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Title: Letter of Regret for Death of Rev. McFadden, Pittsburg.
ID4023
CollectionIrish Emigration Database
File1931-40/1
Year1933
SenderAn Ulsterman
Sender Gendermale
Sender Occupationunknown
Sender Religionunknown
Originletter published in The Belfast Weekly News
Destinationunknown
Recipientunknown
Recipient Genderunknown
Relationshipre death of Rev. McFadden
SourceThe Belfast Weekly News, Thursday, March 2, 1933.
ArchiveThe Linenhall Library, Belfast.
Doc. No.9605045
Date2/3/1933
Partial Date
Doc. TypeLTE
LogDocument added by LT, 29:04:96.
Word Count511
Genre
Note
TranscriptAN ULSTERMAN'S LETTER.

A Friend of Ulster

I note with deep regret the death of Rev. Dr. E.M. McFadden
of Pittsburg U.S.A. Members of the Ulster Delegation which
made a memorable tour in the United States and Canada
thirteen years ago, will gratefully recall his services. Dr.
McFadden, who was a native of Larne, Co. Antrim, never
forgot to fight the battles of his native province, and he
was one of the first to approach the visiting Ulstermen with
an offer of help. He personally conducted the Delegation on
its visit to many of the largest cities in the Eastern
States, and freely put his intimate experience of American
conditions at the visitors' disposal. In his own city of
Pittsburg, the delegation received a marvellous welcome from
the Ulster community, and this was largely due to Dr.
McFadden's inspiring leadership as President of the Ulster
Society of Pittsburg. His knowledge of Ulster's influence on
the history of the United States was particularly good, and
he brought to the Delegation's notice a very interesting
passage in Theodore Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" in
which this remarkable tribute was paid to the Scotch Irish,
as the Ulster settleres [settlers?] were called:- "Mingled
with the descendants of many other races they nevertheless
formed the kernel of the distinctively and interesting
American stock who were the pioneers of our people in their
march westward, the vanguard of the army of fighting
settlers, who with axe and rifle, won their way from the
Alleghenies to the Rio Grande and the Pacific".
With melancholy pleasure I recall the details of the
Delegation's visit to Dr. McFadden's city. There was the
very happy reception in the roof gardens of the Hotel
Chatham on Saturday evening, 10th January 1920. with a very
full programme of church services conducted by the members
of the Delegation on the following day. Then on the Monday
morning Dr. McFadden conducted the Delegation to a crowded
meeting of ministers only in Smithfield M.E. Church. The
visit wound up with the huge mass meetings at the Syria
Mosque and the Soldiers' Memorial Hall, meetings the like of
which the writer never expects to see excelled. The meetings
were not without an element of disturbance, but the
Delegation's supporters in Pittsburg were numerous and
enthusiastic, and the visit to the "Smokey City" was one
long triumph. Opportunity was taken during our visit to see
Dr. McFadden's own work - he was a minister to the Jews, the
second oldest of its kind in the United States. Of other
good friends to the Ulster Society of Pittsburg I can only
recall the names of Rev. Dr. J.S. Megaw and Mr. J.H. Fulton.
Death has taken its toll of the Delegation itself. Rev.
Edward Hazelton and Mr. Wm. [William?] Coote, M.P. having
joined the great majority. The passing of Dr. McFadden,
indeed, revives memories of a happy fellowship, which has
served to make the position and claims of Ulster people much
better known, and did not a little to defeat the Republican
demand for an independent Ireland

ULSTERMAN.

Word count: 511