The Irish standard., 1905-04-22
with John Brennan, Charles Collins

and others interested in the movement.
John Pope Hodnett, an enthusiastic
visionary, was then holding govern
ment position at Yankton and he and
others not only advocated the found
ing of Irish colonies in Dakota, but
the invasion and seizure Of Manitoba
and the country west of it, and their
annexation to the United States.
Committees and examiners were
sent from Chicago and eastern cities
to explore Dakota, but the grasshopper
raids and other drawbacks of the
period caused unfavorable reports to
be made and the colonization schemes
OF Mr.. Dunno and his friends were not
realized to any great extent at that
time.
A few years later Gen. John O'Neill,
who had led the Fenian force into
Canada, brought colony of his coun-
trymen to Holt county, Nebraska, and
founded the settlement and town of
O'Neill, now a prosperous and -four
ishing community O'Neill was a fine
type of the genuine Irish gentleman,
gentle and modest as woman in
peace, but brave as a lion in war, as
he demonstrated on numerous battle
fields of the civil war and in his in
vasion of Canada. He spent few
weeks in Sioux City while arranging
for his colony, and at the urgent solic-
itation of the writer and others related
some of his experiences in a modest
and becoming way, which they still
remember.
1t may be asked by the younger gen.
GRAFTON of readers: What was this
tenian movement and it's objects?
For their information brief resume
is given. At the close of the civil war
about 100000 Irish Americans were
mustered out of the federal army.
They not only remembered the seven
centuries of British misrule in their
but they deeply resented,
in common with all Americans, the
aid and comfort given by England to
the southern confederacy, thereby pro-
longing the war, and they resolved to
punish her for it,
Being unable to land forces in Ire
land in the face of the British navy,
they conceived the idea Of invading
and wrestling Canada from the British
and annexing it to the United States.
For this purpose large funds were
raised and large quantities of arms,
munitions and stores were purchased
from agents of the federal government,
with the tacit understanding that a
passive policy would be pursued and
that they would not be seriously in
terfered with. These munitions were
stored at various depots along the
Canadian frontier from Maine to De-
troit, and when the forces were organ
lied and ready for the invasion the
federal government swooped down on
them, arrested the men, seized and
confiscated the stores and rendered
the invasion of Canada impossible.
O'Neill alone, with a small force,
evaded American vigilance, crossed
the Niagara river near Buffalo, cap
tured Fort Erie and defeated a much
superior force of British at Ridgeway
and Limestone Ridge, but, finding sup
plies and reinforcements cut of, was
obliged to return and surrender to the
American authorities. It had been
hoped that General Sheridan, who
with them, would COM
mand the Fenian forces after they had
got fairly started, and General Sher>
man declared that with 100000 such
men, if landed in England, he could
march from one end of the country to
the other without fear of successful
resistance, but the government was
not in shape to go to war with Eng
land for want of a sufficient navy.
President Johnson had been blamed
for lack of faith with the Fenians, but
the payment of $15,000,000 soon after
by England for the destruction of
American shipping during the war re-
moved further fears of war between
the two countries.
jeremiah Buckley, who died here a.
few weeks ago, commanded company
under O'Neill at Limestone Ridge, and
the next year went to Ireland on the
"Erin's Hope which carried arms
and ammunition for rising" there,
but was taken prisoner and incarce-
rated for eleven months in Kilmain-
ham prison, when he was released on
condition of leaving the country for
ever.
General O'Neill died several years
ago. John Brennan and Charlie Col
Inns are dead, but Mrs. Collins is still
living in California, and her brother,
P. w. Dunno, hale and hearty at "a,
still lives in Chicago, rejoicing in the
election of his son as mayor of the
second city in America, and still as
much of Fenian at heart as ever.
Douglas JerroId's Wit.
T. P. O'Connor says Douglas Jer~
old's impromptus are the smartest he
can recall. They have all the special