The Irish Wilderness in Missouri
The Irish Wilderness in Oregon County, Missouri is the subject of the first novel by Veronica Roberts featured in The South Missourian News
It’s a story of Irish emigration to Missouri during famine times, describing two familes in Ireland, their voyage to the States and their overland travels to the Missouri Ozarks by way of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Cape Girardeau.
According to William Carr, the author’s husband, his wife spent many years researching, writing and illustrating the novel:
Roberts researched available documents and interviewed present day residents in and around the Irish Wilderness in preparation for writing the novel. Carr said it is written with careful attention to both the historical records and oral tradition of the region.
The Irish Wilderness is so named because of a settlement of 40 to 50 Irish families brought to the area by an Irish priest, Fr John Joseph Hogan in 1858. This settlement was wiped out during the Civil War.
The Irish Wilderness is located in the Mark Twain National Forest and was designated a wilderness area by the U.S. Congress in 1984. That means no motorized or mechanized vehicles, including bicycles are allowed, no roads or buildings are constructed and there is also no logging or mining. With proper permits camping and fishing are allowed.
For more information on The Irish Wilderness I recommend Rev. Dwight Frizzell’s historiophonic meditation produced by National Audio Theatre Festivals in 2003. It’s a fascinating collection of traditional music ensemble, animal call vocalist, hydrophonic metal instrument, Ozark soundscape recordings and 6.1 channel sound
See Other Tales of Immigration and the Irish:
• Irish Place Names and Illegals
• Stage Irish Woman Shows Mexicans the Way
• The Irish Soldiers of Mexico
• Ellis Island Texas Legend Debunked
• Missouri Irish Name
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Hi Eolai…
This is Kevin Kiley…
Thanks for the heads up on the new book!
Any stories of Irish in the midwest is a favorite
topic of mine and I’m going to add this book to
my collection.
Matter of fact… I’ve done a fair amount of research
myself on the subject of “The Irish in the Ozarks” in
order to understand the musical influences better and
I happened to find out for myself that the “Irish
Wilderness” settlement was not completely wiped out
during the Civil war. The county where Father Hogan’s
settlement was touches on the Arkansas border and a
lot of the families fled south into Arkansas. You can see
to this day their names appearing in the 1868 county
census for northern Arkansas Counties such as Izard
and Stone Counties.
Fella named John Lafferty from County Limerick, Ireland,
was the first known permanent European settler in
Izard County, Arkansas, which is just a day’s horse ride
down what was then known as “The Pochahontas Trail”
which connected St. Louis and Little Rock and passed
just east of of Father Hogan’s “Irish Wilderness”
settlement in southern Missouri. There is evidence that
when the bushwhackers from both Northern and Southern
armies started attacking the Irish in Missouri they fled
down to Izard County to the “Lafferty Creek” area in
Izard County which was already another established
“Irish” area in the Ozarks ( and more protected than
where Father Hogan chose to start his settlement ).
To this day “Lafferty’s Creek” exists and is only 10 miles
due east of Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is the
home of the official “Ozark Folk Music Center” created
by another famous (Irish) Ozark figure James Morris
( AKA: Jimmy Driftwood ).
Jimmy Driftwood was associated with the “Hillbilly Music”
scene but was of Irish descent and there are recordings
of his father, Neal Morris, in the Smithosian Institution
mad by Alan Lomax. Lomax recorded Neal Morris singing
true “Sean Nos” Irish ballads right there in the Ozarks
before radio came along.
Fascinating stuff, really.
The Ozark culture and music has a long and rich
tradition of heavy Irish influence that has still yet to
be fully revealed.
Captain Francis O’Neill himself married his wife in the
Ozarks and started his famous “1001 Dance Tunes”
book with tunes he was playing ( and learning from
other Irish/Ozark musicians ) at local Ozark barn dances
before moving to Chicago.
Later…
Kevin
Correction to previous post…
The Ozark Folk Music Center created by
James Morris ( AKA: Jimmy Driftwood ) is
located in “Mountain View”, Arkansas, and
not “Mountain Home”. “Mountain Home” is
another Arkansas Ozark town with it’s own
fascinating “Irish history” located about
20 miles north of “Mountain View”.
The “Lafferty Creek” area is 10 miles east
of “Mountain View”, not “Mountain Home”.
“To this day “Lafferty’s Creek” exists and is only 10 miles
due east of Mountain Home, Arkansas, which is the
home of the official “Ozark Folk Music Center” created
by another famous (Irish) Ozark figure James Morris
( AKA: Jimmy Driftwood ).”
A couple of things wrong with this statement.
1) Lafferty Vreek is only about 10 miles from Mountain View Arkansas.
2) The Ozark Folk Center is located in Mountain View…not Mountain Home.
If you’d like to see a bit of the beauty that drew the early settlers to Izard County, Have a look at my site that explores the wonder of said county.
http://www.exploreizard.blogspot.com
Cheers!
I made a research trip to the Irish Wilderness in the early 1980’s and included a small chapter in my book on the Missouri Irish. Father Hogan left a record of his settlement in his writings, and there was an old well that everything was eventually dumped into after the settlement ceased.
The Griffen family, of the original settlement, survived in the area according to newspaper articles in the first half of the 20th century.
The original settlement included parts of Oregon and Ripley Counties, and some of the names from Ireland there in 1860 were: Martin; Rhoney; Brown; King; Griffin; Boile; Moran and McGrew.
Just reprinted the book that the research was done for. “Missouri Irish”, is coming out next week. (It was originally titled “Irish Settlers on the American Frontier when it was first published in 1984.)
I’ll be including a podcast on the Irish Wilderness in our Missouri Irish series as well. Great to hear about the new book you noted as well.
All the best,
Mike O’Laughlin