| Title: | Robert Patterson, Milwaukee, USA. to "Dear John". |
|---|---|
| ID | 2089 |
| Collection | Irish Emigration Database |
| File | Patterson, Robert Sr/24 |
| Year | 1888 |
| Sender | Patterson, Robert Sr |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | unknown |
| Sender Religion | Protestant |
| Origin | Milwaukee, USA |
| Destination | Ireland |
| Recipient | John |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | unknown |
| Source | Donated by Mr. and Mrs. S.V. Thompson, 4 Grove Park, Lenzie, Glasgow, G66 5AH |
| Archive | The Ulster American Folk Park. |
| Doc. No. | 9508150 |
| Date | 13/06/1888 |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | EMG |
| Log | Document added by LT, 14:08:95. |
| Word Count | 3282 |
| Genre | |
| Note | |
| Transcript | 823 Clybourn Street Milwaukee June 15th 1888 Dear John, Thirty nine years ago today I landed in Newyork [New York?] to try my fortune in the New World, & in great need of fortune's favor, being about as poor a man I think as ever landed there. Thirteen years afterwards, in 1862, I wrote you an anniversary letter, at which time these states were in the throes of civil war and great doubt existed as to whether they were to continue as United or DIS-united States, McClelland was advancing on Richmond & great things were expected from him & the vast army he commanded, all soon after to end in defeat slaughter and disappointed hopes - A greater than McClelland at that time stood among us, but it was not till a year afterwards that he found his proper place, and it took more than another year to overwhelm the confederacy & break it to pieces. Again in 1875 another thirteen years had elapsed and I wrote you on the same anniversary, and promised that if we were both living I would write again on the event - I had little hope or expectation that we would both or either of us survive to see the day; but I have lived to see it & so far as I have information so have you- I thought at that time that you & I & Alexr [Alexander?] would all go out in the eighties, and we may yet, but the probabilities are now against it & it is likely enough that one or more of us may see the last decade of the century. I remember that in 1875 I remarked to you that at this date you would be about the same age that my father was when he died, not of old age or infirmity but of an accidental and very rare disease - I shall not speculate on the next thirteen, some one of the three might see 1901 and not have lived longer than some we have known, grandmother Patterson for one, but the chances are so very small, that it is better to dismiss it from the mind & leave it where it belongs in the hands of Him to whom belong the issues of life & death- I attended the funeral of a neighbour in May who was born in the same month as myself and was just 20 days younger. His name was Todd and he was a native of the Co,[County?] Monaghan. I have never known any one that came so very near my own age and I was forcibly reminded of the saying of our Saviour, Two men shall be grinding together, one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the field together, one shall be taken & the other left. This man Todd belonged to a sect of which I suppose you know nothing in Ireland. They call themselves Christian disciples sometimes & sometimes Christadelphians. They hold that when a man dies he is dead in reality till the resurrection & that the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is of heathen origin and was engrafted on the Christian facts after the primitive and apostolic times. They quote numbers of Scripture texts which I, ( but I suppose it would not be so with you ) find it difficult to answer- One is that of the apostle Paul when he asks what advantage to him had been all his sufferings if the dead rise not. They would tell you he would have been in joy and felicity according to modern theologs, [theologians?] if his soul had been in an intermediate state, but that he appears to have had no idea of such a state- while acknowledging no creed themselves they would refer you to the two earliest creeds, the Apostles and Nicene, in both of which the belief is expressed of the Resurection of the dead but no mention made in either of an immortal soul or an intermediate state. Parables like The rich man & Lazarus they explains as being merely allegorical, & they expect Christ to come at the last day when he will raise the dead separate the just from the unjust, destroy - not punish eternally - the latter & thus reign. not for a thousand years but for all eternity on earth- They are a very small sect, perhaps there are not forty in Milwaukee & there were just about as many forty years ago as there are now - yet they keep up the organization and are very strict livers. I receive regularly the Weekly News, except in one instance - The paper for Decr. [December?] 31st either had never been mailed or it miscarried by the way- I read with great interest the history of Orangeism so long as it continued but it dropped out like a knotless thread at the wrong time just as you remark when we could remember it in our early time, just when Sir Harcourt Lees & other pillars of the Order were coming to the front. I remember all the old songs he quoted as sung by Wm.