The McGoogans of Armoy - A North Antrim Emigrant Family 1860-1890

   This article was originally published in Familia, journal of the Ulster Historical Foundation (No. 11 1995) . Published annually.

     By John H. McGuckin

Our ancestors of the nineteenth century were great correspondents. Letters containing family news sped back and forth across the Atlantic faster and more often than we imagine. Thousands of Irish immigrants sent news and money to those who remained in Ireland, often urging them to forsake the Old Country for the opportunities of the New World. Their relatives throughout Ireland reciprocated with lengthy descriptions of conditions on the family farm, in the local village.

Unfortunately, all too often the surviving portions of this correspondence are one-sided. Such is the case in a series of letters uncovered by Sherrill McGoogan of Portland, Oregon. This article quotes extensively from these letters, which provide an interesting and at times moving vision of the life in the parish of Armoy in north County Antrim, in the last half of the nineteenth century. Supplemented by data drawn from research in American sources, these letters present a personal view of a family of Irish immigrants and those they left behind.

In 1888, two years before the last of the surviving letters was written, Armoy was described in George Henry Bassett's Guide and Directory of Antrim as 'a prettily situated village' about six miles south-west of Ballycastle. Located on the railroad from Ballycastle to Ballymoney the land was 'fairly good' for dairy farming and tillage, with oats, potatoes and flax the principal crops. In 1881, the year after John McGoogan abandoned his farm, the village's population was 306

Although there were not any McGoogan families in Armoy in 1888, families with a surname pronounced something like 'McGoogan' had lived in this area of County Antrim since at least the reign of James I. On January 1, 1608, King James granted a pardon to a group of Irish rebels including men from Kilmachevet, County Antrim. Among those pardoned were Dionysius McGuiggin, Donell 0 Grougen and Eugene Crone McGyngen. At the time of the Hearth Money Survey of 1663 in Armoy parish, John McGugin and Manus McGugin, probably brothers, lived in separate, but neighbouring, hearths.

It is probable that these McGugins were descended from Scottish planters: MacGougan or MacGugan is a recognized Scottish surname, and the McGoogans of Armoy were clearly Presbyterian. Still, there remains a possibility that the McGugins migrated to County Antrim from other, neighbouring counties of Ulster. 'McGugin' stems from a Gaelic linguistic root which was anglicized into numerous variants in Ireland, including McGoogan and McGuckin.  Several recorded McGuckins lived in Antrim in 1663, Murt McGuckian in Belfast and Daniel McGokan in Multas, near Larne.  It is possible that, during the Plantation era, some of the McGuckins who lived in and around Ballinderry parish in Counties Deny and Tyrone may have migrated from the western shore of Lough Neagh, across the River Bann, into Antrim. B.S. Turner suggests such a possibility for the McCaughans, another family living in Armoy parish. However, whatever the resolution of this debate, it seems clear that the McGoogin family under consideration here stemmed, at least in the latter part of the eighteenth century, from John McClure McGoogan, who was born in Scotland.

After the 1663 survey the next reference to possible McGoogins in the neighbourhood of Armoy is found in the Flaxgrowers Bounty Lists of the Irish Linen Board (copy available in the PRONI). Prepared in 1796, the survey lists Hugh and James McGoogin in the nearby parish of Loughguile. Neal Mecaughan lived in Armoy.

The Tithe Applotment Survey for Armoy parish, taken in 1831, evidences seven McGoogan holdings in the parish. The largest tenancy was held by John McGoogan of Crockathenagh. His 31-acre farm, valued at more than £11, had formerly belonged to Patrick McGoogan, who was probably his deceased father, Alexander McGoogan, perhaps a brother or an uncle, lived on an 11-acre farm in the same townland. Other McGoogans lived nearby: Brian McGoogan had a 10-acre farm in the townland of Altcrinagh, James McGougan a 3-acre parcel in Ballybregagh and Duncan McGoogan a 6-acre parcel in Balleny. John McGoogan farmed 8 acres in Ballykinver, in addition perhaps, to another 8 acres in the same townland formerly leased to J. Montgomery. This second farm was listed in the survey as being held by 'J McGoogan'.

