A Runaway Irish Servant

Many Irish came to the colonies as indentured servants. Often, we do not know their names unless, for some reason, they are mentioned in the newspapers. Sometimes, I suppose, this is because of what they accomplished later in life.Most of the time, it is because they had run away from their master, who advertised the fact in one the newpapers.

Thomas Ustick placed an advertisement in the June 19, 1735 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette seeking the return of his runaway Irish servant, Owen Ward. Ward was described as about 23 years of age, "a slender, grown man; with a large scar on the left side of his face under his eye and the forefinger of one of his hands has lost its first joint; professes to be a husbandman and miner." He had run away from Ustick, described as "of Second River," on June 18. A forty schillings reward was offered for his return.

This Thomas Ustick was the husband of Elizabeth Shackerly, and father of the Steven Ustick who was born in New York, but was baptized at the Second River Dutch Reformed Church in May of 1729. Thomas's second son, William, was born in New Jersey in 1731. Thomas himself was born in St. Justin, Cornwall, England, son of Stephen Ustick. and settled in New York. He was a copper miner who operated mines near Schooley's Mountain.

Perhaps more research will uncover information about Owen Ward and his life after he ran away. Was he captured and returned? Did he succeed in his flight and sire a family? We may never know. But his existence is evidence of the fact of Irish servants in eighteenth-century Belleville.



 

Membership in Irish-American Organizations

One of the ways the Irish kept their identity as Irish, and also helped the land of their birth or ancestry, was to participate in organizations that celebrated their heritage, or helped the people of their homeland. While citizens of Belleville most likely participated in every Irish-American organization that came into existence over the years, records of who actually belonged to these organizations has been difficult to find.

Some early Irish joined American organizations. There was a Belleville Council, Junior Order, United American Mechanics, an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant organization associated with the Know-Nothings. Verner W. Forgie, whose father had come to America from the north of Ireland, was a member.

One of the first Irish-American organizations to have a significant membership of residents of  Belleville was the Fenian Brotherhood. A letter of E. Mullen, secretary of the O’Neill Circle, Newark, N.J., to the Irish American Weekly, reported on recruitment meetings in Newark and Belleville. The letter, dated May 28, 1868, was published in the June 13 issue. Major MacWilliams had addressed a meeting in Belleville on May 25, which, the correspondent notes, “was attended by a very large and enthusiastic audience.” After the lecture, “a circle of seventy-four members was formed, and a military company of thirty-eight men started.” The officers were: John W. Goslin, Centre; M. Hanley, Secretary; C. White, Treasurer; M. Hanley, Captain.

The correspondent notes that both the Belleville circle and a newly-formed Newark Eighth Ward circle “are composed of good and true men who are evidently determined to exert themselves in not only increasing their circle in numbers, but also in preparing their boys in green for active service under our gallant President, Gen. John O’Neill.”

The April 3, 1886 issue of the New York Irish American Weekly reported on the convention of Irish Societies of New Jersey, held at the Young Men’s Catholic Institute in Newark, to form a permanent State organization of the Irish National League. The newspaper noted that “the stage in the hall was appropriately decorated with American and Irish flags and pictures of Parnell, Archbishop Croke, and Washington.” The Belleville Branch of the Wolfe Tone Club was represented by William McVey, Hugh Diamond, Michael Daly and James Slattery.

  

The Friends of Irish Freedom was organized in 1916 to help in the fight for Irish independence. While the date of organization for the Belleville branch has not been discovered, the H. C. Morris’ Belleville Directory for 1921 lists the following officers: John J. Killeen, president; George Batty, vice-president; Mary G. Monahan, recording secretary; Mrs. Nichola Shelby, financial secretary; Mrs. Patrick Baney, corresponding secretary; Mrs. James Neary, treasurer. Meetings were held at St. Peter’s Hall.

Killeen, a carpenter, was born in Ireland in the 1880s. According to the 1920 census, he had immigrated in 1900. In 1930 he was living at 59 Hornblower Avenue, with his New York-born wife, daughter of a New York-born father and an Irish-born mother.

