Historical Research On Long Tops

Irish Central's top 20 secret Irish landmarks in New York

Construction on the Empire State building started on March 17, 1930.  Former governor Al Smith headed the construction committee and Jim Farley’s company supplied the building materials.  As everyone knows, Smith was the first Irish Catholic to run for President of the United States.   He was also the first Italian and German American to run for the office.   Farley had a smile for everyone and never forgot a name.   He was Roosevelt’s savvy campaign manager who quipped, “As Maine goes, so goes Vermont.”   A lot less well known is that when Farley headed the New York State Athletic Commission, he took a politically risky stand and refused to let Dempsey fight Tunney until Dempsey fought  African-American contender Harry Wills.   The fight was moved to Philadelphia where Dempsey lost his title to Tunney in 1926. Built around 1654 by Abraham Riker, a Dutch immigrant, it is believed to be the oldest inhabited dwelling in America (or at least the United States).  Take a right turn before the Rikers Island bridge and you’re in the neighborhood.  Riker’s descendants singlehandedly made the expression “Melting Pot” a reality.  Their lives intersected with the Inmans and Edgar Allen Poe.   They married Kellys and O’Brians long before Jane Margaret Riker married Dr. James MacNeven, a leader of the United Irishmen who is buried in the cemetery adjoining the Riker house.   Wolfe Tone’s son and daughter-in-law were buried here for a time, too, before being moved to the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn where Wolfe Tone’s wife Matilda is buried. Dr. William James MacNeven (b. 1763 Galway, Ireland – d. NYC 1841) is known as the father of modern chemistry. His ancestors were driven by Cromwell from the North of Ireland where they had large land holdings At the age of 12, he was sent abroad by his uncle because education for Catholics was impossible in Ireland. His uncle, who was a baron and an Irish exile physician, was made an Austrian noble by Empress Maria Theresa. MacNeven made his collegiate studies at Prague, his medical studies at Vienna. In 1784, he returned to Dublin to practice, became involved in revolutionary events and was arrested and jailed. He spent three years in jail and was released in 1803. He went to Paris and sought an interview with Napoleon Bonaparte to get French troops for Ireland, but Bonaparte refused to help. He entered the French Army as a surgeon-captain in the Irish Brigade. He went to New York in 1805 [along with his friend and fellow United Irishman Thomas Addis Emmet, who became the most prominent New York attorney of his era]. In 1807, Dr. MacNeven delivered a course of lectures on clinical medicine in the recently established College of Physicians and Surgeons. He became the professor of chemistry. Later he taught at Rutgers. He was co-editor for many years of the 'New York Medical and Philosophical Journal.' MacNeven was an active Roman Catholic. He was active in many Irish societies. In 1827, he opened a free registry office for the benefit of Irish domestic servants. This service also included directions for naturalization. MacNeven's best known contribution to science is his 'Exposition of the Atomic Theory' (New York, 1820), which was reprinted in the French 'Annales de Chimie.' In 1821, he published with emendations an edition of Brande's 'Chemistry' (New York, 1829). His literary works — 'Rambles through Switzerland' (Dublin, 1803); 'Pieces of Irish History' (New York, 1807) and his numerous political tracts — made him known. The façade of 211 Pearl is all that’s left of the buildings owned by the Mulligan family of merchants and bankers.  The Mulligans took in Alexander Hamilton and he lived here while attending Kings College (Columbia).  Hercules Mulligan made uniforms for British officers during their occupation of New York City during the Revolutionary War, but secretly worked for Hamilton.   The Mulligan spy network -- consisting of Hercules, brother Hugh, Haym Solomon and the Mulligan’s African-American servant Cato -- kept Hamilton and Washington informed on the British plans.  Allegedly, Cato delivered an urgent message to Hamilton that kept Washington from being captured by the British.  Benedict Arnold betrayed Hercules, but the British given the choice between hanging a spy or keeping a good tailor, opted for style over substance, and eventually set Mulligan free. This is the oldest Catholic church in New York City.  Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton was received into the Catholic Church here.  “The Crucifixion painting above St. Peter’s main alter … by Mexican artist Jose Vallejo was a gift from the archbishop of Mexico City in 1789.”  The Venerable Pierre Toussaint, a former Haitian slave who raised funds to build Old St. Patrick’s, worshiped here.  West Point Professor Dennis Hart Mahan was baptized here in 1802.  Though it’s claimed that Mahan was born in New York City, it is very possible he was actually born in Ireland like other Irish of that era including Union army General Phil Sheridan.  These may have been the original “Anchor Babies” with baptism in the U.S. staking a claim to citizenship.  “Father William O'Brien, the first pastor, meanwhile earned the gratitude not only of his parishioners, but of all the citizens of New York for his tireless devotion to the victims of the yellow fever epidemics that swept New York in 1795 and 1798.”  While there was determined resistance by some to building a Catholic church in New York, the city’s Catholics and St. Peter’s are greatly indebted to the Episcopal Parish of Trinity Church, which provided St. Peter’s with financial and spiritual support during its founding years. They couldn’t be educated in Georgia, since they were the children of a slave and an Irish immigrant who farmed on the Georgia frontier.  The children were sent north to live with relatives and attend the Quaker school in Flushing. They moved on to Holy Cross College in Massachusetts, where James Healy became the school’s first valedictorian and later America’s first Roman Catholic bishop of African descent.  Brother Patrick became president of Georgetown and turned it into renowned university.  Michael was the real life hero of Michener’s Alaska, defender of Native Americans, and captain of the Revenue Cutter Bear, an inspiration for Jack London’s The Sea-Wolf.  The Coast Guard icebreaker and research ship Healy is named for him. This bank was formed in 1850 by the Irish Emigrant Society.  It is still in business today although the name, location and ownership have changed.   This receipt from the Irish Emigrant Society is for money my Grandfather Thomas Cain sent to his brother in Limerick.  Tom Cain started a business hauling and trading iron and steel and moved uptown to Carnegie Hill. Fordham was founded in 1851 by New York’s Roman Catholic Archbishop “Dagger” John Hughes (some say Irish immigrant Hughes was nicknamed “Dagger” John because of his sharp tongue and formidable activism on behalf of the Catholic America, but it’s really because he printed a little cross next to his name when he signed letters, really).  Fordham quietly had a profound influence on New York City and United States history.  Its alumni including Ed Flynn and Felix Muldoon, helped elect Franklin Roosevelt and Senator Robert Wagner, sponsor of Social Security and the National Labor Relations Act.  In many respects Roosevelt’s New Deal was a reflection of Pope Leo’s famous encyclical Rerum Novarum.  Fordham can also be proud of its alumnus and Harlem congressman Joseph Gavagan who lent his offices and political support to the NAACP’s Walter White during White’s long campaign to end the lynching of African Americans in America.   Fordham is symbolic of a large network of colleges built by the Irish, German, Italians and French during the 19th century to serve Catholic immigrants.   More would be written about this if these Catholics schools had endowed history departments dedicated to self-promotion like the Ivy League’s... but most Jesuits and a lot of people like my lace curtain Irish grandmother, God bless her soul, wouldn’t be caught dead at a St. Patrick’s Day parade.  More than one Irish lad from Carnegie Hill got sent to Fordham or Holy Cross because cousin Furlong was served meat on Friday at Princeton – this would barely raise an eyebrow during Lent today, but it was a grave insult at the time. It is a tragedy that St. Vincent’s has closed.  It was founded during the tenure of Archbishop Hughes and served New York City for over 160 years.   More than this, it is a symbol of the great accomplishments of the Sisters of Charity and other devout Catholic women, their immense contribution to American health care, and the networks of hospitals they built across America. In addition to producing famous generals, West Point helped build America.  Prior to the Civil War it was by far America’s preeminent engineering school and its most important academic leader for most of those years was Dennis Hart Mahan, baptized and allegedly born in New York City to Irish-Catholic immigrants.  West Point texts and alumni seeded engineering programs across the country, including Dartmouth and Yale.  Mahan, who studied in France after West Point, was a prolific author and editor on military and engineering subjects, is regarded as a father of American engineering.  It is hardly an exaggeration to say he almost single-handedly transferred the engineering expertise of France to America.  Mahan Hall at West Point, home to the departments of civil, mechanical and systems engineering, is named for him.  We’d hear more about the important contributions of Mahan and West Point, but the military academy never had an endowed history department dedicated to self-promotion.

