10 Little Irishmen

Bradley Lake in Andover, New Hampshire     2002 by Cathy H Paris

Little Mary may have been the price the Fitzgeralds paid for coming to America.  By the fall of 1852, James, Betsey (Graney) Fitzgerald, and their 3 sons had joined James.  What happened to little Mary?  Was she with her sister, Joanna, on the other side of the pearly gates?  

In June of 1853, James and Betsey welcomed a new Mary into the world, the first of five children to be born in Andover, New Hampshire.  Mary was followed by Lizzie (1854), Annie (1856), James E. (1857), and Nellie (1861).  

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the family of Henry Webster and Agnes (Low) was growing too.  Like James and Betsey, they had 10 children.  Their first four children were born in Scotland:  Jessie (1845), John (1847), Henry (1848), and James (1850).  I don’t know where their fifth child, Margaret (1852), was born.  Their last five children were all born in Ireland:  Alexander (1853), Agnes (1855), David “Arthur” (1858), George (1859), and Ebenezer (1861).   

Prospering in Ireland, Henry and Agnes were not immune to suffering.  Agnes was pregnant with their last child when tragedy struck.  Just 5 ½ years old, little Agnes died on March 9, 1861. The next day, Margaret, 8 ¾ years old, joined her sister.

 © 2010, Cathy H Paris