PIONEER IRISH OF ONONDAGA
(ABOUT 1776-1847)
BY THERESA BANNAN, M.D.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The Knickerbocker Press
1911
Pages 12 - 29
THOMAS MCCARTHY
A young Irishman with dark hair and white skin set out from Salt Point to
follow the blazed trail to Brewerton. Everything was strange to him for he
had just come into the wilderness to make his home and now he was on the
way to meet his mother. At a cabin in a clearing he asked for a drink of
water and was given milk and the friendly gaze of a woman. Wondering at the
fair skin of the stranger, which contrasted so strongly with that of the
Indian and the bronzed pioneer, she asked him if the sun ever shone in the
land he came from. He probably answered with courtesy and wit as became an
Irishman and from that hour Thomas McCarthy has held his place in the history
of the County.
His mother was at Brewerton with his stepfather, Edmund McSweeny. They had
come first to Brooklyn and then to Brewerton.
Thomas was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Stack McCarthy and when a boy
about fourteen, according to the custom of the country, he was bound out
until he was twenty-one. He went to Dublin and there learned the draper's
trade, which he and his descendants exercised for more than a century in
this County. Under the conditions of apprenticeship in Dublin, the apprentice
entered the family of his employer and worked in the latter's shop, for which
privileges the apprentice's father paid the employer a certain number of
pounds sterling a year. Whether it was the father or stepfather of Thomas
who paid the fees, the term of apprenticeship had not expired when his mother
came to America. When at last he was free he invested his savings in merchandise
and with his brother John came to join his mother. John settled in Canada
and Thomas at Salt Point, where he opened a small store and also began the
manufacture of salt. The store has been represented as a log cabin but there
were no log cabins at Salt Point at any time. It was a small frame house
and when the business of the general store had increased, was replaced by
a two-story building. His salt industry was at first limited to two salt
kettles, and while he attended to the store, he hired men to boil his salt.
In time he had fifty kettles and every one knows to what great proportions
the little store grew.
Thomas McCarthy came when the County was young and grew into its life and
history with the other men of other races who came and left their mark on
the County's character. He was a valuable acquisition to the colony. Young
and vigorous, well educated and thoroughly well trained by his long apprenticeship
in the business life of a beautiful city, with an inheritance of Celtic humor
and Catholic piety, he held within his hands the guiding lines of the pioneer
life. Twice a year he journeyed to New York to buy goods, stopping at Utica
to visit the Devereaux, reaching Albany by any conveyance possible, and navigating
the river by boat or raft or craft of any sort, returning with his stock,
which must answer the needs of six months. Sometimes his goods were exchanged
for labor or wood for his salt works or for his home. A general store must
have seen many strange exchanges where money was scarce, in the wilderness.
But Thomas McCarthy grew rich and influential socially and politically. He
led the movement for the first Catholic church in the County and saw it completed,
for he knew and felt the need. Priests were few and had widely scattered
missions and rarely came here. Catholic men were without the spiritual ministrations
of their priests for years at a time so that many joined their neighbors
in different churches and gradually lost their ancient faith. The marriage
ceremony, often for a marriage with a non-Catholic, was performed by a Justice
of Peace and the other sacraments of the Church languished in the barren
soil of disuse. Thomas McCarthy met the priests on his travels to New York,
but years passed before his legal marriage received the benediction of the
Church and his children its baptism.
His home brought together all those of his faith. When a priest penetrated
to this old mission of the Jesuits, word was sent far and wide and those
who wished came to their minister, tramping long distances through the forests,
often deep in snow. Many remained over night to attend Mass in the morning
and to carry back with them the spiritual store for perhaps many years. It
was like, in some respects, the stations of their native land when for a
time a farmhouse became a chapel and the neighbors attended the religious
exercises and then indulged in feasts and games. As the avenues of travel
became more open, the population increased and the spiritual needs of the
people were more easily supplied. The noble untiring bishops of those days
came to Salina to their people. The table or bureau was transformed into
an altar in the McCarthy home and when Percy, the wife and mother, was too
ill to leave her bed, Mass was celebrated within her view. Children were
baptized, marriages blessed, instructions given, all in the short space of
time the busy priests could give as they passed on to other fields.
