March 2008

Montana's Irish Heritage

From individual influences to their power as a group, the Irish have played an important and lasting role in defining Montana. From the beginning of the Irish famine, 1845, through 1921, over 3.7 million Irish left their homes in search of better lives. Almost 84% of these men, women, and children migrated to the United States in hopes of finding both religious freedom and the means of financial independence. This amazing labor force would, in the words of Historians Kerby Miller and Dave Emmons, do the "heavy work of industrializing societies" [Emmons, David M., The Butte Irish; Class Ethnicity in an American Mining Town, 1875-1925, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 1-3]. No where is this more evident than in Montana where the Irish presence was felt in mining, railroad construction, homesteading, politics, and society.

Lists of Irish Montanans and their organizations offer clues to the importance of the Irish presence in Montana, both famous and infamous. Thomas Francis Meagher, Thomas Cruse, Martin Maginnis, James Sullivan, Marcus Daly, Bishop John Patrick Carroll, Thomas J. Walsh, Maggie Halligan, Con Kelley, and Daniel Hennessy have all left impressions on Montana History. Irish organizations profoundly influenced Montana's labor, social, and political evolution. Their associations not only gave communities a "sense of order" but also supported political and workers' rights [Emmons, David M., "Immigrant Workers and Industrial Hazards: the Irish Miners of Butte, 1880-1919," Journal of Ethnic History, vol. 5, no. 1, Fall 1985, pg. 43]. The Fenians and Clan Na-Gael organized Irish-Americans to assist in Irish Independence. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, not only provided traditional fraternal aid to its members' families, but supported early union activities. The enthusiasm which the Irish brought to their causes made them a primary target of the Montana Council of Defense, during WWI. This now infamous organization saw the Irish passion for homeland, freedom and workers' rights as seditious and anti-American.

The Irish significance has been documented by some of Montana's most prevalent historians and story tellers. These include:

• The Butte Irish, by Dave Emmons, is a thorough examination of the dynamics of the Irish working class community.
• The Irish General, Thomas Francis Meagher, by Paul Wylie, is a wonderful biography supported by Wylie's exhaustive research.
• Irish and Irish Americans in Helena, Montana, 1864-1916, by Anna Marie Moe, is a thesis written during Moe's senior year at Carroll.
• "We are Women Irish: Gender, Class, Religious and Ethnic Identity in Anaconda, Montana," by Laurie Mercier, Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Winter 1994, pg. 28-41, examines the effect Irish women had in adapting their heritage to Anaconda and the resulting effects on their community.
• "A Place of Greater opportunity: Irish Women’s Search for Home, Family, and Leisure in Butte, Montana," by Mary Murphy, Journal of the West, April 1992, pg. 73-78, discusses the tensions between traditional gender roles and women’s quests for independence.

The Montana Historical Society maintains the Thomas Cruse papers (MC 36) as well as dozens of other Irish Montanans' sources and Oral Histories. However, the Butte-Silver Bow Archives houses the "Irish Collection," one of the most complete collections of Irish-American community activities in the United States. This collection contains membership, financial, organization, and correspondence records from 1882 to 1935 of many social, literary, and fraternal organizations for the Irish in Butte, Montana. Organizations include the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Divisions 1, 2, and 3), Robert Emmet Literary Association, Friends of Irish Freedom, Gaelic League, Irish Volunteers of America, Thomas Francis Meagher Memorial Fund, and American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic, and Sunburst Club in Helena.

Evidence of the Irish legacy is not only historical. The mass migration to Butte every St. Patrick's Day is testament to the community's continued hold on American-Irish passions and traditions. The numerous festivals and musical displays, including Libby's March Irish Fair and Butte's August An Ri Ra, also bear testament to the state's heritage.

As we enter into March and contemplate the importance if wearing the green and the phrase 'Éirinn go Brágh', let us celebrate those hardy souls who chose to leave their beautiful Ireland forever and invest in Montana.

February 2008

African-American History Month - "Duke" Dutrieuille

With this month's feature we wanted to take advantage of not only African-American History Month but of the historical presidential campaign season as well. On September 24, 1892, John Lambert Dutrieuille, popularly known as "Duke," submitted a statement to the Helena Daily Independent regarding his views on which political party black men should support in the coming elections of 1892 (it must be remembered that women could still not vote at this time). Dutrieuille was born in 1837 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania of Haitian parents. He came to Montana in the early territorial days to operate a barber shop, living in Butte, Marysville, Helena, Fort Benton, and finally Belt. He married another African-American pioneer, Maria Adams, in Helena in 1880. As a young lady in 1875, she journeyed from Kentucky to Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota Territory to work as a house maid for Col. and Mrs. George Armstrong Custer. Maria and her sister later came on a steamboat to Fort Benton, where her sister soon died. Duke and Maria had two children, Frank and Marie. Following Duke's death in 1911, Maria moved from Belt to Great Falls where she lived until her own death in 1939. Duke's 1892 political statement to the Independent was significant in that he explains why he would no longer be supporting the Republican Party, which African-Americans typically supported out of gratitude for its association with Abraham Lincoln and many abolitionists. The following are excerpts from the statement:

"We were told twenty years ago that when our children grew up they would have had school advantages that had been denied their fathers, and would be fitted to compete with all comers. They have had advantages, especially in Montana, and to-day there are colored men and women in Helena who, so far as fitness goes, are as capable of filling positions of trust and responsibility as any one, but neither their ability nor their education counts for aught. After years of patient waiting and depending wholly, I may say, on the promises of that party that claims that we owe what we are to-day to its members, I firmly believe that the only solution of the great race problem lies in the disintegration or division of the colored vote. Whenever the votes of any class are solid there is nought to be gained unless they possess an overwhelming majority.

I have for the past twenty-four years supported the Republican party, and have no apologies to make for my change of base. In that twenty-four years I have failed to note anything that might in any way be called recognition or reward for faithful services rendered by the colored voters of the State of Montana. . . . When a white man changes his political faith he is never questioned, nor is his right to do so ever challenged. But let the negro dare to speak one word in favor of the Democratic party, the Prohibition party, or the young but vigorous People's party, and he is at once waited upon by some of the leading lights of the G. O. P. and shown the enormity of his proposed crime. 'What on earth do you mean? Do you not know that we fought for you, for your liberty?' Well, now, what does that liberty mean? It means the right to vote without let or hindrance the Republican ticket at state, county or municipal elections, and at general elections particularly. It means that we rescued you from slavery of the body to put you into a slavery of the mind and a slavery of the soul. You are to vote for the Republican party, no matter how venal, how corrupt they may be. Vote under the lash and after the election be ignored entirely until the next election season."

For more on the Dutrieuille family in Montana please see Small Collection 1584 at the Montana Historical Society Research Center. The MHS Photo Archives also has portraits of Duke and Maria Dutrieuille (Collection PAc 80-23). For more information contact Photo Archives at 406-444-4739 or photoarchives@mt.gov.

For information on similar historical materials in the collections of the MHS Research Center please see our

Study Guide to African Americans in Montana elsewhere in this Wiki.

January 2008

Snow Balls

Cream 1/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup sugar together. Sift together 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup corn starch and 3 level teaspoons baking powder. Add all together alternately with 1/2 cup milk and whites of 4 eggs beaten stiff. Put batter in 8 well buttered cups, steam 1/2 hour, turn out gently and roll in powdered sugar. For sauce, use plain or whipped cream, with strawberries or chopped peaches added.

Mrs. O. C. Dallas

Source:

The Helena Cook Book: Containing Three Hundred Recipes