the "O's." Nearly every name common to Ireland is here
represented.

New York, as a Province and as a State, is much indebted to Irish
genius. Ireland gave the Province its most noted governor in the
person of Thomas Dongan from Co. Kildare, and in later years Sir
William Johnson from Co. Meath, governor of the Indians from New York
to the Mississippi. It gave the State its first governor, George
Clinton, son of an immigrant from Co. Longford, and to the city its
first mayor after the Revolution, James Duane, son of Anthony Duane
from Co. Galway. Fulton, an Irishman's son, gave America priority in
the "conquest of the seas." Christopher Colles, a native of Cork, was
the originator of the grand scheme which united the waters of the
Atlantic and the Lakes--one of the greatest works of internal
improvement ever effected in the United States--while the gigantic
project was carried to a successful end through the influence and
direction of Governor DeWitt Clinton, the grandson of an Irishman.

* * * * *

Many of the pioneer settlers of New Jersey were Irish. As early as
1683 "a colony from Tipperary in Ireland" located at Cohansey in
Salem County, and in the same year a number of settlers, also
described as "from Tipperary, Ireland," located in Monmouth County.
In the County records of New Jersey, Irish names are met with
frequently between the years 1676 and 1698. Several of the local
historians testify to the presence and influence of Irishmen in the
early days of the colony, and in the voluminous "New Jersey Archives"
may be found references to the large numbers of Irish
"redemptioners," some of whom, after their terms of service had
expired, received grants of land and in time became prosperous
farmers and merchants. Perhaps the most noted Irishman in New Jersey
in colonial days was Michael Kearney, a native of Cork and ancestor
of General Philip Kearney of Civil War fame, who was secretary and
treasurer of the Province in 1723.

* * * * *

All through the west and southwest, Irishmen are found in the
earliest days of authentic history. Along the Ohio, Kentucky, Wabash,
and Tennessee rivers they were with the pioneers who first trod the
wilderness of that vast territory. As early as 1690, an Irish trader
named Doherty crossed the mountains into what is now Kentucky, and we
are told by Filson, the noted French historian and explorer of
Kentucky, that "t