The history of the human race records occasionally great movements of people, vast migrations of groups or tribes or nations. The great westward movement which peopled the western hemisphere with Europeans and made the nations of these two continents is perhaps the most significant to us. We are accustomed to talk glibly of migrations, of immigrants, of Americanization, of melting pots; but frequently it means little because discussion of people in the mass is usually indefinite and pointless. When numbers of peoples are moved by similar motives or driven by the same circumstances to act in unison, the effect in perspective is a great mass motion. But on analysis it may be found that the individuals are prompted by the same instinctive self interest that prompts their other actions.
Great numbers of people came from Ireland and settled in the Middle West. They have contributed to the material welfare of the nation by providing farmers, workers of all kinds in the cities, and by giving the world producers in many lines. If we examine one unit, one family, of that vast migration, we may come to an explanation of how the west was peopled, how this part of the nation grew so rapidly and with such diversified population. We may also find some reason why our ancestors could be pioneers, breaking a way into the unknown, could eventually build whole states, while some of their descendants keep within the smooth grooves of their daily lives.
If we follow the family and fortunes of Owen and Cecilia McAlpin, we shall see how this small unit has dispersed itself through the Mississippi Valley and beyond. Their living descendants in 1925 numbered 131, scattered over the western half of the continent. In 1967 there are at least 250 in at least eleven states: California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas and Washington.
The story must chiefly concern Cecilia McAlpin for her husband, Owen, died before they had gone a little more than a third of the journey they had planned. Some of the events which are part of the family tradition show her to be a woman of more than ordinary courage and enterprise.
Cecilia Gibbons was born in Glencastle, County Mayo, Ireland in 1790, the daughter of Dominic Gibbons, one of seven children. They belonged to the old sept. She married Owen McAlpin a native of Galway. He was a tailor and a town man to whose disposition and temperament farm life was never agreeable. They made a home for themselves near Westport, Mayo, and lived there until 1831. Their circumstances were not very different from most of their countrymen, and no doubt they had a good enough reason to leave Ireland. We shall never know the inner motives of these people, nor the appeal that America made to them. They were dissatisfied at home and had the courage to wander forth. That their reason was not political is evident in the fact that their first homestead was in Canada.
Like most of the Irish, Cecelia McAlpin had a deep affection for the "old country", which in her last years led her to dwell in memory over the old scenes and relate stories of her youth. She loved to tell her grandchildren how when she and her husband determined to leave and were ready, there was a great crowd of their neighbors and friends who came to wish them well. The light of memory lit up her faded eyes as she recalled the faces in that group, the cries and keenings of the fearful and the timid, the latent longings of the young and venturesome, the sorrowful affection of sincerely grieving friends. They were a day's journey on foot from the port and most of the day the procession followed with many tears. She was well nigh heartbroken when they had to turn back and leave her, but her path lay before her and she followed it unfalteringly. She was not a young woman, and the misgivings and cautiousness of maturity may have dimmed the confidence she had in the enterprise, but her dauntless spirit sent her forth.
The journey to Montreal was made, of course, in a sailing vessel and lasted six weeks. There was one unusually severe storm, and John, the youngest child, aged two, made some such remark as this: "The Lord will take care of us." -- in Gaelic. The family spoke Gaelic at home and among friends. Years later, John's son (my father) also spoke Gaelic until he went to the Christian Brothers' School. So they brought with them an abiding faith that was the natural expression of a mere baby. In Montreal they stayed for a while until they found and secured the land that was their goal. It was located in the vicinity of Three Rivers, in Quebec Province, and there the family settled. In December of that year, 1831, the youngest child of the family was born. The father of the family was not suited to farm life and that together with the rigors of several Canadian winters so discouraged the group that they determined to move south. They had learned of the success of some of their countrymen in Southern Indiana where timber land was very valuable, and in the fall of l837 they left their farms and journeyed South.
