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Irish Miners in Michigan's Copper Country: Origins and Motivations William H. Mulligan, Jr. Department of History Murray State University
The "discovery" of developable copper deposits in the far western end of Lake Superior in the 1840s and the publicity given to them by the work of Douglass Houghton initiated the first great mining boom - or rush - in U.S. history.1' Michigan's Keweenaw Peninsula became the focal point for a large number of companies seeking to exploit the native copper deposits that seemed to be everywhere. While many have heard of Horace Greeley's famous dictum, Go West Young Man, Go West, few remember that he was in Copper Harbor, Michigan - the heart of the 1840s mining boom - when he wrote it. Word of numerous rich discoveries spread throughout the mining world. The early accounts were greeted with some scepticism because they described huge masses of pure copper that dwarfed the fabled Ontonagon Boulder, seemingly larger and purer than was possible - certainly nothing experienced, practical mining men had previously encountered [attempting to avoid "experience" followed by "experienced" two words later]. Soon, however, it became clear that the new region was, in fact, fabulously rich in copper and speculators and miners from the United States, Germany, Cornwall and Ireland found their way to the remote peninsula.
Some of these early Irish 2 copper miners came from the lead district in southwestern Wisconsin; more came directly from Irish mining districts in the Beara Peninsula of County Cork, the Knockmahon mines in County Waterford, and several small mining communities in County Tipperary. Few seem to have emigrated to Michigan from the Avoca mines in County Wicklow.
The Copper Country resident listed first in the Portage Lake Mining Gazette's coverage of the 1890 "Old Settlers' Ball was Michael Finnegan, with his wife listed second - both had arrived in 1846.3 Finnegan, a mining captain from County Tipperary, was one of the featured speakers at the event. A number of other Irish names -- Samuel Quinn (1868) and his wife (1850), J.T. Finnegan (1850), M.J. Finnegan (1866), J. D. Cuddihy (1857), Thos. D. Ryan (1858), John D. Ryan (1864), Bartholomew Shea (1862), and J. R. Dee (1855) - appear in the list of those attending. Several were the American-born children of early settlers who had passed away, most notably John D. Ryan - son of County Tipperary-born mining captain John C., who had come to the Copper Country in 1854 with his younger brother Edward, the future "Merchant Prince of the Copper Country." 4 J. R. Dee, the organizer of the region's electrical and telephone companies, was the son of an Irish-born miner who was in the [can we use a phrase including "area" or "district" rather than using "region" twice in this sentence?] by 1847.
For a generation the Michigan copper mines, as well as the iron mines developed about the same time on the Marquette Range to the east, were the primary destination for Irish miners seeking a new home and a new start. Edward Ryan was among those who opened the Gogebic iron range in the 1880s and 1890s. Irish miners moved there as well as the Menominee range. The Gogebic and Menominee ranges are along the Michigan-Wisconsin border. In the 1880s Upper Michigan began to give way to Butte, Montana as the principal destination, but continued to receive Irish immigrants into the early years of the twentieth century. Irish miners went out from Michigan to all of the western mining areas including the Mesabi Range in Minnesota, California's Grass Valley, Colorado, Idaho, and in the largest numbers Butte, Montana.
The 1840s were the beginning of a series of troubled decades for Irish mining. There were also increased efforts beginning during the decade to encourage economic development in Ireland and to attract more English, and Irish, capital to industry, especially mining. Sir Robert Kane's The Industrial Resources of Ireland first published in Dublin in 1844, with a second edition appearing in 1845, exhaustively catalogued and discussed the various mining and manufacturing operations in Ireland as well as calling attention to resources, such as water power sites, available in Ireland for development. 5 Kane's work was regularly cited in other essays on Irish economic potential and attracted a great deal of favourable notice among those interested in Irish economic development, if not the level of investment activity hoped for [Sorry, the final part of this sentence is confusing me. I'm assuming the point is that the information was cited repeatedly, but did not lead to investment to the level hoped for, drawing on the 'attracted' above. If so, could this not be rewritten similar to: "… regularly cited in other essays on Irish economic potential and, though it attracted a great deal of favourable notice among those interested in Irish economic development, this was not matched by the resulting level of investment". There was little serious attention paid in the industrial press to the dramatically shifting world copper market.
