MR. THOMAS J. LYNCH.
Augusta, Me.
MR. GEORGE W. McCARTHY.
Portsmouth, N. H.
MR. ROGER G. SULLIVAN.
Manchester, N. H.
THREE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR.
Leading Events in the Career of the Society for 1907, or of Special Interest to the Members.
January. Hon. James H. Higgins, mayor of Pawtucket, is this month inaugurated governor of Rhode Island. Hon. Patrick J. McCarthy is inaugurated mayor of Providence, R. I. It is stated that the Rev. Joshua P. L. Bodfish, for the past twenty years rector of St. John’s Church, Canton, Mass., celebrates his seventieth year by resigning his pastorate, with the permission of Archbishop O’Connell. Father Bodfish purposes to devote the rest of his life to literary and charitable work. He is a member of the American-Irish Historical Society, comes of old Puritan stock, and is a veteran of the Civil War. Jan. 3. Gunner Cornelius Cronin (U. S. N.) retired, has been promoted to be a chief gunner on the retired list to rank with, but after, ensign, from June 29, 1906, in accordance with the provisions of the naval appropriation act approved on that date. Jan. 3. Chief Boatswain J. S. Croghan is by naval orders detached from the Franklin and ordered to command the Wasp. Boatswain J. Clancy is detached from the Franklin and ordered to the Wasp. Jan. 8. Capt. D. P. Foley of the revenue cutter service is a member of the board which is announced to meet at Baltimore, Md., today, to consider applications. Jan. 11. Julius L. Foy, a St. Louis (Mo.) member of the society, dies. Jan. 24. Col. John Y. F. Blake, who led an Irish corps against the British army in the Boer War, was found dead today in his home, New York City, from gas asphyxiation. His death is believed to have been the result of accident, as there was no evidence of self destruction. Colonel Blake had served a long period in the United States army. Jan. 24. Annual meeting and dinner of the Society. It was held at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, Mass. Thomas B. Fitzpatrick of Boston presides. February. This month appears the statement: Colonel Paul St. C. Murphy, a Brooklyn man, has assumed command of the Marine Corps stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Colonel Murphy succeeds Lieutenant-Colonel Mahoney, who has been assigned to the Marine Corps in the Philippine Islands. Colonel Mahoney has been in command of the local barracks for nearly two years. Feb. 2. Death of Rt. Rev. William Stang, D. D., Roman Catholic bishop of Fall River, Mass. Bishop Stang was a member of the Society. Feb. 9. Death in New Bedford, Mass., of John B. Sullivan, a member of the Society. Feb. 21. Hon. John Cunneen, former attorney-general of New York state, dies at his home in Buffalo. March. Mrs. Robert Gould Shaw of Boston, Mass., widow of Colonel Shaw, died this month. She was a daughter of Ogden Haggerty of New York. At the sale of the Doherty estate, New York City, Stephen McPartland, of McPartland & O’Flaherty, paid $382,550 for a plot 100x100, at the southwest corner of 8th Avenue and 43d Street. This was at the rate of over $38 per square foot. March. Brigadier-General Richard Comba (U. S. A.), retired, died in the Presidio, San Francisco, of heart disease. He was seventy years old. He was placed on the retired list when he reached the age limit, after a service of forty-six years. Few officers in the army saw more active service than General Comba. Born in County Limerick, Ireland, he entered the army as a private in 1855, when eighteen years old. For eight years he served as a private and a non-commissioned officer, and received his first commission as second lieutenant in 1863. He served with distinction through the Civil War, and was brevetted for gallantry at Gettysburg. At the close of the war he remained in the army, and served during many Indian campaigns, the promotions coming slowly. He was in command of the Twelfth Infantry in the Santiago campaign, and was later brigadier-general of volunteers. He served in the Philippines, in command of the Fifth Infantry, and until he retired was in command of the Province of Arba, Northern Luzon. General Comba came of good old Gaelic stock (the family being that of a branch of the O’Sullivan clan). March 5. James S. Haley is re-elected mayor of Montpelier, Vt. James W. Ryan is chosen mayor of Vergennes, Vt. March 15. Judge Thomas Maloney, who was private secretary to President Andrew Johnson, died on this date at Ogden, Utah, where he had lived for many years. March 16. Statue in Philadelphia to Commodore John Barry is unveiled today. The exercises were of a very impressive character. March 18. Vice-President Fairbanks addresses the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago. He speaks on the Irish race in America. April. Charles N. Harris, a member of the Society, is this month appointed a city magistrate of New York by Mayor McClellan. April 3. Ex-Congressman Joseph H. Walker, Worcester, Mass., died this morning. He was born in Boston, 1829. His second wife was a daughter of Michael Kelley of New Hampton, N. H. April 8. Hon. John D. Crimmins has sold today a collection of autographs and literary treasures. Letters and documents covering the Revolutionary War period were among this collection. The sale attracted much interest. Death of Col. Frances E. Lacey, a retired officer of the U. S. A., who had been residing with his son in New York City. Colonel Lacey served with distinction throughout the Civil War, with the Second Infantry, and participated in many great battles. He remained in the service at the reorganization in 1866, and was transferred to the Tenth Infantry, in which organization he remained for twenty-seven years, being the ranking officer