PROMINENT IRISHMEN OF THE NORTH-WEST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XI, Issue 29, 16 November 1883, Page 27

PROMINENT IRISHMEN OF THE NORTH-WEST.

(Special Correspondence of the Pilot )

Dulutb, Minn., Aug. 21, 1883. It will soon be time to write of prominent Irishmen of the great North-west ; indeed, already the men are many, and the material is good. Why would not this out-of-the-way place be a good startingpoint ? Certainly one cannot get much to the North and West, if one would keep out of the woods and away from the flag of John Bull. This Duluth is Knockmeldown and the Bay of Naples thrown into one, with the Cove of Cork between them. Only Knocktneldown here is a rocky prominence surrounded by burned pine, and not by peat bogs, as the famous Irish hill is. The Irishmen of the West have made their mark in the world of commerce as well as on the highways, that is to cay, the railways, of the country.. And just now would be a good time to speak of the Irishmen of the West, for one of them, Mr. Dennis Kyan, a TippeTary man, is bringing honor on his people by building in St. Paul a million dollar hotel. Mr. Ryan is as unpretentious as though he did not have a ten-dollar bill in his pocket, yet it is said that he will build the hotel out of the year's earnings of one of his mines in Utah.

St. Paul may thank that other prominent Irishman of St. Paul, Mr. P. H. Kelly, who is as well known in the commercial circles of Boston as he is in St. Paul, for causing Mr. Ryan to settle at the head of navigation on the Mississippi. Bat I will confine myself to Duluth just now, simply placing as I do Mr. Ryan and Mr. Kelly at the head of the distinguished Irishmen of the North-west. Indeed, I may make company for them by adding to their number Mr. Anthony Kelly, of Minneapolis, a brother oE Mr. P. H. KeLly, who is wealthy and respectable, if not so stirring and aggressive as the Mr. Kelly oE St. Paul.

One of the prominent objects of the hillside here is a frame church, surmounted by the cross, the insignia of salvation. The pastor, Rev. Christopher Murphy, is young in years, but conies of an ancient Irish family, although he was bora in Wisconsin. Going with the main street you are sfruck with the Irish names and signs. Flyn Brothers, -Farrell and Farrell, John J. Costello, John T. Condon, Walter Dunphy, Hart O'Brien, Captain" James Sullivan, and Major O'Brien, are names that are prominent in business here, whilst the fighting editors include R. J. McGruire. It would be interesting to trace the above merchants, the majority of whom, no doubt, crossed the Atlantic with perhaps not five pounds to spare, and now here is Mr. Costello putting up a fine stone storehouse on the leading business street. What a country of possibilities this is, to be sure 1 Turning to Mr. Dennis Ryan, of St. Paul, it would be interesting .to know how much he brought from Tipperary, and how he is a large owner of real estate in Chicago, as well as in St. Paul. This is going to be one of the most prominent cities o£ the West. Here the gret Northern Pacific Railroad will make connection with boats that will take the wheat and wool aud beef of the West to tide water.

The chain of American lakeg, the wonderful inland seas, have their western end heie, and so to this .point comes coal from Pennsylvania, and it -will astonish you to be told that coal is brought here from Buffalo, 1,200 miles, for eighty-five cents per ton, and freight is of course equally low from here to Buffalo, and by canal from Buffalo to New York City. This is the nut that the British farmer must crack, and this cheap transit by water, beginning 1,500 miles from New York, is the reason why so many farms in England are idle — they would not pay the cost of working them.

The crops in the great West are turning out better than they promised six weeks ago. There are no farms in this section, the great industries being timber and ores. The timber is sent to the growing West : this is hardly West any more, and one does not feel far from home until he gets to the Red River, some 250 miles from here. On the way you would pass the residence and the place of business of prominent Irishmen, as for instance that of Mr. Wm. Dunlap, at a town called the "N. P. Junction."

But the Irish have not the day to themselves ; there are a great many well-to-do Germans in the country.

I am running hither and you, and I will drop you a line occasionally. Those of tbis country who came from the East are of course familiar with the old Pilot. They saw it in their own or in their father's houses in the olden time, and indeed many of them have it here, and more of them would have it if they but knew what a good paper the old Pilot is. S. J. A.