IMMIGRATION

Farewell to the land of Shielah and Shamrock,
Where many a long day in pleasure I spent,
Farewell to my friends whom I leave here behind me,
To live in poor Ireland if they are content;
Though sorry am I to leave the Green Island,
Whose cause I supported both in peace and war,
 

To live here in bondage I ne'er can be happy,
The green fields of America are sweeter by far...
I remember the time when our country did flourish,
When tradesmen of all kinds had both work and pay
But our trade all has vanished across the Atlantic,
 

And we, boys, must follow to America.
No longer I'll stay in this land of taxation,
No cruel task-monster shall rule over me;
To the sweet land of liberty, I'll bid good morrow,
In the green fields of America we will be free.
 

Oh! who could stay here in want and vexation,
To hear their poor children crying out for bread,
Any many poor creatures without habitation,
And without a shelter to cover their head;
Come pack up your store and consider no longer,
Six dollars a week is no very bad pay,
 

No taxes or tithes will devour up your labour,
When you're in the green fields of America.
 

Farewell to the shores of the sweet county Antrim,
Likewise to the girls of the county Down,
May they still be as happy as ever I wished them.
Though far, far away o're the ocean I'm bound;
If ever it happens in a foreign climate,
A poor friendless Irishman comes in my way
 

To the best I can give, I will make him right welcome,
At my home in the green fields of America.
 

"Green Fields of America" - Emigration Ballad - writer unknown

Census data for the years 1840 to 1870 reveal that the Irish were the second largest foreign-born group in Wisconsin. Their entrance into the state generally preceded that of the Germans, but the Irish were gradually outnumbered by the Germans and other Europeans. Irish immigration into Wisconsin was not an isolated movement, but part of the great exodus of emigrants from Ireland to the United States.

During the great Atlantic migration of the nineteenth century, Ireland ranked highest among five northern and western European countries in immigration to the United States for the twenty-year period from 1840-1859. It held second place during the decades from 1860-1869, and 1880-1889, and ranked third from 1870-1879. Statistics show that during these same years there was an almost continuous influx of Irish immigrants into Wisconsin.

During the decade from 1831 to 1840 a conservative estimate places the number of Irish entering the United States at 207,381. This figure is probably an understatement. Immigration records at the eastern ports were not efficiently kept at that time and arrivals through Canada were not recorded.

Conditions on both sides of the ocean combined to form the causes for this early nineteenth century migration. In Ireland a failure of the potato crop in 1831 caused many who had the necessary means to emigrate to America. Ships bringing corn to the hungry Irish carried back emigrants to the United States. An epidemic of the cholera in the 1830's also furnished motivation for emigration. Some of the evicted tenants, victims of the English land system and too poor to provide for their own transportation, were helped by their landlords with small sums sufficient to pay their passage. Others left because of dissatisfaction with English rule which found expression in movements for Catholic emancipation, for repeal of political union with England, and in tithe agitation. Reports of high wages, security, low taxes, expansive tracts of land, political and religious freedom, and social equality were inducements too attractive to be resisted.

By the early 1840's, as Irish newspapers indicated, there was a steady outpouring of emigrants during the spring and summer months of each year. In certain sections of Ireland, emigration had become the fashion and practically the sole topic of conversation, for it was reported, "people think of nothing else." At times there was migration of groups of individuals from the same neighborhood, sometimes of a "family, consisting of twenty or thirty individuals," or even of a group of workers, such as the fifty woolen operatives who left from Wexford in September, 1841.

Hence, by 1845, when one of the worst potato famines ever to occur in Ireland brought on starvation and untold suffering, the stream of emigration from Ireland to the United States had already reached large-sized proportions. Alarmed and fearful of the future, thousands of Irishmen swelled the tide. The number emigrating in 1847 more than doubled that of 1846. By 1850, the number of Irish emigrants reached its peak.

Before 1847 the bulk of the emigrants was made up of the small but more substantial farmers, evicted tenants and laborers. The earlier migration included Irishmen chiefly from the northern and western sections of their home country, while that during the 'forties and after was predominantly made up of individuals from the southern portion of Ireland and therefore indicative of a larger number of Catholics.