By the time of the Valuation Survey in the early 1860s, there had been major consolidation among the McGoogan holdings. Only two members of the family still leased land in Armoy parish; the other McGoogan families had either died in the Famine or migrated. James McGoogan, who was probably James McGougan of Ballybregagh in 1831, leased the largest property of 50 acres and a house, valued at £31, from George Macartney in the townland of Knocknahinch. Nearby lived Andrew M'Googan, who can be identified from the correspondence as either James' brother or nephew. Andy leased a 'house' without an 'office' from Robert Smith.9 In 1831, Andrew McGoogan lived on a ten-acre farm in Ballybregagh, Loughguile parish. Because he is not listed in the Griffith Valuation Survey of the 1860s either he or his son may have abandoned the farm and taken up residence close to the rest of the family in Armoy.

James McGoogan of Knocknahinch was born in Dumfries, Scotland, in 1786. We do not know when he came to Ireland or, in fact, whether he came from a family which migrated between the Scottish borderlands and the north of Ireland. He married Jane Campbell, who was born in Ireland, in 1793. She was the daughter of James Campbell and Mary McClure. The McClures were, of course, another prolific Ulster family.10 Although family research indicates that Jane was born in Ireland, their oldest son, John McClure McGoogan, was born on November 3, 1821 in Dumfries, Scotland.

Two additional sons, Samuel Hugh and Hugh, were born during the 1820s, perhaps before James returned to Ireland to begin to farm in Armoy, During the Famine era, both the younger boys emigrated to the United States. The United States immigration records contain two records which, while not precisely on point, may be the two brothers. A Samuel McGuggan arrived in New York City on July 8, 1842, on board the New Zealand. He gave his age as 17, four years younger than Samuel McGoogan of Knocknahinch would have been. Hugh McGugan, age 20, arrived from Belfast in New York City on the Charlotte on July 28, 1848.

Whether or not these immigration records are the McGoogan brothers, Samuel undoubtedly sent for his younger brother, who followed him to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There both of them found work in the coal mines. Hugh married a woman named Nancy shortly after he arrived in America. By the time of the first of the surviving letters from Knocknahinch in 1860, he had three daughters: Jane, born in 1851/2, Sarah in 1855/6 and Mary in 1857/8.

Samuel married Almira Ann Christy of Pittsburgh on February 5, 1857. Almira had been born in Pennsylvania, probably in Pittsburgh. During the 1860 census, she gave her age as 30, putting her birthdate in 1829/30, making her only 17 or 18 years old when she married Samuel and only a year older when their son James Campbell was born on July 8, 1858. In Ireland, the oldest McGoogan son, John McClure, lived with his parents on the family farm in Knocknahinch

This, then, was the McGoogan family when, on February 28, 1860, John wrote to Samuel, enclosing a draft for £11 sterling. One pound of the remittance was from their mother for her namesake, Hugh's daughter Jane. The balance was to repay funds which Samuel had sent home to sustain their father through an undefined crisis. John wrote, 'What we send to you we do not look upon as a present at all but as part of your own which you sent my Father when he had need of it.'

The money was derived from the sale of 21 pounds of pork at the 'great' market fair held in nearby Ballymoney on the first and third Thursday of each month. Sending the draft through an Antrim bank to a Pittsburgh correspondent had occasioned some trouble and several trips to Ballymoney to arrange. Correspondent banking was in ifs infancy in the mid-nineteenth century as John McGoogan discovered. Not until 1871 did the American and British governments sign a postal-money-order agreement which would facilitate sending funds across the Atlantic.

In 1860, however, John's local branch bank could not send money directly to Pittsburgh. In addition, he wrote, 'They told me that the main bank only corresponds with the main bank in a foreign country'. This meant a bank in New York City. John was not quite sure how Samuel would get the money from the New York bank. 'But, I suppose, and I hope, that as New York is a mercantile metropolis, there will be a branch in Pittsburgh where you may get it [the draft] cashed.'

Having disposed of his financial business, John proceeded to provide his brother with a farmer's overview of conditions in north Antrim in early 1860. Six inches of snow covered the ground, delaying any farming that season. With some pride, John informed his brother that the farm had twelve head of cattle and two horses. Given the advanced and prolonged winter, he was concerned about feeding them since 'the cry for fodder through the county is truly awful'. Although the McGoogans seemed to have enough to see them to spring, John wrote that straw was selling at five shillings per measure and hay 'at anything you like to ask'.