On one of the trips to New York Thomas McCarthy met James Lynch at the home
of the Devereaux in Utica, and persuaded him to try his fortune at Salina.
So the two men became firm friends and followed the same line of business,
dividing their part of the patronage of the colony and sharing in the recorded
history of the County. With other Catholics they founded St. John the Baptist
Church, receiving subscriptions in Utica, Albany, and New York. Both reared
large families, which have branched out into many States of the Union. Both
hold a permanent place in the memory of posterity.
Extract from a newspaper clipping:
Thomas McCarthy died in St. Augustine, Florida, January 30, 1848, in the
62d year of his age. This was briefly, announced in our paper of Tuesday.
In 1812 he was among the first to march to the northern frontier to defend
his adopted country against an invading British army.
He was one of the originators of the Bank of Salina. He was a worthy and
highly esteemed citizen, respected for his industry and strict integrity.
He left for Florida Nov. 22d for his health, suffering from some bronchial
trouble. He was taken ill at dinner and died in a short time.
Thomas McCarthy had two half-sisters, Joanna McSweeny who married Kane, and
her sister. The daughter of Joanna married Francis Connelly.
It is said that while Thomas McCarthy was in Florida, a letter was sent to
him from Syracuse offering him the nomination of mayor, the first, of the
new city. The letter arrived there after his death.
Percy Soule formed the acquaintance of Thomas McCarthy while she was visiting
her sister, Mrs. Stewart, in Syracuse. Mrs. Stewart was the mother of Captain
William Stewart of the packet-boat and afterwards of the Syracuse House.
Percy Soule came from Wilberham, Massachusetts, and traced her ancestry back
to the Mayflower.
Percy McCarthy was a gentle wife, a kind hostess, and the idol of her children.
Long periods of illness only increased the gentleness of her nature and the
love of her family and friends. Her daughter Mary took upon herself the many
cares of a large household, directed and counselled by the gentle, invalid
mother. The religious life of the family centred at her bed and the formal
ceremonies of the Church were within view from her pillow. Bishop DuBois
of New York came there to perform the marriage ceremony of her daughter Eliza
and Colonel Silas Titus. With him was a young priest who was destined to
be a cardinal, Father M'Closkey. He baptized the youngest child, Agnes McCarthy,
and the records of these two ceremonies are said to be the first Catholic
records in this County; for, when the Bishop asked for the records, there
were none, and he started them.
Thomas McCarthy's first wife was Percy Soule of Wilberham, Massachusetts.
Their children are: Dennis, who married Millicent Carter; Robert, who married
Eliza Pierce, Boston; Eliza, who married Col. Silas Titus; three who died
young; Mary, who married Matthew Murphy, Utica; William, who married Mary
E. Kearney, Rochester; Ellen, who married Richard Eliot, Detroit; Sarah,
who married Daniel Bryan, Utica; Agnes, who married William Lalor, Utica;
John, who married Elizabeth Toole, Syracuse.
Thomas McCarthy's second wife was Mrs. Anna Cronly Toole, the widow of Thomas
Toole, Jr., of New York, and her daughter Elizabeth married his son John
the next year.
Dennis McCarthy, son of the Salina pioneer merchant, Thomas McCarthy, was
born in Salina March 19, 1814, and after his education joined his father
in the drygoods business.
Upon the father's death he was joined in business by his brother John. Later
Dennis McCarthy bought out his brother's interest and continued in the business,
which was developed from a small beginning until its sales amounted to two
million dollars annually. He possessed keen discernment in business affairs,
was at all times reliable and trustworthy, and carried forward to successful
completion whatever he undertook. He became recognized as one of the prominent
leaders of the Republican party in New York.
His opportunities for education were not great but he attended Yates Polytechnic
Institute at
Chittenango and also the Academy at Onondaga. In business acumen, force of
character, and political sagacity, he continued the spirit of his father,
the pioneer merchant of Salina. His sphere of activity was greater and he
played his part with supreme success. He won by his energy and pluck, by
his tenacity and grit. He won not only his own battles but those of his race
and creed. He won from his very enemies their dearest possessions and he
died in the harness. Here is the scene:
A crowded hall with a debate on a public measure and Dennis McCarthy the
advocate on the popular side, but with a chosen hostile audience. He is interrupted
by jeers and hisses and howls, but he holds his place and advances his arguments.