Upon reaching the U.S., one of the factors which prompted Irishmen to move West was the appearance of articles in eastern newspapers concerning emigration to Wisconsin as early as the 1840's, along with letters from Irishmen urging others of their nationality to take advantage of the opportunities which Wisconsin afforded them. One such letter estimated the number of Wisconsin Catholics at 25,000 in 1845 and maintained that "for industry perseverance and respectability, [they] will compare with a like number of their fellow citizens of native or foreign origin . . . Wisconsin is the country for our Irish emigrant population with small means, who intend to settle on land."

THE PASSAGE

There were uncountable, untold stories of the evils and sufferings endured by those crossing the sea. The passage took from three to six weeks or more. The bulk of Irishmen, who had little more than their own food and bedding and more frequently with but a few articles of furniture, traveled steerage in overcrowded ships. Lack of sanitation, impure water, and spoiled food often brought illnesses such as cholera and typhoid fever, which claimed many victims especially among the women and children. Storms not only aroused terror among the seasick passengers but also caused some ships to spring leaks and others to sink with heavy loss of life. Often there were instances of highhandedness and even cruelty toward emigrants on the part of the captain and members of the crew. Although numerous complaints were made concerning ill-treatment on board ship, not all reports were bad. At times, acknowledgments of fair and kind treatment signed by the passengers were tendered by the captain and crew.

By the 1850's there was some improvement in conditions as a result of the efforts of the emigration societies, better and more efficiently enforced regulations, and increased interest on the part of clergymen. Furthermore, after 1855, the decline in the number of passengers caused shipping companies to Fortunately, some of the stories of passage were preserved by the families who braved that voyage. Ella Whelan provides one such story about the Barnes family on the following page.

Personal Glimpse By Ella M. Whelan, 1948

Among the very early settlers in the North Lake/Monches/Erin area was the Barnes' family. James Barnes and his wife, Lissy Holt, at the ages of sixty with their son, Holt Barnes, left their home at Bury Lane, Lancashire, England, on July 6, 1848 on the sailing vessel De Witt Clinton, a ship of 1166 tons register. The cost of passage was thirteen English pounds and ten shillings. They landed in New York on Saturday, August 26th, after a passage of six weeks and two days. Four hundred and fifty passengers in all arrived. On the passage, one old man, one woman and four children died.

The passenger contract ticket is still preserved in personal family records. The ticket made the following provision:

Water and provisions according to the annexed scale will be supplied by the ship as required by law and also fires and suitable hearths for cooking. Bedding and utensils for eating and drinking must be provided by the passengers.

Meager rations were provided as stipulated in the contract ticket. Each adult passenger was granted three quarts of water a day (for drinking, cooking and washing) and a weekly ration of three pounds of biscuit, and three and one-half pounds in all of flour, oatmeal or rice, or a proportionate quantity of potatoes.

Young Holt Barnes kept a diary during the journey, which is treasured by some of his relatives. It is notable as much for what it omits as for what it mentions. He repeatedly mentions the porpoises, the weather and his mother's sickness. He scarcely mentions the children who died on the crowded vessel, and makes no comment on the deadly diet which they received. Here are a few notations from his diary:

Thursday, July 13th, 1848. Wind against us. One knot an hour. Afternoon very hot and calm. Sent back three men and a girl stowaway.

Friday, July 14th, 1848. Eight and one-half knots an hour, morn. Afternoon, three and one-half knots. Mother very sick first time, and I felt rather dizzy, as well as father. Saw some young whales.

Wednesday, August 16th, 1848. Fine calm morn. Passengers uneasy about landing. Afternoon dropped anchor for want of wind and not expected to land but steam tug came and towed us in and we landed after a passage of six weeks and two days about 4 o'clock P.M., with 450 passengers and crew. Died on our passage, one old man, one woman and four children.

From New York, the Barnes came by way of Albany, the Erie Canal and the Great Lakes to Milwaukee.