John wrote again on August 17, 1861, in response to a letter from Samuel, who had asked for money himself this time. John simply could not help, although 'my heart is sore for your distress'. John's response to his brother's plea contained a mixture of hope for the future and caution about the present. He wrote that the previous year's crop had been a bad one, yielding only three bags of corn, which he had exchanged for flour. Although the 1861 crop promised to be 'excellent' and the flax harvest was 'the best we have had since I came home we have had to purchase our meal all this summer, and our rent is now due'. Further, his nine acres in corn looked 'remarkably well, as also our potato'.

At the end of the season, 'we will be able to help you a little', he promised. But, he cautioned that the abundant flax crop was a provincial phenomenon, reducing prices. Borrowing to help his American brothers was impossible. The local Armoy shopkeepers were receiving 'scarce any cash' and were obliged to 'give all on credit', a further hint as to John's shortage of ready cash.

This letter contains two interesting pieces of information about John himself. First, he writes that the flax harvest was the best 'since I came home'. This indicates that he, too, had left the family farm at some time, but later returned. By 1861, his father James was already 75 years old and it is natural to assume that John, as the oldest son, may have emigrated and then returned during the 1850s to take care of his ageing parents and the family farm.

The unanswerable question is whether John returned to his native Scotland for temporary work or, like his younger brothers, immigrated to America. A John McGoogin, age 27, arrived in New York City from Liverpool, on 11 May, 1846, on the Atlas. With him was Ann McGoogan, also aged 27 and, therefore, more likely his wife than his sister. Was this John, following his brother Samuel to America? Again, the ages do not quite match. John McClure was 25, not 27, in 1846. We may never know.

The second piece of personal information is more definite. On 14 August 1861, John married Mary Tait, 'a fine tall comely girl, about 23 years of age and,' John added somewhat proudly, 'that is considered very young in this country' (John, himself was 40!). Mary was the daughter of Hugh Tait of Ballyoregaugh and his wife Jane Armour and was born in Armoy in about 1839. In the practical way of farmers, John wrote to his brothers, 'She gets no fortune at present, but she is of most respectable people and [our] father and mother are both very fond of her, and I am as happy as you could wish.' John closed this letter filled with momentous news with the hope that, despite his financial difficulties, Samuel could continue to send the weekly American newspaper back to Knocknahinch, perhaps another hint that John may have, at one time, been in America himself.

The next letter is addressed to Samuel in Fayette, Pennsylvania, a small town in the coal country south of Pittsburgh. It is undated, but must have been written during the summer of 1862 because it announced the birth of James Campbell McGoogan (the namesake of Samuel's own son born in 1858) on 2l May and his christening on 13 July. The letter also includes family news about various relatives still in Ireland. Unfortunately, John's letter does not provide any guidance about the exact relationship of these relatives or whether they were McGoogans, Campbells or McClures.

A relative named John Morgan had died, although his relationship to the McGoogans is unknown. Uncle George died on 14 July, 1862 and was buried on the 16th of that month. Uncle Andrew, perhaps Andrew McGoogan who lived nearby in Knocknahinch, parish of Armoy, and his wife were well. John then provided updates on several other relatives, who may have been Andrew's children. Hugh was a chef boatman in the Coast Guard, John and Ruth were at home, 'Young Andy is, as ever, working at a hundred trades' and the 'rest are in America'.

The next surviving letters were written more than a decade later, in 1878. The 1870 American census tells us that, in the meantime, there had been many changes in the McGoogan households in Fayette.

Both Samuel and Hugh were interviewed by the census takers in June-July 1 1870. Each brother gave his age as 40, although their wives were more honest.

Hugh McGoogan lived with his family in Wilkins Township in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. He apparently rented his house because he did not, in response to a question on the census, claim to own any real property. His wife Nancy gave her age as 47. She had been born in Pennsylvania and kept house. Their six children all lived at home: three of the older daughters, Sarah, Mary and Rebecca, were in school. James, the only son, was born in 1861/2 and Nancy was born in 1866/7. Hugh's oldest daughter, Jane, lived nearby in Wilkins Township with the John Morrow family as a domestic servant. Morrow was a farmer and Jane helped his wife Sarah take care of their two children, Olivia, age 3, and Benjamin, age 2.

Brother Samuel lived in nearby Sedickley Township and claimed that he owned real estate valued at $800 and personal property worth $100. Almira gave her age as 30 and, like Nancy, she kept house. James Campbell, their oldest son, was in school with his brother, John McClure, born on August 20, 11861, and sister Margaret Ann, born on 118 April, 1864. The baby of the family, Elizabeth Jane, born on 12 May, 1867, was at home. Sam's mother-in-law Elizabeth Christy, age 69, lived with them.

