USA > New Hampshire > Colony, province, state, 1623-1888: history of New Hampshire > Part 55
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TO PRESERVE FROM DESECRATION THE REMAINS OF SIX THOUSAND EMIGRANTS, WHO DIED OF SHIP-FEVER A. D. 1847-8, THIS STONE IS ERECTED BY THE WORKMEN OF MESSRS. PETO, BRASSY, AND BETTS, EMPLOYED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE VICTORIA BRIDGE, A. D. 1859.
In the little church of the Bon Secour, familiar to all visitors to Montreal, can be seen among the many votive offerings a me- morial picture, representing, with all the painter's art, the horrors and the glories of the fever shed,-the dying Irish strong in their faith, the ministering sisters shedding peace on the pillow of suffering, the holy bishop affording the last consolations of religion to those to whom the world was as nothing ; but in its terrible significance the rude monument by the mighty river's side is far more impressive.
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But the suffering did not cease here, but continued still up the river, which must for that reason be ever memorable in the annals of the Irish Catholic exodus of 1847-8. In the grounds of the General Hospital at Kingston rests all that was mortal of 1900 emigrants who were in their sufferings tenderly attended to by Protestant as well as Catholic ; the Protestant mayor and aldermen working side by side with the good sisters and priests. The same scenes of suffering and death were to be witnessed in Toronto. Sheds were constructed, and hearses and dead-carts were in hourly requisition. The panic was universal, but the humane and high-spirited of all denominations did their duty manfully. The priests were ceaselessly at work, with the usual result - the sacrifice of several of their number.
The greatest loss was that of the bishop, Dr. Power, a man venerable in years, a native of Ireland. He was implored not to go to the sheds and expose himself, but he replied, " My good priests are down in sickness, and the duty devolves on me." Rarely if ever has a larger funeral procession been seen in Toronto, and never has there been a more universal manifestation of sorrow than was witnessed on that mournful occasion. Every place of business in the city was closed, and Protestant vied with Catholic in doing honor to the memory of a holy and brave- hearted prelate. The city of St. John, New Brunswick, was the scene of a similar horror, and destruction of human life. Wherever an emigrant ship touched the shores of the British Provinces, or sailed into their rivers, there the same awful loss of life was recorded. A full description of those terrible days is given in Maguire's "Irish in America," from which the foregoing is condensed; and how the appearance of the unfor- tunate people, who swarmed over the line into the States, struck the average American, has been told by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his sketch of an " Inland Port :"-" Nothing struck me more in Burlington than the great number of Irish emigrants. They have filled the British Provinces to the brim, and still continue to ascend the St. Lawrence in infinite tribes, overflowing by every outlet into the States. At Burlington they swarm in huts and mean dwellings near the lake, lounge about the wharves, and
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elbow the native citizens out of competition in their own line. Every species of mere bodily labor is the prerogative of these Irish. Such is their multitude in comparison with any possible demand for their services, that it is difficult to conceive how a third part of them should earn even a daily glass of whiskey, which is doubtless their first necessary of life - daily bread being only the second. Some were angling in the lake, but had caught only a few perches, which little fishes, without a miracle, would be nothing among so many. A miracle there certainly must have been, and a daily one, for the sustenance of these wandering hordes. The men'exhibit a lazy strength and careless merriment, as if they had fed well hitherto, and meant to feed better here- after. The women strode about, uncovered in the open air, with far plumper waists and brawnier limbs, as well as bolder faces, than our shy and slender females. And their progeny, which was innumerable, had the reddest and roundest cheeks of any child- ren in America."