[William?] Lewars & others & many that he does not mention - Lisnagard? indeed I had forgotten till it was recalled to memory, but "the third tree in Garvagh" sung to the air of the reels of Tulagh Gorum, sounds in my ears as if I had heard it but yesterday - The most interesting parts to me were the first organizations at Loughgall and the conduct & services of the Orangemen during the rebellion of 98. You had not begun to send the paper regularly at the time of the organization so that I am still poorly posted on the subject From another source I learned long ago that the day after the battle of the Diamond the victors met at Loughgall and organized the first Orange Lodge - About the year 1842, which is just half way between that time & the present, I had a conversation with The Rev [Reverend?] Holt Waring on the subject and he told me that the early warrants were written as pieces of common paper, not well written & perhaps he might have added poorly spelled - But however this may be at the worst it is an acknowledgment [acknowledgement?] that it originated with the common people and though he and some others of his class were not backward in joining it and forwarding its objects met for half a century, it was mainly, almost entirely, carried on, conducted & continued in existence by the common people- You will remember that in our early time there were but few of the wealthier class of farmers in the order & that its rank & file were made up of the weavers carpenters blacksmiths and other artisans of the labouring man- True indeed there was always a Grand Lodge in Dublin composed of men like the Earl O'Neill & others in the upper walks of life, but there was little in common between the head & the body except the brotherhood of the Order It was the democracy of the brotherhood that preserved it - In the open lodge the hired man sat with his employer & on equal terms with him - It was the same in the processions where he might march alongside before or behind as the case might be, & when he died the poor man had the same Orange honors paid to his remains as the richer man - Twice in those days an attempt was made to supersede the Order by other Societies, having the same objects in view, and both were failures - The first was the establishing in 1828 of Brunswick Clubs, ostensibly to run parallely [parallel?] with the Orange Society but intended really as I believe to take its place. They lasted a few months & then died an easy & natural death. The rank & file of the Orangemen knew all about William of Orange & his his sic doings in Ireland, but they knew little & cared less about the early Georges of Brunswick none of whom had ever seen Ireland, Rulers who were little more than figure heads on a throne that was sometimes in great danger of being occupied by one or other of the Pretenders - The next attempt was about the year 1834, when a Conservative Society was started, It was an imitation of O'Connell's old Catholic Association, having its head in Dublin and collecting funds all over Ireland, but it lasted no longer than the clubs, and died without a struggle: No other attempts that I can remember was made against Orangeism by its friends in the upper walks of life, and being left alone it still survived & progressed under its former & original condition. But ten or twelve years afterwards, I think about the middle of the forties, it began to be joined by that class who had formerly held aloof from it, and so far as I can see from report, (not being on the ground myself,) the peers and gentry for the last forty years have been as deeply imbued with the Orange spirit as even the peasantry themselves. They had tried various ways of weaning the common people from their allegiance to the honoured name of King William & having always failed , the gentry at length came to the people. Like the prophet of the Turk, when the mountains would not come to Mohommet, Mohommet went to the mountains - and the two seem to be getting along together very well - In the history of the Institution given in the Weekly News I could sometimes have assisted the writer with facts in our own locality never put on record - That of the schisms among the freemasons is one; when "Stoneyford they marched foremost it was them wore the green, Next came bold Ballinderry boys for the Orange so keen" In one of your letters you allude to the song and speak of it as the production of a man whose name I forget. It is the recollectionof both me & Alexr. [Alexander?] that it was always attributed to George Bush, my fathers old weaver, who owed him money for 40 years & I have no doubt died in his debt. Another in the assembly on Leslie's hill to prevent the formation of the first Orange Lodge at Lr.[Lower?] Ballinderry when one shot from a blunderbus decided the battle & ended the war. It was a fortunate shot wounding a dozen or more & killing no-one - about this affair also as you know there was a song which perhaps some of the oldest inhabitants could still sing or recite - Considering that Ballinderry & Aghalee were a very focus of Orangism [Orangeism?] they appear greatly neglected in the narrative and I am surprised to see so little of Ballinderry in the notices at the present time - I often see Glenavy mentioned but in the old time it was nothing compared with Ballinderry. I was amused at one thing in the history - It appears that in 1816 there was a procession on 12th July in Lisburn when the Rev Dr. Cupples preached to them from a text in Galatians "It is a good thing always to be zealously affected in a good cause" Now if Mr Lilburn had brought his narrative on to 1829 I could have told him that the same old Doctor preached to the Orangemen again in the same old church from the same old text on the same anniversary. I heard him & while I remember little about the sermon I remember the text perfectly. I suppose he thought the sermon might be needed again & salted it down for future occasions. I noticed all about the Wm Fox of Belfast & the Halls of Narrow - Water in the early part of the narration & have no doubt but the former was either the father or an uncle of our Ballinderry curate. I believe with you also that Sergt.