Listers, I recieved an e-mail from Tom, it was an invatation to the unvailing of a sign memorializing Tobey Boland and his crew of Irish labors for their work on the Blackstone Canal] Who are you? Private citizen? Historian? Did you arrange this memorial? How does one go about getting a memorial sign dedicated to someone? Who paid for this sign? Below is a e-letter with very few changes) that I sent to Jim Dempsey when he wrote about your attempts to honor this man. “Dear Jim, Yes, Tobey Boland’s name rings a bell with me. I know him for the scoundrel that he was. Mr. Rooney’s admiration is misplaced and his trips to the area libraries evidently did not uncover the truth about this man. I don't begrudge Boland for having the foresight to buy land on speculation, in fact I think its great that some bigoted yankees got taken by an Irishman. However, Mr. Boland took advantage of everyone. In the mid-1840’s, when the workmen complained to their priest, Rev. Gibson, about the treatment they were receiving from the contractors and the Irish merchants they were told to go home and to be thankful to have work. The parishioners took their complaints to the brother of Boland’s wife, Bishop Fitzpatrick, who, likewise, told them to drop it. Shortly after, the contractors used deceit to drive down wages for the 1847 construction season. This was at a time when money was needed to help relatives suffering the great famine back in Ireland. There is a lot more to the story of the day the mob chased the “landlords priest” from the city. The intended targets were Boland and other contractors. The parishioners of Christ’s Church refused to allow Boland to get the contract to build St. John’s. These were the people who knew Boland and they would not honor him in any way, nor should any of us. I was not surprised to find Boland’s hand in the mess that was the construction of St. Paul’s. Bollard left the area but kept up his unscrupulous ways. On Dec 30 1850 Rev. William McDonald wrote a 3 page letter to Bishop Fitzpatrick to inform him of the“...details of the agreement between him and Tobias Boland to build a church in Manchester; claims that he did not read the written agreement that he signed; states that the written agreement was fraudulently obtained; informs Fitzpatrick that Boland has not completed the church according to the specifications” [from An Index to the Papers of John Bernard Fitzpatrick, available at WPL. The only thing more ridiculous than honoring Boland would be to honor Fr. Gibson. John” Tom, I don't begrudge you for wanting to honor the Irish that built the Blackstone Canal, however, the men that built it worked for Boland and people like him. The contractors do not represent the laborers any more than the Shamrock Society represents the Irish community in Worcester at the time. I don't know how I made it on to your e-mail list. I am glad I did. I may even go to your dedication, if you can convince me that Boland was worthy of this honor. Reply please, John [He replyed. This e-mail and a few others from him are lost. You’ll get the gist of his short letters from my replys. He offered to send me some material] Dear Tom, I am John [name and address]. However, I would rather meet you someday at the Worc. Public Library. We could exchange info. I would like to see what you have and why Boland's finial resting place is a mystery. You've got a few details wrong. The "Catholic Institute" located in the old Christ's Church building was established after 1845, with the removal of the building off the foundation and the building of the new brick church...St. John's. A church history says there were two schools established, by Fr. Fitton. in 1837 "one for children in the basement of the [Christ's] church; the other for the instruction of boys in the higher branches of education. The later was situated on Packachog Hill, and called Mt. St. James Seminary. In 1842, Fr. Fitton presented to Bishop Fenwick, Mt. St. James Seminary together with sixty acres of land in the vicinity. ...[Fenwick had long wanted to establish a Catholic school of higher secular education] Here was his opportunity, and today, owing to his zeal and the generosity of Fr. Fitton Holy Cross rest 'like a beautiful coronet on the queenly brow of Packachog Hill above our busy city.' The corner stone of this splendid institution was laid June 21, 1843." so says the Golden Jubilee Souvenir Historical Sketch St. John's Parish 1895. The Canal was built from 1825 to 1828. By 1847 Boland was married to his second wife, the sister of Bishop Fitzpatrick, (Fenwick had died in Aug 1846). Boland's 'School,' as I remember, was a thing of the days of the canal workers, making it older than any thing the church established. There was free public school in this state, so Boland may have provided the first alternative to or supplement to public school. Unless you are right about the students, "the canal workers" (though I doubt many of those men were being tutored to by Mrs. Boland), in which case he should be credited with opening the first Adult Ed program for immigrants. I don't doubt he made the students supply the candles. With the decision to build a new church on the old one's (only 10 years old) foundation came the need to choose a