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Henry Knox Delivers the Noble Train of Artillery to George Washington in Cambridge on January 24, 1776

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On January 24, 1776, Bostonian Henry Knox (1750-1806) arrived at General George Washington's Colonial Army headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with news that some 60 tons of weapons, including 58 cannons and assorted artillery, had been successfully transported from Fort Ticonderoga in New York to the outskirts of Boston.  The weapons were being used to fortify American defenses against the British occupying forces during the Siege of Boston. Historian J.L. Bell suggests that the bulk of the weaponry may have been held at Framingham, MA, and that Knox was simply reporting to General Washington about the successful mission on January 24. Knox was the mastermind and commander of what became known as the Noble Train of Artillery, a 300 mile trek across a frozen landscape in the dead of winter. Knox and his men dragged the arsenal across hills and mountains, frozen lakes and fields, on boats and sleds, with horse and oxen, through dozens of small villages in eastern New York and...
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Landmarks Honoring Legendary Massachusetts Politician Thomas 'Tip' O'Neill in Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod and Donegal

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  Tip O'Neill Bust in Buncrana, photo courtesy of Visit Donegal Legendary politician Thomas P. 'Tip' O’Neill, one of the most impactful politicians of American politics in the 20th century, died on January 5, 1994 at his home in Harwichport, Cape Cod.  He was 81. Born in North Cambridge on December 9, 1912, he was the son of Thomas Philip O'Neill, Sr. and Rose Ann Tolan. His grandfather, from Mallow, County Cork, had emigrated to Massachusetts in the 1840s during the Irish Famine.  O’Neill based his entire political career on the mantra, ‘All Politics is Local,’ a phrase that bespoke the need for politicians to communicate directly with constituents and to serve the people rather than oneself.  He entered the Massachusetts state Legislature in 1936 and in 1952 was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, winning the seat held by John F. Kennedy. He became the 47th Speaker of the House in 1977 and held the post until 1987 when he retired.  In the 1970s throu...
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Notes on Irish-American Sculptor Louis St. Gaudens, Creator of the Marble Twin Lions at Boston Public Library

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Portrait of Louis St. Gaudens,  photo courtesy of Saint Gaudens National Historical Park  Louis St. Gaudens (1854-1913), whose iconic sculptures grace the American landscape today, was born in New York City on January 8, 1854. He was the son of Bernard Saint-Gaudens from France and Mary McGuinness from Ireland, and the brother and protégé of his older brother Augustus, considered the preeminent American sculptor of his generation.   The family had emigrated from Dublin to Boston in September 1848, fleeing the Irish Famine.  They stayed in Boston for about six months before moving to New York City, where they settled. Among the most revered works of Louis are the twin lion statues in the foyer of the Boston Public Library; a statue of Greek poet Homer in the Main Reading Room Rotunda of the Library of Congress; six allegorical figures encircling Union Station in Washington, DC, and 46 Roman legionnaire statues inside the station. Louis was schooled in the art of scul...
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Irish Gun Runners Erskine Childers and Molly Alden Osgood Wed at Trinity Church in Boston on January 5, 1904

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Trinity Church, Boston, 1890, courtesy of Boston Public Library English-born Irish rebel Robert Erskine Childers married Mary (Molly) Alden Osgood at Trinity Church in Boston on Tuesday, January 5, 1904. They met at a state dinner hosted by the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company at Faneuil Hall and were married after a three-week courtship. Both were idealists from upper class families whose passions turned toward Ireland. The Boston Globe called the wedding "One of the most interesting events of the social season in Boston....In the distinguished gathering which filled the auditorium of the church was quite a delegation of Londoners, all friends of Mr. Childers, who is clerk of the house of commons and a personal friend of Lord Denbigh." Childers was a gifted writer whose book,  Riddle of the Sands , published in 1903, is considered the first spy-novel thriller. In 1911 Childers published his book,  TheFramework of Home Rule , in which he decried British abuse of f...
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Irish Bandleader P.S. Gilmore Started the Times Square New Year's Eve Countdown Tradition in New York City

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Irishman  Patrick S. Gilmore , the famous 19th century musician and bandleader, started the annual tradition of the New Year's Eve countdown in New York City on December 31, 1888.   On this particular New Year's eve, the Gilmore Band performed for the large audience that gathered up and down Broadway, and then Gilmore led the crowd in a countdown, firing two pistols at the stroke of midnight.  In 1891, Gilmore applied for and received permits from New York City to hold a special concert in  Times Square , which at the time was simply known as the Long Acre, according to Gilmore historian Jarlath McNamara .   The area was renamed Times Square in 1904 when the New York Times opened its offices there. After living in Boston for more than two decades, Gilmore started a new chapter in his life and career when he moved to New York City in 1873, where he led the 22nd Regiment Band. The Gilmore Band performed frequently in the city, and for the final two decades of his ...
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City of Boston Pays Sculptor Martin Milmore an Extra $8,100 for Soldiers & Sailors Monument on Boston Common

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  On Friday, December 28, 1877, an order was passed in Boston City Council to pay sculptor Martin Milmore "an additional $8,1000 for extra work and materials for Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument" on Boston Common, which had been unveiled on September 17, 1877. Milmore had been awarded the commission on December 30, 1870 to build the Soldiers and Sailors War Memorial on Flagstaff Hill, winning over fifteen other proposals. The cost was not to exceed $75,000.  But when Milmore moved to Rome, Italy, where he spent nearly five years working on his masterpiece, he had a change of heart about what material to use.  According to City Councilor Sampson, "Under the contract, Mr. Milmore was to furnish a granite statue. After going abroad to complete his models it was suggested to him by observations made there that granite would be rather bad material to make the statues of on account of the softness of the lines to be made, and on account of its liability to be defaced by...
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Boston Presbyterian Minister John Moorhead Dies in December 1773

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Rev. John Moorhead, portrait by John Greenwood, 1750 Presbyterian Reverend John Moorhead, head of New England's first Scots-Irish congregation, died in Boston in December 1773, just as the America Revolution was about to start.  Formerly of Newtonards, County Down,   Moorhead had emigrated with his congregation of 30 parishioners, and  established the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers in 1729. They built an Irish Meeting House in a converted barn at the corner of Berry Street and Long Lane (now Channing and Federal Street).  As church historian Harriett E. Johnson writes in  Handbook of the Arlington Street Church , (1929) these Scots-Irish were “Good, quiet, law-abiding citizens . . .. [W]ith their sober, steadfast, hardworking, moral philosophy of life they constituted an excellent balance to the idealistic, variable [Puritan], who so often preached freedom, but practiced intolerance and bigotry.” The Church of the Presbyterian Strangers had prospered enoug...
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