Uploaded on: 06/24/2007
Some immigrants came from Canada
Not all immigrants arrived in the United States via New York and Ellis Island. Terry Killian, a member of the Basilica of St. Mary, writes that her paternal ancestors, the Kellys, landed in Montreal, Quebec, from Waterford, Ireland. They spent time on Isle Royale and in Wisconsin before arriving in Minnesota.
Likewise, the early Irish settlers of Stillwater came from New Brunswick, where a settlement already had been formed, according to a published history of St. Michael in Stillwater by Rita Lammers.
In the 1840s, some left for logging opportunities in Minnesota. They named their new church in Stillwater after St. Michael’s Cathedral in New Brunswick.
One descendent of St. Michael’s early founders was Catherine Ahearn Harrigan, the mother of entertainer Bing Crosby.