Disturbance in 1794
Jonathan Smyth's latest instalment of Times Past recalls the McCollins Transfer Company of Dubuque and also looks at disturbances in Co Cavan during 1794...
The Defenders were a secret oathbound agrarian society and, on May 13, 1794, they became the instigators of a terrifying affray that took hold at the fair of Kilnaleck. The Defenders who descended on Kilnaleck that day came with a declaration that ‘they would destroy every Scotchman or Presbyterian they should find’ and the victim whom they set upon was a ‘Mr Biggers’.
The Times newspaper reported, that ‘having cut and abused him in a shocking manner’ he was thankfully rescued by some ‘humane’ people who removed him from the crowd and found a place of shelter to conceal him from further harm. On the alarm being raised, word was sent to Ballyjamesduff where a certain Mr Blakeley assembled almost 40 of his neighbours made up of Protestants and Dissenters. Sometime later when ‘within a mile’ of Kilnaleck they met what was referred to as the ‘banditti’.
Blakeley informed the mob that he and his team were there to retrieve Mr Biggers whether he be ‘dead or alive’ and, as he spoke, one of the gang members drew a sword and ‘made a stroke’ towards him swiping at his head. The drawn sword provoked Blakeley to pull out his blunderbuss and fire at the defender and, as he did so, the swordsman before collapsing swiped and took a finger off the gunman. The defender died from the shot. The remaining defenders surrounded Blakeley and his party of men, and a fight ensued which left 32 of the insurgents dead having received a ‘smart reception’ from the Ballyjamesduff contingent.
In late May 1794, reports were received in Dublin about a further disturbance of a dreadful nature in Ballinagh.
That August the matter reached the ears of an American news outlet in Philadelphia called the ‘Gazette of the United States and daily evening advertiser’ which featured a letter from a member of the militia quartered at Cavan.
According to him by his ‘nearest computation’, he assessed that anywhere from 100 to 120 of the ‘Defenders’ were killed while, on the other side of the fighting, there was only a loss of one who was killed and three others who only sustained injuries.
In the letter it was said that the Defenders were first attacked by the light company of the militia, which consisted of an officer and 26 ‘rank and file’ members, a drummer and a sergeant.
The militia were twice beaten out of Ballinagh by ‘continual fire from the windows’ and it was only when they re-grouped on the other side of the town and hemmed the Defenders in that they took control of the situation before setting all the houses on fire, except for two properties.
The awful conflagration swelled out of control and resulted in the high number of deaths.
The US Gazette noted: ‘Funerals gloom the roads ever since, and many survivors being afraid to own or search after their deceased friends, numbers lie in the burned houses. Eight prisoners were taken, three of whom are leaders; one of these has turned King’s evidence, from whom a disclosure of the principals may be expected.’
MCCOLLINS EXPRESS & TRANSFER,
Dubuque is the oldest city in Iowa and was one of the first settlements to take place west of the Mississippi River where the French-Canadian fur-trader Julien Dubuque came to live amongst the Mesquakie Indians. Being an area rich in lead mines and the Mesquakie, realizing that the mines would be of commercial interest to settlers, they decided to keep the locations a secret, that was until Julien Dubuque established a friendship with the tribes and gained their trust, eventually taking full control of the mines thereafter he named them the ‘Mines of Spain.’ Many immigrants from Ireland and Germany came to settle and from 1837 the place was chartered as the ‘city of Dubuque.’ One of the many immigrants to arrive in the territory during its first decade was Mr Barney McCollins.
John J. McCollins was born in Dubuque, Iowa in 1851 and had Cavan parentage through his father Barney McCollins, a native of Co Cavan who moved to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1844. Barney died in 1854, leaving his widow Jane to bring up their son. He was buried in the Third Street Cemetery and, when Jane died in 1873, she was interred in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Key West. John J. having completed his primary education, started a course at the Christian Brothers’ College, which he left in 1865.
Over the course of the next few years, McCollins delivered newspapers for the Dubuque Herald and began an apprenticeship as a blacksmith, a trade he practiced for a decade before entering the grocery trade in the partnership of J.J. Dunn who later became the County Sheriff. When Dunn and McCollins went their separate ways, McCollins for a further year ran the grocery store alone until he joined up with a new business partner, James M. McFadden, to whom he sold the company within a few months.
In 1889, the territory of Dakota was divided into North and South Dakota, which then joined the Union as the 39th and 40th states, becoming one of the last parts of America to be settled. In the same year McCollins availed of a government land grant in South Dakota where he lived for a short time before returning to Dubuque where he established a ‘buffet’, which he ran for five years.
His next venture was to start ‘teaming and transfer line’ called the ‘McCollins Express and Transfer Line’ and as the ‘History of Dubuque County’, published circa 1911, tells us, that apart from the usual transportation operations of such a company they also ‘engaged in the coal, and wood business’ at the time of the book’s publication. McCollins expanded until his company became the largest of its type in Dubuque. Outside of work, McCollins attended St Raphael’s Cathedral and connected with organisations such as the ‘Catholic Benevolent Society’ and was a member of the ‘Modern Woodmen of America’.
On May 16, 1877, John J. McCollins married Catherine Butler and they lived at 304 Julien Avenue, Dubuque. Catherine’s parents, Patrick and Margaret Butler were described in records as ‘pioneers of Hazel Green, Wisconsin.’ The McCollins’ five children were Louis (later went into business with his father), Bernice, Genevieve, Marjorie, and another child who died in infancy. The McCollins company was still listed in trade directories during the 1930s.
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