Part 2

1897. Feb. 9. Hon. William McAdoo, assistant secretary of the U. S. navy, Washington, D. C., thanks the Society for having elected him vice-president for New Jersey, his residential state.

1897. Feb. 10. Hon. Edwin D. McGuinness, mayor of Providence, R. I., and ex-secretary of state of Rhode Island, writes that he is entirely in accord with the purposes of the Society, and wishes to become a member.

1897. Feb. 11. The editor of the _Rosary Magazine_, through Rev. J. L. O’Neil, O. P., New York city, becomes a life member. This life membership is to stand to the credit of “The Editor of The _Rosary Magazine_.” It is so arranged in order that successive editors of the publication may enjoy the rights and privileges of the Society. Father O’Neil was the first to represent the magazine in the organization.

1897. Feb. 16. Paymaster Mitchell C. McDonald, U. S. N., attached to the battleship _Texas_, cordially accepts an invitation to join the Society.

1897. Feb. 19. Arthur H. Chase, state librarian of New Hampshire, expresses a desire to receive the publications of the Society for the state library. He says: “I assure you the publications will be of great value to us.”

1897. Feb. 23. Henry Carey Baird, Philadelphia, Pa., writes. His grandfather was a founder of the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia (1790).

1897. March 3. Hon. Ignatius Donnelly, author of “The Great Cryptogram,” is admitted to the Society.

1897. March 6. Rev. Michael O’Brien, Lowell, Mass., becomes a life member.

1897. March 9. Heman W. Chaplin, Boston, Mass., writes desiring to become a member of the Society. He is a descendant of the O’Briens of Machias, Me., patriots of the Revolution.

1897. March 15. Hon. Daniel H. Hastings, governor of Pennsylvania, expresses regrets at his inability to attend the meeting on the 19th prox.

1897. March 17. Joseph Smith, Lowell, Mass., a member of the Executive Council of the Society, reads a paper before the Irish Society of that city on “The Irish Element Among the Founders of Lowell.”

1897. March 26. C. H. Meade, Germantown, Pa., writes informing the Society of the serious illness of President-General Meade.

1897. April 5. Call issued for the second meeting of the Society (to be held on the 19th inst.).

1897. April 9. Letter from Gen. John Cochrane, New York city, a descendant of an officer of the Revolution.

1897. April 10. Letter written by Charles E. Brown, town clerk of historic Concord, Mass.

1897. April 17. Letter written by Leonard A. Saville, town clerk of Lexington, Mass., acknowledging, on behalf of the selectmen and himself, an invitation to be present as guests on the 19th inst. They are unable to attend owing to a home celebration.

1897. April 19. The second meeting of the Society. Held in the Revere House, Boston, Mass. Thomas J. Gargan of Boston presides. Four papers read.

1897. April 19. The first paper at this meeting was by Thomas Hamilton Murray, the secretary-general, on “The Irish Bacons who Settled at Dedham, Mass., in 1640,” one of whose descendants, John Bacon, was killed April 19, 1775, in the fight at West Cambridge (battle of Lexington).

1897. April 19. The second paper at the meeting was by John C. Linehan, treasurer-general, on “The Seizure of the Powder at Fort William and Mary,” by Maj. John Sullivan and his associates, some of which powder was later dealt out to the patriots at Bunker Hill.

1897. April 19. The third paper was by Edward J. Brandon, city clerk of Cambridge, Mass., on “The Battle of Lexington, Concord, and Cambridge,” during which he read a list of Irish names borne by minute men or militia in the battle of the nineteenth of April, 1775.

1897. April 19. The fourth paper was by Joseph Smith, member of the Executive Council, on “The Irishman Ethnologically Considered.”

1897. April 21. Henry A. May, Roslindale, Mass., writes for information concerning the Society. He states that he is a descendant through his mother, Roxanna Butler of Pelham, N. H., from James Butler, the planter of Lancaster, Mass. (1653), who came from Ireland, and was the largest land owner in what is now Worcester county. He owned land in Dunstable, Woburn, and Billerica, where he died in 1681. His son, Deacon John Butler, was the first child of Irish parentage born in Woburn, Mass., and John was the first settler of what is now Pelham, N. H., and lies buried there. A monument was erected to his memory on “Pelham Green,” in the centre of the town of Pelham, in 1886, by his descendants, some 1,200 being present at the dedication in June of that year.