Batty is probably George Batty, Jr., born in New Jersey about 1880 to an English-born father and a New Jersey-born mother. Both of George, Sr.’s parents were born in England, but his maternal grandfather was born in Ireland. George Batty and Son was listed in the 1921 Belleville Directory under “House Furnishing Goods” at 182 Washington Ave, where they also resided.  

Mary Monahan, born Mary Quinn, had married James J. Monahan in their hometown of Bohola, County Monahan, on 6 June 1901. Soon after their marriage they settled in Belleville and lived at 64 Quarry St., where they later ran a confectionary store.

       

In 1921, Nicholas Shelby was a motorman living at 130 Stephens St. I have so far not found him in any other records.

       

Mrs. Patrick Baney is probably Delia Baney, born in Ireland about 1874, immigrated 1889 or so. Her husband Patrick was born in Ireland about 1870 and immigrated 1888. He was naturalized in 1900 at the Court of Common Pleas in Newark. By 1920 they were living at 21 Hornblower Avenue. In 1900, he was a laborer in a brass factory. The 1921 directory gives his occupation as motorman. In 1930 he was a gardener. In 1924, she returned to Ireland for a visit, perhaps to experience the Irish Free State she had worked for.

       

Mrs. James Neary is most likely Julia Neary, née Day, born about 1862 in New York to Irish-born parents. In 1930 she and her husband were living at 35 Hornblower Avenue. According to the 1921 Directory, her husband dealt in lumber.

I hope to find out more about the membership in these organizations, and find more recent organizations that residents of Belleville belonged to.

Moving On: The Irish Who Came and Went

Not all of the Irish who came to Belleville stayed. A number of them moved on.

In 1850, 18-year-old Francis Glancy, whose occupation is listed in the census as “laborer”, was living with the William Glancy family in Bloomfield.  William, Mary, and their son Michael had emigrated from Ireland between 1843 and 1848. They may have come from County Sligo, since a Mary “Glacey” travelled to America in 1851 with the Thomas Connolly family of County Sligo, and a 40-year-old Sarah Glancy, along with 9-year-old Edward, presumably her son, are listed as cousins in the household of Bridget Connolly McEnery in Belleville in 1900.

Francis Glancy married Sarah McCormack on 19 November 1856. Their first three children, Mary, Sarah Anne and John Francis, were baptized at St. Peter’s in 1857, 1860 and 1861, respectively. By 1862, the family had moved to Wisconsin, where their son Michael would be born. At the time of 1870 census, there were living in Gale, Wisconsin, where Francis was farming. By 1880, they were in Beadle, in Dakota Territory.

Some of the Irish who had settled in Belleville saw an opportunity for improving their lives when gold was discovered in California. This discovery led to a mass migration to the gold fields. Some were single men, but others were married, and either took their family with them, or sent for them later. There were three Irish families from Belleville living in the Gold Rush town of Timbuctoo, California, in 1860. Not much is left of Timbuctoo today, just the Wells Fargo building, and it is on the verge of collapse. But at the time of the Gold Rush, Timbuctoo was a bustling town, filled with miners who were there to try their luck at gold mining, hoping to make enough money so that they would be set for life. One of the miners there was John Murray, who had married Catherine Haley at St. Peter’s.  Catherine was one of eight brothers and sisters who came from the little town of Rahara in County Roscommon, and settled in Belleville, beginning about the mid-1830s through the late 1840s, with her sister Bridget coming over only after the death of her husband, bringing with her her two young children. During the 1850s and 1860s, several of the brothers and sisters left New Jersey to try their luck in California. One of the brothers, Hugh, even spent some time in the gold fields of Australia, writing home and sending money to his wife back in New Jersey, and sending greetings to his daughter, obviously unaware that she had died of cholera six years earlier.

