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.