By this time what substance they had was dissipated. The cost of bringing a family across the ocean, of buying land and farm equipment, with the added losses of indifferent success, had depleted their sum. The older boys, Patrick and Matthew, were now sixteen and eighteen and were able to do a man's work, but the severity of the climate made them yield. Having once made a journey across the trackless ocean, the prospect of an overland trip seemed to offer no greater difficulty. The first winter was spent in New York State, the father plying his trade, the boys working on the Erie Canal. In order to complete the journey it was necessary to stop occasionally and earn money for the next stage. The whole family was under economic pressure to live from day to day and to save for the journey.
The next summer found them headed in the direction of the Ohio River, but chance took them further south. They stopped always in good sized towns where the workers of the family might obtain employment. They crossed Pennsylvania to the south, and having heard of the new National Road and the ease of travel by that route, they entered Maryland hoping to reach Cumberland. On arriving at Harper's Ferry, the father, Owen McAlpin, became ill and died (l839). The mother was now left with the children in the middle of the journey, and upon her fell the decision of their future.
She seems not to have hesitated at all as to what course to pursue because they continued their travels. Perhaps she thought that there they were among strangers and at least in Indiana there would be countrymen, if not acquaintances. So they proceeded. One long stop was made in Ohio where again the sons worked and the mother added to the family income by receiving into the home some young Irishmen to board.
In 1841 they arrived in Madison, Indiana, which at that time was a thriving small city, whose chief industry was steamboat building. It was here that the youngest son, John, acquired that interest in steamboats which lead finally to the cutting off of his life. Having arrived in Indiana, the family established themselves. The boys went to work and again the mother helped out. At this time she established a small hotel and assumed the management of it herself. Shortly after this time she was able to leave there and start out on another expedition.
Upon leaving Canada the family did not dispose of the land they had bought. Cecelia McAlpin then determined that she would sell it. She seems always to have been a woman of enterprise, of quick decisions, and quick actions. Having decided to sell the two farms, she at once proceeded to the business. It was necessary for her to go back to Canada, but the way she had led the emigration was long and tedious, and her simple directness of character demanded a shorter route. The canals and the railroads of that period were not connected in many places and few of the roads and railroads ran north and south. Nothing daunted she went on foot for a great part of the journey when no other means at once presented itself. Part was made in canal boats, part in stages, but family tradition has it that she "walked" both ways. The eldest son, Patrick, being the "scholar" of the family, kept an account book for the group. In it was recorded the stages of the journey, the amounts of money the boys earned on the canal; and in it Michael, the wit of the family, wrote this of his mother; "Cecelia McAlpin returned today from Canada. She walked there and back. Bully for Cecelia." One wonders which of her descendants of this generation would undertake an expedition demanding such physical courage and presenting equal dangers in this day. Another incident which followed this one closely bears out the impression of her single mindedness, clear thinking, and fearless directness.
On her return from Canada she had a goodly sum of gold, the proceeds from the sale of the two farms. With perfect simplicity, she hid it in the house - in the coffee mill - a place she could keep her eye upon as she went about her house-hold tasks. In the house at that time (a small hotel was little more than a large house) there was a man from Ireland, a County Mayo man, whom she welcomed as being from the home place. In a moment of quite feminine weakness she confided the secret of the gold to him. With all her qualities of strength and power, she showed a woman's heart. Why she let slip her secret or how, will always remain her secret. Perhaps she had misgivings as morning came, for she arose early and went to the hiding place to assure herself that all was well. One can fancy her dismay on discovering that both man and money were gone. There may have been dismay, but there was not despair. Self-accusations arose within to perplex her, but she saw distinctly the line of action that lay before her. No tears of self pity dimmed her sight. Immediately she set out by steamboat to follow the thief. In three weeks, she returned with all of the money. (What an opportunity for a novelist!) However, the truth is that the details of that chase and capture were never known. One can imagine much.