[Sergeant?] Winter was the same breed as the Diamond Winters, for I find it was the Armagh, not the Monaghan Militia Regiment, that was at Ballinahinch & it was to this Regiment he belonged & after the battle wrote the letter to our uncle Roger - I noticed also about our uncle Robin being at a meeting at the Maze protesting against the Union of 1800 - about which I can only quote the old saying that times change & men change with them - I remember my father saying that his father on his deathbed said he would rather have parted with one of his arms than to have the parliament taken away from Ireland - The feeling here about Home Rule has changed nothing since I wrote last - It seems taken for granted that there is no argument in the case, and what is more provoking that it is a demand almost unanimous on the part of the Irish people. To correct as far as possible this error about four months ago I cut from the Weekly News a letter from a presbyterian Minister of Belfast named Magill to his friend in England discussing that subject, prefaced it with a few remarks of my own very temperately written & headed by the request to "Hear both sides" I and another laid it before the the head editor of the Sentinel with a request for its publicationin its columns - He seemed to think it strange that Irishmen could have anything but one opinion on the subject, but said he would look it over carefully & if it was suitable for his columns he would insert it - That was the last we heard of it - It went to the waste basket & remains there - This is our free country & free press so much spoken of & boasted of - The editor was afraid to publish it lest it might cost him subscribers & advertisements, & so he let it drop through - it would have been different if we Irish Protestants were as numerous a faction as the Irish Papists, but being as we are a miserable minority he could afford to neglect us & all the resource we have is to grin & bear it - In one of your letters you speak of the pleasure it affords you when you see the crocuses & other early flowers first appearing - It is the same with me, but with me I think it a pleasure multiplied by ten - From my earliest recollections, from the time the Walshes performed in Walkington's paradefield, about 1814 or 15 or perhaps both years, when my father lost me & found me at the bottom of the field with my bib filled with primroses & daisies. the love of nature & of flowers with me was not only a pleasure but a passion. My father told me the reason of it long afterwards. My mother he said was at all times fond of nature & of flowers, but especially so, almost passionately so for some months before I was born. I felt then & still feel the thrills of the remark - And when I see a man, such as Wordsworth describes, to whom " A primrose by the river's brim; A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more" I don't envy him or his apathy to the beauties of nature So that feeling & the love of books, also very early developed in me, & also inherited from my mother, I owe the greatest pleasures of my life, & if I had to live it over again I would not exchange them for the wealth of all the millionaires you could name - I have often been thankful in my inmost heart for these gifts, knowing what a compensation they were in my many trials and tribulations. Burns had the same feeling in him strong as when he says "Upon a Summer's Sunday morn I walked where nature's face is fair forth to view the corn And snuff the coller [cooler?] air" & again "while briers & woodbines budding green & paitrick's scraichin losed at e'en, And Mornin Pussie whiddin Seen surprise my muse" - In the last quotation he is very faithful to nature The poem was written about [fastiness?] ([shrovetedy?]) which is in February or early in March, about which time the briars & road [trims?] begin to show their green leaves & are among the earliest harbingers of Spring The call of the partridge to his mate is still in my ears tho' I have not heard it for forty years & occurs about the same time - We have not these pleasures in America We have no early spring - In February the earth is still as hard as metal & it is not till towards the end of March or beginning of April that we have a crocus in flower - Two years ago I had them at the end of March - this year not till the middle of April, after the crocus we have hyacinths & tulips & then thro [through?] the summer any quantity of the usual hardy perennial flowers, & late into Autumn - The spring, if it could be called such is an uncertain quantity - some years doing pretty well - others like the present being cold & rough with two or three of the last days of April, having a summer heat & thus on the 2nd May a fall of 6 in. [inches?] snow which lay for two or three days before it entirely disappeared - It does not matter much in the end for even they grow very fast when the growing time comes so that there is generally an abundance of everything in the end In several of your letters you have alluded to our old Sunday School at Turtle's fort, and I am always glad to hear about any of our old pupils, even the youngest of whom must since be far advanced in life - The allusion to one who remembered me giving out the hymn " O God of Bethel by whose hand Thy people still are fed." was especially pleasing to me, and I am happy to think that the simple prayer has had a continued effect on even one mind The hymn always was & will be a favourite of mine - It was peculiarly suited to my wandering and in one of its lines had an especial meaning to one who had more than once to use it not in a general or parrot way but literally " Give us this day our daily bread - " I have only room to say that we have had no sickness or mishap of any kind since you last heard from us - One child a female was born a week before Christmas, making three now living & all healthy children - My son is or will be in July 36 yrs old, nearly as old as I was when I left Ireland. He still continues at work & means to do so till he pays off a few hundred dollars still owing on a property he bought last year - I have not heard from Alex for about 5 mos [months?] at that time he and his were well robt. [Robert?] Patterson I forgot to say that I got two England Church Papers and the views of different places in Belfast & vicinity. |
