IRISH INFLUENCE IN THE LIFE OF BALTIMORE.
BY D. J. SCULLY OF BALTIMORE, MD.
It is a peculiar thing to study out fairly, even without setting down aught except that which can be actually proved, what an important part Irishmen have taken in shaping this Irish-named city which in the estimation of those who do not stop to think, is deemed an “Anglo-Saxon” community. This phrase, Anglo-Saxon, is now the thing, especially among some educators. It is a handy phrase. It may mean something, but as often means nothing in particular.
It is like the stuff coined at trial tables, such as “brain-storms” and “Dementia Americana,” sufficient for the atmosphere of a courtroom, but no where else on earth, where common sense is supposed to prevail. Hence the delicious and unmeaning phrase, “Anglo-Saxon” this and “Anglo-Saxon” that, as used by the educated few, to mislead the so-called uneducated many. It is naturally a bold man who would call an Irishman an Anglo-Saxon to his face, but the average American educationalist and writer does not make such statements to the Gael in propria persona.
He does it at long range, and hides behind his school book and his inkwell until the storm has passed by. The Irish who have influenced and who have directed in many ways the past of Baltimore laid no claim to be Anglo-Saxons and no one in their day sought to claim them as such. They were rather proud of their Irish birth and descent and made no effort to hide it. But it was a fact that it was no shame in those days to be Irish, and nobody thought so, not even the English.
If it had been so awful to be Irish, no doubt the early settlers and founders of the city would have never allowed it to be named Baltimore. Prior to the Revolution the most important merchants and educators, and even professional men in the town, were Irish by birth. They laid the foundation of the town’s trade and commerce and built it up not only morally and physically, but financially. The man who laid the foundation of the town’s trade was Dr. John Stevenson, who, although a physician, had an eye to trade, and coming direct from Ireland deemed it wise to establish a line of ships between this city and Irish ports.
This was the beginning of Baltimore’s commerce, which for nearly seventy-five years after Stevenson’s pioneer line was established, almost rivalled New York’s commerce in general, and in many ways excelled it. This will be refreshing news to many, but is not by any means overdrawn. The work done by Stevenson in establishing trade for Baltimore was continued by the Purviances, William Patterson, Bowly, John O’Donnell, John Smith, William Smith, William McDonald, Robert and John Oliver, Wm. Wilson, Talbott Jones, Isaac McKim, Robert Garrett, Luke Tiernan, Cumberland Dugan, David Stewart, Stephen Stewart, James Calhoun, John Sterrett, John McLure, Thomas Russell, Samuel Hughes, William Neill, Hugh Young, Patrick Colvin, Alexander Pendergast, Patrick Bennett, Robert Welsh, Mark Pringle, William Kennedy, James O. Law, Hugh McElderry, Charles M. Dougherty, William Walters, John McCoy, D. J. Foley, Hamilton Easter, Robert Neale, Hugh Birchhead, John Coulter, and others, who, from time to time, have figured prominently in the shipping and commercial annals of Baltimore.
Many of these men were not only the pioneers, but the leaders for years in the matters which concerned the carrying trade of Baltimore and also in the business concerns of the town and city. Their names are so closely associated with the history of Baltimore for the first hundred years of her history at least that it is impossible to disconnect them. They were honest merchants of the old school and their methods were direct and above suspicion. They laid the foundation of Baltimore’s reputation for business honesty. Their trade was with the East and West Indies, with South America and with Europe. Their white-winged clippers sailed every known sea, and their house flags were known in every country, aye, even by the savage African.
It is highly interesting to trace the rise and rule of these expatriated Irish merchants who came to Baltimore, many of them with money and business experience, driven from Ireland by England’s unjust tariff laws, the same in character as those which now apply to our “possessions,” Porto Rico and the Philippines, to “encourage” their trade and commerce. These men hated England as strongly as they loved fair play. They waxed rich and placed everything they had at the services of their fellow citizens and of their country. They were well aware of England’s hypocritical methods and thus when the Revolution came on they cast their fortunes to a man with the colonies, and gave of their blood, their experience and their means to assist the patriots.
During the Revolution, in Baltimore and Maryland they were prominent in all works of importance. Thus we see Samuel Purviance, the chief man of the town; Purviance was a leading merchant. He was chairman of the Committee on Correspondence, a sort of Ways and Means Committee, and as such he raised supplies for the patriotic cause and supervised methods of defense. His services to the patriot cause were vast, and he was frequently complimented by Washington and the Continental Congress for his services. He was largely instrumental in helping Lafayette to clothe his half-starved and half-clothed army when on its way to the South to prosecute that historic campaign which ended in the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.