The Way it was: The Beaver Island - Arranmore Connection

by William Cashman, Beaver Island Historical Society

Now that a significant portion of Beaver Islanders are packing for Ireland to return the favor of the visit paid by the gang from Arranmore two and a half years ago, it behooves us to consider the nature of our long-term relationship with our Irish “twin.” Many realize that some Irish immigrants settled on Beaver Island before the Mormon occupation, only to be driven off, primarily in 1852, along with other “Gentiles” when Strang’s group completed their grab for power. Because the fish were here˜boy, were they ever˜the disenfranchised did not go far. Some were on Mackinac Island, some on the mainland, and others, such as Black John Bonner (named for his hair), were huddled in a rough fisherman’s camp on Gull. Several Irish were in the 80-man mob that “swept the Beavers clean” in 1856, creating a vacuum that pulled in new residents who by and large turned out to be Irish, many from an island off Eire’s northwest coast, Arranmore.

The Irish potato blight had started in 1845 and decimated the country over the next three years. Absentee landlords shipped the few crops grown in the sad land to the most lucrative markets, and farmers who had worked the same plot for generations, still using their great grandfathers’ spade and hoe, were evicted if they could not pay their rent. Without the potato crop, there simply was no money, and Arranmore was particularly devastated. Plunged into misery, the gaunt people were reduced to eating seaweed. In 1847, after half had been evicted by a landowner they’d never seen because they had no documents to prove they’d ever paid rent, the Society of Friends paid for two coffin ships to bring many of them to America.
Like other Irish, the Arranmore Islanders congregated in Quebec and Toronto, in New York, and in the Pennsylvania coal fields. A high percentage spoke only Gaelic. They were generally less literate than other immigrants, and more dependent on social concourse for their sense of identity. They did their best to stay together. Thus when a few of them happened on Beaver Island after the Mormon exodus, it was only to be expected that they would get word to their family and friends.

Black John Bonner, who had left Rutland an island near Arranmore before the famine, told his friends, which included Arran Moreans Dan Malloy and his wife Fanny O’Donnell, living in New York, Dan’s brother and sister, and Anthony Salty O’Donnell. Dan brought his brother-in-law William Gallagher, known as Old Billy. Salty had married Hannah, who had been married to a different Anthony O’Donnell, a saloon keeper on Arran More, and she brought the children from her first marriage. Dan Malloy had married Susan Mooney, whose sister Mary married Pat Malloy, not related to Dan. Another Arran More native who came from New York was Big Gallagher, who came with his son, Bowery Bill, and wife Bridget; when she arrived, she found her three sisters already there: Grace Martin, Katherine Gallagher, and Hannah, married to Whiskey Boyle. Black John’s old fishing partner from Annar More, Johnny “the Rat” O’Donnell, showed up as well.
Charlie O’Donnell, called Strac, and his wife Grace Gillespie had come from Arran More to Toronto. Strac was working for the railroad, and stole the crew’s payroll and slipped across the border to Detroit. From there he was hired to work on the new Lighthouse at Whiskey Point. He was so enamoured of Beaver Island that he urged his wife to come, for “this place looks just like Ireland only better.” She was convinced, and came with a party that included Vesty McDonough (from Galway), Big Dominick (Gallagher) and his wife Mary Greene, and Conn McCauley, who piloted their chartered boat Conn was one of five brothers to come. Once they’d settled in, they got the word to their relatives, and were soon joined by Bridget Burns and Pete McCauley, and Mary and Tom Boyle.

The fish-based Beaver Island economy was booming, and the availability of cheap or even free land and abandoned Mormon houses allowed the first wave of settlers to save enough money to send for their family and friends. Little Mike McCafferty and his wife Big McCafferty came to Beaver on a schooner in 1863. Three years later 18-year-old Big Owen Gallagher piloted another chartered ship to Beaver; when they landed, they met 52 familes from Arran More. Big Owen’s ship included Mary Roddy, who married Barney Gallagher; her brother Andrew was sailing on the lake, and when he stopped to visit her he found so many friends that he stayed. Also on board were Kitty Gallagher and Frank McCauley and their families, the two Dan Greenes (White Dan and Red Dan), who saved enough money to send for their sisters the next year.
In 1870, when anthracite began to decline, Step-and-a-half (one of the three unrelated John Bonners to live here), Cornelius Gallagher, and a dozen other Arran Moreans moved to Beaver. Every year there were more and more Irish, culminating in 1884, the year of the last large migration. This was arranged with the help of Father Peter Gallagher, Beaver’s Gaelic-speaking priest. Over 40 families from Arran More boarded a steamer in Buffalo that took them to St. James.

In time the number of immigrants from our sister island fell off, and the letters going back and forth declined in frequency as well. But those who remained on Arran More never forgot their relatives and friends who had braved the trip, even after seven generations. No wonder they were so excited when they were here 30 months ago, and why so many Beaver Islanders have signed on to pay their respects in return.