New York and Boston are often the focal point when it comes
to Irish immigration to the U.S. However, there have been a number of very
interesting migrations from specific
parts of Ireland. Radharc (pronunciation RYE-urk), an Irish production company
specializing in documentaries, made The
Irish Texans in 1995. It tells the story of a planned settlement of Wexford
farmers who came to Texas in 1834. You can find more information about the
documentary here.
One of those emigrants was Thomas O'Connor (you can read
more about him here). He recruited many families from the Ballygarret area of
Wexford, where he was from.[1]
The Texas Connection: the
Story of the Wexford Colony in Refugio contains lists of people who traveled
with O'Connor and were granted land in 1834. Some of these names can also be
found in evidence from a court case in the 1890s.[2]
[1] Roche,
Richard. 1989. The Texas Connection: the Story of the Wexford Colony in Refugio.
Wexford: Wexford Heritage Committee.
[2] McKeehan,
Wallace L. "Deposition of William St. John, one of the colonists of the
Power-Hewitson Colony, taken during Welder-Lambert Lawsuit, No. 449 in District
Court of Refugio County, Texas, 1891" on The Irish Colonies Index; online available at http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/irishpowhew3.htm:
accessed 28 July 2013.
O'Connor didn't recruit the colonists. He was only 16 at the time. It was his uncle, James Power, who came back to Wexford from Texas to recruit people to return with him under a contract he had with the Mexican government. Thomas was one of those who returned with him.
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