Speed, John - stone cutting
Written by Karen Zach for the Bi-Centennial of Mo Co
Title: English,
German, Irish and Many More Immigrants and Emigrants Came Our Way
Read the 1850 Montgomery County census. Or, stroll through Calvary, the Catholic
cemetery while perusing names on the headstones. You’ll soon discover what country the most of
our immigrants called home. Definitely, we walk and talk with descendants of
these Irish men and women almost daily.
Between 1843-47 during the Potato Famine over 150 Irish
families arrived here. Of the
foreign-born families all were Irish but a few (two from France, five from
England, seven = Scotland, fourteen German-oriented provinces and one from
Africa) in the 1850 census not long after their arrival.
The railroad work called many here, including Henry Tammany,
a railroad contractor, who in the 1850 census would be called quite rich
tallying $70,000 in assets. He must have
had a large home, as well with 13 families dwelling at his place, 12 of those
Irish, of course. Some of these would
follow along to another city as the railroad was built, while others remained
here, knowing the schools were good and the community was an excellent place to
raise their children. In the
naturalization records, the majority here are Mc indicating Irish and some
Scottish plus O’Connor, O’Donough, and other O’ folks, besides Nolans and other
Irish names.
The English were prominent in other parts of the county as
well as in the city. Richard Breaks born
in 1791 in Yorkshire, England was one of the earliest naturalizations in our
county (Sept 1831). With just 50 cents
in his pocket upon arrival here, he built him a cabin and worked for Andrew
Beard. Purchasing a small farm he became
quite a prominent farmer in northern Union Township. William DeCraux Tilney, one of our earliest
county doctors was quite a hoot and came from England as well.
Along this line, we have had a few Canadians come down,
including the Peacock family, Samuel born in 1867 in Oakville, Canada
graduating from the University of Buffalo in 1892 and then to Ladoga in early
1894. His brother Norman Francis born at
Oakville in 1873 came to Darlington where he raised a family of four including
the Peacock doctor twins, William Franklin and Norman Fredrick. Other Canadians were Crull, Davidson, Dale,
Doherty, Fuller, Fulwider, Hutton, Kehoe, Kennedy, Kirkpatrick, Lyon, McJimsey,
Neff, O’Brien, Oliver, Pool, Rafferty, Roach, Rowe, Scott, Shelby, Shephard,
Sweeten, Trask and Trout.
The German immigrants would rank next in number. Several of these immigrants were major
influences in Crawfordsville and Montgomery County. For instance, Fred Conred Bandel was born in
1851 in Strausberg, Germany. His father
passed when Fred was just a boy, so Fred sold newspapers to help feed them
all. He was said to have a kindly heart
and soul, be a man of great conviction and “considerate of rights of all
men.” He has a nifty story, too.
As many immigrants and emigrants who came here, Fred Bandel
fell in love with the area and people and remained for the rest of his life
versus his plan that with his masonry skills finished up here, he’d go forth
elsewhere and prosper. Hmmmm, mayoring
would be prospering, I’d say, as Fred served six years the head of the city.
Common knowledge regarding Germans is their love of ale and
Henry Lorenz capitalized big-time on that, purchasing in 1853 a tiny brewery in
the triangle encased property by Lafayette Avenue at Market and Grant. Born in Germany (1827) he came here as a
young man and made quite an impression as well as a fortune. Several articles
indicate that yet today the beer cellars dug in 1864 under Market Street still
exist.
Some Scottish folks came early, and one of the more popular
families was the Speeds. John Speed was
born in Perthshire, Scotland in 1801, and came to America in a codfish
schooner. According to Crawfordsville:
Athens of Indiana, his career was stone cutting and when living in Philadelphia
he heard that Indiana was building a large, impressive capitol building, thus
he came here to put his trade to work, and then on to Crawfordsville
thereafter. William Robertson of Cooper
Angus, Scotland came here at age nine with his family to Cincinnati and made a
great business here in the cabinet trade.
Currently, our large Spanish-speaking community members are
becoming tradesmen, teachers, machinists, gardeners, servicemen and women,
doctors, and much more!
Other countries blessed us (Greece for one with the Siamis,
Kaitson, Giankis families) with some wonderful workers, business owners,
doctors, lawyers, and nurses.
Sometimes the names trick ya’ so a good search is often
pertinent, such as for Fred Bailey.
Irish? English? I’d choose one of them but he was naturalized
here 6 Sept 1870 after being here for three years and was born in Perlsberg,
Prussia. Likewise, I’d have thought
Bastable would be German but Bartholomew Bastable was born and raised in County
Kerry in Ireland. Then there are those
that just couldn’t be anything but what ya’ think …for instance Charles Conrad Kryzpinsky, yep, born in
Prussia (Poland area likely).
Just one or a few from some of the countries were here, such
as Swedish born Swan Larson who lived in Ripley Township where he farmed and
Charley Youngberry who was born the first half of the year in 1850 and was here
in America by the 26th of
June. He was naturalized in MoCo on 19
Oct 1872 but does not show up in any of our census records. Sure love to know where he went. There was the Mitkus family from Russia. Few but some Italians (example: Fred Bazzani
was always thought of as a whop as his parents were from Italy but he was a
true blue American, born, raised and fought for this country), such as Fatta
Paola who seemed to be here but a few years after the railroad era so not sure
what happened to him.
Certainly, it is a lot of fun to play with the names of the
area, guessing where they are from, confirming or knocking away your
suspicions, finding relationships to those here now, discovering what they did
for a living, where they are buried.
Besides fun, it most definitely is a valuable