        Among the other residents of Timbuctoo in 1860 are found a couple of other families made up of parents who had been born in Ireland, whose first children were born in New Jersey. John Shields, son of Irish-born parents, was baptized at St. Patrick’s in Newark. Mary Ann Smith’s parents were born in Ireland, and she herself was born in Bloomfield. And James Conroy, born, like the others, of Irish-born parents, was baptized at St. Peter’s.

Some moved on to parts unknown. For many years several newspapers carried “Information Wanted” columns, in which family or friends posted requests for information about lost family members or friends. The “Missing Friends” column of the Boston Pilot of February 6, 1869, includes an ad placed by Patrick Farraher of Belleville seeking the whereabouts of his sister Mary Walsh, née Farraher, a native of the parish of Ballahally, townland of Killore, county Mayo, and his brother Michael. Mary had left Ireland about 15 years before.

Hanora Parker (maiden name Byrne) advertised in the December 6, 1873 issue of the Irish American Weekly of New York, seeking information on William Parker, a native of Dublin, or his brothers-in-law Peter and Michael Byrne, natives of Dunode, County Wicklow. When last heard from, five years before, they were all in Belleville.

The Irish and the Powder Mill

Walking through the Dutch Reformed Church cemetery, one might be struck by the headstones, seemingly out of place, of four Irishmen. They were victims of the explosion of the Bellona Powder Mill in 1814. Most likely Presbyterians, they came from County Donegal. Because British aliens--and the Irish were British nationals at the time, Ireland having been incorporated into Great Britain by the 1801 Act of Union--had to register with the Federal Government at the beginning of the War of 1812, we know that John Stevenson arrived in the US on June 8, 1811, and that William Birney arrived May 3, 1812. According to his will of 24 April 1814, James Wilson was the son of Moses Wilson of Ireland. They may have come directly to Belleville, but it is also possible that they came from Ireland as part of a group recruited by the DuPont family of Delaware to work in their powder mill.

There is a connection between the powder mill in Belleville and the du Pont mill in Wilmington, Delaware. One John Mitchell wrote to du Pont from Belleville on 6 April 1811 in response to a letter du Pont had sent him. Mitchell was investigating the use of water looms for the weaving of woolen cloth and natural cotton. Mitchell says he had gone to Spotswood with Mr. Decatur. This Decatur was one of the owners of the Bellona Powder Works. He also mentions learning from a Mr. Stone(?) at Paterson of a Scotchman named James Murray of Cranetown who made the looms which, Mitchel reports, will do, “with some little improvement.”

Many of the Irish who later worked for du Pont were Irish Catholics from Ulster whose passage had been arranged by du Pont. It might be possible that many if not all of the early Irish in Belleville came through a connection with DuPont. Those whose origin is known came from the Province of Ulster.

While it has not been determined whether the Irish workers in the powder mill were brought over specifically for that work, or if they found it once they were here, we do know that Irish Murphys, also a Donegal name, but most likely a Catholic name, were specifically brought over to work in the calico printing plant.

In the January 11, 1812 issue of the New York Herald, the firm of Bullus, Decatur and Rucker of 33 Beaver Street, New York, advertised the products of the Belleville Powder Mill: “Single, Double and Treble F, and Cannon Powder . . . warranted to be equal to English, or any powder made in this country. In September 1812 an attempt was made to blow up “the extensive powder works of Capt. Decatur, at Belleville.

On April 20, 1814, the powder mill blew up. There was no indication that this was anything more than an accident. The account of the explosion in the April 26 edition of the Newark Centinel begins: “It is our painful duty this day to record one of the most afflicting occurrences which has happened in this part of the country for many years past.” The article goes on the say: “By this awful catastrophe, four of the workmen were instantly hurried into eternity; ten were badly wounded, seven of which have since died--and the remaining three, in all probability, will not long survive their comrades.  The foreman and two of the workmen escaped the explosion, because they had gone to the aid of a gentleman whoe wagon had lost a wheel. Decatur and Ruckus were on their way to the mill, and would probably have been there at the time of the explosion if they had started their journey just ten minutes before they did.

