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Immigration and Moving West
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Potato Famine
Im only 18 years old. There was a potato famine in Ireland, my brother and parents did not make it through. When the famine happened, my boyfriend moved to America to avoid getting sick. Taking care of family was the only reason I didn’t move with him, but once they were gone, I decided to join him and hopefully get married. I also wanted to escape the poverty and find a job and start new in America. I was finally going to see again my boyfriend, Connor Devnet. -
Jewels to Sell
After all of my time waiting, i finally arrived in America, bringing jewels along with me to sell for money. When I tried to sell them, I was told they were worth nothing by many different people. Because I had no money for my boyfriend and me, we had to stay in New York and save up before we could travel west. -
Working in the Factory
Found a job processing food in a cramped up factory, so I was able to slowly save up money. This job was about 13 cents per hour, but it was enough to get out in about 3-4 years. Now that we couldn’t leave for a while, we decided we should get married as soon as possible. -
Deciding to go West
It was 3 years since the marriage, and we were thinking about possibly having kids. We found out we had enough money to support us while traveling west and that would be a great place to start family. We knew that we wanted to go soon, probably sometime within the year so Connor could farm and I could I could just cook and clean. Plus the fact that we could have kids and get away from the low wages of the jobs in New York -
Journey to the West
Started moving west, which led us to a great journey. This journey lasted months, with countless days of walking without stopping for food or anything. Even though I kept complaining, Connor calmed me down and made me remember the amazing things it was for. We were lucky and traveled in the springtime so we could avoid harsh weather conditions. -
Life in the West
When we got west, we found an amazing piece of land, and decided it was the one to claim. We settled down and started a family. We lived there for around 20 years until the kids went off on their own, and living at the property reminded us too much of the kids and how they were always hard-working, even when they faced many different sicknesses. We decided to move again, after knowing the children would do wonders on their own, making their own money. -
The Dawes Act
We found a new area of land, smaller than the last one because kids wouldn’t be there. Fell in love with it, but if got taken away from us by the Dawes Act of 1887, preserving this land for Indians. It was hard to get over, but we just got ourselves up and found somewhere new. I will never forget how upset we were to loose this land, we put up a pretty good fight. We wanted it so bad and worked so hard to get it, but it just didn't end up happening for us. -
Settling Down
Finally, we found a place that was just as great as the rest, and we could actually own. It is just a small litle run down house, but it felt like home and had plenty of land. It was hard to find, Connor had to ride and beat out some British, almost getting shot along the way. We were ready to just settle down; having him farm and I can just work around the house. The plan we had always had for ourselves was finally coming true, and it was the best feeling ever.
