EVE MACGILLIGAN O'BRIEN

By ESU student Annalee M.S. Coy

Patrick and Rachel MacGilligan could certainly be proud of their third child, Eve.  Eve has managed to secure herself a place in Irish-American history through the extensive letters she left behind as well as other documentation provided by her children.  We know much about the lives of this branch of the MacGilligan Clan thanks to this recorded history of Eve.

Eve MacGilligan married William O’Brien soon after her sister Rose’s engagement was called off.  Rose resented Eve’s marriage because their father was so set against Rose’s fiancé.  Eve was fortunate enough to marry a man with a fairly large amount of land.  This land ensured that the O’Briens were able to earn money through wheat.  As we all know, England continued to export crops grown in Ireland throughout the famine.  Eve and William were able to fill their bellies, and save some money too, from the profits provided by the wheat crop.  When Eve became pregnant with their first child, the O’Briens decided to leave Ireland immediately.  It had been too difficult to watch Rachel’s family be torn apart by starvation and death.  Eve wanted something better for her child: a chance to survive.  The O’Briens decided that the best way to ensure survival was to go to the United States.

It is during the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean that we first experience life through Eve’s pen:

Dearest Mama,                                            May 4, 1859

Och!  It has been so difficult leaving you all.  I despaired greatly over this decision, but I know this is best for the life growing inside me now.  I sometimes cannot figure out if I have seasickness or morning sickness.  Either way, I know I spend a lot of time with my head over the rails.  William worries over the baby and me too much, though.  He is already fretting over where to live once we arrive.  The cost of this passage has nearly depleted our savings.  I pray everyday that God will take care of Ireland and us.

Love,

Your Evie

Dearest Mama and Papa,                               September 25, 1859

William has been able to find a little work.  He won’t let me help to make money with the baby being so close.  I do have to admit that this belly of mine is just a bit large to be doing too much.  I just hate being stuck here in this awful building.  I want to be able to get out of here soon.  Neither of us is fond of city life.  We dream of owning our own farm again someday.  We keep hearing whispers about going West.  If what they say is true about free land, we just may go after the baby is old enough to travel.  If my dear brother Mike visits with you soon, please have him write me soon.  I am longing to hear some news about my home.

Love and Prayers,

Evie

Dear Grandmama and Poppa,                       November 12, 1859

This is the first moment I have had time to sit down and write.  Did you notice the greeting?  Your granddaughter, Anna Kathleen O’Brien was born on October 25^th.  She is so beautiful and sometimes, so loud.  Anna likes a lot of attention, which her father happily gives.  We have even more motivation now to get out of these slums soon.  Anna deserves better, she needs to have room to run and grow.  We are going West as soon as possible.  I have written Michael.  It sounds as though things are still going pretty rough around there.  I was thrilled to hear about Seamus and Evelyn.  I pray that more homes in Ireland open their doors for the poor orphaned children.  God bless Michael!

Love,

William, Eve, and Anna Kathleen O’Brien

There is now a gap in Eve’s letters.  Based on what is about to happen in her letters, I believe that William and Eve worked hard for the next two years.  With their hoarded money, they jumped on an offer.  On May 20, 1862, President Lincoln signed the Homestead Act.  This act offered that “any person, the head of a family, or 21 years of age, whether a citizen or intended citizen, could take up a quarter section of the public domain,” (Gates 6).  William fit this description to a “T.”  The O’Briens only had to live on and improve the land for five years and the title was theirs.

Dearest Michael,                                          December 28, 1862

Sorry it has been so long since I have contacted you.  I am sitting here in the back of our wagon trying to sleep.  I am too excited to even close my eyes.  We are only miles away from our new farm.  It is not really ours until January 1, 1863, but it makes my heart peaceful to know our dreams for Anna are almost a reality.  The timing of this opportunity is a bit inconvenient; all of this hard work coming up is going to be difficult with a new baby.  Yes, I am going to give birth to the second O’Brien any day now.  I will mail this letter after it arrives so that you can spread the good news.

Love,

Evie

P.S. Ruth Rachel O’Brien sure knows how to make an entrance.  She decided it was time to be born while her daddy was out staking our claim on the 1^st of this new year.  Anna has been a great help with her, although she wants to know where her brother is!  I hope she can be happy for now with a sister.

Dear Rose MacGilligan,                              July 15, 1865

I truly hope this is my sister Rose MacGilligan.  It has been too long for us.  I pray that this letter finds you happy and well.  I am living in Kansas.  William and I are doing well.  We have three beautiful children, Anna, Ruth, and a brand new son Donal.  A young couple rolled through our farm with news from New York and they know a Rose O’Dore from our town in Ireland.  I hope that you will write to me soon.  Michael is worried about you too!

Love,

Eve MacGilligan O’Brien

Dearest Rose,                                              December 7, 1865

Praise the Lord that you are well!  The whole family has been very worried about you.  Papa has not been the same since you left.  I am thankful that you have forgiven him, and me, for the circumstances in your life.  I am so happy that you have married and have been blessed with children.  Even over all the miles, we will always be family and always be Irish.  I am reminded of a song I heard on the ship coming here to America:

I’ll never deny I’m from Ireland,

It’s my birthplace, and proud I’m to own

That I love it, the bog and mireland

I’m Irish to the backbone.