The following men died in the explosion or soon thereafter: Thomas Lakey (leaving a mother and six children), Mr. Gillespy (a wife and two children), Wm. Burney (a wife and one child), Robert Doak (a wife and one child), John Davis ( a wife and two children), John Stevenson (a wife), and Alexander Dunsimore, John O'Neal, Andrew Norris, William Coventry, and William Wilson (all single). Three were still living at the time of publication-- Henry Connor, James Wilson, and Mr. Wilkinson--although the paper had heard that one died in the meantime.

According to the inscriptions on their headstones, we know that William Coventry, Andrew Norris, and William Wilson were natives of County Donegal, and Norris and Wilson more specifically of a town given as Auhnithen, County Donegal, a name that cannot be found in any list of Irish place-names, but is pretty definitely to be identified with Aghanunshin, in County Donegal, near Letterkenny, as a former archivist of Bantry House confirmed for me. I visited Aghanunshin and found in the cemetery there many of the same names as are to be found among the early Belleville Irish. Most of the names of those Irish known to be in Belleville at the time are all names found in the Letterkenny area.

The “Mr. Gillespy” who was one of the victims was Michael Gillespie, an Irish Catholic. He was not buried in the Dutch Reformed Cemetery, but was probably buried in the Catholic cemetery on New York City, where the Gillespie family owned plot. In 1820, a Catholic Mass was being celebrated in the house of the Michael Gillespie family, who had moved from to Belleville from Paterson shortly before. One of the members of the family was Edward Gillespie, who founded and edited the New York newspaper, The Shamrock, which began publication in 1810.

The Bellona Powder Mill, Hendricks Brothers Copper Rolling Mill, and the Calico Print Works were three Belleville industries that employed the Irish who settled in Belleville during the first third of the nineteenth century.  

“Paddy Attacks Ah Sin”: The Irish Reaction to the Arrival of the Chinese in Belleville

The New York Tribune of October 24, 1871, under the title “Paddy Attacks Ah Sin”,  reported on the Irish laborers on the Midland Railroad who would not accept the presence of the Chinese laborers who had been brought to Belleville to work for the Passaic Steam Laundry.  As the laborers were returning to their dormitory from a class in Belleville, they were attacked by a group of Irish laborers. The Chinese were carrying revolvers, due to previous experiences of Irish antipathy, and they fired on the group of Irish workers, one of whom was injured. One of the Irish rioters was arrested and held in Hackensack jail. His fellows threatened to destroy the laundry and Hervey’s house should the incarcerated Irishman be injured. The account of the incident in another newspaper ends by saying: “The residents of Belleville resent the actions of the laborers unqualifiedly, and are determined the lend Captain Hervey assistance.”       

The Chinese had been brought to Belleville by James Hervey, a retired sea captain who was at that time operating the Passaic Steam Laundry, which prepared newly-manufactured shirts for sale in the retail establishments.  The laundry, established in 1856 in what is now North Arlington, was originally staffed by Irish women. They were generally good workers, but Hervey was annoyed that they would sometimes strike for better wages, or leave his employ when a better job came along.  

On September 20, 1870, sixty-five Chinese workers arrived to work in the laundry. Hervey had learned of the Chinese laborers who were working in San Francisco, and thought that he would have better luck with Chinese workers than he had had with the irish women. On September 21, an anonymous letter was sent to Hervey, with a threat to murder him if the Chinese were not gone by October 1.  A reporter who asked about the general feeling in the village was told, “Oh, the Irish don’t like it, and threaten vengeance, but the other people don’t seem to be much worried. The demands of the trade will regulate the trouble.” One of the laborers working on the main road was also interviewed, and answered, “be jabers, if the pig-tails are kipt we’ll slather the viry life out o’ them.” The other laborers, the reports continues, “gave a grunt and sloked their black clay pipes the faster.”    

The Springfield [Mass.] Republican, reporting on Hervey’s employment of young Chinese men, reported that “he has heretofore employed only Irish girls, but has not only found them oftentimes dishonest and irresponsible. but has had entirely been unable to procure as many as he needed, who were competent to do the work as nicely as it must be done to please his patrons.”

