This is a version of a paper I wrote for "American Christianity" at Duke Divinity School. The assignment was for each class member to situation his or her family in an event or time period in American Religious History. This is the result of my research.
“Anti-Catholicism and
Anti-Irish Sentiments in
1920’s Small-Town USA Take
a Murderous Path”
My Irish-Catholic Great Grandparents, and
their two children immigrated to the United States in 1924 and settled in Kane,
Pennsylvania, the same town where I was born and raised. In 1931, another
During the 1920’s, America did not trust Irish-Catholics. Anti-Irish-Catholic
sentiment in the United States began when Pope Benedict XV urged the armies of
World War I to lay down their arms and negotiate. The American allies took this as an offence. They thought the Pope was trying to
save the enemy Central Powers. Irish-Catholic loyalty to the United States was
questioned.[1]
The American distrust of Irish-Catholics deepened because the Irish-Catholics
were part of a “vehement campaign against [then President] Wilson”[2]
whom they believed ignored their plight because his policies were aimed toward
the defeated enemies of World War I instead of the Irish Independence Movement from
the British in their homeland.[3]
We must also remember that Britain
was an American political ally, so for Wilson to side with the Irish would not
be in his best political interest. The later influx of Irish immigrants brought
back the “Irish Question” and memories of the Papal decree of World War I.[4]
Many Americans continued to consider Irish-Catholics to be Un-American. “’Keep on handing it to the Micks [a derogatory term for the Irish],’ … the Roman Catholic Irish
…always have been the only absolutely un-Americanized’ people in the country.”[5]
Kane, PA is a geographically isolated
community within the Allegheny National Forrest. Erie, PA is the closest city at a distance of approximately
90 miles. Due to its isolation, Kane is, and was, culturally, socially, and
politically isolated. Kane of the 1920’s-30’s was not much different than it is
today. Pictures show only huge
differences in vehicles and fashion.
According to my Grandfather, Charles O’Hara[6]
(d. 1997), the main differences in the Kane of then and Kane of now (that is,
the 1990’s) were that the streets were either unpaved or covered in bricks,
there were neighborhood grocery stores, and several neighborhood schools
including St. Callistus Catholic School for students in Grades 1-8.[7]
According to records obtained from the
search engine on http://www.ellisisland.org/, my Great-Grandparents, Michael
and Margaret O’Hara landed on Ellis Island on September 8, 1924 with two
children in tow and pregnant with one more, my Grandfather, who would be born
three months later. The records
indicate that their destination was the home of a man by the name of Mr. Nagle (the maiden name of my Great-Grandmother Margaret) on Yarnell Street in Kane, PA. Mr. Nagle and his adult sister with whom he lived were the sponsors of my Great Grandparents' immigration to the United States. They were relatives of my Great Grandmother, Margaret Nagle O'Hara.
I am not certain when the O’Hara family
officially joined St. Callistus Catholic Church, but according to conversations
I had with my Grandfather while he was still living, his family had always been
practicing and pious Catholics. He
remembered his father praying the Rosary after supper every evening. His mother would attend Mass during the
week as well as every Sunday with the family and reciting various Catholic
Prayers throughout the day. One
day, when going through old belongings with my Grandmother, Mary Joyce O’Hara
(Wife of Charles O’Hara) we found my Grandfather’s World War II medals. In addition to two Purple Hearts, there
was a tag that he wore identifying himself as a Catholic that instructed anyone
that if he were found injured or unconscious in battle, they should immediately
contact a Catholic Priest. My Grandfather was an active usher at St. Callistus
until he became sick and was unable to continue that duty later in life.
The exact reasons why my family came to
the USA is unkonwn, but there were many issues in Ireland
at that time that could have been signs that a move was in order. In 1920, the Lord Mayor, Terrence
MacSwiney of Cork, Ireland (the very county where my ancestors lived) was
arrested and convicted to two years in prison by the British for possessing
“incriminating documents.” He
engaged in a hunger strike, and this made international news. For 73 days, his supporters watched him
die.[8] This caused political upheaval in both
Ireland and in the United States with the Irish immigrants who were following
the news.[9]
This may have been a serious prompt for my family to leave their homeland four
years later due to the unrest that followed with the British Occupiers.