1897. April 29. Death of Col. Jeremiah W. Coveney, postmaster of Boston, the first member of the Society to pass away.

1897. April 30. C. H. Meade states that his father, the president-general, is in a critical condition.

1897. May 4. Death at Washington, D. C., of the president-general of the Society, Rear Admiral Richard W. Meade, U. S. N.

1897. May 5. Edward A. Moseley, Washington, D. C., a member of the Executive Council of the Society, pens a letter of condolence to Richard W. Meade, Jr., on the death of the latter’s father, the Society’s president-general.

1897. May 6. Edward A. Moseley, just mentioned, writes to Secretary-General Murray relative to the obsequies of the president-general. Mr. Moseley states that the matter of a floral tribute from the Society has been arranged.

1897. May 7. Letter from Richard W. Meade, Jr., to Mr. Moseley, thanking the Society, through him, for the floral emblem contributed, and stating that it “now rests on my father’s grave.”

1897. May 15. First meeting of the Executive Council of the Society held, Boston, Mass. Present: Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass.; John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H.; Thomas Hamilton Murray, Lawrence, Mass.; Joseph Smith, Lowell, Mass.; James Jeffrey Roche, Boston, Mass., and Thomas B. Lawler, Worcester, Mass. Mr. Gargan presided.

1897. May 15. At this first meeting of the Council, Edward A. Moseley of Washington, D. C., was chosen president-general of the Society, to fill the unexpired term of the late Admiral Meade. Mr. Moseley is secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission, Washington, D. C. He was born in 1846, at Newburyport, Mass. He is a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, a member of the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, a member of the Bunker Hill Monument Society (his great-grandfather fought there as captain in General Putnam’s brigade from Connecticut); has received the thanks of the commonwealth of Massachusetts “for distinguished services in the cause of humanity”; is the great-great-grandson of Col. Jonathan Buck; great-grandson of Col. Ebenezer Buck; also claims descent from Col. William Gilmore of New Hampshire, formerly of Coleraine, Ireland—all Revolutionary heroes.

1897. May 24. Hon. John D. Crimmins, New York city, becomes a life member of the Society.

1897. June. Among the cities officially visited this month by the secretary-general was Lynn, Mass., where special courtesies were extended him by Daniel Donovan and Capt. P. S. Curry, both of that city.

1897. June 6. Secretary-General Murray addresses a meeting at Portland, Me., in behalf of the Society. James Cunningham of Portland presides.

1897. June 14. President-General Moseley writes to James Cunningham of Portland, Me., thanking the latter for his interest in getting up the meeting in that city on the 6th inst.

1897. June 14. Prof. Maurice Francis Egan of the Catholic University, Washington, D. C., becomes a member of the Society.

1897. June 24. John R. Alley of Boston, Mass., forwards check for $50. Life membership fee.

1897. June 30. Second meeting of the Council of the Society. Held in the Parker House, Boston, Mass. James Jeffrey Roche of Boston presided. Treasurer-General Linehan was authorized to make arrangements for the first annual field day of the Society, the same to be held at Newcastle, N. H.

1897. July. The secretary-general visited Peabody and Salem, Mass., this month, being assisted in obtaining members there by Thomas Carroll of the former place.

1897. July 20. Capt. John Drum, Tenth U. S. Infantry, admitted to membership.

1897. July 28. Third meeting of the Council of the Society. Held at Salisbury Beach, Mass. President-General Moseley occupied the chair. Mr. Moseley had earlier in the day entertained the council at lunch in the Wolfe Tavern, Newburyport, Mass.

1897. Aug. 4. Death of Henry V. Donovan, M. D., Lawrence, Mass., a member of the Society and a graduate of Harvard University.

1897. Aug. 30. Rear Admiral Belknap, U. S. N. (retired), writes from Newport, R. I., regretting his inability to be present at the meeting to be held in Pawtucket, R. I., on the 1st prox.

1897. September. An article descriptive of the Society’s purposes appears in the current issue of the _Granite Monthly_, Concord, N. H. It is from the pen of Treasurer-General Linehan.

1897. Sept. 1. Fourth meeting of the Council takes place at the Benedict House, Pawtucket, R. I. James Jeffrey Roche of Boston, Mass., presided. Secretary-General Murray read extracts from old Rhode Island documents containing mention of early Irish settlers.

1897. Sept. 1. The Council was entertained at a banquet this evening by the Rhode Island members of the Society. The event took place at the Benedict House, Pawtucket. Hon. Hugh J. Carroll, ex-mayor of the city, presided. Secretary-General Murray, then a resident of Pawtucket, delivered an address of welcome.