                                       (Wright 102)

My dear sister, we must not ever let differences make us forget who we are and where we come from.  Tell those beautiful children of yours about home so that we don’t forget.

Love,

Evie

Eve and William lived a wonderful, hard-working life up until 1873.  At this time, the pain and tragedy they sought to escape found them even on the prairies of Kansas.  From an article in a small church newsletter, we can read about the O’Brien accident.

A tragedy has befallen one of our beloved lambs.  Donal O’Brien is with our Lord in Heaven following his recent death.  The prairie fire that destroyed many of our lands also destroyed this young life.  Donal was a slight lad of only eight years and was unable to outrun the raging flames.  Let us remember his family in our prayers.

Sadly, this incident forever changed Eve.  She closed off nearly all contact with her family from Ireland.  William tried desperately to please his depressed wife, but she never really snapped out of it.  We learn about her death from her daughter Anna.

Anna decided that she was going to become a schoolteacher.  Her father agreed to let her attend the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia, Kansas shortly after her mother’s death.  The circumstances surrounding Eve’s death are recorded in an essay written by Anna O’Brien.  The following is an excerpt from this essay:

My mother was a beautiful woman, with an ugly mind following my brother’s accident.  Donal was only eight years old when he burned to death in a freak grass fire accident.  Mother blamed the wind that caused the fire to consume so quickly.  Whenever there would be a storm with lots of wind, Mother would sit on the porch and wail.  Last April, there was a terrible storm with howling winds.  For some reason, this time, Mother was not content with just sitting on the porch and crying over her lost son.  A bolt of lightening streaked across the black sky and I saw her take off running across our yard.  Mother was screaming and shaking her fist in the wild wind.  Suddenly, another bolt illuminated the yard and I saw the approaching funnel.  I hollered for my mama to come back, but I don’t know if she even heard me.  I thought she did because she stopped abruptly, but she only raised both of her arms to the heavens.  I watched as the twister returned her embrace and whisked her away.

Anna graduated from the Kansas State Normal School and moved to Louisburg to teach.  It was there she met her future husband, Gideon McMurphy.  Gideon was a Civil War veteran and considerably older than Anna.  Anna enjoyed her job teaching and was torn between that and her love for Gideon.  She hesitated too long and lost her job teaching at the middle school because some of the parents did not approve of her choice in men.  The decision made for her, Anna married Gideon.  This marriage did not provide the happy ending for this poor girl.  While consummating their marriage, Gideon suffered a heart attack and died.  Anna spent the remainder of her life back at her family farm helping her father.

Ruth left the farm when Anna returned.  She had only stayed so that her father would not be alone, but she could now head to the big city, Kansas City.  She was fortunate to secure a job at a clothing store.  Due to the long hours of standing, Ruth soon tired of the “working girl” life and married one of the male clerks there.  Jared and Ruth Flint’s marriage was a strained one.  Ruth stayed home all day and ate.  She figured that she had worked hard enough in her lifetime, so her man should take care of her.  On a quick trip to the market for more cheese, Ruth met Owen Maguire.  Owen worked the grave-yard shift at the Armor meat-packing plant.  The two fell madly in love and began a sordid affair.   There was only one thing standing between Ruth and Owen’s happiness: Jared Flint.  One evening, Jared came home to a lovely scene of dinner on the table and a smiling wife.  This wonderful scene of loving domesticity was the last thing Jared ever saw.

From Ruth’s journal we have the plot:

Owen and I cannot live another day apart.  I finally voiced what we both had been thinking.  Jared has just got to go!  We talked it over and decided to poison him.  Owen is going to poison a can of potted meat at the plant and bring it to me.  I will fix Jared dinner and he’ll go to sleep with a full belly and a smile.  I don’t know if I will be able to make love to him one more time, but Owen says that the poison will circulate through his blood faster if he exercises.  I will just have to picture my wonderful Owen.  Soon…...

The plan was a successful one.  After waiting a year following Jared’s “tragic food poisoning,” Owen and Ruth married.  The Maguires lived a somewhat happy life together.  They were unable to have any children due to a disease Ruth contracted from her dead husband on their last night of passion.  In my research, I found a letter from Jared Flint to Erin Quinn, another clerk where Jared worked.  It turns out the two had been having an affair.  Erin was having an affair with a lot of different men.  Jared contracted the disease from Erin and gave it to Ruth.

Eve MacGilligan O’Brien and her offspring left for us a compelling story of life for an Irish immigrant.  Tragically, there are no direct descendants of this line of the MacGilligan family.

Bibliography

Gates, Paul W.  Free Homesteads for All Americans.  Washington D.C.: Civil War            Centennial Commission, 1962.

McQuillan, D. Aidan.  Prevailing Over Time: Ethnic Adjustment on the Kansas Prairies.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.