Cead Mile Failte

Monches as it appeared in 1920

SETTLEMENT

Native American Settlers

We are deeply indebted to the true American pioneer - the Indian. As estimated by archeologists, prehistoric "Indians" frequented the region some 10,000 years B.C. These first residents moved into the southeastern Wisconsin area shortly after the recession of the last Wisconsin glacial ice sheets. This first Indian culture, the PaleoIndians, was identified by their characteristic "fluted" spear points. Several different Indian cultures followed: The Early, Middle and Late Archaic Indians, of which the Late Archaic Culture is known throughout the United States as the Old Copper Culture; and the Woodland Cultures, which were also subdivided into early, middle and late segments. It was the Late Woodland era, which archeologists claim made the first historic contact with European travelers.

Many centuries ago, the effigy mound-building race of Native Americans (Late Woodland) probably lived farther to the south in Wisconsin, but Erin may have been among their favorite hunting grounds. In fact, west of the Holy Hill area, many artifacts have been found including arrow-heads of flint and copper, copper knives, axes, chisels, spears, and cooking utensils, which were probably used in such hunting expeditions. Drift nuggets of copper formerly found in the region may have been pure enough and adequate enough in supply to be hammered into such useful tools. This group of people would most likely be considered a traditional hunting and gathering society by current anthropologists.

The First White Explorers

There are a number of circumstances connected with the history of Holy Hill that indicate Erin was visited by white men over 300 years ago. The following passage by J.M. LeCount identifies them.

It is quite certain, as authentic history relates, that the French missionaries coasted the western shore of Lake Michigan from the mouth of the Chicago river to Green Bay on several occasions during the summers from 1673 to 1679.

The early adventurers had two objectives in view; one, to explore the country west of Lake Michigan, also the Mississippi river and its tributaries between it and the lake; and the other was the conversion of the Indian tribes to the Catholic religion.

During these journeys up and down the lake, using only frail canoes, they were obliged to keep close to the shore. The nights were spent on land and they would frequently remain in one place for several days at a time. On such occasions it was their custom to erect crosses on some of the more prominent elevations. The intrepid explorers were Pere Marquette and Louis Joliet, and on a trip in October, 1674, Father Marquette and ten canoes of Indians left the "portage" opposite Sturgeon Bay and coasted back to the mouth of the Chicago River which they reached in late November.

They were forty days making the journey, and as the distance is less than two hundred miles they undoubtedly spent much of their time on shore. At one time, they were delayed five days, about fifteen miles north of Milwaukee, in what is now the town of Mequon. From subsequent evidence, it is believed that at this time some of their party made a detour inland, to the west, in hopes of finding Rock River which they knew was not far away. The traditions of the Indians say that they only went as far as Holy Hill, and failing to discover the river, they erected a cross on the hill and returned to their companions the next day. This theory is not improbable, and the journey might have been made, as the distance to be traveled was less than twenty miles inland.

Every Indian tribe, whose haunts were in the vicinity of Holy Hill had a tradition, and firmly believed that white men visited the hill very many years ago.

In June, 1844, Charles Frederick Hecker settled on land on the east shore of Pike Lake. At that time there was a large family of Potawatomies encamped near his home. "Old Kewaskum" was their chief and they remained there a number of years after the white settlers came.

Mr. Hecker, who was an old bachelor and lived alone, was a very eccentric man, but was on very friendly terms with the Indians, especially old Kewaskum. He used to relate how, after the work was done, he and the old chief would sit on a log and smoke for hours together. One evening as they sat facing Pulford's Hill, a short distance to the east, their conversation turned to the object before them. Suddenly old Kewaskum, pointing to the south, said "About an hour's walk in that direction is a hill larger than this. I have heard my father tell that white men came there many years ago and placed a cross on the top of it. I can't tell how many years ago it was, but my father said that his grandfather was there at the time it was done."

Other tribes in the same locality had the same tradition. Away back in the early "forties" (1840's) , when the settlers came in, there were several families of the Menomonies scattered along the Oconomowoc river from below Loew's Lake on the south, to Friess Lake on the east.

