During the Civil War, anthracite coal was crucial to the Union. Many of the mine workers didn’t serve in the military, as coal was a critical industry to support the war effort. The owners pressured the workers for increased production.
The Gallaghers and Larges and Kellys labored on.
The mine workers lived under the complete control of the coal companies. It was a relationship much like the oppression from English landlords they had suffered in Ireland.
Continue readingBridget Large and her seven children arrived in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania in 1844.
Bridget and her seven children left Castlecomer and Ireland in 1844. They probably sailed from Dublin or Cork.
Lady Anne Wandesforde Butler, Countess of Ormonde, had been the owner of Wandesforde estate and Castlecomer House since the death of her father in 1784.
Continue readingI think Thomas Large worked in the coal mines. Let’s make the case.
The Wandesforde Estate was smack in the middle of the Castlecomer coal fields. Coal provided Castlecomer’s wealth from the mid-1600s until the mid-1900s.
The Wandesforde family were gentry in Yorkshire, England, where they held an estate called Kirklington Manor.
In 1637, Lord Christopher Wandesforde was granted land in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Successive generations of the Wandesforde family controlled this estate until the 1950s.
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Patrick Gallagher left Ireland for Pennsylvania around 1850. There he met and married Ellen Large.
Ellen had immigrated too. She and her siblings and mother left Ireland in 1844.
Whereas our Gallaghers hailed from County Donegal, our Large grandparents were from County Kilkenny.
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Patrick Gallagher emigrated around 1850, at about age 23.
We don’t know the specific year Patrick left Ireland, or which ship he was on.
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Family Nibbles 