I became a Great Grandmother in June, and it made me realize that this sweet baby girl, Findley, will not know or remember anything about me or our history. I am writing this story for perhaps her grandchildren or other relatives in 2074, Fifty years from now.
When you are the child of immigrants, your family history is often lacking, but I remember my mother saying that her grandfather had been in Cleveland in the early 1900s and I assumed that he was not happy living in the USA and returned to Ireland. Because she was crippled with rheumatism, my mother’s cousins would gather on our front porch on West 112 Street on summer nights and that’s where I heard more of the story about my mother’s grandfather’s visit to America.
These wonderful women, Mary English, Ann McNamara, Kate McIlwee, Ann Burke Mclaughlin, Mary Glaze and a few forgotten in the haze of memory, were also his granddaughters; they often speculated about the trip. How different would their lives be if he stayed here and they didn’t have their Achill Island childhood?
Later when I worked in Cleveland Municipal Court. I would visit the office of my cousin, Judge Joe McManamon. He once he asked me if I knew that our great-grandfather had spent a year in Cleveland in the early 1900s? Joe said his name was Thomas English, and he came on his 1st cousin’s passport, who was a high- ranking Cleveland Policeman.
During a visit to Ireland, I asked my Uncle Johnny Moran about the story, he said it was true. He said after his grandfather’s return, his was known as “Tommie the Yank” because he used Americanisms like “yeah” and “okay.”
Thomas English, my maternal great- grandfather, was born on Achill Island off the west coast of County Mayo, in 1847. He married Mary McManamon in January 1867. They had nine children. My grandmother, Bridget English Moran, born 1868, was their Tommie the Yank, My Great-Grandfather first child.
His first cousin Micheal English, was born on Achill Island in 1845, and immigrated to Cleveland in 1864 with his parents. The family settled in Cleveland. He married Celia Gallagher in 1869. They had five children, three boys and two girls. He became a naturalized citizen in 1870, and went on the Cleveland Police Department in April 1871. Twenty- two years later, he attained the rank of Captain. In today’s parlance he would be known as “Super Cop.”
Captain English once went four days without sleep countermanding a large labor riot on Scrantion Road that took place in May of 1874. His individual efforts brought a man named Otto Louth to justice for the murder of Maggie Thompson. He had the pleasure of seeing the man hanged. He was widowed in 1882. Celia was only 32. In 1997, due to the pressure of his job, he took a stress related three month sick leave and went back to Ireland to regain his health. He returned to Cleveland and retired from the Police Department five years later, in November,1902, after thirty- one years of service.
He returned to Ireland in 1906, planning to stay for a whole year to fully recover his health. The two cousins who were very close in their youth decided that since the Police Captain would not be using his passport for the next year, Thomas would use it to visit his son, John T. English, who had immigrated to Cleveland in 1905. John T. got married in 1907, so that was perhaps the reason for the trip.
When I started the search for the police captain, I had assumed that his name was also Thomas English, but the only man with the last name of English on the Cleveland Police Department at that time was Captain Michael Martin English and the time frame fit. A retired policeman, Ptl. Patrick Reynolds did the research in the Police Library Archives for me and I am thankful for this wonderful gesture.
At the turn of the century, travel between Achill Island and the USA was a grueling journey, cars did not exist in Ireland at that time, travel was done in a horse cart or on horseback to the nearest train station, probably in Galway, and continued to the port city of Cohb (Queenstown), with transfers made in Ennis and Kildare. The passengers left Ireland on a ferry to cross the Irish Sea to Liverpool, and then boarded an ocean liner for the Atlantic Ocean crossing. The voyage took seven to ten days before they reached Ellis Island. Once in New York City, they boarded a train to Cleveland, which added another full day. The trip would take at least two weeks, perhaps more. Photos on passports probably did not exist then, but some documentation must have been required, so I assume Tommie used Michael’s retirement picture and papers from the Cleveland Police Department to expedite his “re-entry” to the USA. The men were close in age, early sixties. Pictures show they were very similar in facial structure. Tommie’s picture was later taken during his stay in Cleveland.
Both took their places back in their rightful lives in 1907. “Tommie the Yank” went back to his farm in Achill and his wife and remaining children. Sons John T. and Joe had married the Mangan sisters and started their own families. Michael must have regained his health, because on his return to Cleveland, he took a Job as a watchman. He died in 1909 of blood poisoning because he trimmed a corn on his foot with a paring knife.
His last address was 2814 Washington Avenue. I heard many times that my mother, Bridget Moran Calvey, was Tommie’s favorite grandchild and they had caring relationship. Her marriage to my father was a not an easy one and it is gratifying that she was prized by her husband. Tommie died in 1925 and she immigrated to Cleveland in 1926. Thank you, “Tommy the Yank” (our first “blow in”).
Another fortuitous event connected to the cousins took place in my life 1981. I had applied for a position as a deputy Bailiff in Municipal Court, and the competition was great. Lefty Kilbane, Municipal Clerk of Court asked Judge Edward Feighan to sponsored me and he did, and I was one of the five candidates hired from a field of at least one hundred. Captain Michael English’s youngest daughter Mary married John T.
Feighan and they were the grandparents of Judge Edward Feighan and Congressman Michael Feighan. Judge Edward Feighan and his wife Margaret would have loved this story and I love my PERS pension. Thank you, Tommie the Yank and
Caption Michael English for the strong bond and the trust in each other to carry this expedition off. I would like to think that these two men passed their love of family and adventure down to the fifth and six generations of Clevelanders listed below. I wish I had known you both. Calvey, Stull, McManamon, Vecchio, Moran, Mc Ilwee, Patton, Bernath, Kilbane, DeMarco, Hearns, McNamara, Mangan, Zemek, English, Cooney, Wyrock, Wallenhurst, Discenczo, Madercic, Eck, Duplisea …
The Feighan and Gallagher Families
will have to do their own research.