How clearly the personality of that fearless woman stands out in the few stories left by her. She was a woman possessing in great degree the supreme virtues of faith, hope and charity. Many are the stories her grand-daughters remember in which those virtues shone. She feared nothing but her God and wrong doing, and her faith was invincible. In appearance she was quite tall in her youth, because her nickname was "Cicely, the Tall." She held her head high and looked the world in the face. She feared no man nor deeds of men. The ancient family of Gibbons has for its motto "Nec Timeo Nec Sperno." - "I fear no one; I scorn no one." She surely embodied that phrase. Her keen eyes saw clearly into the lives of others as well as search her own heart. One can fancy that there must have been the freshness of a fog-dispelling ocean breeze about her. Sham and pretense would not live near her. In other circumstances she might have been a great compelling force in public affairs, but instead her destiny led her to do a small part in the building of an empire in the Middle West.
The eldest daughter of the family, Bridget, married Faneuil Davis, named in honor of the Revolutionary hero. Whether he was related to him is not known. The young couple went to North Vernon, Indiana to establish a home. The inheritance that was Bridget's from her mother was a great self-sacrificing faith. Her husband was not a Catholic, yet Bridget's children are the only ones in the family who have entered the religious life. She remained all of her life in North Vernon, but her children carried on the westward march.
Cecilia Davis married Michael Fenoughty and settled near Paola, Kansas. Of their nine children, three entered Religion.
One was Father Joseph Fenoughty, S.J. and two of the daughters entered the order of Sisters of Mercy, whose Mother-House is in Fort Scott, Kansas. Jane Davis McGauly, who lived in Indianapolis, had one daughter who entered the order of Sisters of Divine Providence and taught until her death at their school, St. Mary of the Woods.
Emma Davis married Henry Wrape and came to St. Louis to live. Her unmarried sister, Sarah, later came to live with them. There were four children in the family; one boy, Harold, the oldest; then Euphrasia (called Pasia), Bible, named for her father's mother, and Helene. Pasia Schram had two sons, and Helene two sons and two daughters.
The young people of the McAlpin family felt the call of the West. In 1846 Patrick McAlpin, the eldest of Cecily's children, started for Western Iowa. He might have made the greater part of the trip in boats down the Ohio, up the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. But he chose the overland route and a covered wagon. The journey lasted six weeks and ended when they arrived in Crawford County and settled on land which was then to be bought very cheap. His homestead was beautifully situated near one of the highest points in the county, and like all the land in that area, it was rich soil. Standing on top of the highest of the rolling hills on the McAlpin farm one can see for miles in every direction the rich fields of the almost treeless prairie marked out like a large quilt.
Patrick had 12 children, some of whom stayed in Iowa, while others carried on the westward movement and went on further to Nebraska, South Dakota, and Oklahoma. One of his granddaughters, Lulu, had the foresight and courage of her great grandmother and went to South Dakota. There she took up a homestead claim, fulfilling all the usual government regulations and living there alone. Later when Oklahoma opened up for settlement she did the same thing. She lived to see the day when the Shell Oil Co. leased some of her land and put in four wells, from which she derives the usual profits.
The last of Cecilia's daughters to marry was Maria. While they were still living in Madison, Indiana, she married Bartley Regan. They also went to Iowa. There they had three children, a son Bart and two daughters, Mary and Margaret.
Mary married Edward Downey and lived on a very profitable farm for many, many years. Of their children only one was a boy, Leo, followed by six girls: Ethel Downey Lawler, Genevieve, Gertrude Downey Maher, Rachel, Isabelle, and Berenice Downey Phillips. It takes more than one son to run an Iowa farm, but the girls took over many of the chores. As they grew to womanhood they left the home farm and made successful careers for themselves in Omaha.
Margaret became a school teacher, teaching in both Iowa and Oklahoma. She was a most interesting character - very firm and never veering from her fixed opinions. In contrast she was a most interesting raconteur. She could entertain groups of friends for hours. It is a great pity that she never wrote any of her stories nor lived to make a tape recording.
