One of the great rewards of researching, writing and publishing our books on the Ozarks has been learning more on the subjects from people who are personally connected with them. Such is the case with our two books on John Joseph Hogan and the Irish Wilderness in Oregon and Ripley counties.
We recently received emails from Juliana Billingsley asking for help researching Billy Griffin, her second great grandfather. Billy Griffin was among the original Irish settlers in Father Hogan’s community in the Ozarks just before the Civil War. Hogan mentioned Billy Griffin several times in his memoir, On the Mission in Missouri. We found Patrick Griffin’s name (Billy’s father) in correspondence with land agents and on deeds to land in the area we identified as areas of the settlement during research for Mystery of the Irish Wilderness.
Conversations with Juliana Billingsley and review of newspaper articles provided additional details on how Billy Griffin and his family came to Father Hogan’s settlement.
June 24, 1843, William (Billy) Griffin was born to Patrick and Elizabeth Delaney Griffin, in Newcastle, West Limerick, Ireland. He was the middle of three children, with older brother Thomas (b. 1838, d. 1914) and younger sister, Katherine (b. 1848, d. 1923).
In 1852, the family emigrated to America. Billy was about 9 years old. According to a substantial obituary in the Van Buren newspaper, the family was in Boston first, then Zanesville, Ohio, then Carondelet, Missouri (near St. Louis). No specific dates known for these different locations.
In 1857, the young Irish priest, John Joseph Hogan was exploring northern Missouri, looking for pioneering Catholics, when he met the railroad contractors, Griffin and Shea. They were from Madison, Indiana, which is on the Ohio River.
The following is pure speculation on my part: Consider that river travel was a major transportation method for settlers moving west in the first half of the 19th century, when railroads were just pushing into the interior of the country. Zanesville, Ohio is on the Muskingum River, which feeds into the Ohio River, a major watery thoroughfare to the West. Follow the Ohio west from Marietta, float past Huntington, West Virginia and Cincinnati, Ohio and the next stop is Madison, Indiana. From there the Ohio is a good conduit to the Mississippi and St. Louis for a family moving west. It is plausible that Griffin (Patrick and/or Billy) connected with Shea there in Madison and got a job, which took him to the prairies of north Missouri and a chance encounter with a traveling priest,
When Hogan visited the railroad camp near Breckenridge in Caldwell County, west of Chillicothe, Billy Griffin would have been about 14 years old. Perhaps he was there with his family. Some families were with the railroad contractors as Hogan noted baptizing two children.
“Returning eastward I stopped for the night near where Breckenridge now is, at a place then called Garryowen—the camp of Griffin and Shea—railroad contractors from Madison, Indiana, who with a band of good sober men were at work on the grade of the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. There, on the evening of August 12th, I baptized two children of the pious edifying railroad community. Garryowen and Billy Griffin had so many attractions for me, and were so intimately associated, in name at least, with places and persons dear to me since childhood, that I stayed there, though aside from the purpose of my journey, a day and night longer.”
On the Mission, page 40
Imagine the nostalgic conversations around the evening fire as they shared memories of County Limerick and the Irish city of Garryowen .
Then a year later (1858), we find Patrick Griffin’s name listed in a report from the Land Agent, saying the acreage he had paid on was already sold to another:
“JACKSON, Mo., APRIL 30, 1858. I find from examination that the following tracts, applied for by you, have been sold, to-wit; application of James Murray, North West 1/4, and lot I North East 1/4, Section 6; application of Denis Sullivan, South West 1/4, Section 21; application of Denis Hurley, South West 1/4 Section 24, application of Thomas Mulvehille, South East 1/4, Section 22; application of Michael Mara, North 1/2, Section 22; application of Stephen McNamara, West 1/2, Section 23; application of Patrick Griffin, South 1/2 of North East 1/4, Section 36; application of Patrick Rowe, North West 1/4, Section 30. All these have been sold to others. Very respectfully, G. W. FERGUSON.”
On the Mission, page 64
The Iron Mountain Railroad, which would run from St. Louis to Texarkana, Arkansas, was under construction then, a possible source of employment for the Griffins. Billy was 15 by that time. In Mystery of the Irish Wilderness, we listed Billy’s father, Patrick Griffin, as a likely settler in Ripley County.
When the War came with its violent disruptions and savage ebb and flow of forces, Billy Griffin joined the Confederate Army, which would not have sat well with Father Hogan. But wars make decisions for individuals.
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Mystery of the Irish Wilderness: Land and Legend of Father John Joseph Hogan’s Lost Irish Colony in the Ozark Wilderness and On the Mission in Missouri are available on amazon.com or discounted 50 percent on this website, postage paid.
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