The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-10-28
OUR NEGLECT OF HISTORY.

Judging from the apathy of Engsh-speaking
Catholics in this country, especially those be-
longing to the Celtic race it will be long time
before they viii erect Hall of Fame, or anything
like it. People of the Latin races pay more homage
to their heroes and give external proof of their de-
voton on more occasions. During the present
month, for instance, monument was erected in
Pueblo, Colo, to Christopher Columbus. The cost
of it came out of the pockets of Italians who
their living by labor principally. During the
mer the Poles of Chicagg&rected monument to
the memory of Kosciusko, an expatriated noble who
served in the armies of Washington.
Such limited hold has Irish aggressiveness on
popular sentiment that not vote was cast for
Commodore John Barry, the Father of the Ameri-
can navy, for statue in the Hall Of Fame. In
stead the award was given to John Paul Jones.
Irish-Americans spent their time reading what
other Irish-Americans had written about ] ohm A.
McCallsbefore the explosion came. The same will
be repeated when another Mae or an o. comes up
in the imelight for adulation; some Irsh-American
with money than virtue and less knowledge of
the land of his forefathers. The poor Italians and
Poles would put him to shame.
Martin |. j Griffin has been struggling for years
to promote an interest for Catholic history in this
country. Many things and many persons associated
with Catholic endeavor in colonial times would re-
main forgotten had not Mr.. Griffin brought them to
light. With scrupulous regard for truth and ac
curacy, this historian has given the iconoclastic
touch many of the heroes of brag and buster and
raised the obscure abovh the position that doubt
and prejudice consigned them. But where Mr.
Griffin has one reader an ther historian of less merit
and much less industry has thousand.
About month ago poem appeared in this pa
per written by George Parsons Lathrop. Its ap-
pearance was the result of an inquiry concerning
the identity of Major Peter keenan,, or Patrick
keenan,, who led the charge at Charlottesville
Nothing else at ha nd to satisfy the seeker of
knowledge. Few ever he ard of Keenan, or the charge
of that Pennsylvania regiment, and historians of
the civ war ignored him. The editor of the Ma
tional Hibernian-official organ of the A. o. H
attracted to the inquiry along with the poem
published in this paper, and furnishes information
which appears in a history of Allegany County, n
Y 1t is from the pen of Rev. Father j. J. DAILY
But who would ever think of looking up an affair
of Importance i'll county history
TN the Catholic cemetery at Scio, n. Y" writes
Father DAILY rests all that is mortal of one of the
bravest heroes of our Civil War, one whose name
stands side by side with Cushing, Winthrop Lyon
and the brilliant eoterie of immortals whose deeds
have made them deathless.
Major Peter keenan,, resident of this county
from 1851 to 1858, educated at Wellsville and Will
son Academy, Angelica in 1861, was a business man
in Philadelphia and raised the Eighth Pennsylvania
Cavalry, of the first regiments of volunteers to
arrive at the scene of war.
I'm all the bloody battles of the Army of the
Potomac he bore conspicuous part and rose from
the Office of captain to major by his merit and gal
lantry. At the battle of Charlottesville. at the
sacrifice of his life and the lives of most of his
regiment, he checked the supposed invincble le-
gions of Stonewall Jackson and averted the STAN
pede and destruction which threatened General
Hooker's army.
eAt twilight of May 3 1868, Jackson;s division
of the Confederate army fell upon the Eleventh
Corns General @. O. Houard'sl. the right wing of