John's next letter to his brother Samuel is dated 17 February, 11878. The Irish branch of the family had changed during the intervening years as well. The letter reports the death of their father James, in his nineties, on 11 February, 1878, after a three-week illness, 'sensible to the last'. The burial took place on 13 February. James had died with John at his side. John wrote, 'For the space of 5 or 6 hours before his departure he prayed all the time and I prayed with him and we sang a psalm to him.'

The letter also discloses that Jane Campbell McGoogan had died at some time before 21 July, 11877, when John's daughter Ellen was born. By this time, John and Mary McGoogan had had eight children in 15 years. James Campbell was born on 21 May, 1862, Samuel McClure on 3 October, 11863, John on 1 November, 11865, Hugh on 22 March, 11868, Mary Jane on 28 February, 1871, Margaret Anne on 13 April, 1873, George on 31 July, 1874, and Ellen in 1877.

James, the family patriarch, could not have died at a worse time. John wrote, 'I have to tell you that we are all but broke and I fear very much we will have to sell out. This last year was a very bad one. There was almost no crops at all of any kind by reason of the continual rains'. He solicited his brother's advice on whether to emigrate or not. 'I am in great trouble,' he confided, but he estimated that he would clear a hundred pounds if he sold his leasehold to the farm. Nonetheless, he was worried that this would not be sufficient to bring him and his large family to America. By July, 1878, when he wrote again, John had decided 'to try another year or two'. In a lengthy letter, dated 24 July, 1878, he responded to a letter from Fayette dated 6 July. The mail was surprising fast between Ireland and the United States in the 1870s

John described to his brother something of his life on the family farm in north Antrim. As in many Irish families, John had known little about the family's business affairs while his parents were alive. In fact, it appears that his mother handled all the bills and kept them secret from both her husband and her son. Life had been hardly easy for the eldest son, living with his aged parents. He told his brothers in America, I must tell you that whilst [our] parents lived they would have everything their own way. There was nothing for me but work and for the last 9 or 10 years servants' wages grew so high and servants grew so impudent that for at least the last years they [John and Jane] would have none of them but you could not expect that a farm such as ours could be laboured auit required with so little help.

Adhering to his parents' wishes, John refused to hire servants to help him on the farm, waiting until his sons were old enough to work in the fields. The price he had to pay for domestic tranquility with his parents was that 'all the labor devolved on me and my children were kept from school to assist me in such light work as they were able for.'

Once Jane McGoogan died and her son finally looked 'into the state of affairs,' he determined to break a firm family rule and borrow. It is bard to determine from John's letter if his father understood what he was doing. John clearly saw disaster staring his family in the face. When the bills came due, they were 'heavier than I was aware of,' he told his brother. Creditors had to be paid and John faced the classic farmer's dilemma: '.. to meet them [the bills] or part of the stock had to be sold reducing the means of making money'. Then, some of the remaining livestock died and the house was 'falling into decay'.

Eventually, John confronted his father with the sorry state of the family's affairs and obtained his permission to borrow. John unsuccessfully approached several sources, including, one presumes, the two banks which were doing business in Ballymoney. Alexander McGugan was cashier of the Ulster Bank branch in Church Street in 1888 and he may have already held this position a decade earlier. If so, he declined to assist his kinsman.

John eventually borrowed £160 at 6% per annum from an attorney in Ballymoney, whom he identifies as agent for the Antrim estate. In 1888, A. McDonald held this post and either he or his predecessor made the loan against the McGoogan tenancy. Like most lenders, he took a healthy percentage of the loan principal, totalling £15, as the costs for making the loan. James assigned his tenant-right to his son John, who, in turn, gave a mortgage on it to the attorney. After all costs were paid, John had little more than £145 left. He used part of the balance to buy three cows , three springing heifers and fifty slates with nails to repair the roof of the house The heifers cost between £9 and £10, 'a very high price' in John's opinion. Fortunately, all three heifers dropped female calves, 'which I look upon as a piece of good fortune and a blessing from God.'

Despite all this, John would have emigrated if his father had not lingered so long in his last illness. Now, the dutiful son felt the pressure to redeem his enormous loan before leaving Ireland. His older boys, who were opposed to leaving Armoy, were capable and willing to work on the farm and the inconvenience of taking the younger children ('who would be very troublesome to take abroad,' according to their father) to America counselled against the long journey.