contractor. Fr. Gibson wanted to give the contract to Boland but the parishioners would not have it. He was there at the cornerstone laying ceremony (May 27th 1845). He was probably there at the solemn dedication on June 24th 1846. It was, I think, 1847 that a contractor was beaten by Shamrocks and an angry mob descended on Bolands place and they harassed Fr. Gibson and Bishop Fitzpatrick came to town and, and, and Boland was familiar with what happens to land prices when a town becomes connected to the world by water (and later by iron). He bought land on speculation and as investment property. He sold some and ran tenements on some. You are the banker, this is a legit way to make money. I think its great that he was making money. Does that make him a "Great Irish Contractor" worthy of note? He was Irish, he was a contractor (as well as a land speculator & landlord), and I understand him to have been rather large, but what had he done to distinguish himself or better the lives of his countrymen. These men, these Irish contractors dealt in the purchase and sale of human labor. Buy low and sell high. When done right the laborers are happy to have work and the company shows a profit. This may have been true for Tobias Boland, Canal Contractor. An honest living, though I would love to know what he got for rent for a flat in one of his 'up and downs.' However, when men conspire or are perceived to conspire to drive down the value of labor there are riots. Tobey Boland, Railroad Contractor was believed to have done just that. I'm not siding with the Shamrock Society, I'm just saying that the people who worked for the man didn't think he was so great. Boland didn't settle here for long, he didn't establish any scholarships, fund any civics projects, or pioneer any social changes in Worcester. He was a businessman. A successful businessman. I don't want to 'dis' the dead. I didn't want Jim Dempsey to write about how John says T. F. Boland was a scoundrel. I'll go to the dedication and clap my hands and smile, but I still ain't convinced. I guess I could find out what Boland paid for the land he sold to Fitton, and the price he got for it. If he didn't turn a profit on that property... I'll wash that sign every year on Boland's birthday until ,like you, I'm a 74 year old local Irish historian. But, if he made one red cent on that deal then I don't want to hear another word about Tobias Boland, Founder of Holy Cross College. Your Friend, John Dear Tom, I am not yet convinced. I haven't heard Boland's side of anything. It will take more than a rumor of a school for me to speak well of Tobey Boland. At best he established a school for the immigrant's children. I had heard this was above his offices on Milbury St. in the Scalpintown area of the town. If this school was free, then Boland spent a bit of his wealth on candles. This does not seem to be part of any pattern of philanthropy. Its not as though he built a school on some of that property. As for background information: I don't know any more about Boland than you should. I am familiar with some of Dr. Timothy J.Meagher's work. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Jake Powers [I since have], but I have read his Invisible Immigrants a couple times and have thumbed through some of his other stuff. I went to the source of much of his information, that is I have read much of what O'Flynn wrote/collected. I have found some of the relevant articals/books cited in Powers' works. There are others out there that I have not yet located (haven't looked lately). I have found things that Jake Powers may not know (Gibson's own troubles with the church. You want to talk about someone's name not being mentioned. Fr. Gibson spent ten years at St. John's and barely gets a mention in any of the Histories since written.) but I don't know the story of the land purchase on Mount St. James. Did Boland donate this land? Now that would be something to note. As for me: I am a 36 year-old Worcesterite. My Irish ancestors came to Worcester in the middle of the 19th century (I don't think any of them were here with the pioneers i.e. canal builders). There may have been an ancestor or two of mine here in the spring of 1847 but I don't know if any of them threw stones at Tobey Boland's house. John Dear Tom, I stand corrected. I said Boland purchased land on speculation and inferred that that was prior to the completion of the canal and in the Worcester area. I had read that in Invisible Immigrants by Powers and in the article by Dempsey. I have found no evidence of this. Unless Boland went unnamed in prior purchases he did not buy any land here (Worcester Co.) until 1836 (Two tracts on the south side of Temple St. from Denny and Bancroft for $3,750, as well as an adjacent lot form Lewis Bigelow for $1,250. Lewis had purchased this tract only 14 months before from Bancroft and Denny, I didn't look at the 1835 sale price but I'll bet Bigelow turned a profit.) I found that in 1822 John Lincoln acted as an agent on a land sale his clients were three men one of them unnamed (Boland?). The land was sold by Rejoice Newton and was called the "lower swamp pasture." This might have been too early for speculators, but... Rejoice Newton sold a lot of lots including an 