bishop. He is of medium height, and strong and compact in build. His forehead is high, and his eyes beam with intelligence. He speaks with ease and fluency, and commands the earnest attention of an audience.
He severed many ties in leaving Boston, but accepted the charge of an important field, to which he was warmly welcomed.
REV. ROBERT FULTON, S.J.
Honored and respected by the citizens of Boston of all creeds for his many virtues, his modesty, and profound, learning, Father Fulton, the distinguished Catholic priest of the Society of Jesus, stands without a peer in this city among the ministers of religion, as a successful scholar and financier. Born at Alexandria, Va., June 28, 1826, his Irish ancestry can be traced to his grandfather, James O'Brien, who was sent to Spain while engaged in the diplomatic ser- vice of the United States. The vessel on which he sailed was wrecked off Cape Hatteras, and O'Brien perished. His widow received a pen- sion from the Spanish Government. Young Fulton was an orphan at seven years of age. During his boyhood he was a page in the United States Senate. He met the intellectual giants of those days, and he now relates the characteristics of Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Thomas Benton, as he saw them, nearly half a century ago.
The boy Fulton entered Georgetown College at sixteen years of age, ostensibly to receive a preparatory course of studies to fit him for West Point. His life at Georgetown College shaped his early course, and in his seventeenth year he communicated his desire to enter the Society of Jesus to his mother. The latter then resolved to consecrate her life also to the service of God. She accordingly entered the order of the Visitation Nuns, at whose convent in George- town she was known in religion as Sister Olympias.
She died at the convent on the morning of Feb. 22, 1888, at the ripe old age of eighty-nine years and ten months.
242
THE IRISH IN BOSTON.
On the completion of his novitiate, Mr. Fulton, then a scholastic, taught the class of rhetoric at St. John's, Frederick, Md., and Loyola College, Baltimore, Md. Thence he went to Georgetown College, and taught with great success the classes of poetry and rhetoric for a number of years, and had for his pupils many distinguished scholars of the present day. In the year 1856 he was ordained to the priest- hood at Georgetown, and in 1861 came to Boston, and remained here, excepting one year spent in Frederick, until January, 1880.
He was prominent in the foundation of Boston College, and in 1864 fulfilled the duties of prefect of schools and studies. From a very discouraging beginning he raised Boston College to the high position which that institution now holds. Twelve years elapsed before he introduced the first class of philosophy, and by thus going slowly he was enabled to strengthen all the departments, and place the college on a firm basis.
In 1870 Father Fulton was appointed rector of Boston College, and during the time of his residence in Boston he became a friend of some of the most distinguished literary men of the city, and exerted a wide influence in the advancement of Catholic education.
He founded the Young Men's Catholic Association of Boston College in 1875, which was one of the greatest works that he has ever engaged in. In 1880 Father Fulton was appointed pastor of St. Lawrence's Church, New York, and held that position for one year.
Owing to his financial success in the administration of affairs at Boston College and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, he was called upon by the then provincial of the Society, Rev. R. W. Brady, S.J., to undertake the almost herculean task of freeing St. Aloysius' Church, of Washington, from a debt of $200,000. Though naturally averse to such tasks, he obeyed the voice of his superior, and under great. difficulties he was enabled in less than one year to place the Washington church out of all danger of financial ruin, paying off in that time about $100,000. In May, 1882, he was ap- pointed provincial of New York, Maryland province, and held that office for six years. His administration was marked by great success, both in a financial and literary point of view.
243
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
In September, 1883, Father Fulton went to Rome as a delegate from this province to the general Congregation, whose suffrage elected the present general, Very Rev. A. M. Anderledy, S.J. In December, 1886, he was called to Ireland, receiving the appointment to the supreme office of Visitor, and having power to regulate all matters affecting that portion of the Society, including Australia and New Zealand. He returned to America in April, 1887, but in Sep- tember of the same year he visited Ireland in order to complete the discharge of his duties. In April, 1888, he returned once again to America. His appointment to the important position of Provincial for this country was earned by his world-wide administrative ability and business foresight. In June, 1888, his second term of office having expired, he was succeeded by Very Rev. Thomas Campbell, S.J., formerly rector of St. John's College, Fordham, New York. On July 4, 1888, he was announced at Boston College as its rector ; he immediately assumed the duties incumbent upon him, and con- tinues his excellent work there. He is now actively engaged in remodelling and enlarging the present buildings connected with the College and the rooms of the Young Men's Catholic Association on James street, which, when completed, will more than double their present dimensions. Plans for alterations have been drawn, and the building is in process of reconstruction.
ROBERT DWYER JOYCE.
Robert Dwyer Joyce, author, poet, and physician, was born in the County of Limerick, Ireland, and died in Dublin, Ireland, October 23, 1883. He was a descendant of the elder branch of * the ancient family of Joyce (De Jorse), of Galway. His father was born in County Limerick, and married Elizabeth, daughter of John O'Dwyer, of Glendarragh, the last lineal descendant of the celebrated John O'Dwyer, of the Glen, Baron of Kilmana, whose title was forfeited after the Williamite wars, and who subsequently died a general in the French service. His mother's family numbered many renowned Celtic military geniuses of Europe. One, Count William
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.