Personal sorrows and troubles added to John's financial woes. His ten-year-old son Hugh had died suddenly on 21 March. 1875, and John himself had lost the hearing in one ear as the result of a cold which led to complications. He wrote to Samuel that he felt himself to be 'failing' and, then, with the resignation and sense of acceptance typical of many Irish farmers, concluded with:

But what are all the troubles of this life, which is but short, if we have accepted the salvation offered through our Redeemer. We shall despise them all trusting that we will soon attain to a life of perfect happiness where no trouble can assail or any danger affright.

In the meantime, John McGoogan was not Samuel's only correspondent. In late July, 1879, he received a letter dated 14 July from his cousin and namesake Samuel McClure from Yuba City in Sutter County, in the California Gold Country. Samuel McClure was undoubtedly related through Samuel's grandmother Mary McClure. He describes himself by the all-purpose term, 'a cousin'. Samuel was a popular name among the Antrim McClures and it is even more difficult to trace this cousin through the American immigration records than it is to identify the McGoogans.

Three Samuel McClures arrived in New York during die Famine era. Two of these men arrived with their wives and children. A third arrived with his brothers and sisters. Samuel McClure, age 18, arrived on May 6, 1848, on the New Zealand, the same ship which had brought Samuel McGuggan to America in 1842. Travelling with him were his siblings William, a wood ranger, age 35, who headed the group as far as the immigration authorities were concerned; Betty, age 36; another William, age 22, who may have been a brother or a cousin; Mary Jane, age 17; and Eliza, age 17.12 Because Samuel McClure told his cousin that his family was scattered across the United States in Michigan and New York, where a sister Jane lived, it is tempting to think that he was a member of this large family which arrived together in 1848. His letters refer to sisters Sarah and Mary and a brother John who remained in Ireland.

Two Samuel McClures appear in the 1860 census for California, one lived in Sierra County and one in Siskiyou County. A Samuel McClure does not appear in the 1870 California census. However, the 1884-1885 Sutter County Directory lists him in Yuba City living on a ranch of 90 acres. He wrote in 1879 to reestablish contact with his cousin and to send along a picture of his youngest son. Samuel McClure married his wife L. J. Burnett in December, 1867. In 1881, he had two boys and two girls still living, another son, named after his own father, having died, aged 5, in 1873/74.

Shortly after Samuel McGoogan responded to Samuel McClure's letter, John McGoogan had another change of heart and determined to quit Ireland. On November 24, 1879, he wrote to Samuel announcing the imminent departure of the family, including his wife who was nearly eight months pregnant, for America. The arrival of some of his wife's Tait relatives from America, including two brothers who lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, had apparently led to lengthy conversations about immigration. 'They both came to us and encouraged us to clear out and go to America which I have done', John wrote. He sold the leasehold and planned to travel through New York City, planned to visit his Tait relatives and then travel to Fayette, where John hoped to find work. The excitement of the trip and the relief at having 'sold out' are apparent in John's letter. Since all his surviving children died in America, John had apparently persuaded his reluctant older sons to accompany him to Pennsylvania.

The New World held no relief for John McGoogan. He hoped to see his brother for the first time in decades at Christmas. 1879. He achieved this ambition and saw his son William born in Everson, Pennsylvania, on 11 January, 1880. There, John died on 26 April, 1880, aged 59. He left his widow Mary with a large family to support, close to the families of his two brothers. His brother Samuel's daughter Mary Malinda was born shortly thereafter on 5 April, 1880.

The news of John's death quickly reached Ireland via Samuel's correspondence. Samuel McClure, who had heard from his mother about John's death, sent his condolences from Yuba City in a letter dated 2 February, 1881. Samuel also remembered John fondly. He wrote, 'He was like a brother to me when I was a small boy and his kindness to me I never will never forget'. On 26 April, 1880, 'cousin' Andrew McGoogin wrote from Ballybregagh in Loughguile to mourn John, who was 'so upright and honest'.

Andy saw fit to let his relatives know that they were well rid of Ireland. He reported that 1880 was an even worse year than 1879. Although 'we have [a] warm dry summer', there was no work for the farms, a poor crop, no trade and no money anywhere. His own son James and his wife and eight children were barely scraping a living.

So many small farmers were close to bankruptcy and when the rent was due, many 'could not pay much more than one shilling in the pound'.

