DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

1862 William “Boss” Tweed, whose father was born in Ireland, gained control of Tammany Hall in New York.

1864 Doctor James McBride was U.S. Minister to Hawaii. He negotiated the purchase of Alaska.

Andrew Gordon Magrath elected Governor of South Carolina

The Irish Emigration Society is organized by Father John Ireland in St. Paul, Minnesota.

1865 Andrew Johnson became President of the United States, his mother was Mary McDonough of Irish ancestry.

Stephens and his staff are arrested in Ireland.

William Russell Grace founded the W.R. Grace Company.

Welsh emigrants settle Patagonia, South America.

1866 American Fenians invaded Canada led by John O’Neill of County Monaghan, and win the initial battles, the U.S. intervened and had the Fenians withdraw and disarm. Other excursions took place against Campo Bello Island, New Brunswick; and from Saint Albans, Vermont.

The main speaker at a Fenian gathering in New York City was a man who was a resident during the past year, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. The General spoke of the role played by the San Patricio Battalion in the Mexican War. It was during his stay in New York that his recently hired American secretary, James Adams noticed Santa Anna cutting off bits of a Mexican plant and chewing it. The plant was chicle, and thus was born the United States chewing gum industry.

James Fisk and Thomas Meagher organize Irish settlements in Montana.

1867 Fenian rising in Munster is short lived.

Fenians staged bombings and shootings in England.

Clan na-Gael founded in Ireland.

William McDougal was appointed Governor of Rupert’s Land (Manitoba).

1868 Prime Minister W.E. Gladstone began a policy of reform to Ireland.

The settlement of Emmet is established in Dakota Territory by Dennis Carrol, Patrick Jennings and John and Brigit Maher. All of them were Irish.

1869 The Church of Ireland was announced as no longer the official church of Ireland.

Ulysses S. Grant elected President of the United States, his mother, Hannah Simpson was of Irish ancestry from County Tyrone, as was Grant’s paternal grandmother, Rachel Kelly.

George Francis Train, a man of considerable ability, ran for President of the United States. Train invented the Pencil eraser, and perforated edges on stamps. He was offered the Presidency of the short lived Republic of Australia. In the election against Grant there were two other Irishmen running, Charles O’Conor, and Horace Greely, the founder of the New York Tribune. Train left politics to travel around the world, his exploits were Jules Vernes’ model for his story, Around The World In Eighty Days.

John Roy Lynch was the son of an Irish father and a Black mother on a Louisiana plantation. He rose from slavery to be a Justice of the Peace at age 21. He later was a Mississippi legislator, and Speaker of the House in 1873. He was the first Black ever elected to the United States House of Representatives (1873). He was the Keynote speaker at the Republican national convention of 1887, there was not another until 1968 (81 years).

James Gordon Bennett Senior died, he was a Scot who married an Irish woman, their son James Gordon Bennett, Junior inherited the business empire his father had built topped by the New York Herald. By the time he inherited the business, sportsman young Bennett already had established the America yacht series of races, brought polo and tennis onto the American scene, and founded other races. His automobile race is today’s Grand Prix, his races for balloons, motor boats, and aeroplanes led to advancements of design and power.

When Bennett got the paper it was he who sent Stanley looking for Livingston in deepest Africa, men into the arctic, and into Siberia. An Alaskan lake, an African mountain and river, and a Siberian island are all named after this Irishman. Perhaps his greatest landmark is in New York, where Herald Square stands to remind us that remember, who he was.

1870 Isaac Butt began his Home Rule movement which sought complete self-government for Ireland.

Orange riots of New York, when Orangemen organized a parade on July 12 to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne. The next year the parade was held again with police and militia on hand. An incident caused the militia to fire and 37 people were killed, 67 wounded.

John O’Neill led another attack into Canada from Franklin, Vermont; another group tried to enter from Malone, New York. The Canadians were waiting for both groups.

Mrs Patrick O’Leary’s cow was said to cause the Great Chicago Fire, by knocking over a lantern.

A Fenian Committee met in Sioux Falls, Iowa to establish an Irish community in Dakota Territory called Limerick. It is today Brule City, South Dakota.

The Welsh language began to seriously decline in usage.

1871 David C. Butler who was elected Nebraska’s first governor, was impeached. In 1877 the impeachment proceedings were expunged, and in 1888, Butler was again elected Governor of Indiana.

An invasion by Fenians into Rupert’s Land (Manitoba) from Pembina, Dakota led by William B. O’Donaghue and John O’Neil.

Several Irish communities are started in the Dakota Territory among them are: Lennox, Finely, Running Water, and Worthing.

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