The New York Tribune of September 29, 1870 reported on a mass meeting held to protest the employment of Chinese in Belleville. One of the speakers denounced the importation of “Coolie laborers” and called upon laborers to raise their voices against held the importation of “idolatrous heathens.”

On August 21, 1872,the Daily Constitution of Middletown Connecticut reported that Hervey was bringing in another group of workers, and erecting a dormitory to house them. The animosity between the Irish girls and the “haythen” had subsided, and they were getting along very amicably together.

The January 18, 1873 issue of the Jersey Journal carried the story of a love-smitten Chinese Man. A girl “apparently of Irish parentage” approached one Detective Nugent, telling him about a Chinese Man who was following her and, if not arrested, would go to New York with her on the ferryboat. She had been an employee at Hervey’s laundry, where Nimba-Shing was smitten with her. He followed her around and became affectionate with her. While they were speaking, Nugent espied the Chinaman, who looked “anxious, care-worn, and love-sick” and who had cut off his pig-tail and dressed in American clothes. Nugent arrested him and took him to the station house.  A different newspaper’s account of the incident refers to him as “Ak Sin,” an allusion to the name of the fictional Chinese immigrant in Bret Harte and Mark Twain's Ah Sin (1877)   

By April 1873 Hervey eventually soured on his Chinese workers, and cancelled his order for more.  According to one account, he had found that, rather than being “celestial,” they do not hold to their contract, run away, develop an opium habit and are lazy. In addition, they are not as “spry ironers” as the Irish.

Of course, all of these stories from newspapers have to be taken with a grain of salt. Newspapers at the time were quite biased, and even made up stories at times. (Unlike today, of course!) But certainly the animosity between the Irish immigrant laborers and the Chinese working for Hervey was real.  

The Early Irish in Belleville

The first evidence of the Irish presence in Belleville is a little surprising. These are the Irish connected to the Dutch Reformed Church. Long before the Irish Famine that saw thousands flee hunger and oppression, Irish were settling in the area that would become Belleville. The earliest identified are Dennis Price and his wife Dorothy Moor. Dorothy was the daughter of Anthony Moor of Emoc, Queen's County (now County Laois). They were married at the Dutch Reformed Church on August 25, 1733. "Dennys Prys" is identified as a native of Ireland, "Dalle Moore" as a native of Dublin. Both were living in Second River at the time of their marriage. Dorothy died on October 15, 1739, at the age of age 28, and was buried in the churchyard, where her tombstone can be seen. 

Among the marriages that were solemnized at the Dutch Reformed Church are those of a couple of other Irish natives. Robert Clark, an Irish native, and widower of Rachel Cloud, and Abigal Pingham, widow of William Pease, and both living at Second River, were married on October 21, 1764. The banns for the marriage of Joseph McKarll, born in Ireland, and Mary Sproils, living in "Beskenriets" (Basking Ridge) were published three times in 1758, but they never married. There are other names in the records that could be names of Irish natives, but their birthplaces are not indicated.  

More Irish came over in the early 1800s, presumably to take advantage of the growing industrialization of Belleville. Not surprisingly, given Belleville's position on the Passaic River, and its connection to shipping, many Irish came from the northern counties of Ireland and worked in the shipping industry, or found other employment. Peter Donnelly, from the north of Ireland, first appears in the records on December 15, 1826, when he marries Eliza Cole at the Dutch Reformed Church. He was Catholic, and remained so. She, a native of New Jersey, was either Dutch Reformed or Methodist. Their son Hugh would convert to Methodism, and was the foreman of the Hendricks Brothers Copper Mill. 

Employees of Hendricks Brothers Copper Rolling Mill

On October 15, 1832.this same  Peter Donnelly “of Bloomfield” bought for $50 a plot of land “at Belleville” but “being in the township of Bloomfield” from Solomon I. Isaacs and his wife Elizabeth of the city and state of New York. This is identified in the deed as “Lot #169 on Isaacs Street.” This Solomon Isaacs was a co-owner, with Harmon Hendricks, of the copper mill at Soho. It was at this time that Solomon sold his part in the copper mill. This lot was contiguous to one owned by one Murtaugh, who was, judging by his name, another Irishman.