Samuel McClure was not having a better time of it in California. He wrote that continuous rain had broken the local levies, cut him off from the neighbouring towns and flooded his entire farm, except for an acre or two. 'This is the worst time we have had for many a year,' he lamented. 'I cannot tell the amount of damage it has done....

Like John before him, Samuel was thinking of selling 'as soon as I can find a buyer at any price and leaving here'. So desperate was he that he told his cousin that we would accept $30 an acre, half the price he had paid for his farm.

We do not know if Samuel actually sold his farm. He was still there in 1884. His next letter to Fayette was from Ballycraig in Antrim. He had accompanied his mother on a visit to the old parish and wrote on 30 July, 1890, to tell his American cousins that much had changed. He wrote,

I passed the old home where you and I often plaid together it don't look much like the old home when your father and mother lived there There is a great change Well, there is so much change in Ireland, in every thing. It don't look like the same country to me.

Not the least of the changes was the result of better economic times for rural Ireland. Samuel wrote that money was now plentiful and the farmers were doing well. Houses were built throughout the country. 'Times is good and money is plenty. Men gets good pay here for all kinds of labour'. Rain was plentiful, but not destructive, and Sam thought the local crops looked good, He repeated many of these comments in a second letter, dated 22 December, 1890, but admitted, 'I like California a great deal better on account of the climate'.

With this the surviving correspondence ends. Several themes are apparent from these letters. First is the strong, continuing religious faith shared by both the McGoogans and the McClures. The death of James McGoogan, as described by his son, is an edifying scene and it is clear that John ascribed any good fortune to divine Providence. In 1861, he wrote to his brother, '... If the Lord be pleased to send us a favourable harvest, we will have plenty of everything in a short time....' Despite his personal sorrows, he expressed a belief in the Lord's blessing, writing' will not trouble you any more at present but to assure you that wife and family all join in love to you and yours and in praying for God's blessing upon us all...

His cousin Samuel McClure shared this solid faith. In 1881, he wrote to Sam McGoogan after John's death.' urging him to submit to the will of God: 'in a short time we much all follow him to the last resting place.' In describing the floods which spelled financial ruin and the end of his California dream, Sam sounds exactly like John when he wrote, 'Dear Cousin, I have not time to write you one half what I would like to but thank God my family are all well..'

A second theme is evident, the strong feeling of family which bound this extended Antrim clan. The correspondence between the brothers and between the cousins is affectionate and warm in tone. Money clearly flowed back and forth across the Atlantic as it was needed and as it could be repaid. Information and newspapers were constantly exchanged both between Fayette and Armoy and between Yuba City and Fayette.

The separations caused by time and distance were keenly felt and family ties remained strong. In the mid-1870s Samuel McClure had obtained information about his McGoogan kinsmen from one of their cousins, H. McNeal, who showed up unexpectedly at the McClure ranch. McNeal stayed for part of a day, and 'left to bring his trunk to my house, but never returned.' Unimpressed by this lack of consideration, McClure did not respond to McNeal's later letters, but kept the information about the McGoogans and sought to see them when he next came east.

In his I 879 letter, Samuel McClure summarized an odyssey he had made in 1874, when he left California to visit friends in the east of the United States. He visited his sister Jane in New York, seeing her for the first time in twenty years. His aunt Mary's family lived in Rockland, Illinois, and, en mute, his sister urged him to look up the McGoogans around Pittsburgh. Arriving on the morning Pennsylvania Central train in Pittsburgh and armed with Samuel's address from a friend or relative.' William McMillin, he searched vainly throughout the day for a trace of Samuel McGoogan, 'but could not hear anything of you. So I left out of hart. I could only stay the one day as my wife had telegraphed for me to come home.'

Finally, life during the latter part of the nineteenth century was not any easier in America than in Antrim. Samuel McClure's perilous existence as a rancher in Sutter County, California, was no easier than his cousin John's hard life in Annoy. Their letters evidence a common concern for crops, lifestock and the weather. We do not have Samuel McGoogan's part of the correspondence, but the life he and his brother Hugh passed in the coal mines could not have been easy ones. Like many Irish immigrants of an earlier era, they could have written to their kinsmen, 'This America is not what it used to be', or 'any person who can make a fair living at home are better Stay theire'.13 Still, they persevered. The correspondence summarized here remains a lasting testament to the determination and courage of those Irish men and women who left their native land to search for a better life.

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