In the first House of Representatives of the territory, S. McGrady represented Ste. Genevieve. In the legislative council occurs the name of James Flaugherty. William Neeley became president of the council. The first state Legislature met in the Missouri Hotel, built by Thomas Brady, a famous Irishman of his day.
Col. John O’Fallon, son of Dr. James O’Fallon, native of County Roscommon, surgeon under Washington, came in 1811, and resided with his uncle, General Clark. The name has become so identified with the history of the city as to need no mention. Francis Redford opened, in 1804, the first school for instruction in English. The honor of giving the grounds for its first seat of learning belongs to a native of the Emerald Isle. The proud distinction of being called the “Father of the University of Missouri” belongs to a man whose ancestors came from the County Tyrone, Dr. James Rollins.
The first bank, the Bank of St. Louis, organized in 1813, had as one of its commissioners Thomas Brady, and the second, the Bank of Missouri, had among its directors John McKnight and Mathew Kerr, and the Bank of the State of Missouri, organized in 1837, had among its directors Hugh O’Neill, Edward Walsh, Edward Dobyns and John O’Fallon. A branch of the United States Bank was started in 1819, with John O’Fallon as president.
The Merchants’ Exchange began as a debating Society, in 1836, with Edward Tracy as president and John Ford as secretary. The Millers’ Association, the first of its kind in the West, was established in 1849, among the members being John Walsh. Financial exchanges need telegraphic connections, so along came a Leitrim man, Henry O’Reilly, in 1847, who opened here the first telegraph office west of the Mississippi.
In military life the men of the “Fighting Race” were to the fore. The St. Louis Grays, the first volunteer organization, started in 1832, had for its ensign John P. Riley, but a volunteer company of light infantry preceded it in 1819, having for its captain Henry W. Conway. Other companies were added to the Grays in 1842, forming the First Regiment, St. Louis Legion, among the designations of the companies being “Montgomery Guards,” with Patrick Gorman, captain; “St. Louis Guards,” Daniel Byrne, captain; “Mound City Guards,” John H. Barrett, captain; “Morgan Riflemen,” Henry J. McKillop, captain.
In this review of the “pioneer” Irish in St. Louis, many names necessarily are omitted. Sufficient to mention men of worth in their day, such as John C. Sullivan, collector, in 1814; Judge Thomas McGuire, 1817; Captain McGunnegle, the Rankin Brothers, Hugh, Robert and David, who came hither from Ireland in 1819; Bernard Gillully, who was in partnership with Edward C. Cummings; James Clemens, Patrick Walsh, Richard K. Dowling, Thomas Hanley, Thomas M. Doherty, Mayor Ferguson, William Carr Lane, Bryan Mullanphy, and others.
Such men, indeed, were the “cream of St. Louis society” in the early part of the nineteenth century.
We hear much of the part played by the Irish in the creation and maintenance of the American republic in the military sense, but what they have contributed towards its civil, commercial, manufacturing or educational development is much overlooked and remains unknown to readers of the present day.
SOME IRISH-FRENCH OFFICERS IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.[[2]]
From “Les Combattants Francais de la Guerre Americaine.”