1897. Sept. 18. Fifth meeting of the Council. Held in the Parker House, Boston, Mass. James Jeffrey Roche of Boston presides. A gift to the library of the Society from Gen. St. Clair A. Mulholland, Philadelphia, Pa., is announced. It comprises a copy of the “History of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick and of the Hibernian Society,” of that city.

1897. Sept. 21. Hon. John C. Linehan, treasurer-general of the Society, presents the library a copy of the “Addresses at the Dedication of the Monument Erected to the Memory of Matthew Thornton at Merrimack, N. H., September 29, 1892.”

1897. Sept. 24. William McConway, Pittsburg, Pa., writes to President-General Moseley, enclosing life membership fee.

1897. Sept. 28. Edward Fitzpatrick, a member of the organization, contributes an article to the _Louisville_ (Ky.) _Times_, on “Irish Settlers in Louisville and Vicinity.”

1897. Sept. 28. Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, secretary of state of Virginia, writes a cordial letter, and desires to be admitted to membership.

1897. Oct. 7. Death of Gen. John Cochrane, a member of the Society, New York city.

1897. Oct. 23. Hon. Elisha Dyer, governor of Rhode Island, writes accepting an invitation extended him to join the Society.

1897. Oct. 23. Death of Laurence J. Smith, Lowell, Mass., a member of the Society.

1897. Nov. 10. Governor Dyer of Rhode Island writes, regretting that he will be unable to attend the meeting of the Society on the 16th.

1897. Nov. 10. E. Benjamin Andrews, D. D., LL. D., president of Brown University, sends a letter in which he cordially expresses his appreciation of the purposes of the Society. On another occasion, he writes of the organization: “I wish it success with all my heart.”

1897. Nov. 15. The Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, New York city, in session this evening, send fraternal greetings to the Society, the bearer thereof being Thomas B. Lawler, the Society’s librarian and archivist.

1897. Nov. 16. The third meeting of the Society was held this evening in Young’s Hotel, Boston, Mass. Gen. James R. O’Beirne, New York, presided at the business session and Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, at the banquet immediately following.

1897. Nov. 16. At this meeting an address was delivered by John Mackinnon Robertson of London, England, author of “The Saxon and the Celt.” Dennis Harvey Sheahan, ex-clerk of the Rhode Island house of representatives, read a paper on “The Need of an Organization Such as the A. I. H. S., and Its Scope.”

1897. Dec. 7. Secretary-General Murray addressed the Churchmen’s Club of Rhode Island, at Providence, on “Five Colonial Rhode Islanders.” Mr. Justice Stiness of the Rhode Island supreme court presided. The five treated by Mr. Murray were all of Irish birth or extraction.

1897. Dec. 11. Sixth meeting of the Council of the Society is held in the Parker House, Boston, Mass. Thomas J. Gargan of Boston presides. It is voted to prepare for publication, and publish, the first volume of the Journal of the Society’s Proceedings. The volume thus authorized was issued some months later. There is received from Dr. J. C. O’Connell, Washington, D. C., a copy of his work on “The Irish in the Revolution and in the Civil War.”

1897. Dec. 18. Death of Hon. Owen A. Galvin, a member of the Society, Boston, Mass.

1898. Jan. 14. Joseph F. Swords, of Hartford, the Society’s state vice-president for Connecticut at this time, contributes a letter to the _Boston Pilot_ treating of the origin of the family name Swords in Ireland.

1898. Jan. 25. Death of Hon. Charles B. Gafney, a member of the Society, Rochester, N. H.

1898. Jan. 29. Seventh meeting of the Council of the Society. Held in the Parker House, Boston, Mass., Thomas J. Gargan presiding. It was decided to hold the annual meeting and banquet of the Society at the Hotel San Remo, New York city, on the evening of the 17th prox.

1898. Feb. 7. Hon. Thomas M. Waller, ex-governor of Connecticut, qualifies as a member of the Society.

1898. Feb. 17. Eighth meeting of the Council, held at the Hotel San Remo, New York city, Thomas J. Gargan, of Boston, presiding.

1898. Feb. 17. Annual meeting of the Society at the San Remo, New York city, following the meeting of the Council. Gen. James R. O’Beirne of New York presides. Edward A. Moseley, Washington, D. C., is reëlected president-general.