Soon the crowd calls for his opponent but McCarthy makes himself heard: "I
am not the man to be howled down nor hissed down, and my opponent cannot
speak until I have finished." The crowd is won by the plea for fair play
and the speaker finishes his last public duty.
Dennis McCarthy like his father led the St. Patrick's Day celebration. He
too bore many of the petty persecutions of his neighbors. The spirit of intolerance
was rife with its brood of constant discord, mutual distrust, and fierce
passions. Dennis McCarthy challenged the ringleaders to a public debate on
religion. He won and so broke the spirit of intolerance that it has since
remained hidden from the light of day.
Dennis McCarthy married Millicent Carter, daughter of David K. Carter, one
of the first settlers in Rochester. Their children were Mary B., who married
James Sedgwick; David K.; Thomas; Percy, who married Thomas Emory; Kate;
Dennis, Jr., and three infants who died. He died Feb. 14, 1886. Neither his
mother nor his wife was of his faith though both became converts to it. in
the whirl of political and business life, Dennis McCarthy lost some of his
religious fervor in his later years, yet remained loyal to the faith of his
fathers until he passed to join them.
John McCarthy was born in Salina in 1822. He was the son of the pioneer Thomas
McCarthy and Percy Soule McCarthy. Educated in the district schools, Onondaga
Academy, and Georgetown College, he entered upon his business career in his
father's store in Salina, remaining there as clerk until after the death
of his father, when he became a partner of his brother Dennis in the ownership
and control of the business.
John McCarthy married Elizabeth Toole, who was born April 9, 1829, the daughter
of Thomas and Anna Cronly Toole.
Elizabeth Toole McCarthy is still young at heart and gay. Her brown eyes
have looked upon the sun for over eighty years and are still undimmed. She
has borne the burden of twelve sons and daughters and is still unbowed by
care. Her blood runs warm in her veins, true blue.
She was born in New York City and grew up in an atmosphere of Irish patriotism.
To her home came the exiles to discuss their common fate, to hope and to
plan and likewise to execrate the author of their sorrows. For her mother's
father had drawn his sword for Irish liberty in the rebellion of 1798 and
had escaped in an American vessel to America with Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr.
McNevin, Mr. Caldwell, and others. Caldwell lived many years in New York
and told the child Elizabeth how he had been taken prisoner and sentenced
to death. He was in an upper room and had seen through a crack in the floor
the official signature put to his death-warrant. For some reason the sentence
was changed to exile and he lived with his friends and compatriots under
the Stars and Stripes.
When Thomas McCarthy made his semi-annual trips to New York, he naturally
sought the companionship of his countrymen and shared their interests. There
in time he took for his second wife Anna Cronly Toole, the widowed daughter
of the Irish patriot, and returned with her and her young daughter Elizabeth
to Salina. Within a year Elizabeth became the wife of her stepfather's son.
Thomas Toole, Sr., had come from Dublin and with Mr. Caldwell and others
had formed the Irish Immigrant Society. He was a cousin of General Richard
Montgomery.
Elizabeth was organist in St. John the Baptist Church for many years and
John McCarthy sang in the choir. John had studied in Canada and was a good
French scholar.
John McCarthy had his part in the business life of the County and his large
share of the public esteem, to which his character, solid worth, and high
ideals entitled him. Gentle and retiring in his nature, yet of strong will
and perseverance and industry, literary in his tastes, a public speaker of
merit and force, he preferred the domestic to the public life and was ever
kindly in his greeting as he passed, a venerable figure, through the streets
of the city he had helped to found.
The children of John and Elizabeth Toole McCarthy are: Thomas I., who married
Elizabeth Cayon, Baltimore; Anna, who married John J. Town, Utica; John C.,
who married Zollie Bustin, Camden, Miss.; Percy, whose first husband was
Theodore Dissel and whose second Peter A. Roche; Ellen E., who married Seymour
Bierhardt, Syracuse; Edward A., who married Nellie Collins, Brooklyn; Genevieve,
who married Edward Kanaley, Syracuse; Grace L., who married Fred Smith, Syracuse;
Mary A., who married Clarence Ellis, Cortland; Sallie, and two who died in
infancy.
