Finding Home

The early growth of the Catholic diocese in Cleveland is a marker of the growing presence of Irish Catholics in the community. The city's first Catholic church, St. Mary's on the Flats, was dedicated in 1840, keeping pace with the increasing number of Catholics--both Irish and German--who were arriving in the city to participate in the canal economy.

The Ohio and Erie Canal was a man-made waterway designed to connect Lake Erie with the Ohio River. It was dug by hand between 1825 and 1832--with Irish immigrants providing much of the labor. The Irish laborers who dug the canal left few traces in public records, but this episode endeavors to resurrect their memories and the contributions they made to a fledgling city.

This episode starts our journey with Irish immigrants in Cleveland by examining the story of George Croghan. He was an Irishman who worked as a fur trader along the Cuyahoga River in the pre-Revolutionary War period in America. His interactions with both Native Americans and English colonizers was a template for Irish immigrants trying to navigate a new world full of possibilities and peril.