Old Monches was the chief of this tribe at the time, and was always on friendly terms with the white people. Living in the vicinity of the hill, whenever by chance it was alluded to, he would become greatly interested and loved to tell of how his tribe was knowing to the fact that white men once came from Lake Michigan many years before and planted a cross on its top. When speaking of the event, he would always illustrate his story by marking the shape of the cross, either in the snow, sand or whatever soft substance happened to be most conveniently at hand.

After the death of both Kewaskum and Monches, their remains were subjected to the most shameful and ghoulish usage, and at the hands of a race for which they had shown great friendship, while living. Both shared a similar fate, for each, after he had been buried over twenty years, was dug up from his humble, shallow grave by relic hunters and his bones left to bleach upon the surface or to be scattered by the winds of earth. Old Kewaskum was buried on Indian (now Barber's) island, on the Rock River, about four miles north of Hustisford. Old Monches died about the year of 1848, while living by the Oconomowoc river near the residence of the late John Whelan of Erin. Nearly thirty years later, some curiosity seekers found his grave, and some others of his tribe on a little knoll (Blanket Hill) about a half mile east from the village that bears his name. They unearthed his remains and those of others and left their bones uncovered, until a hand more humanely disposed reinterred them.

But while the graves of these chiefs were desecrated, yet their names were made lasting; for each has a place in Washington County named after him; Kewaskum near the north, and Monches in the south.

The Native Americans still present in Washington County as white settlers began to enter the region in the 1600's and 1700's included the Menomonie, Potawatomie, Sac, and Fox tribes. Mounds created by early Native Americans were quite numerous when the first white settlers came into the area, and in 1881 it was said that "scarce an old farmer can be found who has not leveled numbers of them in cultivating his fields." These were probably the burial places of tribes living in comparatively modern times.

The first Indian village in the entire surrounding community was located in the Town of Erin in Section 24. This place in 1943 was farmed by William Semro and the exact location of the camp could be pointed out, a little west of the horse corral that he put up in 1942.

- Beuhlah Timm and Doris Meyer

The Arrival of the Irish

In the early 1840's , the southwestern corner of Washington County was settled by a group of Irish immigrants who had not been attracted to the locality as laborers, but rather with the intention of settling on the land. These Irishmen located chiefly in what became Erin Township as well as in Monches, part of Merton Township. These two neighboring townships offer an example of how the Irish community is not defined by boundaries and roads, but rather by culture, relationships and tradition. Erin, whose early history is identical with that of Monches, was the most Irish agricultural town in Wisconsin in 1850 and 1860.

Michael Lynch entered the first land grant in the Town of Erin on November 20, 1841, which was 40 acres in section 35. A few days later, Eleazer Dowley took up 40 acres on November 27, 1841, in section 25.

Other early settlers in the Erin Monches area were: These names of settlers were taken from the Poll Book of the Town of Erin election held at the house of Patrick Toland, on April 7, 1846, and from Quickert's History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties, 1881. By 1846 the land in the town had all been purchased.

It is interesting to note that the settlement of Erin and neighboring villages and towns such as Monches, and Thompson occurred before Wisconsin's Statehood of May 29, 1848. The Town of Erin was officially incorporated on January 16, 1846. As it is told in Father Lincoln Whelan's "Thems They", the naming of the town took place as follows:

At a special meeting, called for the purpose of naming the town, at which the Rev. Father Kundig presided, Mr. John Whelan remembers that Mr. James Keneally, the two William Mountins, and a Mr. McCormick were present. During this session of about half a dozen settlers, John Whelan proposed the name "Erin" for the township. He was scarcely seated before Keneally, Mountin, and Mr. McCormick had voiced their hearty seconds. "Big" and "Little" Messrs. Mountin were from Kerry (a.k.a. Thompson).

Early settlers standing outside one of the first homes in Erin

Erin's Irish immigrants came from many different counties in Ireland - Counties Cork, Mayo, Waterford, Wexford, Limerick, Armagh, Offaly, Tyrone, Tipperary, and Kerry, to name but a few. The village of Thompson has been referred to as "Kerry" because many of its settlers came from County Kerry, Ireland. Likewise, Oconnellsville" (a.k.a. Monches) was well settled by immigrants from Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland. Although there may have been some differences of opinion between the "Kerry crowd," and the "Killarney crowd" the two groups were as "purely Irish in population, and as purely Catholic in religion, as any town in old Ireland itself".