Not very kindly or sympathetic the remarks of the genial Hawthorne, but they are illustrative of the sentiments of the natives to the manor born in those days. The most extravagant stories were told and believed, and many people would go quite a distance to see the Irish. One woman, when a young girl, told the writer that, in company with a female friend, she walked six miles to the terminus of a railroad then being con- structed to see an Irishman, and was surprised as well as disap- pointed to find that they looked just like other men. Their first employment was on the railroads, in the canals, and in every place where their muscles could be used to the best advantage. Wherever hard labor was required in the ditch, the cut, the mines, laying track, building roads, shovelling, and spike driving, the services of the Irish were in demand. Very often the work was of the hardest description, the hours long, and the pay small ; but severe as the labor was, and long as the days were, and small as the wages might be, their wit or humor never left them ; and the loved ones in the " Old Art " were not neglected when pay- day came around. Of the sacrifices made by those faithful pioneers, God alone knows. Day and night their thoughts were
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constantly with the dear ones at home ; and the aim of all was to work and save enough to bring them across that ocean which furnished graves for so many thousands. The experience of one was that of all. A native of Cork who came over in 1847 made his home in New Hampshire. He left behind him a wife and five children, the oldest but eleven years of age. For two long, long years he toiled unceasingly to save a sum sufficient to pay the expense of their passage, and in the meantime sent money regularly each quarter to provide them with the necessaries of life ; but the happy hour finally arrived, when, after a long and tempestuous voyage of over six weeks, the loved ones were once more united, to begin anew the battle of life on the west- ern shores of the Atlantic. He located in a village in the central part of the State, with none of his own nationality less than twelve miles on either side of him,-no church, the nearest . at Lowell, seventy-five miles south. Here he resided four years, in a small community, all American and Protestant, but good kind neighbors, and friendly to the most extreme degree.
But if the church and the priest were not present, the faith was kept alive. The prayers at mass were read regularly every Sunday, and the rosary recited during Lent and Advent. That good friend of the race, The Boston Pilot - God bless it and Patrick Donahoe for the good it has done -- was a weekly visitor ; and after a time the priest made an occasional call to baptize the children, and give their elders an opportunity to go to their duty.
His life's work is about done, but he has seen grow up around him a community free from the intolerance and prejudice which met him forty years ago ; and this change was brought about by the honest industry which has made the good Irish Catholic respected wherever he cast his lot. The cities of New Hamp- shire have now magnificent Catholic churches, where in his day there were none ; and it is a very small village where there are any manufacturing interests that the little chapel surmounted with a cross, humble it may be, cannot now be found. One of his sons is a respected priest in the church of which he has all his life been a devoted adherent. Another is an honored citizen of the State, and a grand-daughter is one of the order of the Sisters
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of Mercy. So that in his own life he but illustrates the expe- rience of others, not only in the State, but in the nation.
The period between 1850 and the outbreak of the Rebellion was one of trouble and sorrow for the poor Irish emigrants. Riots broke out in Baltimore, New Orleans, and Louisville, Kentucky ; but it is to the credit of the American people that, in the main, the outbreaks were the result of the inflammable harangues of men like those mentioned. The loyalty even of the new comers was doubted; and in the State of Massachusetts half a dozen military companies, composed of men of Irish birth or origin, were disbanded on the ground that they could not be trusted with arms in their hands. The excitement all over New England was intense. A priest in Maine was tarred and feath- ered, from the effect of which he never recovered. The Catholic church in Manchester was attacked by a mob on the 4th of July, 1855, - the priest having to flee for his life. Thirty years later, at his death in 1885, a mark of respect was paid to his memory by the citizens of Manchester, that showed how completely pub- lic sentiment had changed. On the day of his funeral all of the mills were shut down, and all of the stores closed, during the hours of service; and this was sincere; for no man in the city was more respected by Catholic and Protestant alike than the saintly Father McDonald, whose whole life had been devoted unself- ishly to the service of God. But the time was rapidly approach- ing when the loyalty of the Irish Catholic was to be tried ; and nobly he stood the test, as the record of the State proves in the eventful period from 1861 to 1865. The first call for troops in April, 1861, to repel the threatened invasion of Washington, and the second for 300,000 more to save the Union, found the Irish Catholics of New Hampshire as eager to enroll themselves in the ranks of the volunteers, as those who were born here of the old stock and of a different creed : and from the first conflict at Bull Run, in July, 1861, down to the end at Appomatox, in 1865, the men of New Hampshire shed their blood freely for the res- toration of the Union. Under the old flag they all loved, they forgot the differences of creed and nationality; and in the fires of many battlefields were welded ties of love and friendship that
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fanaticism can never sever. Not a muster roll of a company, battery, or regiment, not a soldier's monument, rearing its column to the sky, not a tablet or monument in public square or ceme- tery, inscribed in memory of New Hampshire's soldier dead,. but will be found engraved with the names of many men or boys of Irish birth or lineage, who gave all that was dear for the land they loved.