My
ancestors left Ireland, a land in turmoil to come to America, supposedly the
“land of the free,” but instead, they found a land that held them in contempt
because of their nationality and religion. They came to Kane, PA, a small isolated town to resettle and
begin new lives. For the majority
of residents, the isolation of Kane provides a very safe and comfortable experience. This, however, would not be the O’Hara
family’s experience. Despite its
isolation, the Anti-Irish-Catholic sentiment would find its way into the social
and justice systems of this town.
In
the October 19th, 1931 edition of The Kane Republican, the daily newspaper in Kane, PA,[10]
my Grandfather’s brother, Daniel O’Hara, age 15 was reportedly “fatally
injured when struck by a bicycle operated by 14-year old Robert Peterson.”[11] The Chief of Police who investigated
the incident said, “several youthful witnesses to the mishap state that the
Peterson boy veered the bicycle directly into the path of the O’Hara boy,
knocking him down.” Witnesses
would also told the Chief of Police that they thought the “Peterson boy
intentionally turned the vehicle [bicycle] toward the O’Hara boy.” The force of the blow was so hard that
it ruptured Daniel O’Hara’s intestines.
The next day, Saturday, he was taken to the hospital for an operation,
but doctors said, “the lad was too far gone to be saved and he succumbed” to
his injuries. My Great Grandfather
told the reporter that Daniel had been bullied by the Peterson boy and that he
would “swear out a warrant for the arrest of Robert Peterson, following the
funeral services” for his son.[12]
Obviously,
we can conclude that this just may be an act of bullying gone way too far – to
the point of death. Hints of
Religions or Ethnic Discrimination are not immediately at the surface of this
incident. Children and adults do
cruel things to each other. Often,
there is no motive other than a spontaneous chance meeting to cause a bully to
do harm to his or her victim. If
the story were to end here, we could conclude that this may be the case. The
following evidence points to local government officials willingly and knowingly
participating in Anti-Irish-Catholic sentiments that were still just beginning
to ease away in 1931 in the United States, but still lingered in Kane, PA due
to its isolation from the larger United States.
“The
coroner’s jury in the office of District Attorney Charles G. Hubbard” delivered
a “verdict of accidental death[13]
by a blow from a bicycle in the hands of Robert Peterson.” The coroner’s jury, “after hearing the
stories of several witnesses” said, “that nothing
in the evidence presented could be interpreted as negligence.”[14]
“District Attorney Hubbard assisted in questioning the witnesses throughout the
inquest.” The witnesses included
five boys present at the time of the incident.[15] According to the article, four of the
five boys agreed on almost every detail [that Peterson intentionally hit O’Hara],
and that they only differed on minor details, but one boy insisted “that the
Peterson boy was not riding the bicycle at the time of the accident, saying that
the O’Hara lad ran into the bicycle which was leaning against the station wall
at the time.” The verdict of the
coroner’s jury was to exonerate Peterson of any wrongdoing.[16]
This
is where we find evidence that Government officials used Anti-Irish-Catholic sentiments
to exonerate Peterson. First of
all, if the Chief of Police is on record in the first article as having said
that witnesses told him that Peterson intentionally aimed for O’Hara. Why does
neither that testimony nor his investigation show up in the coroner’s
jury? If four out of the five boys
present at the time of the incident share the same story, how can one boy cause
enough doubt to exonerate Peterson?
If that one boy who disagreed with the others said that Peterson’s
bicycle was leaning against a wall, how is it in any way believable that O’Hara
would run with such a force into it to rupture his own intestines? Even if this is not a case of
premeditated murder, why wasn’t Peterson charged with some crime such as assault, manslaughter, or disorderly conduct?
I
will posit some answers to my questions. But first, there are a few necessary facts to know. Kane is a
small town. While I still lived
there until the year 2000, relatives of these people still lived in the
community. Robert Peterson
continued to live there for the remainder of his life. One of the witnesses to the incident, I
was surprised to find out, was the brother of my Paternal Grandfather. I didn’t personally know the other
witnesses, but I knew of their families.
