Trainor, Joseph and Harold Fortune.  "Irish Settlers Left A Lasting Mark On Jamestown," Jamestown (NY) Post-Journal, Tempo.
        The Post-Journal website:  http://post-journal.com/

Irish Settlers Left A Lasting Mark On Jamestown

Editor's Note: This history of the Irish in Jamestown was compiled for the Jamestown Centennial, which was celebrated the week of June 19, 1927. It was prepared by Joseph Trainor and Harold Fortune and read by Daniel J. Moynihan Jr. June 21, 1927 at First Methodist Church. A copy was supplied to the Post-Journal by Daniel J. Moynihan 3rd.

    We find amongst the pioneer settlers the O'Briens, Spellacys, Smiths and O'Connells of whom we have no specific or detailed information at hand. The following are a few of the earlier settlers regarding whom we have been able to collect more definite information.

    James Doyle, accompanied by his wife, came from County Kerry, Ireland, and settled in Jamestown in 1851. For a number of years he was employed as a laborer on the Erie Railroad. Doyle lived in Dexterville and there built a soap factory, which he conducted until his death and which is still in operation, having been moved to Stillwater. Only one living descendent remains; Miss Bridget Doyle, of this city.

    Judge John Maharon was born in Buffalo May 12, 1852, of Irish parents and came to Jamestown in 1853. As a young man he was employed as a foreman by the Jeffords Lounge Company, later the Jamestown Lounge Company.

    Jamestown was still a village when he was elected to his first public office as constable. In 1886, when the village was incorporated, he was appointed one of three of the police force of the city and served continuously as policeman until 1906 when he was elected police justice, an office he held for 12 years until his retirement. He was detailed to act as an escort to President Ulysses S. Grant when the latter visited Jamestown, also to General George B. McClellan and Robert Ingersoll, the agnostic. Judge Maharon died June 4, 1927 and is survived by Mrs. Mary Brady, Mrs. Samuel Olson, John, Francis, Catherine and Julia Maharon.

    Thomas Mahoney, born in 1846 in the town of Tarbert on the River Shannon in County Kerry, Ireland, came to Jamestown in 1853 and, with his parents, settled in Dexterville, where he received his education from his mother, Mary Neville Mahoney.

    His first job was chore boy on the Johiel Tiffany Estate, the site of which is now occupied by Salisbury Axle Works and neighboring plants in East Jamestown. In early manhood he married Margaret Moynihan.

    Mahoney learned the stonemason and bricklaying trades and worked on the Prendergast Library, Baker Street culvert and built many bridges. One of the first houses he built was for his mother at what is now number 730 Buffalo St., and, as a silent testimonial to his good workmanship, the house still stands in good repair.

    Mahoney was the father of the late Dr. John J. Mahoney, for many years district state health officer and health superintendent of Jamestown. The living descendents are Mrs. Evelyn Barrett, Mary, Margaret, Thomas, Edward, Daniel and Matthew Mahoney.

    James Murray, better known as Captain Murray, was born in West Meath, Ireland, in 1825. He settled in Jamestown in 1855. In 1861 he commenced working on the Chautauqua Lake steamboats and advanced himself until he became captain of a steamer.

    During 1871, the boat of which he was captain, the "Chautauqua," was destroyed by the explosion of its boiler. Thirteen persons lost their lives and the captain received injuries which maimed him for life. He then held positions of constable, policeman and collector, for the town of Ellicotville.

    He was Jamestown's first chief of police and is still remembered in that capacity by some of our oldest citizens. There are five living descendents- Mrs. Martin Pierce, Julia, Minnie, John and Edward Murray.

    John Callahan, born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1817, came to America in 1833 and settled in Jamestown in 1855. During the construction of the Erie Railroad through this section, Callahan was employed as time-keeper and later engaged in the trucking business.

    He first lived in Dexterville, then bought property in what is now the corner of Crane and Center streets, where the family now resides. The living descendents are James P., Daniel, Nora, Elizabeth, Margaret and Susanna Callahan.

    Patrick Moynihan was born in County Kerry, and married Honora Cronin Feb. 17, 1840. He was what was termed a freeholder or owner of property and campaigned in Ireland for the immortal Daniel O'Connell, champion of freedom. Moynihan and his wife came to Jamestown in 1858 and resided on Center Street, opposite the Callahan home. They later moved to a brick block on Second Street, between Pine and Spring Streets, and from there to 711 Lafayette Street, where they spent the remainder of their lives, Moynihan attaining the age of 99 years.

    Their living descendents are Mrs. James J. Corkery, Mrs. William Tyler, Miss Bridget Moynihan and Patrick Moynihan.