Maria's second husband was Eli Jenkins. Of this marriage there were one son, Jesse, and three daughters Annie McVeigh, Clara Ratchford, and Alice.
Maria had the adventurous and enterprising spirit of her mother, Cecilia. After living for many years in Iowa, when the U. S. Government opened Oklahoma for settlement, she heard the call of the frontier country, felt the lure that is in the life of the pioneer. Here again the family tradition is rich in stories of the early days in Oklahoma, the rush for land in good locations, the hardships of crude living, and the never failing good humor that met every difficulty. Those who live in urban comfort have scarcely any conception of the life of the pioneer woman. And when a woman has known from the days of her youth what "new country" means and is willing at the age of 58 to venture forth to a new frontier, we must admire her courage and reverence her spirit.
The last family is that of John McAlpin who was the youngest of Cecilia's children, a mere baby when the family left Ireland.
In 1854 John McAlpin and his mother left Indiana and traveling by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers came to St. Louis. Here he engaged in a boat stores business. In the next year he married Mary Merrin, a native of County Roscommon. Of their three children only William lived to maturity. John1s business was successful for a time and prosperity seemed near when in 1857 some financial troubles swept away all of his possessions and much of his hopes. He salvaged what he could from the wreck of his fortunes and started anew in a business he knew was profitable. In those early days of river transportation it was the custom of owners of steamboats to sell the liquor business on the boat as a kind of concession. John McAlpin bought the liquor business of the steamboat St. Nicholas, a comparatively new boat in the New Orleans - St. Louis service. The boat was four years old in 1859 when Captain Reeder and Captain Glime purchased her for $25,000 and John McAlpin became the owner of the bar. On the first trip under the new management, about seventy five miles south of Memphis, there was a terrific explosion. The boat took fire and in a short while was a total wreck. There were but nineteen who survived that night, and of these only six escaped serious injury. John McAlpin was directly over the boilers when the accident occurred. He was badly scalded and was thrown into the water. Some still on board threw out planks, doors and furniture to those in the water to assist them in saving themselves. The following is an account of the disaster in "The Missouri Republican" of April 29, 1859. The journalistic method of that day seems to have been to compile a series of quotations from various people - survivors and witnesses. The assembling of the narrative is left to the reader. A survivor named James Chillson, who was second pantryman aboard, said this:
"-----I got on the plank with him (McCalpin). Both of us got tangled up with the cattle, which were tied together with ropes and which were swimming around. I got loose and finally succeeded in freeing him, not, however, until he was nearly drowned. He remained near the wreck nearly two hours before being taken up by the "Susquehanna". Later we were transferred at Memphis and brought to St. Louis on the Philadelphia."
The long period in the water, the delay in being transferred from one boat to another, the lapse of days before adequate medical attention was begun served to undermine his robust health. He was never quite well again and died the following spring (1860).
His widow, left with their only surviving child, William, aged four, had to support her child and herself. Her hand sewing was beautiful, and that became her livelihood. She specialized in making hand-made shirts for priests and some other regular patrons. She lived then on 15th Street north of Cass Avenue and not far from the Seminary and the church of St. Lawrence O'Toole. This was north of the famed Kerry Patch.
When William was old enough to make the long trip on foot to the school of the Christian Brothers he enrolled in the school and went to no other. The school was in the same block as the McDowell Medical College. During the Civil War the medical school became a military hospital. An underground passage was made between the two buildings. After the war many were the tales told among the boys of the escapes of Confederate soldiers with the help of the Brothers, and some tales were verified by the Brothers.
William was a good student with a talent for mathematics. When he was about 18 he passed the examination for Annapolis, but being persuaded by his mother, he did not press for the nomination. His mathematical talent has been passed on to his sons, but not the daughters. However, three of his granddaughters won honors in that field.
