The Scots-Irish in the Shenandoah Valley.
Author: KENNEDY, Billy.
Belfast: Ambassador, 1996. 208 pages. Illustrated. Paperback.
The beautiful Shenandoah Valley alongside the majestic backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains is the idyllic setting for the intriguing story of a resolute people who tamed the wilderness of the American frontier. The Ulster Presbyterian stock, or the Scots-Irish, as they were known, created a civilisation in the Shenandoah during the 18th century that was to be the springboard for further frontier advance and settlement to the West.
These hardy Calvinist families had endured extreme hardships in the bleak homelands they left behind in the north of Ireland, and, after overcoming nightmarish conditions on board basic wooden ships on the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean, they set about planting their roots with an industrious zeal that is so manifestly peculiar to their tradition and culture.
From Pennsylvania to the Valley of Virginia and the Carolinas they moved out and they were successful in pushing the American territories west to Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Kansas, Ohio, Texas, Oregon, Nebraska and to the Californian coastline with the Pacific.
In the Shenandoah Valley, the Scots-Irish were real achievers and leaders in their community, church and state. American President Woodrow Wilson came of this ilk; so too did distinguished American Civil War General Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson and J.E.B. Stuart; innovative farm reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick; celebrated author Mark Twain (Clemens) and soldier/statesman General Sam Houston, the Governor of Texas and Tennessee.
The Ulster-Scots were a breed of people who could move mountains; they did it literally with their bare hands 200 years ago, standing up to the arbitrary diktats of monarchs and prelates and winning the day for freedom and liberty of conscience.
List of Contents:-
Foreword from the United States
Foreword from Northern Ireland
Transatlantic partnership from Ulster to Virginia
1. Northern Ireland
2. Virginia
3. Shenandoah - ‘daughter of the stars’
4. Five great waves of emigration from Ulster
5. John Lewis - Shenandoah’s first Scots-Irish settler
6. The Scots-Irish and the Declaration of Independence
7. Virginian trail to the Presidency
8. Woodrow Wilson - US President from Staunton
9. The spirit of Calvinism in the Shenandoah
10. Virginians at Kings Mountain
11. George Washington and the Scots-Irish
12. Sam Houston’s roots in Virginia
13. First Scots-Irish church settlements in the Shenandoah
14. Pioneering worships Timber Ridge
15. The Scots-Irish and the Civil War
16. Mark Twain’s family ties to the Scots-Irish
17. Cyrus McCormick’s inventive skills
18. Scots-Irish families of the Shenandoah
19. The pioneering McReynolds from Co. Tyrone
20. The Lyles of Raloo and Timber Ridge
21. Belfast News Letter records the movement to America
22. Staunton’s link with the Scots-Irish pioneers
23. Tracing the roots back to Ulster
24. Tradition of moonshining in Virginia
25. Pioneering in the Smokies
26. An American view of the Scots-Irish
27. Tennessee records its appreciation
28. 200 years of official US links with Belfast
29. Counties of Virginia
30. The Scotch-Irish Society of the United States of America
Transatlantic reviews
Author’s acknowledgements
Thanks
Index
ISBN: 1898787697
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