By Alister McReynolds, writer and lecturer in Ulster-Scots studies
It is estimated that there are now some 27 million Scots-Irish in America. Driven by a hunger for cheap farmland and a thirst for independence they made up the first surge of emigrants from Ireland to the shores of the American colonies in the late 17th and 18th centuries. It is believed 250,000 settled in America between 1717 and 1770 alone.The Scots-Irish were families of Scottish descent who settled in Northern Ireland before moving to the New World.
Benjamin Harrison and Whitelaw Reid, both of Ulster-Scots descent, were Presidential candidates in the 1892 election
One key individual, who was instrumental in the creation of an initial impetus and in the charting of a context for the Scots-Irish diaspora, was James Logan, a Quaker who was born in Lurgan, Co. Armagh and engaged as agent for his co-religionist William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania.
The canny Mr. Logan believed that there was considerable merit in ‘importing’ the tough Scots-Irish people, amongst whom he grew up, to act as a human barrier between the Quakers and the Native Americans in Pennsylvania. The famous Penn treaties with the Native Americans were then stretched to breaking point.
And indeed to the Pennsylvania ports, the Scots-Irish came in teeming shoals – the size of which shocked even Logan himself. During just one week in 1727 six full ship loads of Scots-Irish immigrants landed in Philadelphia.
Over the centuries the Scots-Irish ‘plaid’ has been firmly stitched into the fabric of the American way of life. Northern Ireland’s speech patterns, skillet breads, whiskey and music have all been woven into this web.
In addition to the Scots-Irish who made it to the White House, there have also been numerous senators, congressmen and governors of this origin. New Hampshire has had eight Scots-Irish governors and Sam Houston, whose ancestors hailed from Ballycarry, Co. Antrim, was Governor of both Tennessee and later Texas, after he had defeated the Mexicans under Santa Anna in 1836. The city of Houston in Harris Co., Texas is named in his honour.
Of all the significant American engineers and inventors who emerged from amongst the ranks of the Scots-Irish, probably the greatest was Robert Fulton . Fulton’s ancestors came from Lisburn in Co. Antrim and he is credited with developing technology in canals, submarines, torpedoes and, in particular, the steamboat which revolutionised travel on the great rivers of the US including the Mississippi.
A mural of President George
Washington, one of many
such murals across Northern
Ireland
Many of these entrepreneurial Scots-Irish figures founded dynasties similar to that of the Macombs. Another powerful family was the Mellon family dynasty whose home place outside Omagh, Co. Tyrone provides the core building of the Ulster American Folk Park . One member of this family, Andrew Mellon served three Presidents as Secretary of the Treasury and gave the National Gallery in Washington D.C. to the American nation.
Another Scots-Irishman for whom the term ‘entrepreneur’ might almost have been coined was Alexander Turney Stewart, once the 5th richest man in American history. Turney Stewart, born at Magheragall, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, built the first department store in the world, in New York. This was known as the Great Iron Store and was eventually sold to Wannamakers. Today the site is occupied by Macy’s landmark store. In 1869 he designed, developed and built Garden City, Long Island, New York, where today there are still many mementoes of his legacy.
The Scots-Irish also contributed hugely to both sides in the American Civil War.
The victorious soldier in that conflict was General (later President) Ulysses S.Grant. Grant’s maternal great grandfather set out for America from Dergenagh outside Dungannon, Co. Tyrone, in 1768. In 1821 the President’s mother Hannah married Jesse Root Grant. They had their son christened Hiram Ulysses Grant. His ‘Ulysses Simpson Grant’ tag started life as a clerical error during his time at West Point military academy. Grant was so positively taken with this error that not only was it adopted as his own name but he also bequeathed it to both his son and grandson. Grant visited Londonderry, Coleraine, Ballymoney and Belfast when he was President and proudly described himself as being “at home”.
On the Confederate side, Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson was the best-known general. Jackson’s ancestors lived at the Birches area of Co. Armagh, where they had settled early in the 17th century.
Writers such as Edgar Allen Poe and John Steinbeck have acknowledged their Scots-Irish background as being a seminal influence on their work. Steinbeck’s maternal ancestors – the Hamiltons were from Ballykelly, Co. Londonderry - eventually settled in the Salinas Valley of California. Indeed Steinbeck features the Hamilton clan, without even changing or altering their name, in his epic novel "East of Eden".
Two times Pulitzer winning biographer and historian David McCullough has acknowledged the influence of his Scots-Irish roots. One of McCullough’s Pulitzer prizes was awarded for a biography of an aforementioned Scots-Irish President – Harry S. Truman. In 2006 McCullough’s most recent work ‘1789’ was top of the American best-seller list for many months.
In the world of fiction, two writers of Scots-Irish origin, geographically distant from each other, have been particularly notable. Larry McMurtry’s Scots-Irish ancestors moved form Missouri to Texas, where many of his works are set. McMurtry is also a Pulitzer Prize winner for his novel, "Lonesome Dove", which was made into a successful film as were his books "Terms of Endearment" and "The Last Picture Show".
Also of Scots-Irish origin is film-maker Stephen King, who’s works include “The Shining”, “Shawshank Redemption” and “Carrie”.