St. John's Church in its early days

The first documented Catholic Mass celebrated in the town was by the Rev. Father Kundig at the home of William McGrath, in November, 1842. Three sources verify this event including an article written by Archbishop Messmer entitled "Chips from a Kundig Block", which references a letter written to Rev. Patrick O'Kelley by Father Kundig. It stated:

As near as can be ascertained, the first Catholic settlers to locate in the neighborhood of Monches came there on September 2, 1842. Services were first held at the home of William McGrath in the town of Erin by Rev. Martin Kundig, in November, 1842. . .

There is also documented evidence that masses were held at Bernard McConville's log home shortly thereafter (September, 1844) Ñ(J.M. LeCount, 1891). Rev. Kundig made his advent into Erin on foot, coming up from Prairieville (now Waukesha) by the way of Merton and Monches. Soon after, the citizens assisted in building a log church at Monches where the early settlers of Erin worshipped for a number of years. (J.M. LeCount, 1891)

Regardless of where the first mass was held, what mattered to those early pioneers was that they were continuing in the practice of their Catholic faith by receiving the sacrament of holy communion.

"Twenty Years a-growing, Twenty years a-living, and Twenty years a-dying"

By 1870, settlement in this southeastern section of Wisconsin was practically completed. During this time, there was a "fluid population element", in which not only the Irish, but Norwegians and Germans as well, moved from one county to another and sometimes to a different state.

Many of the Irish, in particular, were not willing to endure all of the hardships accompanying forest clearing; hence, they moved about in search of lands amenable to more immediate possibilities of farming. Oftentimes, families did not continue to keep the farm "in the family".

There is an old Celtic saying: "Twenty years a-growing, twenty years a-living, and twenty years a-dying." That saying sums up the history of the settlement. Moored and anchored to the place by the church, cemetery, and mill, many local citizens slipped the anchor of circumstances and drifted away like the "wild geese of Erin" that they were. Where? It is not easy to say. The cemetery, "Kinney's acre," claimed uncounted numbers. Many moved to nearby Milwaukee, a few went to Chicago, and in the post-Civil war period many families went westward.

Circa 1904:

In many respects, Erin was completely isolated from the outside business world by being exclusively a farming town, having no factory of any kind, no village, no telegraph or telephone and no railroad. It has only one store, and near it the post office is kept. The mail was brought to the office twice a week from Hartford.

It does not appear that the old settlers of Erin were actuated by that spirit of progress and improvement so characteristic of their sons today. But this was no doubt owing to the difficulties and hardships incident to pioneer life; or else they were not possessed of the means necessary to carry out their ideas in this direction. Be that as it may, it was a notable fact that very few fine residences and commodious farm buildings were met with in Erin until within the past few years. The older people seemed happy and contented, and rather preferred to remain in their humble log cabins that had served them for a home since their advent into the wilderness, rather than to dwell in homes of luxury unpaid for.

The Great Depression took it's toll on many of the Irish farms in Erin in the 1930's. However, Erin was still more than 90% Irish in the 1940's. While the town was primarily agricultural in the early years of settlement, changes began to take place about 100 years after the first settlers arrived. The town was no longer the site of only farm dwellings, but many of the narrow, tree-lined roads were becoming dotted with single-family homes. By 1970, even though Erin was predominantly rural in character, only 9.2% of the population was employed directly in farm operations.

Today, still retaining an agricultural-rural character, areas of the town have given way to platted sub-divisions. And in fact, the ethnic origin of the Town's residents has changed quite dramatically over the decades since the original settlement.


2nd Holy Hill Church 1879-1925

Kelley Family

He is a mystic soul, clinging to the old Gaelic traditions, the subject of poets, but at the same time one who, in coping with reality, is likely to lose his temper, loves to argue, harbors deep-seated hatreds and just as deeply-planted loyalties. He would not be an Irishman unless, gay, witty, and light-hearted, but also devotedly religious and quite charmingly superstitious. It can truthfully be said of Irishmen, as it has been of other immigrants, that "They change their sky and not their mind who cross the sea." And so the Irish countryman who crossed the sea and settled in Wisconsin retained his Irish character, his customs and traditions, simultaneously adapting himself to American life in the Midwest.

