July 1850
Dear Children,
I’m starting a diary today and it is going to be a secret. I have found a hiding place where no one will find it until I’m passed away from this earth. Someday, one of you children will discover it and then you will know everything about how I came here and what my life was like. That is why I am addressing this diary to you for that far off “someday” when you will be reading these words.
I picked today to start my diary because for the first time I feel like a real American. A man named Mr. Richard Gelston came to our door and wrote down our names to be published in the 1850 Census of the whole United States of America. He is the son of the man who runs the Customs House in Sag Harbor for the whole United States, appointed by George Washington himself. Right here at our doorstep. What a great country we live in. I cannot believe the government wants to know all our names and ages, as if we are real citizens and not just Irish immigrants. They asked for Dad’s name, Terry, my name, Susan, and little Frankie and even Mollie’s name, though she is just a wee baby. I told them I was 22 years old and felt like a grand lady of the house, even though we are in a rented cottage on Mr. Halsey’s land in Bridgehampton. But unlike back home in Ireland, he says if we can turn a profit on our acreage, we can work toward owning it. Think of it, children, our own land! We have waited generations to get back the land that was stolen from us by the English. Now in this bright new world our chance has finally come.
Oh, do not be fooled by all the Irish people you will hear moan and groan about the Emerald Isles and the Old Sod. They forget that we were prisoners in our own country. We are free here. We have a chance to get ahead. Do not listen to the neighbors who long for the past. That is what we left behind. All our work was for the landlord, and we could never be our own masters. I wanted better for you children. Here, you will have a chance to be the master of your own fate. Now we are free, but make no mistake, we didn’t like being mistreated. Members of our family were risking their necks protesting the British rule. We are a proud people and we never forgot or forgave our land being stolen. It was time to leave and declare independence from tyranny.
Did you know, children, that I came here all by myself? Yes, it is true and I was only 16 years old. In April 1, 1845, I got on a huge ship called the Queen of the West and sailed here all alone. The hardest part was leaving Pap and Mam and the younger children, but at least the great hunger was still months away. I worried about them so once it started. Of course, your father was already here, but I was coming to meet my brother, John, and his new wife, Elizabeth. He came on the ship, “Hottinger” the year before and found his way to the town of Sag Harbor, New York, where there were plenty of jobs in the whaling industry for anyone willing to work. Little Jane Fee was our first American, born later the year I came and named for our beloved Aunt Jane.
Within a few years of our arrivals, Sag Harbor was teeming with Fees and McGuirks and many more of our relatives like the Bradys and the Mulligans. But there was always a few of us who preferred farm life. Even though I lived on a farm for most of the years I lived here, part of me will always love the bustle of town life. It was really the best of both worlds as we visited Sag Harbor every Saturday to trade at the market. I will tell you more about it all next time. Frankie and Mollie are waking up from their naps so I will bid you goodbye for now.
Tá mé chomh mór sin i ngrá leat, tá mé chomh doirte sin duit,
Your mother,
Susan
