Coming to America
the journey of a family through time
Daniel McDonald left his homeland not knowing what awaited
on some foreign shore. He traveled as a ballast boy
in the hold of a ship, headed for America.
The year was 1810
France had been defeated at Waterloo
and Ireland 's landlords were turning their farmland
into grazing pastures to turn a larger profit.
Hundreds of tenant farmers were evicted,
left destitute and homeless with nowhere to go.
Some headed for America.
Daniel Mc Donald settled in Maine, and in the town of Leeds
he and Mary raised a family...six children that we know of.
1812 War with Great Britain
1820 Maine becomes the 23rd state and an economic boom
begins with lumbering, shipbuilding, fishing, granite and
lime quarrying as the chief industries.
Water-powered factories produce paper, leather and textiles.
1825 Erie Canal opens
1830 Thomas Mc Donald is born.
1849 Russian mining engineers find gold in Alaska.
1852 Franklin Pierce elected President
Thomas, a common laborer, took Margaret Hand as his wife in 1854
and, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, they raised
six children of their own.
Emily Dickinson, John Greenleaf Whittier,
and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow were the
names of the era.
1856 the Whig Party splits over the issue of slavery
and the public turns to the new
Republican Party and John C. Fremont.
1860 Abraham Lincoln elected.
1861 Massachusetts is the first state to lose soldiers
to the civil war when the 6th Regiment is fired on
by a mob of insurrectionists in Baltimore.
1863 Emancipation Proclomation
1864 Sherman's March to the sea
1865 Lee surrenders
Lincoln assassinated
1869 James Edward Mc Donald is born.
After the end of the Civil War
European immigrants continued to pour into the state,
mostly the Irish, but also the English, Scots, Slavs,
Portugese, Italian, and Russian Jews.
Industrialization was on the rise
with mill towns springing up.
1871 The Great Chicago Fire
James married Ella Stone in 1895
in Manchester, New Hampshire.
They had 7 children between 1896 and 1910,
two of whom died in infancy.
James owned a broom factory for a time,
then decided to run for public office.
But the stigma of being an Irish Catholic
still presented problems in those days.
And so came a new name.
From McDonald to Mac Donald,
from Catholic to Protestant.
1902 Director, Manchester Board of Trade
1905-1910 Alderman of the 8th Ward Democrats
And among their children was another James,
my father, born in 1903.
1914 Archduke Ferdinand assassinated
Germany invades Luxembourg and Belgium
1918 Armistice
1919 Boston Police Strike
1921 Sacco and Vanzetti sentenced to death
and executed in 1927.
1929 The stock market crashes,
marking the beginning of the Great Depression
Massachusetts, the manufacturing giant of the east,
with factories producing shoes, and mills spinning cotton
into fabric, and men shaping barrels from wooden staves.
James was a cooper by trade.
1933 Adolph Hitler comes to power as dictator of Germany.
James took Marjorie Longton as his wife in 1934.
1936-1939 Spanish Civil War
1939-1945 World War Two
And among their six children was Susan...1947
1950-1953 Korean War
Providence, Rhode Island, a thriving city
where most of the country's jewelry was manufactured.
Marjorie raised her children here after the death of James in 1950.
Holden Street tenenment houses,
summer camp and weekend outings...
Henry Barnard School
Roger Williams Jr. High School
1960 John F. Kennedy elected President
1961 Alan Shepard first American in space
John Glenn first American to orbit the earth
1961-1975 Vietnam War
1963 President Kennedy assassinated
1964 the Beatles invade America
Central High School
1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated
1968 Senator Robert Kennedy assassinated
1968 Richard Nixon elected President
1969 Woodstock
Neil Armstrong walks on the moon
1972 Watergate break-in
1974 President Nixon resigns
1978 major blizzard hits New England
Society became more mobile,
families left the old neighborhoods in search of something more.
Go west!
1980 brought a move to California,
a continent away from all I knew.
I felt like Daniel on his journey to the unknown.
1980 Ronald Reagan elected President
1986 Space Shuttle Challenger Tragedy
1988 George Bush elected President
Cerritos College
Cal State University
Education, the key to the world, the door to the future.
I opened it and stepped through.
1991 Gulf War
1992 William Clinton elected President
1993 World Trade Center bombed in New York City
1995 Murrah Building bombed in Oklahoma City
1999 President Clinton impeached
2000 George W. Bush becomes president
following hotly contested election
September 11, 2001 America under attack
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Each year, countless immigrants arrive in the U. S.
Each brings with him the beginning of a new chapter in his own story.
The Irish In America: Long Journey Home
