Raising a Glass - Irish Women in America by Jo-Ann Roberts

 

Happy March! Happy Spring!  As we speak, I'm in the middle of writing my upcoming release, Olivia's Odyssey (July 2024). This is my first mail-order bride book, and admittedly, it's been a bit of a challenge to plot. Since I've never written one before, so the research on who, why, where, and when these women chose to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to marry a man sight unseen was a bit daunting.

When I finally decided on the heroine's 4w's (who, why, where, when) Olivia Glennon, an Irish American shoe factory worker from South Boston, Massachusetts emerged. With the loss of her mother, she was raised by her father, spending most of her formative years sleeping in saloons while her father lost money playing cards. The plot is still in the formative stages, so I'll stop there!

The Irish, like many, many ethnicities, had a tremendous impact on American history and culture. It is estimated that 36.9 million Americans claim Irish roots. The Irish are the second-largest heritage group after the Germans. However, the Irish were unique among all immigrant groups...

...they sent more daughters than sons to America!

Between 1820 and 1860, the Irish constituted over one-third of all immigrants to the U.S., and by the 1840s--at the height of the Potato Famine--they comprised nearly half. Even after the crisis, Irish women continued to migrate in increasing numbers. By the end of the 19th century, single women accounted for 53% of Irish immigrants.

These girls and women moved to America for the same reason as men: opportunity and freedom. They left behind hard scrabble farms where they worked as long and as hard as men to bring in a crop while maintaining homes and taking care of children. Poor as church mice, the women--many of them widows or orphans--had few employment opportunities and diminished marriage prospects as the Famine had driven many men to leave the Emerald Isle...so they, too, left for America. Determined not to work in the fields, they settled in cities where many took jobs as servants, domestic workers, or seamstresses. 

More than 60% worked as maids, cooks, nannies, or housekeepers. Living with wealthy or middle-class American families came with advantages. They exposed the Irish women to American culture speeding up their assimilation to their environment. However, the greatest advantage was financial. Not only were the wages higher than those for factory workers, but as live-in help domestics, they had no housing expenses, enabling them to save money.

Women sent money back home to support families and also paid the passage for their female sisters, nieces, cousins, and friends. They were young, most under the age of 24, unmarried, and had a desire for independence. (Think of all the mail-order bride books you've read with Irish heroines!)

These girls were literate as well, having been educated in Catholic schools in Ireland. Building on their success in Ireland, Irish-Catholic nuns and priests established scores of schools and colleges in America, adding social and economic mobility for successive generations.

Education also helped pave the way for Irish American women's entrance into the workforce. Second-generation women became teachers, bookkeepers, typists, journalists, and nurses, turning their back on servitude, preferring regular hours found in government and business.

Once in the workplace, these second-generation Irish American women protested discrimination and were among the first to organize and join labor unions, rising through the ranks in union leadership, and introducing unions to service and professional fields. They organized teacher unions to eliminate male and female pay discrepancies.

Irish American women also made their mark through literature and journalism, their choice of subject matter revealing abuse of the mentally ill, and addressing subjects like body images, alcoholism, and difficulties in marriage.

Irish women found the adventure of a lifetime in America as compelling as the economic opportunities, firmly establishing themselves as a force with which to be reckoned. Their strong bonds, formed by immigration and shared membership in the Catholic Church, nurtured a culture and pride among Irish American women that continues to this day.

Pictures Courtesy of Library of Congress

Raising a Glass to Irish American Women | National Women's History Museum (womenshistory.org)

Setting A Story in My Own “Backyard”

When I started plotting my latest historical novella, A Bride for Cody, I realized that I hadn’t used my home state of California for a long time. One of my critique partners used to own a commercial apple orchard, and she published a book of recipes related to those years and her experiences as a grower. Those two elements came together, and I made my hero an apple grower. I had hoped to use the actual town where my friend’s orchard is located, but the apply industry in that town happened almost two decades later.

So I invented a town called Acorn Valley (because the native Serrano and Cahuilla tribes collected acorns here) but overlaid it in the valley where the real town of Oak Glen is. Evidence of metates (holes in rocks where the native women ground the nuts) exists in nearby streambeds and the foothills of the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The year that worked for my Civil War veterans (both characters) was 1869, which was earlier than the real town of Redlands was established. But a settlement called Lugonia did exist around a Spanish land grant that Mormons had occupied for a decade before being called back to Utah, proving the land could be valuable farm land. The area was not well-developed, but a short-line stagecoach service existed.


Once I discovered transportation was in service, I knew I could create a realistic story for that year. My writing time was compressed due to successive deadlines. The factor that helped me create the mail-order bride story between individuals wounded by their experiences in war time was the fact that I have driven those hills of my fake town and valley. Years ago, I visited the town of Oak Glen in apple-picking season and have seen what those apple trees look like. My hope is that if any southern California resident reads my story, that person will see I have accurately depicted the region. Now, as I drive in my county, I'm on the lookout for other likely locations.

Blurb for A Bride for Cody, Proxy Brides series #42:


Veteran Cody Sheffield went from surviving the Civil War ended to spending years building the Transcontinental Railroad. Finally, he finds solace on an uncle’s apple farm in southern California. A change in family circumstances demands he seek a bride.


Nurse Riona Gilbride pitched in to do her part when the war came to her hometown of Harpers Ferry. Years later, she’s still tending others when she realizes the time has come to care for herself, and she answers an ad in a matchmaking newsletter.