Prior to Kane's effort, Col. Robert Hall, a retired British[No such thing since 1707] Army officer, had begun actively promoting copper mining ventures, one of the areas which enjoyed substantial interest among English investors, in Ireland after 1805 [Can we re-order this to read "Copper mining ventures were one area that had enjoyed substantial interest among English investors. Prior to Kane's effort, Col. Robert Hall, a retired British Army officer, had begun actively promoting such ventures in Ireland from 1805 onwards.".6 Mining came to be a major focus for efforts to develop alternatives, or supplements, to agriculture as the principal foundation of the Irish economy. Hall's various efforts had had mixed success, but in several instances, especially the Berehaven mines at Allihies in County Cork, the Knockmahon mines in County Waterford, and the Avoca mines in County Wexford that success had been substantial enough to suggest to proponents of mining development that, with sufficient capital and "proper" (i.e. English) management, many more successful Irish mining ventures were possible. The failure of the many other ventures was invariably attributed to poor management. In the case of the "Audley Mines," and some others in County Cork, there was a very strong case to be made for mismanagement. 7 In the forefront of the promotion of mining as a solution to the persistent problem of poverty in Ireland - and interestingly also as a way to bring about political peace in Ireland (defined as acceptance of English control) - was the weekly trade paper The Mining Journal, Railway and Commercial Gazette (hereafter, simply the Mining Journal). Published in London beginning in 1835, the Mining Journal - with occasional variations in its title reflecting its broader, if subsidiary, interest in railway and industrial development generally - was the trade paper of record for the British mining industry and covered the mining industry in Ireland quite thoroughly. Copper mining received a great deal of detailed coverage - much more than any other form of mining. Like many industry publications the Mining Journal could be as much (or more) a promoter of industry, as it was a reporter on its condition. While the records of Irish mining companies can be hard to locate, the Mining Journal provides a wealth of[?] information.
The Mining Journal was especially reticent about discussing negative aspects of the industry through the 1860s and on numerous occasions "bought into" overly optimistic assessments of the future of individual mines. When ventures that had drawn editorial praise ended up in the wonderfully named Winding Up Court or the principals were indicted for fraud, there was seldom editorial comment. One has to read the fine print for letters from subscribers who were shareholders in the failed ventures or the occasional column by[?] the paper's "Dublin Correspondent" to find any hard questions being posed or negative information reported. Cumulatively these ventures brought many labourers into the Irish mining industry, and their failures left them without employment or resources.
The Mining Journal, to be kind, remained optimistic in face of mounting evidence that copper mining in Ireland was not going to be a profitable industry on an extensive scale. This inability to assess the industry's problems and present an accurate view of the condition and potential of the Irish copper mining industry was never clearer than during the great crisis of Irish history, An Gorta Mor.
In its September 12, 1846 issue under the heading, "Distress in the County Cork Mining Districts" the paper stated what would become, in various phrasings, its standard call.
Our chief object in our present notice of the condition of the poor in the districts referred to is to urge the propriety of different companies working mines and quarries therein to as extensive an employment of the poor in the respective vicinities, as the nature of their operations may allow. By their so doing, it may be very fairly assumed, that so far from suffering a loss, or even a reduction of their profits, in all remunerative mines they will increase those profits - because it is a well-ascertained fact, that there is nothing like a sufficient application of labour and capital to the development of the wealth of even the most productive mines in the mineral districts of the county of Cork.8
Such appeals for investment in Irish mines were a regular feature during the course of An Gorta Mor and for several decades afterwards; occasionally with the variation that government aid money would be better spent expanding mining in Ireland to provide employment, and thus a long-term solution to both the current crisis and the long-term economic problems of Ireland. A correspondent from West Carbery, a mining district in County Cork, who signed himself "A Miner", highlighted one major problem with the approach suggested. While calling for assisted emigration to the mines in Australia, "A Miner" describes,
. . . our starving fellow-creatures, hundreds and thousands of whom are dying daily in this country from starvation? - men, who a few days ago were in full vigour, health and strength, are now reduced to mere skeletons; and such is the misery and extreme destitution to which they are reduced, that when employment on the public works is afforded them, they are unable to perform it - and numbers who stagger out in the morning to the roads and other works now being carried on, drop dead from exhaustion, . . .9
The debilitated condition of the Irish working class was a serious impediment to solving Ireland's problems, at the very least in the short run, with industrial occupations, like mining, that required physical energy and skill. The public works jobs provided by the Russell government were beyond the physical ability of the population. Efforts to expand employment in mining were not successful as the mining companies, even the established, previously profitable firms, faced very hard times. Costs were up significantly and prices for ore down.