Robert McCarthy was the son of Thomas and Percy Soule McCarthy of Salina.
He married Eliza Jane, daughter of Parker H. and Hanna Withington Pierce
of Boston, Mass., whom he met while she was here visiting Millicent Carter,
wife of Dennis McCarthy.
Their children are: Robert, Jr.; Eugene, whose first wife was Esther Yates
and whose second Mary R. O'Hara; Frederic, who died young; Anna Eliza, who
married Charles Holland Holt of New York; Jennie Marie, who married Frederic
De Noyers Peltier of New York. They have one child, Paul.
Robert McCarthy was on the State Board of Charities for seventeen years.
The children of William and Agnes McCarthy Lalor are: Wilhelmina, who married
James F. Barrett, New York; Agnes, who married Dr. William Cahill, Syracuse;
Katharine, who married Joseph Hogan, Brooklyn; Elizabeth, who married James
Johnson, Chicago; William, in Chicago; Mary and Genevieve, teachers in California;
Josephine and Percy, trained nurses in New York.
William Lalor was the son of William and Catherine Mahony Lalor of Grennan,
County Cork, Ireland. His mother was first cousin of Rev. Francis Mahony,
"Father Prout," the author of Shandon Bells and other poems. His brothers
Timothy, Dennis, Richard. His sister, Mary Ann, married Daniel Mitchell and
wrote and translated many things under the name Mary Lalor Mitchell. The
Lalor family lived in Utica; they came from Ireland in 1853. Agnes McCarthy
Lalor remembers having seen a paper signed by ten or fifteen people petitioning
for a priest for Salina. She remembered only the one name odd (to her) in
the list, Hausenfrats. Miss Mary Elizabeth Murphy, granddaughter of Thomas
McCarthy also saw the paper and remembered the odd name, Jacob Hausenfrats.
She said many of the signers made only their mark and there were about fifteen
in all.
Agnes McCarthy was educated at Mt. St. Vincent Convent, where Central Park
now is. Mary Cooney was also a student there.
Mr. Jefferson Leach, president of the Bank of Salina in days gone by, said
that John McCarthy was a man of sterling worth and unwavering integrity.
Mr. Leach also spoke in the highest terms of Miss Elizabeth Toole. He said
she was a ray of sunshine, the life of the house, merry, sprightly, talented.
She played the piano with masterly skill, sang the good old songs, danced
with gayety, and spread happiness around her. He recalled a recent visit
he made her on the occasion of her 77th birthday when her friends gathered
around as she sang again the songs of old. Her skill at the piano remained,
and her birthda party reproduced the festive days of her youth.
PATRICK COONEY
Patrick Cooney and his wife Bridget Coney Cooney came to America from County
Wexford about 1816. They bore the same name with a slight difference in the
spelling but were not related until their marriage. Patrick was nineteen
and his wife somewhat older when they married and after a few years they
set out to better their fortunes, leaving their oldest boy Patrick, two years
of age, in the care of relatives. They came first to Utica and worked there
for the O'Neils, then Patrick came on to Syracuse to work on the Erie Canal
contract. Here he met many Irishmen, among them Thomas Doyle, who worked
with him. The men were for the most part young, unmarried men who did their
work and passed on to other places. Thomas Doyle and Patrick Cooney remained.
There were no Germans or workmen of nationalities other than Irish and American.
Michael Cooney and his wife Bridget Sennit came later to Salina.
When the work on the Canal was done Patrick Cooney went to Salina and began
to boil salt. Fortune smiled on him and he was soon able to buy a salt-block
and a house. He bought wooded land and chopped down the trees to burn in
the salt works, and so cleared the land for a farm, which is still known
as the Oak Orchard farm. Men spent the summer in boiling salt and the
winter in chopping wood. They were boarded by their employers, whose wives
did the cooking, or were boarded elsewhere at the expense of the employers.
As business increased Patrick Cooney depended on hired men to carry on his
work. Some boiled salt, others packed it, and some travelled to sell it.
He had an accident, breaking his leg, which left him lame. His home was in
the house built by Thaddeus Wood and Samuel Matthews at the comer of Turtle
and Salina Streets and here came Dr. James Foran to render his services.
