- Saint Patrick’s Day in Oysterville
Today’s the day we celebrate our Irish heritage – whether or not we have any. It’s the day that the fragrance of corned beef and cabbage wafts from kitchens across the country and round loaves of Irish soda bread come out of our ovens. It’s the day for “The Wearin’ O’ The Green” and shamrocks and green beer and Irish coffee. In Ireland it’s a day for going to church and remembering repression and celebrating freedom.
Here in Oysterville, Nyel and I are having friends over for dinner. Of the four of us, I think I’m the only one who might have a drop of Irish heritage – “might” being the operable word. My father’s grandfather, Henry Little, came from Ireland in the late 1800s but when I went to Enniskillen on a search for our relatives I was told (in no uncertain terms) that he and all the other Littles were and had always been English. They had emigrated to Ireland from England in the 1840s at the time of the English potato famine.
Even so, I had grown up in the firm belief that I was ‘Scotch’ (as opposed to Scottish?), Irish and English. On Saint Patrick’s Day, I still say so. The other three who will be at our table tonight are of Danish, Norwegian and Italian heritage. Not an Irish drop (of blood, anyway) among them.
The 1860 Oysterville Census listed only one person here who had been born in Ireland. He was 33-year-old Joseph Brown, a “laborer.” He was not listed in the 1870 census; perhaps he had moved on. But by then there were three additional Irish natives living here – Mary Nelson, Thomas Devlin, and Bridget Tanger. Of them all, we only know a little about Bridget.
She lived on Long Island in the settlement called Diamond City (whose residents were included in the Oysterville Census.) Bridget’s husband, Carl (from Prussia) was an oysterman. He drowned on the bay in 1873 and is buried in the Oysterville Cemetery. After his death, Bridget stayed on in Oysterville and took in laundry to support herself and her three young children. As far as is known, none of them are buried here.
I’m not sure of the Irish heritage among present-day Oystervillians. But I would give odds that there are several claimants on this day, anyway. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to us all!
I hope you had on your “Little” pin for St. Patrick’s Day. The Celtic store it came from thought Littles qualified. I have heard that there are more people in America of Irish decent than in Ireland. I’ve a bit of Scotch-Irish, but my real claim to St. Patrick’s Day are my three children with the good Irish name of Casey. I hope to see pictures of your dinner and hope you all had a grand time!