John Kennedy: Exile In America - Part 2
by Martin Joseph Kennedy
Foreword
In this first excerpt from the work of Martin Joseph Kennedy, his ancestor, John, has decided to emigrate to St. Louis where his three sisters already lived.
He probably did not want to leave Ireland, but like thousands of others he left because the country had nothing to offer him but poverty and deprivation. No doubt he tried to weigh all the questions. Over the past decade, Kennedy had lost his wife and both of his parents. He was no longer responsible for his aging mother, and candidates for marriage were in short supply; most eligible women had emigrated. In his townland he had shelter and food; he had several sisters and many other cousins he had known all his life. Yet he would probably always know poverty and the petty-minded prejudice of provincial Ireland. In Kennedy's new home, in distant St. Louis, perhaps it would not be like that. There he might have a decent job and a beginning.
The reasons he gives as to why people chose to emigrate and the manner of their leaving, as well as the description of life in "Kerry Patch", the Irish quarter of St. Louis, makes for very interesting reading indeed.
(Eamonn Henry)
Living in St. Louis were Annie and her husband, John Staed, of Balla, and their infant daughter, Annie Mary. Near by, in the same neighborhood, also lived Bridget, and her second husband, Dave Cloonan, a bricklayer, along with her four children: Will and Martin Harrigan, and John and Nonie Cloonan. Onie Kennedy worked as a laundress at the Laclede Hotel on 520 Chestnut Street, where she also lived.
By the time the three Kennedy sisters arrived in St. Louis, the women had anglicized their surname. "Onie" was a nickname of the Irish, "Onoir," usually anglicized as Honor. Although Irish was still spoken in County Mayo, English spellings of names made emigration easier.
Over centuries, the Kennedy family had lived in Western Ireland and spoke Irish. The spelling of the family surname name gradually evolved from Cenneidigh-to-O'Cinneide-to-Kennedy.
In pre-famine Western Ireland, smallholders like the Cinneides still conversed primarily in Irish. By the time John Kennedy came of age in the late 1860s, the household was partially bilingual, with the older generation still using Irish, and the younger generation mastering some English.
Most people over sixty years of age in rural Mayo were bi-lingual in 1901. The very old spoke Irish only and the majority of people less than twenty years of age spoke English only. In most respects, the generations increasingly drifted apart in communication skills. Adults would have spoken Irish in most situations, especially when they spoke to their neighbors and relatives, but English would have been used when speaking to children, clergy, government officials and strangers.
The grandchildren (clann chlainne) of Mairtin O'Cinneide living in Mayo probably understood most Irish conversation, but probably could not entirely read or write in their native language.
As recently as 1895, Annie Mary Kennedy (Aine Maire Ni Chinneide), the younger sister of John Kennedy (Sean O'Cinneide), identified herself on her marriage application license in St. Louis as Annie M. Cennidy.
In English-speaking countries, O'Cinneide has often been recorded as Cennidy, Kinidy, Kenidy and Kennedie. In rural Ireland, the use of standard spellings of surnames did not become widespread until the early years of the 20th century. At the time people began to actually own property and they usually settled on the spelling which appeared on the first official document connected with their ownership of property.
When Brigid, Onie and Aine departed, emigration had been so persistent in 19th century Irish history that in one form or another, the experience was part of daily life. People talked about it, sang about it, and even celebrated it. All three women had their American Wake, a custom which was unique to Ireland. Nothing comparable developed in England or Germany, two countries which also contributed heavily to American immigration in the latter half of the 19th century.
A peculiar mixture of sadness and gaiety described the American wake. Known as the live wake in County Wexford, the farewell supper in County Galway, and the feast of departure in County Mayo, the American wake was a specific ceremony used to mark the exit from family and community life that for all practical purposes was irrevocable. The choice of name was significant since Catholic countrymen equated going west with earthly dissolution. Such attitudes were rooted deep in Irish folklore.
During the 19th century, many Irish peasants made very little difference between going to America and going to the grave. Because of the high mortality rates, which affected Irish emigrants in large American cities, associating emigration and death was not illogical. Under such conditions, the departure for America of two young daughters represented to Mairtin O'Cinneide and Mairgread Ni Fhloinn no less a loss than if Brigid, Onie and Aine had both died. It is significant that the Irish language has no equivalent for the English word "emigrant," with its voluntary and emotionally neutral connotations. Rather, the Irish words primarily used to describe one who left Ireland have been deoraí, the literal meaning of which is "exile," dithreabhach or "homeless," and dibeartach or "banished people."
At the start of the 20th century, St. Louis was America's fourth largest city, surpassed only by New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia. In fact, St. Louis companies led the world in major branches of industry and commerce. Yet St. Louis still retained a southern atmosphere of languor, shaded verandas, and bourbon. The accent was soft, the state called: Mizzoura. The daughters of high society were presented at the annual Veiled Prophet Ball. The Veiled Prophet was a mysterious figure from the Far East, escorted to his Court of Love and Beauty in the Merchants Exchange by Bengal Lancers. The first Veiled Prophet parade was held after the harvest, to bring farmers and other country people into St. Louis.
Like thousands of Irish in St. Louis, the three Kennedy sisters lived near Kerry Patch, commonly known as "the Irish ghetto." The boundaries of Kerry Patch, an "urban village" in Old North St. Louis began north of Carr Square and extended from N. 9th Street, west between Morgan and Franklin Avenues. The heart of Kerry Patch was considered N. 18th and O'Fallon Streets. Located in Old North St. Louis, which bordered the business district and was bounded by the Mississippi River on the east, Kerry Patch deteriorated into slums immediately after the Civil War. The houses, with their New England architectural antecedents dating back to the 1830s, were built at or near the sidewalk line. Most buildings were two and a half stories and featured iron tracery balconies and cast iron ornamentation. These houses, with their shuttered windows and brick sidewalks across the front, echoed Colonial and Federal style neighborhoods of old Boston and Philadelphia. Some of the best examples were located on Chambers, Madison and Warren Streets - streets where the Kennedy sisters first lived in St. Louis. According to convention, the "shanty" Irish of Kerry Patch specialized in drinking, fighting, politics and religion. Some of the other nicknames for specific neighborhoods within Kerry Patch included Clabber Alley, Thunder Alley and Wild Cat Chute.
Following the Civil War, there was already a large Irish population in the city, with several Catholic parishes for the faithful: St. Patrick, St. Michael, and St. Bridget on the near north-side, and St. Malachy and St. Kevin on the near south-side.
(To be continued......)
John Kennedy: Exile In America