1898. Feb. 17. Annual banquet of the Society at the San Remo, immediately following the annual meeting. General O’Beirne also presided at the banquet. Resolutions of sorrow adopted on the loss of the U. S. battleship _Maine_, in Havana harbor, and copies of the resolutions ordered transmitted to the president of the United States, and to the secretary of the navy.

1898. Feb. 17. At this annual banquet, Joseph Smith of Lowell, Mass., a member of the Council of the Society, contributed a paper on “Some Ways in which American History is Falsified.” Addresses were delivered by Hon. Thomas Dunn English of Newark, N. J.; Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet, New York city; Judge Wauhope Lynn, New York city, and other gentlemen.

1898. Feb. 18. Hon. John D. Crimmins, of New York city, gives a reception to the Society and entertains the latter at lunch at his residence, 40 East 68th St.

1898. Feb. 24. John Goodwin, New York city, forwards check for $50 in payment of life membership fee.

1898. Feb. 25. The navy department, Washington, D. C., acknowledges receipt of the resolutions of condolence on the loss of the battleship _Maine_, adopted by the Society on the 17th instant, and returns thanks “in the name of the officers and men of the navy.”

1898. March 3. Hon. Robert T. Davis, Fall River, Mass., ex-mayor of Fall River, and ex-member of congress, becomes a member of the Society.

1898. March 5. Andrew Athy, Worcester, Mass., joins the Society as a life member.

1898. March 13. Edward Fitzpatrick, Louisville, Ky., a member of the Society, contributes an article to the _Louisville_ (Ky.) _Courier-Journal_, on “The Lost State of Clark.” He mentions Thomas Connolly, who was a fifer in Clark’s regiment.

1898. March 14. Hon. Patrick J. Boyle, mayor of Newport, R. I., admitted to the Society.

1898. March 17. Secretary-General Murray and Treasurer-General Linehan are guests at a banquet of the Irish Society of Lowell, Mass. Joseph Smith of that city presides.

1898. March 27. Thomas J. Gargan, of the Society’s Council, and Thomas Hamilton Murray, secretary-general of the Society, contribute to a symposium in the _Boston Sunday Globe_ on the subject of an Anglo-American alliance. Both strongly oppose the idea.

1898. April 18. President Andrews of Brown University writes, accepting invitation to attend the meeting in Providence, R. I., on the 21st instant.

1898. April 19. Letter written by Harvey Wheeler, chairman of the selectmen of historic Concord, Mass., sending hearty greetings to the participants in the meeting under the auspices of the Society on the 21st instant.

1898. April 20. Hon. John H. Stiness, a justice of the Rhode Island supreme court, sends regrets that he cannot attend the meeting on the 21st instant.

1898. April 21. Ninth meeting of the Society’s Council is held at the Narragansett Hotel, Providence, R. I. Letter read from Hon. Eli Thayer, Worcester, Mass.

1898. April 21. In the evening, following this Council meeting, a reception and banquet was given the Council by the Rhode Island members of the Society, at the Narragansett, Providence. Dennis Harvey Sheahan of Providence presided.

1898. April 21. The post-prandial exercises at this banquet included a paper by Thomas Hamilton Murray, the secretary-general, on “Matthew Watson, an Irish Settler of Barrington, R. I., 1722.” There were addresses by President Andrews of Brown University; Prof. Alonzo Williams of Brown; Hon. John C. Linehan, Concord, N. H.; Rev. Arthur J. Teeling, Lynn, Mass.; Joseph Smith, Lowell, Mass.; Capt. E. O’Meagher Condon, New York city; James Jeffrey Roche and Thomas J. Gargan, Boston, Mass., and other gentlemen.

1898. April 21. Prof. William M. Sloane of Columbia University, New York, admitted to membership.

1898. April 28. James G. Hickey, manager of the United States Hotel, Boston, Mass., becomes a life member of the Society.

1898. May 15. Death of Andrew Athy, Worcester, Mass., a life member.

1898. May 15. Secretary-General Murray addressed a meeting at Bangor, Me., in the interests of the Society. William F. Curran of Bangor, presided.

1898. May 21. Secretary-General Murray visits Springfield, Mass., to enlarge the Society’s membership, and receives valuable assistance from Edward A. Hall and Dr. Philip Kilroy, both of that city.

1898. June. Secretary-General Murray this month visited Portsmouth and Dover, N. H.; New Haven, Conn.; New Bedford and Holyoke, Mass. Special courtesies were shown him at Portsmouth by John Griffin; at Dover, by John A. Hoye; and at New Bedford by Edmund O’Keefe and Rev. James F. Clark.