He was a learned, high-tempered physician and had a difficult case to treat
in this fracture.
It is natural that one should seek one's acquaintances in a strange land
and each pioneer of Onondaga gained a foothold not only for himself but for
all those of his town or county in the old country who wished to hazard the
fortunes of the new. Those were good old days of hospitality and the simple
life. Many came to the Cooney home, conveniently situated near the Canal,
the great highway. Some looked over the ground and not liking the salt industry
passed on to the west or north. Some remained and made their homes in Salina
or other parts of the County. Among those were the Oliphants, who located
in Geddes. Their experience with a peddler harbored for the night, who feared
he would be killed in his sleep by his Catholic hosts, showed the temper
of the times.
Many others found their first familiar face at the Cooney home after a long
voyage from their native land. This house eventually passed to Daniel O'Brien
in part payment for the construction of St. John's School and gave place
to the dwelling of his brother William, now Assistant Chief of Police.
Patrick Cooney, like all the other Irish who came to this County in its first
half-century, met persecution. He was one of the early known arrivals, all
of whom were unwelcome because the others already in the salt industry did
not want Salina competition. They often banded together to waylay an Irishman
and subject him to treatment which they hoped would force him to leave.
They wore masks and chose the night time for their attacks. The Irish were
in the minority but when they became sufficiently numerous they were not
slow to retaliate. The Irish are not oppressive. Their sympathies are generally
with the weaker, because they have suffered too much themselves not to share
in the sorrows of others. At Salt Point they worked with many who had this
advantage, that they had come from some other part of America. The pioneers
of New England had sterling qualities. They had, too, complementary vices,
not the least of which were narrowness of mind, greed, intolerance. They
antagonized every one but themselves and sometimes even themselves. When
after the Revolution they set out for the frontier of the West, they passed
through the Dutch settlements of the Hudson and Mohawk, provoking to wrath
even the placid Dutch. They would have dispossessed them had they been able,
but the Dutch soon learned to give them free passage and even to assist them
to hasten their journey westward. These New England travellers and their
descendants by their right of might harassed the immigrant Irish in Onondaga,
as their forefathers, the Old Englanders, did in Ireland and tried to do
in America. But in Onondaga the contest was more equal. It was man to man.
The Irish soon profited by the tactics of their enemies and banded together,
and when the need arose, descended upon some nest of persecutors and gave
them their punishment.
Patrick Cooney gave his children every opportunity possible to obtain an
education. The boys went to Holy Cross College, at Worcester, to the seminary
at Cazenovia, and to the Syracuse High School. His daughter Mary was educated
at the Mount St. Vincent Convent, New York, on the site of Central Park.
Agnes McCarthy, daughter of Thomas, was a student there at the same time.
The course of study was four years, and in addition to the regular school
work, the young ladies became most skilful with the needle. Reproductions
of famous paintings were so well done with the needle and thread that they
appeared as if painted. Embroidery and lace work formed part of the course.
Kate O'Blennis told Patrick Cooney that he would become a rich man. Her prophecy
was fulfilled and Kate O'Blennis's shrewdness again confirmed.
Among the staunch supporters of St. John the Baptist Church were Daniel Keefe
(Father of John C.), William Butler, John Shannon, William Dunn, Thomas Doyle,
Patrick Cooney, Patrick Ford, James Slattery, Dennis Devoy, Thomas McCarthy,
and James Lynch.
Patrick Cooney also sold wood.
Father Duffy bought from the Cooney estate the homestead for a parish school.
Patrick and Bridget Coney Cooney had eight children: Patrick, Jr., Nicholas,
John, Jeremiah, Martin, who went to California in 1870, two who died young,
and Mary.
Patrick Cooney, Jr., married Ellen Command. Their children are: Patrick D.,
who married Rose Carberry; Daniel; Jerry, who married Emma Lang; and James.
Mary married John McKeever. Their children are: Nicholas, Charles, John Seymour,
Arthur, Margaret, Francis, Ellen, and four who died young.
Patrick Cooney's second wife was Catharine Command. Her sister married Michael,
son of John Lynch.
Submitted
December 2002