1835 sale to Benedict Fenwick (ring a bell) and an 1836 sale, (for $2,000) to Fr. Fitton, of land on the northerly side of Packachog Hill. Now then, Newton also sold land to Levi Lincoln in 1824 and 1825 This would have been the time for speculators and Lincoln could have been acting on behalf of someone else (as William Lincoln had done for "the Catholics"), but I doubt it. I don't know where Jake Powers got the idea that Boland got rich buying up wetland and selling it after the canal dried it out. (I know where Dempsey got the idea.) Somebody with inside knowledge bought some swampy land in the early 1820s. Powers may be right but I wasn't able to see it in the primary source. I should admit that I didn't search for land deals made by a company or other entity that Boland was in control of. Nor did I check for land purchases outside of Worcester Co. Boland did sell land, after 1840, to a number of Catholics but not to Fitton, Fenwick, or to any Jesuits ... not for $1.00, not for profit. Now in response to your E-mail. You didn't tell me where you got this information. Even if your information is correct: The schoolhouse on Temple Street could not have existed before 1836 (Boland first buys land there then.), and was likely the school established by Fr. Fitton in 1837. The subscription/money would have been raised by the church. The local Catholic contractor, and member of the Parish, would have been the logical choice to build the building on the Packachog Hill land purchased by Fitton in 1836. A builder credited with building a building ("erected the first main college building") does not suggest that he owned it or that he built it for free. The school established by Fitton, Mt. St. James Seminary, was not the institution that was envisioned by Fenwick nor did it educate canal workers as the canal had long been built. The Mt. St. James Seminary building and land was not Boland's to give. To give land a deed must be transferred. I can't find anything in the register. Holy Cross begins with the arrival of the Jesuits. If there was a school established by Boland prior to the school in the basement of Christ's Church on Temple St. (that was established by Fr. Fitton in 1837) and it happened to be on Temple St., then you will have to prove it to me. Jake Powers (I think) said Boland's school was in his construction company's building, Green St., students brought their own candles. For this to have been for the canal workers this would have had to be late in the construction of the canal (The Irish arrived in Worcester on or about July 4, 1826), but before the completion (1828). Of course Boland's workers could have benefited from such a school after 1828, but they weren't canal workers. Boland was in the railroad building business by 1832, according to Powers. So, exactly when and where was this school? As for the construction of St. Paul's; I thought you were defending Boland. The construction of that beautiful building was a mess. Lets look at the History of St. Paul's together. I don't think it was all the contractor's fault, the Diocese divided the cities Catholics up according Parish, this restricted J. J. Powers' fund raising. But we will see if any contractor would want to put St. Paul's on his resume. One other thing: Dempsey said the gang of angry Irishmen went after Boland for hiring French-Canadians to build St. John's Church. I didn't think Boland was allowed to build the church, that is to say the parishioners wouldn't have it. Of course the landlord’s priest [Fr. Gibson] could have overruled them. If that was the case, then there is another reason they turned on Fr. Gibson. There is a lot to that story. So what do you think? John Dear Tom, If / when you have a moment, please answer any questions I have about Boland and Holy Cross property. Meet you soon, John Dear Tom, Received your letter. I look forward to meeting you & learning more about your next project too. Looks like this Thurs. afternoon and again on the 18th I am available. We can talk about anything you like. Let me know when. The best, John John How about Thursday the 10th. at 2:00 p.m. at the Worcester Library? I will bring along all my material. Dear Tom, How about 2:30, and even then you'd better sit. I am apt to be running late. My wife will be relieving me of child care duties after her Drs. appointment 2:30 should be plenty of time to get there, unless the Dr. is running late. See you then. John John I will be standing at the information desk upstairs. Tom Tom, I went to the reference desk on the 3rd floor, sorry to hear you were just downstairs (where I guess I should have been.) I will call you. John John I did not know that there was third floor. I will mail you the material that I have. Tom [I sent him some material] John I just spent 4 hours reading over the material. Great stuff. I duly noted that there is bits of criticism of Boland. I will make copies of what I need and return your whole packet to you. The reason that I waited so long today was that just before Christmans I had a doctors appointment and had to wait an hour for treatment. I was 45 minutes late for the Christmas AARP dinner. I thought that you may have been detained the same way at the doctor's office.Tom [More to follow, John]