Reading the various articles in the Mining Journal about Irish copper mining over a thirty year period one wonders if the editor or other many of the commentators on Irish mining actually read the other articles in their own paper. The 1840s began as a time of deep crisis for the British copper mining industry, a period of serious challenges that lasted for thirty years and from which the industry never really recovered. The Swansea copper market, where Irish copper ores were sold, was beginning to receive large quantities of very rich ore from Chile, Cuba and, as the decade moved on, Australia. Demand for copper at Swansea did not expand as rapidly as supply, depressing prices. Further, the new ores were far richer than Cornish or Irish ore which seems to have further depressed their prices. The return on Irish mines, as well as for the much larger and better established Cornish copper mines, declined and the overall profits of the mining companies were in decline. Berehaven, Knockmahon, and Avoca survived into the 1870s, but the other Irish copper mines suspended operations and shut down as the years passed. 10 Efforts to revive various mining properties during this period invariably failed.
The half yearly meeting of the Mining Company of Ireland in July of 1849, for example, sought ways to reduce expenditures, cutting the directors' fees. Salaries of employees had already been reduced in 1847, the last year in which a dividend had been declared. MCI's half-yearly meetings during the course of the famine are a catalogue of existing business problems made worse by the disaster affecting Ireland. MCI was a stable firm - it had paid dividends steadily during its first twenty years and its shareholders had more than recouped their initial investment before An Gorta Mor. Less-well established firms, like the General Mining Company for Ireland (GMCI) found the going more difficult. At the end of 1847 GMCI reported, ". . . operation of the company at present time provided for 1014 persons in the immediate neighbourhood of the mine, in the county of Tipperary; and that have been distributing to their work people three tons of meal per week at first cost cash price." 11 Their Lackamore mine was "not at present more than paying cost."
The annual meeting of the small Killaloe Imperial Slate Company held in January of 1847 provides a very good summary of the condition Irish mining generally found itself in.
The Chairman addressed the meeting, and spoke of the difficulty with which the company had to contend in Ireland in the working of those quarries -a difficulty which he had on a former occasion spoken of, and which had been increased by the present unfortunate state of that country; ...The concern was now working well; and he had no doubt that, when the gloom in which almost every Irish speculation was at present had passed away, the slate quarries would yield a more satisfactory dividend to them all. They had erected mills, and supplied their labourers wi[t]h meal at cost price, and had not, therefore, burdened the poor-house of that district; but he did not think many companies in Ireland could say as much; these expenses, entailed by the exigency of the times, of course, took from the present profit of the shareholders. If the calamity, which had visited the country, had not occurred, they should have been able to show a very large profit. 12
At the same time the MCI was reporting a variety of problems, some long-standing like the high royalty demanded by the owners of the land the mines were on; others like the rising poor law union rate were specific to the "calamity." The company appealed its poor law rate to the Waterford Board of Guardians and in making their case reveal a great about the challenge of operating the mines during the disaster. "In consequence of the great increase in the price of provisions, they were obliged to supply food to their men at a serious loss." 13 The loss coming to some 1600 pounds. The company went on to say that despite the difficult times, prices for copper ore were declining, the landlords had not granted a reduction in rents or royalties.
