Letter from Ireland

Reader Contribution by Mary carton
Published on March 14, 2011
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The weather here has been fantastic except for a tornado warning in my area a week ago. It didn’t touch down, but caused a leak in my roof that my cousin Patrick worked on this weekend. The daffodils, fruit trees, star & saucer magnolia’s are in full bloom. Iris and peonies should be blooming within a week or two. The hooligans have been busy chasing all the birds looking for nesting sites, especially those checking out the bluebird boxes and taking over my tractor. 

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I thought I would share a letter my Grandfather received from his home town in Ireland. 

My grandfather came to this country in the late 1800’s from Ireland and first settled in Matawan New Jersey. I did a search of Ellis Island records using his last name to avoid misspelling his first name and couldn’t find his name listed, so he must have come in through another port. After Mom sold the farm, I found old rusted lard can in the well house. When I pried open the can, I came across a letter mailed on January 13, 1901 by friends in Moate Ireland. It has another stamp of January 24, 1901 in Matanan, New Jersey. I’m not sure how he landed up in Tuscumbia, Alabama, working as a guard at TVA during the construction of Wilson Dam in Muscle Shoals. What’s amazing is that back then all you had to do was put the person’s name and city on a letter and they would get their mail.  These days if you have the city along with the street address right and write down the wrong zip code, your mail is returned to you. 

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