Peter was naturalized on July 1, 1834, and William Dow testified that Peter had been in the United States at least five years, the required time for residence before one could apply for citizenship. 

On 11 June 1835, he bought another piece of land in Bloomfield. Although the land was in present-day Belleville, Belleville would not be set off from Bloomfield until 1839. This 4 65/100 acre piece of land, bought from John H. Farrand and his wife Isabella W. of Bloomfield for $100, was at the intersection of the branch brook and the Morris Canal. In 1848, he added to this piece of land a piece contiguous to it. By deed dated 17 July 1848, “Peter Donally” of Belleville bought of Robert Baldwin and his wife Mary D. of Newark, for $650, 90/100 acres of land to the east of the land bought in 1835. On the same day, according to this same deed, Robert and Mary Baldwin sold a piece of land contiguous to this one to Peter Kahoe [Kehoe]. On 9 October 1849, Peter Donnelly and Peter “Kohoe” jointly bought another piece of land contiguous to both of their lots, containing four acres and situated to the east of the Morris Canal.    

Another early Irishman, possibly related to Peter by marriage, was Henry McLaughlin. I am still trying to straighten out all of the information about this man, but it seems that he was born in County Tyrone on December 13, 1813, and came to Second River (Belleville) where he bought three pieces of land in 1830, one of them from Solomon Isaacs. He is listed in the 1830 census, which census tells us that he had living in his household ten white males aged 20 to 30, and eleven white males aged 30 to 40. Of these, fifteen were aliens.  He must have had financial troubles soon thereafter, since in 1838 his property was sold at auction to pay debts. He was probably affected by the depression that had hit the country in 1837. He returned to Ireland, where he died in Magheragart, County Tyrone, and was buried in the old family cemetery there. He was probably related to the McLaughlins of Brooklyn, whose descendants would include George Vincent McLaughlin, one-time Police Commissioner of New York City, since Peter Donnelly's brother Hugh had married a Brooklyn McLaughlin who was related to George Vincent's family.

Living near McLaughlin in 1830 were several men with Irish names: William Walsh, Barney Cunningham, William Hanly, and James Murtaugh. 

So the Irish presence in Belleville was particularly strong several years before the famine. 

Connecting Belleville and Ireland: the Example of Sabina Devaney

One of the difficulties of tracing families back to Ireland is the fact that it is hard to find a record that gives anything more than "Ireland" as a place of birth. Sometimes a county is given, but rarely a townland or parish. But there are certain records that can supply this information,

Among the women who had come through Watson House was Sabina Devaney. We know from those records that she was from County Mayo, and had arrived as a 20-year-old in 1927 on the Republic. She went to live with her brother John at 572 Washington Avenue.

Through the Ellis Island website, we can find the ship manifest for the Republic. Fortunately, she came at a time when the manifest requested information about the closest relative in the country whence the passenger came, and the closest relative in the United States.

We find from the manifest that Sabina was a 20-year-old domestic who was born in Swinford [i.e. Swineford], County Mayo. She was 5' 2' tall, of fair complexion, with brown hair and green eyes. She left Cobh, Ireland on 2 October 1917 and arrived in New York on 11 October. She planned to remain permanently, and seek citizenship. She had $25 on her person when she arrived. Her last permanent residence was Swinford, and her mother was Mrs. Bridget Devaney of Cuilmore, Swinford. Her closest relative in the U.S. was her brother John Devaney, living at 470 Washington Ave. Added, in pencil, was a notation that her sister was Mary Wallace.

Cobh, Ireland

 

Ellis Island

To find more information about the Devaney family of Cuilmore, we can check the 1911 and 1901 Irish censuses. We may also be able to find church records, and a civil birth record.

Swineford is just over seven miles from Bohola, County Mayo, from which place a number of other Belleville families, including the Monahans, left to seek a new life across the sea.