The Company received no assistance from the landlords, and was, consequently, at great loss in keeping the mines open, which they did for the purpose of giving employment to the poor, in order to keep them out of that house. They had again and again applied for leases, even for that purpose. During the last eleven years they paid 200,000[?] in hard cash for labour, and yet the village of Bonmahon was in a worse state at present than[?] at the commencement of that period. The landlords are averse to giving leases. . . 14
Living and working conditions for Irish miners had never been good, and declined as the Hunger hit and continued to decline as the world market adjusted to the new areas beginning to produce copper. 15 At the Berehaven mines conditions were, perhaps, worst of all. The small number of Cornish miners there received free housing, higher wages, and other benefits, while their Irish co-workers fended for themselves for housing and food - subsisting on small patches of potatoes. 16 In the 1860s the Reed family, long-time managers of the mines, was dismissed and replaced with more rigorous management. The mines were shut down as workers took an authorized day off to bid the Reeds farewell. Conditions at Knockmahon were somewhat better, but there are references to delays in getting work done because the men were away tending their potato crops. To its credit, during the worst of An Gorta Mor, MCI did provide food for its workers at "first cost," despite the reduction in profits that resulted. The General Mining Company for Ireland reported in June of 1850 that it had maintained employment at 525 for the previous three years and distributed 38 tons of meal per month at "cost price." 17
None of these problems plaguing Irish mining were resolved during the decades following An Gorta Mor, in fact most grew worse - or more accurately posed increasingly serious problems for the industry. The large number of "bubbles" in the 1850s and 1860s and legitimate efforts that failed quickly led shareholders to demand dividends that drained capital from many promising ventures. The combination of depressed prices and start up costs were hard to overcome in the increasingly difficult world market. Premature payment of dividends only made this situation worse. As the 1860s unfolded, even the formerly sound and profitable mines found profits more and more difficult to maintain.
Miners from both Cornwall and Ireland were beginning to emigrate in significant numbers in the 1840s because of the contraction of the industry and declining incomes. 18 This exodus continued unabated for several decades and accelerated as copper mining in both areas moved towards its end. The Cornish soon became ubiquitous in hard rock mining districts around the world; Irish miners were apparently more likely to go to the U.S. or Australia although there is a need for much more research in this area. After the middle of the 1840s the U.S. market declined sharply as a place to sell British copper as production in the Lake Superior district increased.
It is clear that the Mining Journal's positive view of the condition, and potential, of copper mining in Ireland was seriously flawed. While especially obvious during An Gorta Mor, when the population was debilitated by hunger and disease, it was also true in the following decades. Its desire to promote industrial development, especially mining, in Ireland led its editor to underestimate the problems facing any effort to develop mining ventures in Ireland. In their efforts to promote industrialization the editors were doubtless sincere. The catastrophe of the Hunger exposed, for those who were willing to see them, the flaws both in Ireland's economy and its infrastructure for development. The underdeveloped transport system was one problem but problems regarding land ownership were of greater concern. 19 While the Berehaven mines in County Cork were on lands owned by the mines' proprietor (and to a lesser extent leased from the earl of Bantry) and those at Avoca on lands owned by a company with the same directors as the mining company, MCI and the many unsuccessful ventures frequently dealt with high rental or royalties for land. The Irish Poor Law included mining properties as rateable property, while an Elizabethan statute provided an exemption from poor rates for Cornish mines. These difficulties, none of which were addressed, ultimately contributed significantly to the failure of mining in Ireland.
Irish miners, however, did not have to remain in Ireland. Emigration to mining communities with Irish populations was an option by the late 1840s, and perhaps earlier in the lead mining districts of Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin, where little research has been done. The Michigan Copper Country became a principal destination because its scale dwarfed previous mining districts. Finnegans, Cuddihys, and Ryans were among the early mining captains in the district. By 1860 there was a St. Patrick's Benevolent Society in Hancock, Michigan. The 1862 election of Edward Ryan as county sheriff began a twenty-six-year period when an Irishman held this important local office. As the economic position of the Irish in the Copper Country and their numbers began to wane in the 1880s, Butte, Montana emerged as both a major mining district and a hospitable destination for Irish immigrants.
Notes
(1) See David J. Krause, The Making of a Mining District: Keweenaw Native Copper, 1500-1870 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1992. The best study of prehistoric mining in the region is Susan R. Martin, Powerful Wonder: The Story of Ancient Copper Working in the Lake Superior Basin (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999.
(2) The British trade paper, the Mining Journal was highly skeptical of reports from Lake Superior until an experienced Cornish mining captain filed a report.