Conrad M. Arensberg , "The Irish Countryman"

REFERENCES

The references are listed alphabetically according to each section of this Chapter.

Immigration

• Adams, W.F. Ireland and Irish Emigration to the New World from 1815 to the Famine. New Haven: 1932
• Boston Pilot 9 May 1840, 7 May 1842 and 11 June 1842. As cited in W.F. Adams. Ireland and Irish Emigration to the New World from 1815 to the Famine. 222.
• Boston Pilot. 7 May 1842 and 25 May 1844. As cited in Frances Morehouse. "The Irish Migration of the Forties." 579-592.
• Cork Reporter. As cited in the Boston Pilot 9 May 1840.
• Cork Reporter. As cited in the Boston Pilot 7 May 1842.
• Cork Reporter. As cited in the Boston Pilot 11 June 1842.
• Davie, Maurice R. "World Migration with Special Reference to the United States." New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946: 55.
• Derry Journal. As cited in the Boston Pilot 24 May 1845.
• Healy, James N. "Green Fields of America." Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads, Vol. 4: No Place Like Home. 92-94, #26.
• Kerry Examiner. As cited in the Boston Pilot 25 May 1844.
• Kerry Examiner. As cited in the Boston Pilot 8 June 1844.
• McDonald, Grace. History of the Irish in Wisconsin. New York: The Arno Press, 1976.
• Morehouse, Frances. "The Irish Migration of the Forties." AHR, XXXIII. April 1928. 588-589.
• O'Kelley, Reverend Patrick. "Letter to the Editor of the New York Freeman's Journal written on 23 January 1842." As cited in the Milwaukee Courier 9 March 1842 and the Boston Pilot 29 March 1845.
• Racine Advocate. As cited in the Boston Pilot 24 May 1845.
• TUAM Herald. As cited in the Boston Pilot 28 May 1841.

The Passage

• Boston Pilot 24 April 1852.
• Boston Pilot 20 June 1857.
• Emerson, Lizzie. "Early Memoirs and Poems of Migration." Town of Lake, Milwaukee County.
• Hansen. The Atlantic Migration. 300.
• Purcell. "The Irish Immigrant, the Famine and the Irish American." 863.
• Whelan, Ella M. "Through the Years with Tamarack District, 1842-1948." Erin, WI, 29 May 1948.

Settlement

• "C'ead Mile Failte" - One Hundred Thousand Welcomes.
• Messmer, Archbishop. "Chips from a Kundig Block." As cited in Father Lincoln F. Whelan's thesis "The History of St. John's Congregation at Monches." 29 January 1931.
• St. Patrick's Congregation Annual Report, 1937.
• Sullivan, T.J. The Catholic Church in Wisconsin. Milwaukee, WI: Catholic Historical Publishing Company, 1895 - 1898.

Native American Settlers

• Berry, Conkling and Ray. Economic Geography. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1987.
• "Favorite Hunting Grounds..." History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties. Western Historical Society of Chicago, 1881.
• Laugill, Ellen D. and Jean Penn Loepke. From Farmlands to Freeways, A History of Waukesha County.
• Overstreet, Dr. David F. "Beyond History - Aboriginal Cultures of Waukesha County From the End of the Ice Age to Historic Contact." Milwaukee, WI.

The First White Explorers

• LeCount, James M. Holy Hill: Its History, Authentic and Legendary and Prehistoric, in Prose and Poetry. Hartford, WI: J.M. LeCount and Son, 1891.
• Mayer, Doris and Beuhlah Timm. "The Indian Villiage..."

Arrival of the Irish Settlers

• History of Washington and Ozaukee Counties. Western Historical Society of Chicago, 1881: 324.
• Whelan, Father Lincoln F. "Thems They - The Story of Monches, Wisconsin." Monches, WI: September 1940.