O'Neil Family
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Mary Motherway O’Neil lost her husband from fever at the height of the Irish famine. Because she was a woman, she was not allowed to renew the lease on the family farm. She chose to leave—hoping to find a better life for her family.
Colonized by the English, the Irish owned little land and subsisted largely on the potato. A blight devastated this crop in the 1840s and 50s. As a result, nearly 1.5 million people died from starvation or famine related disease. About one million Irish famine survivors immigrated to the U.S.
In 1851 Mary gathered up her children (ranging in age from 6 to 20 years old) and her meager assets, and boarded a ship to the United States. She planned to settle in Louisiana where she had purchased an interest in a land development company.
Mary Motherway O’Neil
Shillelagh, circa 1865
Besides the dangers of being at sea, ship passengers ran the risk of being robbed. Hanora Foley brought along this blackthorn club, also known as a shillelagh, when she came from Ireland to McLean County. It was used for fending off attackers.
Donated by: Emily Carlton
817.1059
Because yellow fever was sweeping through the city, the O’Neils were transferred to a riverboat. This boat took them north to St. Louis. Somewhere along the way, Mary learned that the land company was a fraud and they that had lost all their money.
The O’Neils looked for work in St. Louis.
Phillip, the oldest son, found work on the railroad that was being built from Alton to Chicago. Through this work he learned of opportunities in Bloomington.
Port of New Orleans, circa 1852.
They narrowly missed death when the paddle wheel steamer they booked to Pekin in 1853 exploded a few miles up the river.
The explosion killed almost everyone on board, but the O’Neils had missed the boat. Phillip, who was off drinking, could not be found.
They took a later boat and, after arriving in Pekin, traveled overland to Bloomington.
When the O’Neils finally boarded a steamer for Pekin, they departed from the levee at St. Louis. The levee at St. Louis, Missouri, circa 1870.
Courtesy the Library of Congress.
The O’Neils began their new life in Forty Acres. Adjacent to the Chicago & Alton Railroad shops, developers laid out town lots and Irish families borrowed money to build homes. Daniel and William O’Neil opened a grocery store.
The O’Neil brothers, Daniel and William, and their children successfully ran a grocery store on West Chestnut Street from 1863 to 1957. A community mainstay, they were known for supplying groceries to their neighbors in times of need.
Forty Acres, an Irish neighborhood west of the Chicago & Alton Railroad shops, was the center of Irish life. It began as an unincorporated part of Bloomington just outside the city limits. It was remembered as . . .
“[a] squatter town [with] shanties here and there... about each home a garden and a pig sty on the back lot... cow paths across the western prairie led into the brush.”
Map of Forty Acres.
Whether Judge David Davis was a shrewd businessman or was simply impressed by the labors of William O’Neil is unknown. But in 1855 Davis loaned him $100 to build a house for his mother, brothers, and sisters. The home was located on Lumber Street, just behind the O’Neil Grocery.
With its two front rooms and loft, the O’Neil’ hall and parlor style home was typical of the homes built by Irish immigrants. As circumstances improved, they added a kitchen wing.
The O’Neils were devoted Catholics who had a lot to pray about. Two of Mary’s sons died violent deaths.
James was shot in the face in 1873 while walking home from a fair. The murder was never solved.
A veteran of the American Indian Wars, Phillip shot himself while experiencing an alcohol induced psychosis.
This O’Neil family portrait was taken shortly after Phillip’s suicide. Left to right: Catherine O’Neil Ryan, William O'Neil (seated), Daniel O’Neil, Ellen McLean, Johanna O'Neil Clancy (seated), and Mary O’Neil Keating.
Thirty-three individuals, including William O’Neil, attended the first Catholic mass in Bloomington, held in 1853 in the McLean County Courthouse.
At the time, this was not an unusual practice for congregations that did not yet have a church.
McLean County’s second courthouse, built in 1836.
Determined to have their own church, Bloomington’s Catholics purchased the old Methodist church on West Olive Street.
Bloomington’s first Catholic church, the Immaculate Conception, was completed in 1870. Soon after that it was destroyed by a tornado. A Gothic style church (pictured above prior to the completion of its dome) replaced it at the corner of Main and Chestnut Streets. This new church, Holy Trinity, was destroyed by fire in 1932 and replaced by the Art Deco style church still being used today.
O’Neil supported the growing Irish working class community who wanted a neighborhood Catholic church on the west side.
In 1892 plans to organize and build St. Patrick’s Church were made. The church, located on the corner of Locust Street and Western Avenue, was completed in 1893.
The Irish enjoyed and preferred socializing with each other.
Large numbers of Bloomington’s Irish joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. This Irish Catholic organization assisted and protected the Church and its parishioners from discrimination. It later evolved into a social insurance and fraternal organization.
McLean County’s 1914 St. Patrick’s Day celebration was an elaborate affair.