Of the five witnesses, 3 were also Catholic, but they were Italian-Catholic,
1 was Protestant (Denomination Unknown),[17]
my Paternal Grandfather’s Brother was of the Evangelical Covenant as was
Peterson.[18]
To
answer my questions, here are some statements: Though the majority of the witnesses were Catholic, they
were not Irish-Catholic. In the broader national scene, the
Irish were still trying to overcome the Anti-American stereotype (see footnote 5). Although Kane is insulated, national issues
do make their way into the fabric of local society. That seems to have been what happened in this case. The civil authorities did not see the
death of a teenager; they saw just one more “Anti-American Irish-Catholic” who
died. Obviously, for legal
reasons, they could not say that, and in their own minds, I also posit that
they had to justify their own feelings of disgust for the Irish-Catholics. They found that justification in one
witness who disagreed with four solid stories. How or why they believed this one witness remains a
mystery. I cannot explain why the
Chief of Police’s investigation was ignored. Why the authorities did not pursue a lesser charge also
remains a mystery. It seems obvious that if there is a brawl and someone dies,
then some crime has been
committed. This appears to be a
gross miscarriage of justice.
That day, my Great Grandparents suffered
the loss of yet another child.
They had to not only deal with this tragic loss of a teenage son; they
also previously buried two other children. While still in Ireland, a daughter died when she was 3
months old. To add more pain,
Daniel’s death happened just months after their infant daughter Kathleen died
of what we would now call Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).[19] After the exoneration, my Great
Grandmother, according to family history, put a curse[20]
on all of the boys who had a hand in the death of her son.
This tragic story does not end without a
small silver lining. Robert Peterson’s
sister-in-law, moved into the house across the street from my
Grandparents. She and my
Grandmother became friends. I’m not sure if the connection was immediately made as to who she was
and her relationship to Robert or if it was realized later. My Grandparents attended the funeral of her husband. Robert, her brother-in-law was there. Now adults, my Grandfather stood face
to face with the man who killed his brother. Though they did not discuss the incident nor did they become
friends, the two men shook hands and politely greeted one another and went on
with the rest of their day.[21]
[1] Edward Cuddy, “The Irish Question and
the Revival of Anti-Catholicism in the 1920’s,” The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 67 No. 2 (April 1981), 237.
[2] Ibid. 240
[3] Ibid.,
[4] Ibid., 238.
[5] Fredrick L. Ashwood to Williams,
November 12, 1919, Williams Papers, Cited in Cuddy, 242.
[6] From the time I was a child until my
Grandfather died when I was 19, he would often talk to me about local history
and compare “then” and “now.”
[7] St. Callistus School closed in 1970
according to my mother who attended that school through 8th grade,
though the St. Callistus Catholic Church remains alive and active to this
day. See http://www.stcallistuskane.org/
for more information.
[8] Cuddy, 243-4.
[9] Cuddy, 244-7
[10] I have seen an original copy of this
article as it was passed around the family, but at present, I can’t find anyone
who is sure where it is. What I have is a
re-typed copy of this article that I made when I knew I only had access to it
for a few moments several years ago.
I can vouch for its accuracy, though I did not type the Reporter’s Name.
[11] Reporter Unknown, “Daniel O’Hara Dies of
Injuries After He is Struck by Bicycle,” The
Kane Republican, October 19, 1931, cited from a re-typed copy.
[12] Ibid.
[13] Emphasis is my own.
[14] Again,
emphasis is my own.
[15] Reporter Unknown, “Young Bicycle Rider
Exonerated by Jury At Coroner’s Inquest,” The
Kane Republican, Date Unknown (most likely sometime in 1931) (As with the
previous article, this is also re-typed – the same issues and limitations
apply).
[16] Ibid.
[17] Kane is literally a town where almost
everyone knows at the very least everyone else’s name and background. This type of knowledge is common. I
know this from personal experience, having lived there for 22 years and still
having family there.
[18] The Evangelical Covenant is a
denomination founded by Swedish immigrants in 1885. They are a “Reformation
Church,” but do not require adherence to any creeds. See http://www.covchurch.org for more information.
[19] This
information is from interviews with my Grandparents Charles and Mary Joyce
O’Hara as I was doing research for a Family Tree in the 1990’s.
[20] This is an
example of “folk piety,” where believers believed they could call upon God for
divine vengeance.
[21] My Grandmother and My
Mother have told me this story many times as a
“lesson” of forgiveness, “turning the other cheek,” or to tell me what a good man
my Grandfather was.
