St. Patrick's Day in American History - by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

Every March 17th, the United States becomes emerald-green for a day. We wear green clothing, drink green beer and milkshakes, and eat green bagels and grits. Parades in big cities and small towns cheer on bagpipers, step dancers and marching bands. However, these traditions weren't imported from Ireland.

They were made in America.

In contrast, March 17th in Ireland had been more of a holy day than holiday. The Irish would attend church in the morning and attend modest feasts in the afternoon. There were no green-tinted foods, since blue, not green was the traditional color associated with Ireland's patron saint prior to the 1798 Irish Rebellion.

While many people believe Boston was the first to hold a St. Patrick's Day celebration in the American colonies, evidence has been unearthed that St. Augustine, Florida may have hosted America's first St. Patrick's Day celebration. Gunpowder expenditure logs indicate cannon blasts or gunfire was used to honor the saint in 1600, and that residents paraded through the town in honor of St. Patrick...perhaps at the urging of an Irish-Catholic priest living there.

Following the devastating failure of Ireland's potato crop in the mid 1840s, Irish Catholics flooded the United States. They clung to their Irish identities and took to the streets in St. Patrick's Day parades to protest the bigotry of the "Know-Nothings", a political party with strong anti-immigrants and anti-Catholics who believed these groups posed a threat to the economic and political security of native-born Protestant Americans.  

"Many who were forced to leave Ireland during the Great Hunger brought a lot of memories, but they didn't have their country, so it was a celebration of being Irish..."

Attitudes toward the Irish began to soften after tens of thousands of them served in the Civil War. They entered the war as second-class citizens but came back as heroes. Notable among them was the 69th Regiment from New York City or as Robert E, Lee called them, The Fighting 69th. As the Irish slowly assimilated into American culture, those without Celtic blood joined in St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

The meal most associated with St. Patrick's Day celebrations--corned beef and

cabbage--was also an American innovation. When ships came into South Street seaport, many women from the slums of lower Manhattan would run down to the docks hoping there was leftover salted beef they could get from the ship's cook for a penny a pound. They would boil the beef three times--the last time with cabbage--to remove some of the brine.

While St. Patrick's Day evolved in the 20th century into a party day for Americans of all ethnicities, the celebration in Ireland remained solemn. For decades, Irish laws prohibited pubs from opening on holy days such as March 17th. Until 1961, the only legal place to get a drink in the Irish capital on St. Patrick's Day was the Royal Dublin Dog Show.

The party atmosphere spread to Ireland after the arrival of television when the Irish could see all the fun Americans were having. Today, the St. Patrick's Day Festival, launched in Dublin in 1996, now attracts one million people each year.

Though the Irish have now St. Patrick's Day traditions, there is one tradition, however, that might not catch on in Ireland...green Guinness! As Mike McCormack, national historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians says, "St. Patrick never drank green beer."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

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In the summer of 1864 in Roswell, Georgia, widow Sofie Bishop struggles to manage the small family vineyard on her own. The War Between the States took her husband and her way of life. Now, with her home in ruins her only option was working at the Ivy Woolen Mill. Her woes go from bad to worse when the Yankees arrive on Roswell’s doorstep.

Courteous and kind, Captain Seth Ramsey is not what Sofie expects from a Union officer. However, charming he might be, she’s determined to keep her distance. Even when she finds herself branded as a traitor, arrested, and transported north to an uncertain destiny, she didn’t think she could lose much more to the Yankees.
But she was wrong.
Will his vow of love mend her wounded heart? Or would a marriage of convenience be the best she can offer?

FIREWORKS, FOOD, AND FOOT RACES: CELEBRATING JULY 4th IN THE OLD WEST

By Jo-Ann Roberts

 

“I believe the Fourth of July will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.”  John Adams

 

In 1777, a year after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Philadelphia celebrated by firing guns, setting off fireworks even while the war dragged on. The tradition was widespread and was taking place throughout the war despite hard times.

In the Old West, the 4^th of July was celebrated as well. From the smallest mining camps to towns to the bigger cities, Americans had picnics and dances and gathered for speeches, rodeos, horse races, foot races, turkey shoots, and parades. Historical pageants, and later baseball games, and watermelon-eating contests added to the festivities. 

Cripple Creek CO July 4th

In the late 1800s, Native Americans who had pledged their allegiance to the United States celebrated the 4^th of July with rodeos, pow-wows, and war dances.

After the 1862 gold strike in Canyon City, Oregon, a typical Fourth of July celebration would have a picnic at noon, with barbecued sheep, hogs, and young steers. And the tables would be piled high with the good food prepared by excellent cooks. Townspeople would gather around a platform where the band would play patriotic selections and popular music of the day. A blessing by a preacher and a reading of the Declaration of Independence would follow. After the reading and speeches, folks spent the evening dancing the Virginia Reel, polkas, and schottische.

Canyon City OR

The 1820 celebration at Camp Council Bluff (now Fort Atkinson State Historical Park) in Nebraska was quite patriotic. Troops were reviewed, an oration read, a national salute was fired, and dinner guests drank toasts to President James Monroe, their country, the Declaration of Independence, and George Washington.

Camp Council Bluff, Nebraska

Now Fort Atkinson State Historical Park

Comprised of a few hardy miners and even fewer women, the mining camps of Hamilton and Treasure Hill decided they would have a 4^th of July celebration. They formed a flag committee, a music committee, and a dance committee. Since there was only one man who played the violin, and he tended to imbibe a bit too much, the miners had to regulate the flow of whiskey to the musician.

The only two women in the camp comprised the dance committee.  Because the flag committee waited too long to get a flag, they improvised using a quilt with a red lining and some white canvas material. A traveling family camped nearby had a blue veil. Luck was on the miners' side since the family included a mother and four daughters…more women for the dance.

Whether it was a Nevada mining camp with a few hardy miners and even fewer women, or an Arizona town where a rodeo and a picnic was held with all of the townspeople attending, Americans old and new celebrated the Declaration of Independence in the Old West.

Author’s Note: I was born in the West…Western Massachusetts, that is…specifically in Pittsfield, where the Fourth of July parade has been an annual tradition since 1824. Or is it 1812? Long touted by the City Council as 1824, a local citizen doing genealogy research has suggested that the first parade occurred in 1812.

In addition to the parade, there is a drum corps competition, a baseball game at twilight, and a fireworks display.

Pittsfield MA parade

The fact that a smaller community like Pittsfield has been doing something for over 200 years is remarkable. Marching bands and fire departments from Boston and Worcester to the east; Bennington, Vermont to the north; and Torrington, Connecticut to the south are perennial favorites and come back year after year. Why? It’s watching someone’s grandfather and a seven-year-old boy saluting the flag at the same time. It’s the tradition of patriotism, pride, and respect we all share as Americans.