In the Third regiment, company C, Captain M. T. Donahoe, were one hundred of the old race, and scattered through the other companies of the regiment were more than double that number. Company G, Captain M. O. Flynn, of the Fourth, were of the same stock. Two companies in the Eighth, under Captains Connelly and Healey, and nearly one full regiment, the Tenth, Colonel Michael T. Donahoe, proved the loyalty of the Irish to their adopted country. Not a regimental organiza- tion that left the State, from the First to the Eighteenth, the cavalry, light battery, and the United States navy and marine corps, but what had representatives of the race in their ranks ; and it can be said to their eternal honor that the great majority of them, or of those in the regiments named, volunteered be- fore the government offered bounties as an inducement to enlist. During their four years of service, either in camp, on the march, on the battlefield, on picket, in the hospital, or in the prison pen, the question of nationality or creed was never touched upon ; the blue jacket made Americans of them, and the question of loyalty was then and there forever settled. The children of the men who toiled on the railroad, and who served in building, hewing, cutting, digging, and trenching, thirty and forty years ago, are to-day many of them skilled mechanics, business and professional men, and making their mark in the State. The great body of them are honest, industrious, law-abiding people, willing to earn an honorable living, pay their just obligations, and live in peace with their neighbors. Their clergymen are beloved by their parishioners, and esteemed by their fellow citizens generally. The present generation, nor the one following, cannot forget the labors of Father McDonald in Manchester, Father O'Donnell in Nashua, Father Murphy in Dover, and Father Barry in Concord.
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The first two have gone to reap the reward of their labors ; the last two still remain, loved and honored by all who know them ; 1 and in the State the church is presided over by a prelate2 whose genial presence and loving devotion to the spiritual interests of his flock are a benison to all with whom he comes in contact. Realizing, then, the full significance of the events of the past forty-eight years, the American in New Hampshire of Irish birth or origin can in a few years pass between the gates of the old and new centuries, conscious that he has fulfilled the duties of the one, and stands ready to assume the responsibilities of the other.
I Rev. Michael Lucey, of Exeter, died in 1873, aged nearly 67 years; and Rev. Father Drummond, of Dover, died in 1883, aged 75 years: both full of years and honors. To them is much credit due for the growth of the Catholic church in New Hampshire.
2 Right Reverend Dennis M. Bradley, bishop of Manchester, was born in Castle Island, County Kerry, Ireland, February 25, 1846. His father died in IS53, and his mother, with six children, came to America the following year and settled in Manchester. He graduated at the College of the Holy Cross, at Worcester, Mass., in 1867 ; studied theology at St. Joseph's Provincial Theological Seminary, at Troy. N. Y .; was ordained in June, 1871 ; and for nine years was with Bishop Bacon and Bishop Healy, at Portland. In ISSo he was chosen pastor of St. Joseph's church, Manchester. June 11, ISS4, he was consecrated first bishop of the new see of Manchester (New Hampshire having been created a diocese), being at the time the youngest bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. In ISSS Bishop Bradley had under his jurisdiction about eighty-five thousand Catholics under the spiritual care of fifty-six priests, forty-four churches, aside from two building, thirty- four parochial schools -seventeen for boys, and seventeen for girls, only four of each conducted by lay teachers-four academies for girls, four orphan asylums, one hospital, one home for aged women, and a Catholic high school at Manchester under the care of six " Christian Brothers."
St. Joseph's Cathedral and the episcopal residence at Manchester cost over $125,000.
CHAPTER XXI.
SINCE THE REBELLION, 1865-1888.
