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Leaving Ireland and Immigrating to America
Hello! My name is Fallyn O'Reilly.I am 18 years old and I am from Westport, Ireland. After my family's crops were burned by a fire, we had nothing left to earn us money. We could not pay for our land and when the landlords came to take it from us, I threw rocks at them and injured 2 of them. They told me they would come back to arrest me, so me and my sister Sierra got on the next boat and fled to America. -
Seeking Help in the New World
This is the day of our arrival. My sister Sierra caught a disease on the boat that neither of us recognized. There were no doctors on the boat so she had to live with the disease all the way to New York. Once we got to New York and got through Ellis Island, we went right to a doctor. The doctor did not recognize the disease either and said there was nothing he could do to help. The doctor, Liam Griffin, was very nice to me when Sierra died. We ended up getting engaged. -
Moving to a Coal Mining Town
Liam and I moved to a coal mining town because he had lost his job as a doctor so we went to seek a coal mining job for him. Even then, all the jobs were taken by Chinese people and we could not find jobs because of discrimination. My health suffered from breathing in coal dust so all these factors pushed us away. We soon set out for Oklahoma. -
Going to Oklahoma
My health gradually got better because of daily treatments and remedies that Liam remembered from his job as a doctor. Once I was healthy again, we rejoiced. We decided to go to Oklahoma, since the Dawes Act gave out reservations of land. Even if we didn't get any we would get some in the land race. We got all of our money together to get supplie, food, and water for the long journey we were about to make. We left on the next train. -
Arrival in Oklahoma
Me and Liam arrived today. We decided to wait for the land race, which was in a year. We had heard the news so we knew it would happen. I was hping we would get land from the Dawes Act, but we weren't part of the lucky few. Still, I got a job washing laundry and sewing clothes. Liam got a job keeping, grooming, and selling horses. -
Land Race and Settling Down
Liam and I ran in the Land Race and we got a good piece of farming land. It was green and grassy and had one tree. We were very happy with it. After 1 year living and farming on it, I had a daughter named Kerrie. We lived a long and happy life on our land.
