ishmen, the most
noted of whom were Mullanphy, Gilhuly, O'Fallon, Connor, O'Hara,
Dillon, Ranken, Magennis, and Walsh. In all early histories of
Missouri towns and counties, Irish names are mentioned, and in many
instances they are on record as "the first settlers."

* * * * *

And so it was all through the west. In Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, and
Illinois, across the rolling prairies and the mountains, beyond the
Mississippi and the Missouri, in the earliest days of colonization of
that vast territory, we can follow the Irish "trek" in quest of new
homes and fortunes. They were part of that irresistible human current
that swept beyond the ranges of Colorado and Kansas and across the
Sierra Nevada until it reached the Pacific, and in the forefront of
those pathfinders and pioneers we find Martin Murphy, the first to
open a wagon trail to California from the East. The names of Don
Timoteo Murphy, of Jasper O'Farrell, of Dolans, Burkes, Breens, and
Hallorins are linked with the annals of the coast while that
territory was still under Spanish rule, and when Fremont crossed the
plains and planted the "Bear flag" beyond the Sierras, we find
Irishmen among his trusted lieutenants. An Irishman, Captain Patrick
Connor, first penetrated the wilderness of Utah; a descendant of an
Irishman, Hall J. Kelly, was the explorer of Oregon; Philip Nolan and
Thomas O'Connor were foremost among those brave spirits "whose daring
and persistency finally added the Lone Star State to the American
Union"; and the famous Arctic explorer, scientist, and scholar, Dr.
Elisha Kent Kane, was a descendant of John O'Kane who came from
Ireland to the Province of New York in 1752.

* * * * *

To form any reliable estimate of the numerical strength of the Irish
and their descendants in the United States would, I believe, be a
hopeless task, and while several have attempted to do so, I am of the
opinion that all such estimates should be discarded as mere
conjecture. Indeed, there is no standard, or fixed rule or principle,
by which a correct judgment of the racial composition of the early
inhabitants of the United States can now be formed, and the available
statistics on the subject are incomplete and confusing. The greatest
obstacle in determining this question is found in the names of the
immigrants themselves. With names such as Smith, Mason, Carpenter,
and Taylor; White, Brown, Black, and Gray;