In 1884 William married Kate L. White, a very successful teacher. Four of their children died in babyhood, but the remaining eight lived to maturity. This branch of the family has always been decidedly urban. The eldest daughter was the only one who chose to live in rural environments. May married Jesse Dieter, an Iowa farmer, and lived in the neighborhood of the Patrick McAlpin homestead and among his and his sister Maria's descendants, but in later life May and Jesse lived in ranch country in South Dakota and still later in northern California.
Their son Wm. John Dieter was a hero of World War II. He joined the Air Force and was one of those chosen by General Doolittle to carry out the first bombing of Tokio, April 18, l942. The story is told in the book "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" by Col. Ted Lawson. Their fuel was almost gone so Bill's group had to make a crash landing on the China Coast. All the boys survived except Bill Dieter and one other. In the morning their bodies were washed ashore. The survivors, with the help of some Chinese people, buried the boys in a village not far from the ocean shore. Of the eight in their group who survived, only one at the end of the war was left to tell where they were buried. The eight boys had been imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese and only Nelson survived. The anguish of the parents who knew nothing about their boys must have been agony. They knew nothing until August of l945. Bill's parents died within seven months of each other - October 1962 - June 1963. Bill's Distinguished Flying Cross was given to his parents.
May and Jesse Dieter had two other children: Catherine Sheldon of Bremerton, Washington; has two sons and two grandsons; and Jesse Jr. of Potosi, Missouri who has a son, Paul, and a daughter, Dolores DeClue, and three grandchildren.
The youngest of the family, Francis Xavier, always called "Jack", had a very beautiful tenor voice and planned a career in music. However, he gave it up when he developed a hearing loss. He, the youngest, was the first to die October l958. He married Mrs. Virginia Summers who had several daughters. She survived him about two years. Her daughters keep up the friendship with the family.
The rest of the descendants of William and Kate McCalpin were all city people, but two chose to live in other cities than St. Louis. The second son, Robert, married Clara Coghlan, a St. Louis girl, but they made their home in Chicago for many years. They returned to St. Louis not long before World War II. Both of their daughters, Eileen and Roberta, who was always called Bobbie, were grown up when they returned. During the war the younger, Roberta, married Jay Ward Bennett of Columbus, Ohio. When the war was ended, they went to Columbus to live. They have two daughters, Kathy and Marianne, now both in college.
At the end of the war Eileen married Carl Traynor whom she had known for many years in Chicago. They remained in St. Louis where their son Alan was born. The Traynors, all three, are very much interested in the theater.
Joseph, the fourth son, married a St. Louis girl, Harriett Gentry. They are more like cur ancestors in being ready to go to new environments. They have lived in St. Louis; in Houston, Texas; Ottawa, Ohio, and are now in Pueblo, Colorado, with a notion to go farther west soon. Their three children are also far apart: Nona Kuhlman is in Richland, Washington; Helen Lauck is in Detroit, Michigan and Joe Jr. in Costa Mesa, California. Nona has two little boys, Bill and David. Joe has three children; Kathleen, Kevin and Bill, all under school age. The two daughters also inherited their father's and grandfather's mathematical ability. Both have been research scientists.
The remainder; Will, Helen, Ruth and George have never left St. Louis.
Will married Emma McAnnar. They have two sons; Jim, a pharmacist, who married Dorothy Keutzer. They have one girl, Suzanne, 11 and three boys, Dennis 8, Brian 4, and Michael 3. Paul, the younger son, married "Jo" Scharringhausen. Their children are Phyllis 9, and Linda 3.
Ruth married John Murphy and had one son John Wm., but who is always called Jack. Jack is a pharmacist, for many years he has served at St. John's Mercy Hospital. Jack married Marian Higgins and they have two children; Timothy soon to be 10 and Mary Ann now 5. Ruth was a vivacious person always good company. However, she fell a victim of an incurable illness, and after more than twenty years of patient and prayerful submission she died July 4, 1966.