FREDERICK SMYTH -SYLVESTER MARSH - PROVINCIAL PAPERS -REV. DR. BOUTON -WALTER HARRIMAN - PUBLIC INSTRUCTION -ACADEMIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS -JOHN B. CLARK -J. C. MOORE - PEOPLE - NEWSPA- PERS - ONSLOW STEARNS -JAMES A. WESTON - BISHOP BAKER - E. A. STRAW -ASA FOWLER - J. E. SARGENT - CHARLES H. BURNS - P. C. CHENEY -PHILLIPS EXETER ACADEMY - CONSTITUTIONAL CON- VENTION - B. F. PRESCOTT - J. F. BRIGGS - WHITE MOUNTAINS - NATT HEAD - CHARLES H. BELL -FRANK JONES -OSSIAN RAY - S. W. HALE - C. H. BARTLETT-J. H. GALLINGER - MOODY CURRIER - C. H. SAWYER - JONATHAN SAWYER -JOSEPH WENTWORTH - JONATHAN KITTREDGE - W. E. CHANDLER - HARRY BINGHAM - RAILROADS - SUMMER RESORTS - MANUFACTURING.
IN the Republican convention of January, 1865, Frederick Smyth, of Manchester, received two-thirds of an informal ballot, which was then made unanimous by acclamation.
1Frederick Smyth was born in Candia in 1819, and in early manhood was in business in Manchester. He soon became interested in municipal affairs, and was twice elected city clerk. His manifest efficiency in city affairs, and the thoroughness with which he mastered every detail, suggested his fitness for mayor, and he was accordingly nominated and elected to that office in March, 1852. He was re-elected for two successive years thereafter, and again at a time of peculiar importance in municipal affairs in 1864. A distinguishing mark of his first year's administration will ever remain in the trees which adorn the parks and streets of Manchester. In July and in October of Mayor Smyth's first year, the Whig party lost its two great leaders, - Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, -and the attention of the citizens was called to some fitting expres- sion of feeling in both cases by a brief message from the mayor. His first election was by Whig votes over the opposition of Democrats and Free-Soilers ; his second by Whig and Free-Soil votes; his third with very little oppo- sition, and his fourth with virtually none at all. During his second year the
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Amoskeag Falls bridge was rebuilt, and parts of Goffstown and Bedford were annexed to the city. The most honorable monument, however, which will stand to his name is the part he took in the foundation of a free public library.
In 1855 he was appointed by Governor Metcalf and council, chairman of commissioners to locate and build a House of Reformation for juvenile offenders. It was dedicated in 1858. In the year 1857 and 1858 Mr. Smyth was a mem- ber of the State legislature, and was also made treasurer of the Reform school. In the convention which nominated Ichabod Goodwin, in 1859, he stood fourth on the list of candidates. In 1860 he was president of the State Republican Convention, and was soon after appointed by Secretary Chase one of the agents to obtain subscriptions to the national loan. In 1861 he was appointed as one of the agents on the part of the United States to the International Exhibition at London, where Her Majesty's commissioners made him a juror. Early in the war of the Rebellion he was cashier and principal financial manager of the Merrimack River Bank, and also of the Merrimack River Savings Bank. His faith in the government led him to invest largely in bonds and to accept the charter for the bank of discount, which thenceforth became the First National Bank of Manchester. At that time few men or banks cared to follow his example, but the event justified his sagacity.
1 He was elected by a majority of over six thousand, the largest majority given to any governor for twenty-four years. He entered upon no easy task. The State was beginning to feel severely the stress of the time. Gradually a great debt had accumulated. Regiment after regiment had been promptly equipped and sent into the field, and the banks had advanced money quite to the extent of their courage, and nearly to that of their ability. In the open market were met the gold bonds of the government, free from taxes. The same trouble pulsed through all the arteries of the body politic ; and the people of a State always careful and conservative in all its expenditures beheld with something like dismay this mountain of obligation swollen into millions. It was almost impossible to get money for current expenses. A previous legislature had authorized the issue of three and one-half millions of six per cent. State bonds, payable in currency, only $424,000 of which had been taken. Governor Smyth, in his first message, recommended the issue of bonds better calculated to meet the exigencies of the case, and that current expenses be provided for by taxation. As a matter of interest to capitalists, he took care to set forth the resources of the State, its prudent habit in expenditures, and the hostility to
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repudiation in every form which our people had inherited from a frugal, patriotic, and God-fearing ancestry. " We must, " he said, " now observe the most rigid economy in expenditure, and bring the expenses to a peace basis as soon as possible. Our people are naturally economical, and hold sacred all pecuniary obligations." He compared, in a very effective manner, the agricultural products of a State which had hitherto borne the reputation of producing only men, with those of some of the more fertile members of the Union, to our decided advantage. He called to mind the unrivalled water-power with its present and prospective improvement, and urged that attention to the latent wealth of the State which due regard to our prosperity demanded.
