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Moving to America
I'm Alana Walsh, and I decided to move to America from Ireland. Ten years before I made my decision, my father's farm was demolished by the Potato Famine, but our family managed to survive the harsh times. It was the end of winter, and many of the people in my village became ill or died. I wanted to escape this madness once and for all. -
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Immigrant and Westward Expansion
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Facing Discrimination
I had been in America for some time, and I was being discriminated against here and there because of my Irish background. People said that I dressed oddly or that my voice was funny. Building a good reputation here was going to be much harder than I had originaly expected. I didn't feel welcome in America. Americans seemed very unfriendly, but I had meet some nice people. -
Factory Work
I wasn't able to find a job for a while mostly because of my race. Finally, I started to work in a meat packing factory in Brooklyn. The working conditions were terrible and unhealthy because I had very little workspace and my pay was quite small. If I didn't work at the rapid pace that they liked me to work at, then they wouldn't pay me. -
Decision to Move West
I had finally given up on the East Coast. The cities were too unfriendly and chaotic. I didn't like how I felt there. I wanted to move west in order to feel free. Also, I had heard stories of people getting free land, even the women who moved west. -
Free Land
I struggled through the scorching hot summer, and I made it to the West. I even met a kind gentleman during my journey. We decided to live together on the same land. The Homestead Act - that was apparently passed over a year before I arrived - allowed us to recieve free land to farm upon. Even though we got the land, it was hard to farm on it because we didn't have any of the right tools or seeds, and the dry weather made it even harder to work. -
Settled Down
My husband and I built a house together that was made of sod and brocken wood boards. He started to farm when the weather cooled off. I tought him some of my father's old farming skills that I was able to observe. A schoolhouse was built near us, so I decided to learn how to teach the few students that attended the school. The young ladies in charge said that most married women weren't allowed to be educators, but I became good friends with them and they let me teach.