Expectations and temperaments clash. Soon, both Cody and Riona wonder if their decision to marry without meeting beforehand is a huge mistake.


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Nursing Careers in the 1800's

 by Cyndi Raye

Most women in the 1800's found it hard to establish themselves in certain careers. Especially in one such as nursing. It wasn't because they didn't want to, but the obstacles in the way were huge.

 It was a common practice for doctors in the 19th century to treat their nurses as if they were mere maids without their own minds. Nurses were not allowed to suggest  a way to treat the patient, but were to only administer aid when the doctor gave the go ahead. Many times a nurse would try to calm a sick or dying patient, to the doctor's dismay. Many doctors during that time period did not have a very sweet bedside manner, and when the nurse tried to help, she was usually reprimanded.

Much of the nursing in hospitals were done without proper schooling until later in the century. If a woman wanted to become a nurse, she would shadow an experienced senior nurse as an apprentice to learn the trade.

Florence Nightingale was a pioneer in London and had established a nursing school in 1860 at St. Thomas Hospital. Then, in 1873, Bellevue Hospital followed her lead and opened their first nursing school using her mode of training in New York. Students learned bedside manner, how to observe a patient's needs and the skills to do so.  The following job description shows how it was in 1887 in some areas.

Even then, doctors didn't allow their nurses to speak up or treat the patient. In one of my mail order bride books, Ellie of the Mail Order Brides of Wichita Falls, Nurse Ellie was a young lady who wanted to establish herself in the nursing field and make a difference. She had studied hard and wanted to contribute, but at every turn, the barriers were too high.

 However, every single time she spoke up it usually got her fired. Here's an excerpt from her book. Imagine you were a free thinking woman during this period. Nurse Ellie had spunk and liked to speak her mind:

“I’m terribly sorry, Miss Jacobs, there is no longer a position for you at this hospital.”

He wasn’t sorry one bit, that Ellie could see from where she stood. She clutched her hands so tight she may have winced if she hadn’t been trying hard not to let him see how upsetting his words were. She raised her chin a notch. No tears would be shed in front of this man. 

Dr. Tate was incorrigible. He was so miserable he hated everyone and everything, always finding fault with the nurses under his charge. What Ellie didn’t understand was why he was in the business of caring for people in the first place. It was obvious to everyone at the hospital he hated both nurses and patients alike, yet no one took it upon themselves to stop this madman from ruining people’s lives. 

Like he had just ruined hers.

Dr.Tate grunted before sitting back down at his desk. “Please gather your belongings and leave the premises. Upon termination, you will no longer be permitted to step foot in this hospital. Carry on.”

Ellie stood frozen to the spot for a moment. Should she do as the others had who lost their nursing position and nod politely, thanking him for the opportunity and experience to work here all these months?

No, not Ellie. 
Her biggest downfall was speaking the honest truth in any matter.

Dr. Tate looked up from the paperwork on his desk. “Well, Miss Jacobs, go on now.”

She pressed her knees together, pursed her mouth in a tiny pucker and squared round shoulders. “Dr. Tate, while I appreciate all this hospital has taught me-”

Her words were quickly interrupted. “No need to go on and on. We can’t afford to have nurses thinking for themselves. Your job was to stand behind the doctors and follow their direction, not go about taking matters in to your own hands, defying orders and diagnosing patients, for crying out loud.”

“Is there any chance this hospital will pen me a positive reference?”

He pushed the frames of his glasses in place. “I’m afraid not, Miss Jacobs. I’m afraid you’ve done yourself in on this one.”

“That’s what I presumed, Dr. Tate. Therefore, I want you to know my true feelings.”

He put up his hand. “It’s not necessary, Miss Jacobs. I understand your frustration at losing a position here. Perhaps you are not meant to be a nurse after all.”

“Poppycock!” She took a step forward, placing the knuckles of her fists on the desktop and leaned forward in an unladylike manner. “You, sir, are indeed one of the worst doctors in Charleston! Your patients are left wondering what is happening to them as you treat people as though they are pigs in a den and not of much consequence.”

“That will be enough!” Dr. Tate rose. He tore off his glasses and flung them to land on the untidy desk. “I’ll repeat the request for you to leave these premises, Miss Jacobs, before I have someone remove you.”

Ellie flung her head back to look up at the six foot doctor. “I am leaving, sir, of my own accord.”

He pressed his fingertips to the top of the desk and leaned forward as she had done. “It’s a shame you threw away a nursing career. No one will hire you now. I’ll make sure of this.”

“I don’t doubt you will but I’ve had my say. I am a nurse and will continue to practice. Maybe not here in Charleston, but somewhere. Good day.” 

Ellie marched from the doctor’s office, her head held high. She was glad she had told him what she thought even if it wasn’t ladylike. Several employees who heard the conversation tried not to stare as she grabbed her reticule from where it sat on the corner of the window pane and left the Roper Hospital behind.

Nurse Ellie was quite bold. She had spoken up in a time when women usually kept their mouths shut because they were afraid of being ridiculed or even fired. Many nurses were fired at the drop of a hat, especially if a doctor didn't care for them. In Charleston, where Ellie starts out, if a nurse was fired she usually wound up at the Charleston Orphan House, a far cry from a nursing career. There, in the dark, depressing atmosphere, a nurse would be no more than a maid for the children, ironing and washing clothes, cooking and taking care of orphans. Many women didn't dare to speak up like Ellie had.

If you'd like to learn more about what happens to Nurse Ellie, be sure to pick up your own copy at Amazon.

Get Nurse Ellie here on Amazon