in point of service in the regiment. He was then a major and assigned to the Seventeenth Infantry, and was at Columbus barracks. Major Lacey was in Columbus for two and one-half years from 1895. He was later made a lieutenant-colonel of the Third Infantry and retired in 1897 as a colonel on pay. Colonel Lacey was born in Limerick, Ireland, in 1833. He came to Columbus while a young man in time to join the forces of the Union. He was full of pluck and energy and made a model soldier. His promotions came rapidly. Colonel Lacey leaves three sons and one daughter, George B., who resides in Columbus; R. E., who resides in Columbus; Captain Francis E., of the First Infantry, now in the Philippines; Mrs. F. S. Cuchen, wife of Captain Cuchen of Governor’s Island. Interment was made at the National Cemetery, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Colonel Lacey was a strong Irish Nationalist, and for many years a member of the Robert Emmet Association of Columbus, O. At a regular meeting of the association appropriate resolutions on his death were adopted. April 9. Osborne Howes, Brookline, Mass., a member of the Society, died today. He was a descendant of David O’Killia, who settled on Cape Cod, Mass., as early as 1657. April 14. The Boston Sunday Herald today has an article, in connection with the coming Jamestown exposition, relative to John Boyle O’Reilly’s visit to the Dismal Swamp in 1888, or thereabouts, in company with Edward A. Moseley, Esq. April 19. The New York Times of this date has the following: “At the instigation of President McGowan, there will be introduced at the meeting of the aldermen on next Tuesday a resolution asking Mayor McClellan to see what can be done through the United States Department of State toward recovering from the British government part of the records of the City Fathers of proceedings in the Revolutionary period, and which the British took with them when they evacuated New York. Mr. McGowan has learned that the aldermanic records for that period are all that are required to make complete the city’s record of the legislative work done by the municipal authorities. There is a record showing that the missing papers were taken away by the English, and Mr. McGowan believes that if the British authorities were asked to return them they would either do so or would at least permit a copy of them to be made.” April 20. At a meeting of the Fitchburg, Mass., Bar Association this morning, Mayor James H. McMahon presiding, resolutions were adopted for presentation to Gov. Curtis Guild, Jr., favoring the appointment of an associate judge of Worcester County probate court from the northern part of the county, and a committee was appointed to present to the governor the names of Thomas F. Gallager, judge of the Fitchburg police court, and Clark A. Batchelder as candidates. April 21. Lieut.-Col. Lewis Smith (U. S. A.), of Washington, retired, died on April 21, aged seventy-three years. He was born in Ireland and enlisted in the army in 1851, serving as private, corporal and sergeant until 1862, when he was commissioned second lieutenant of the Third Artillery. In 1898, after forty-seven years’ service, he was retired with the rank of major, but was subsequently promoted to lieutenant-colonel. April 22. A dispatch from Washington, D. C., announces the assignment of Lieut. M. O’Connor to the Fifteenth U. S. Cavalry. Gunner J. F. Carmody is assigned, by naval orders, to the Tacoma. April 23. Annual banquet tonight in New York City of the Veteran Corps of the Sixty-Ninth Regiment. It was the anniversary of the departure of the regiment for the seat of war on April 23, 1861. There were about 250 men in the banquet hall, but it was a matter of comment that the great majority of these were young men. The veterans were there, what are left of them. The first hearty applause of the evening was given when Lieut.Gov. Chanler entered the room. Awaiting him at the guest table were Borough President Patrick F. McGowan, Senator John P. Cohalan, the Rev. Dr. David G. Wylie, Rev. Father Chidwick, Magistrate Matthew P. Breen and his son, Henry J. Breen, Col. Edward Duffy, Justice John Henry McCarthy, Thomas J. Byrne, William F. Baker, president of the civil service board; Thomas E. Crimmins and Magistrates Baker and Walsh. There were others, too. April 27. Hon. William Shepherd, ex-mayor of Lynn, Mass., died late today at the Carney Hospital, Boston. He was a native of Ireland and was born in 1837. He came to this country when a boy. He was mayor of Lynn for several terms. April 30. Governor Higgins of Rhode Island today formally opened the Rhode Island building at the Jamestown Exposition, Virginia. He was introduced by Judge Blodgett of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island and chairman of the Rhode Island commission, as the youngest governor of any state in the Union. May. General Peter Leary, Jr., has written to the U. S. war department, on behalf of residents of Baltimore, Md., against the proposition to dismantle Fort McHenry of its guns. An answer has been received stating that if the city would pay for the gun carriages it can have the guns themselves. The war department places a value of about $800 on ten gun carriages, seven of which are at Fort McHenry and three at Fort Delaware. General Leary wrote the department that there is a movement on foot to raise the amount by popular subscription, and asked a month’s grace before the guns are dismantled. May 1. It is announced from Washington, D. C., that James Jeffrey Roche of Massachusetts, U. S. consul at Genoa, has been promoted to be consul at Berne. May 5. Hon. Patrick Keenan, city chamberlain of New York, passed away today, much and deservedly regretted.