In the first three months of his administration he raised over one million of dollars on favorable terms, a large amount of which was obtained in Manchester. From that time forward the financial affairs of the State received the most scrupulous attention. In the haste and waste of war, unavoidable confusion at times arose in accounts between the several States and the general govern- ment, and it was not only then impossible to pay our debts, but equally so to get our dues. Governor Smyth's large acquaintance with men gave him influence at headquarters, and he suffered no opportunity to pass to advocate the claims of his State.
At the close of the war, Governor Smyth found the suspended and disallowed accounts of the State against the general govern- ment of over one million of dollars. These disallowances and suspensions were mainly in the expenditures growing out of earlier military operations previous to his accession to office. Governor Smyth did not busy himself to fix charges of petty larceny against one officer, or of wholesale robbery against others. He did not assume that every man who was charged with fitting out the first regiment sent from the State had stolen all that he couldn't duplicate vouchers for on official paper. On the contrary, he urged upon the accounting officers, at Wash- ington, the impetuous zeal with which the State had responded to the call of the government, and represented the impossibility of complete exactness in the accounts. Under such circum-
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stances he exerted himself to obtain vouchers where his prede- cessor had omitted to secure them, and to explain their absence when they could not be procured. In this way he saved hun- dreds of thousands of dollars to the treasury of the State, and put no stain on its fair fame.
At the end of his first year, his nomination for a second term followed as a matter of course, and he was re-elected in 1866 by a large majority.
The second year of Governor Smyth's administration was in all respects as satisfactory as the first. The State debt was funded at a lower rate of interest than was offered by the gen- eral government. The revision of the statutes, the reorganiza- tion of the militia, measures looking to the restoration of fish to our waters, and the publication of ancient State papers, are among some of the matters of general interest.
Said the Boston Fournal, on his retirement at the close of the second term : "Governor Smyth's administration has been highly successful, not only in a financial point of view, which is demonstrated by statistics, but in all other respects." Said the Commercial Bulletin : "He has been as vigorous and careful of the interests of the people as if those concerns were personal to himself, and successfully sought so to manage the financial affairs of the State that its credit stands as well as any other commonwealth." Said the Daily Monitor : " To-day Governor Smyth resigns his trust with the proud con- sciousness of leaving nothing uncertain or unsettled which diligence, busi- ness tact, and untiring zeal could close up and arrange; nor has Governor Smyth's administration been merely a financial success ; he has neglected no single public interest; himself a practical example of all the virtues which constitute a good citizen, he has interested himself in every movement which looked to the welfare of the community and the promotion of industry, tem- perance, and good morals among the people."
It is a significant fact, that in a time of much party feeling the governor was able to say in his valedictory, " Whatever may have been the difference of opinion among us, there has been no factious opposition from any source to measures necessary for the public good, but I have been uniformly receiv- ing the hearty co-operation of all parties in this difficult work." Only once during his two years' administration did he consider it necessary to interpose his veto, and the House sustained him 132 to 6.
So successful was the administration that, contrary to precedent. many of the most influential and respectable journals of the State advocated his nom- ination for a third term.1
2 While on a visit to his native State in 1852, Mr. Sylvester
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Marsh ascended Mount Washington, accompanied by Rev. A .. C. Thompson, pastor of the Eliot Church, Roxbury, and while struggling up the steep ascent, the idea came to him that a rail- road to the summit was feasible, and that it could be made a profitable enterprise. He obtained a charter for such a road in 1858, but the breaking out of the war postponed action till 1866, when a company was formed and the enterprise successfully in- augurated and completed.
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