CA legislature passes gay-history mandate as the ship sinks « Hot Air

A bill to require California public schools to teach the historical accomplishments of gay men and lesbians passed the state Legislature on Tuesday in what supporters call a first for the nation.

Governor Jerry Brown, a Democrat, has not said publicly whether he supports the bill, which he has 12 days to sign or veto once it reaches his desk later this month. If he takes no action, the measure would become law automatically. …

California already requires public schools to teach the contributions made to society by women and by racial and ethnic groups that were historically discriminated against, such as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans.

Supporters of the latest bill said it would simply include gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender individuals in that existing requirement, making it part of the curriculum in history and other social studies classes.

“It’s unfair to leave out or exclude an entire portion of our population from history,” said Carolyn Laub, executive director of San Francisco-based Gay-Straight Alliance Network.

problem in budgeting still threatens to push California into default.  The Los Angeles Times reports that one reason California can’t pay its bills is because more than 1400 of its employees make over $200,000 per year, putting them into the same range as a Vice President of the United States.  One prison doctor pulls down more than three quarters of a million dollars each year (via Newsalert ):

. Another dentist got over half a million dollars in sick-time payouts.  Over three hundred state employees got more than $100,000 in such lump-sum payouts in 2010.

Perhaps the state legislature passes these nonsense education mandates in order to keep the next generation of citizens from learning about such historical events in America as the Boston Tea Party, the Sons of Liberty, and civics lessons like impeachment.  The Golden State is sinking into a sea of red ink because of holes drilled in their financial ship by public-employee unions, and the political class at the helm can only act to instruct passengers to salute politically-correct victim classes on the way to the bottom.

It’s is absurd to claim that people’s relationships haven’t effected history. My position is that while we shouldn’t go out of way to find gay people and talk about them, we shouldn’t fear mentioning their sexuality where it is relevant. To give an example more relevant to literature than history, when talking about Walt Whitman’s poetry, Whitman’s sexuality should be brought up. My position is the only one that doesn’t make a big deal out of homosexuality one way or another.

The Cambridge history of China, Republican China 1912-1949, Part 2

Note also the new U-shih hsueh-pao (Bulletin of historical research) puhlished ... top-pen chu-i meng-ya yen-chiu lun-wen chi (Collected research essays on ...

Social Science Resources in the Electronic Age: World history

The Internet Modern History Sourcebook: The Long Nineteenth Century: The ... No other site comes close in combining Web technologies, historical research, ...

Aids to historical research

... for the letter a at one time is open at the top and at another looks like cc and the letter t, as written for a long time, might be taken for c. ...

Social stratification, class, race, and gender in sociological perspective

“The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Persepec- tive,” ... research project on the dynamics of income and wealth distribution. ...

The Spectator

Crown 8to, gilt top, to SECOND EDITION, with a New Chapter dealing with the ... our historical knowledge of the manners of our forefathers, while research ...