(3) Portage Lake Mining Gazette, April 17, 1890.
(4) The Ryans and Cuddihys were from County Tipperary and settled in the Southwest Wisconsin lead district in 1844. About ten years later a number of people from each family moved to the Michigan Copper District. John C. Ryan died in 1890 and John D. moved to Denver where he joined an older brother, William, in business until William's death. Around 1900 William Scallon, Marcus Daly's (the Butte Copper King) attorney, introduced Ryan to Daly's widow - Ryan subsequently became head of the Anaconda Company and founded Montana Power. John D. Ryan was the most powerful man in Montana and a major, if forgotten, figure nationally. William Scallon's brother James was the Irish physician in Hancock, MI; William had practiced there briefly before heading west. John D.'s uncle, Edward Ryan died in 1900 with an estate valued at nearly $1 million. (5) Robert Kane, M.D., The Industrial Resources of Ireland (Shannon: Irish University Press, 1971 reprint of 1845 second edition.) (6) Hall's career is recounted often in accounts of Irish mining. He was an officer in a regiment with a larger number of Cornish troops who showed him surface showings of copper ore. His son and daughter-in-law wrote two books that discuss his career as well as their travels throughout Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. S.C. Hall, Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &, 3 volumes (London, 1845) and S,C. Hall, Retrospect of a Long Life from 1815 to 1883, 2 vols. (London, 1883). (7) See, D. Cowman and T.A. Reilly, The Abandoned Mines of West Carbery: Promoters Adventurers and Miners ([Dublin:] Geological Survey of Ireland, 1988) and Des Cowman, "The Mining Boom of 1824-'25: Part 1," Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland 1 (2001), pp. 49-054. (8) Mining Journal, Sept. 12, 1846, p. 388. (9) Mining Journal, January 16, 1847, p. 31. (10) By the time of An Gorta Mor, the Berehaven mines were operated by the Puxley family of Dunboy. Earlier partners had been bought out. As a private company, little information about its operations appeared even in the industry press, except for the reports on the Swansea ticketings. The Mining Journal assumed from what information was available that it was very profitable and the size of Dunboy and the lifestyle of the Puxleys support such a conclusion. The mines at Knockmahon were owned by the Mining Company of Ireland (MCI). It held a half-yearly shareholders' meeting and issued half-yearly reports. The mines at Avoca were operated by the Wicklow Copper Mine Company on a lease from the Hibernia Mining Company, an early example of an interlocking directorate. It too held regularly scheduled shareholder meetings and issued public reports. (11) Mining Journal Dec, 18, 1847, p. 597. (12) Ibid. Feb. 6, 1847, p. 57. (13) Ibid. March 27, 1847, p. 137. (14) Ibid. (15) Des Cowman, "Life and Labour in Three Irish Mining Communities circa 1840," Saothar 9 (1983), pp. 10-19; Des Cowman, "Life and Work in an Irish Mining Camp c. 1840: Knockmahon Copper Mines, Co. Waterford," Decies no. 14 (1980), pp. 28-42; C. O Mahony, "Copper Mining at Allihies, Co. Cork," Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 92 (1987), pp. 71-84. (16) Some records for the Allihies Mines are on microfilm (Geological Survey of Ireland); R.A. Williams, The Berehaven Copper Mines, Northern Mine research Society, British Mining No. 42, 1991.[reprinted by A.B. O'Connor, the Kenmare Bookshop, County Kerry.] (17) Mining Journal, June 8, 1850, p. 270 (18) On emigration by Irish miners, see: William H. Mulligan, Jr., : From the Beara to the Keweenaw: The Migration of Irish Miners from Allihies, County Cork to the Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, USA, 1845-1880," Journal of the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland, no. 1 (2001), pp. 19-24 and Mulligan, "Irish Immigrants in Michigan's Copper Country," New Hibernia Review 5 (2001), pp. 109-122. (19) The short-lived Irish Railway Gazette (1844-1849) promoted and reported on railway development in Ireland. It occasionally reported on Irish mining, most often by reprinting articles from the Mining Journal, although at times that was reversed. Unlike the Mining Journal it was published in Dublin. About the Author ' |
© Willliam H Mulligan MMV 