George married Marguerite Miles, the daughter of old friends of his parents. They have three children: Bill, George Jr., and Mary Margaret, all of whom inherited the mathematical gifts of their father and grandfather.
In World War II Bill joined the Marines and was called into service just as he finished his work for his A.B. at St. Louis University where he earned a "Magna". He spent much time training young men in technique of artillery. Later he went to the front and fought through the battle of Okinawa. His work there merited for him a Distinguished Flying Cross. When the war ended Bill went to Harvard where he took his law degree. A few years later he married Margaret Wickes of a distinguished early American family. Their five children are Martha 12, Bill Jr. 10, Katherine 9, Lucy 8 and David 3.
George Jr. was called into the service in the middle of his junior year at St. Louis University. When he took the test given to all entering the Army, he made the highest grade ever made at Jefferson Barracks. He was offered a choice of the services - including finishing at West Point.
He was put into a regiment of engineers but his record and his capabilities were overlooked. He saw service in the "Battle of the Bulge" and at the first crossing of the Rhine where he was promoted to Sergeant. It did not matter to George that he was not an officer. He did his best in whatever station he was placed and he came home completely unscratched.
When he finished St. Louis University, he married Dorothy Schulte and they went to Texas to make their home. He is a geophysicist in the oil business. Their family is the largest in the clan; Peggy Ann has finished high school, Jim will finish next year, Bill is 14, Patricia 11, John David 7 and Michael 3. Every summer they come to St. Louis and we have a gathering of the clan.
Mary Margaret, like her brothers, made honors in mathematics at Fontbonne College. She married Richard Moss of a well known family in the East St. Louis area. For some nine years they lived in Kansas City but came back to St. Louis in 1965, Their children are Marilyn 14, entering high school, Richard nearly 12 and Ellen 7. These children and Bill's are now schoolmates and fast friends.
There remains one point which needs explanation. Throughout the greater part of this account the name has been spelled McAlpin while the descendants of John have spelled it McCalpin. John, father of William, died when William was only four years old. So what the son knew of the spelling of the name came from old account books and such items left by his father. In every case it was spelled with two "C's". One explanation is that at the time John was engaged in the boat stores business, another man named John McAlpin, a Scotchman, was engaged in another business close by. To avoid confusion, John inserted the extra "C". Another story says that an inborn dislike of all things Scotch made him put the "C" there. Still another says that it was characteristic of the time to clip syllables like Mc, Fitz, and 0, from names in informal speech and since Alpin begins with an awkward aspirate the "C" was prefixed for euphony. The responsibility seems to rest with John, for Patrick, the eldest had been to school before the family left Ireland, Whatever the explanation, the family that spells the name with the extra "C" expects to keep it, while the others say they will never add it.
It is in family stories like these that one comes to a realization of the dignity and yet the insignificance of a human life. It has dignity because man possesses his God given freedom of the will. It is insignificant when one considers the infinitesimal portion one family group makes in a nation of millions of souls. When one seeks for the explanation of a great migration it may been seen in that fusion of the importance and the unimportance of the individual. Each one must be activated by a moving purpose, and each must take his place as one small part of the whole. If we could look at this vast American people with supernatural sight, we should distinguish here and there the bits of color that are the particles of the fire of courage and enterprise, of fortitude and faith that have been transmitted to our generation by our ancestors, the high spirited, whole souled pioneers.
Thus the family which began as a small unit in County Mayo, Ireland, gradually moved westward across the continent of North America from Montreal to San Diego leaving here and there other units who are carrying on and forming a part of the great American commonwealth.
Note: The greater part of this essay was a term paper in a class at St. Louis University, taught by Rev. Michael Kenney, S.J., about 1925. This revision with some additions has been done at the request of several of the young people of the William McCalpin family and descendants in July 1967.
Helen McCalpin
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