    Mrs. Julia Curran, born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1841, first lived in Dunkirk, after arriving in America in 1858. She came to Jamestown in 1861 and is now living with her daughter, Julia, at 110 Fairview Ave. Another daughter, Mrs. Thomas Chambers, also resides in this city.

    Thomas Chambers and Susan Hartigan came from County Claire, Ireland, to Jamestown in 1861 and were married here in 1863. One son, Thomas Chambers, survives.

    Michael W. Sweeny, born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1835, came to Jamestown in 1861. He was an iron molder by trade and worked in Clark's Foundry many years.

    Sweeney built and owned the Sweeney block near the boat landing. He married Kate Maloney to whom were born three daughters, one of whom, Kate, became the wife of Hershey, the nationally-known chocolate manufacturer. The only surviving daughter is Mrs. Louis Smith of 1 Murray Avenue.

    John Mahoney, born in County Kerry, Ireland, in 1833, was one of four Mahoney brothers who came to Jamestown in the early 1850s, arriving here in 1853.

    For a time he worked one the Erie Railroad and later, with his sons, built the Gifford block in Brooklyn Square, and also the brick house on Lakeview Avenue, known as the Gokey residence, now occupied by Ralph Sheldon and family.

    Marius George Martin, born in Galway, Ireland, Feb. 2, 1837, was the son of a very able lawyer. Marius George worked his way on a ship to Savannah, Georgia, when he was 21 years of age, but shortly after returned to Liverpool, England, out of which port he worked as a sailor for three years when he again embarked for America to make his future home, then being 24 years of age.

    He landed in New York in 1861 and shortly after left on foot for Indianapolis. After a short stay there, he returned to Olean, where he married Eleanor Wyatt. In 1862 he came to Jamestown and lived on Forest Avenue, near what is now Prather Avenue.

    In 1865 he moved a house from Olean to Jamestown and it is still a part of the Martyn home at 518 West Fourth St., where he now resides with his niece, Mrs. Kathleen Finch. He has been engaged in mercantile, manufacturing and newspaper work ever since being a resident of Jamestown.

    From 1889 to 1891, he was a frequent contributor to the local papers under the pen name of "Plodder." In 1891 he established a newspaper called the "Jamestown All." In this periodical, he editorially stressed the importance of a municipal water and electrical light system and, through his efforts, more than any other individual, we have the water and electric light plants owned by the city. After his efforts were crowned with success, and Jamestown procured its water plant, the citizens erected at the northwest corner of Third and Main streets, the first public drinking fountain in Jamestown as a memorial to the father of our municipal water and electric light plants, a suitably inscribed plate being placed thereon. Martyn also had the honor of serving on the Common Council.

    Patrick Maher was born in the County of Tipperary, Ireland, in 1836. After coming to America, he lived in Buffalo, where he was employed as a water boy with the construction crew building the Erie Railroad.

    While still living in Buffalo, he purchased the property now numbered 722 West Fifth St. He came to Jamestown in 1865 and later built a house on this site where he resided until his death in 1926.

    He was a machinist by trade and a very clever craftsman. He superintended the construction of some of the largest power plants in Jamestown in his time and also had charge of the mechanism on the lake steamers. Maher is survived by Thomas, Paul, John, William, Margaret and Gertrude Maher.

Industries
 
Furniture Factory

    Marius George Martyn in 1865 purchased from Mr. Brown a part of the property which was later built up into the Martyn factory where he manufactured lounges and couches and other kinds of furniture until recent years. The firm was known as Martyn Brothers, but was owned solely by M. G. Martyn. He allowed his brothers names to be used as a source of encouragement to them.

    This factory building was the birth place of many of our present large furniture concerns. They rented floor space and bought the necessary power and started in a small way, remaining until able to build or buy a small plant of their own. This was one of our earliest manufacturing plants.

Patrick Maher's Machine Shop and Foundry

    After working a short time for Josephus H. Clark, who had a machine shop in the rear of the site of the Hotel Jamestown, Maher opened a machine shop and foundry on Taylor Street in 1885, where it is still located, being owned and managed by Thomas Maher, his son, since the death of Patrick Maher in 1926.

Mercantile

    In 1862 Marius George Martyn opened a store in the rear of what is now the Bank of Jamestown Building, for the sale of linen and crockery - the first of its kind in this section and, for those times, did quite a flourishing business. Often on a Saturday night he would sell a hundred dollars worth of his wares, a large sum in those days.

    Some of his crockery, or "delft," as it was called by many in those days, is still found in the city. Mrs. James J. Corkery of 711 Lafayette St. has in her possession a fine platter purchased in Martyn's Crockery Store. Martyn also sold ocean tickets to the Swedish and Irish for passage of their friends and relatives to this country.

 

04/27/2004

jpl