Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1905-12-16

Elected President of Satolli Council.
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contempt they can put into it.. We have
these people ia Kentucky as we'll as in
New York. They are found everywhere.
but, thanks to the fact that the Irish do
not fail to resent any reflections and to
the fact that Irish-American newspaper
writers are deiving into the early history
of this country and bringing up good old
Irish names as progenitors of some of
what are now known as Americas first
families. the scoffers are growing beauti-
fully less and less every year.
One of the most prolific and at the
same time most accurate of these Irish
American journalists who have delved
into Americas early history is Michael
]. O'Brien, of New York. His pen is
rarely idle and his work is always appre-
ciated by his compatriots. In a recent
article he tells of Sir William Johnson.
That is not a very Irish name, yet it is
proven that Sir William was native of
the County Meath. He reached America
when only twentry-three years old, in
1888, and settled in what is now called
Montgomery county, New York. He
was the first to found civilized settle
ment in that region then inhabited by
the Mohawks. Later he became an adj
herent of the British against the French.
In that far back campaign there were
many Irish privates and many Irish
Captains. In fact Capts. Farrell, Nc
Ginnis and Teady McGinn were killed at
the battle of Lake George. Sir William
Johnson's legal adviser was New York
lawyer, William Kelly, while his physi-
clan was DIR. DAILY, and a young man
named Lafferty was his private secretary.
Johnson's maternal ancestors were de-
scended from the MacShanes, of Armagh.
James Duane. the first Mayor of New
York, was the son as Anthony Duane,
native of Galway. For almost forty
years after the evacuation of New York
by the British forces James Duane was
actively engaged in the important affairs
of the country. He was delegate to
the first Continental Congress in IVA.
With him in that body were many men
well known to be of Irish birth or
percentage. Among them might be men,
toned Thomas Lynch and the two Rut-
lodges, John and William, of South
Caroline; John Sullivan, of New Hamp-
shire; Thomas Mexican and George Read,
of Delaware; Richard Smith and Stephen
Crane, Of New Jersey; the redoubtsble
Patrick Henry, of Virginia; Thomas
Cushing, of Massachusetts,; Samuel Ward,
of Rhode Island, and Charles Thompson,
Secretary Of the Congress. These were
the Irish-Americans who helped blaze
the way for the Declaration of Independ-
ence two years later. Duane was dele;
gate to that body and was only prevented
from signing that document by the fact
that he had been called home to form a
State government in New York. Duane
remained in the Colonial Congress until
l7S4, when he was elected to the Senate
in the New York Legislature. Two years
later he was elected Mayor of New York,
and in 1889 he was appointed United
States Judge for the District of New
York. Five years later he retired full of
years and honor. He died in 1897 at
Duanesburgh, N. Y, town he had
founded many years before. and his body
was inferred there beneath a church
which he had built at his own expense.
While the Irish of those days were not
all Statesmen, neither were they ali
hewers of wood aud drawers Of water, as
many so-called American. historians
would have us believe. Even before the
universities of Harvard and Yale we're