It is about this time each year when my thoughts wander back to the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations I have enjoyed in the past.

These include my early memories of elementary school and the annual St. Peter’s School St. Patrick’s Day show performed at the Concord Auditorium. I remember the colorful decorations and green shamrocks our teacher placed about the classroom and the treats we enjoyed during this festive day as we celebrated the great St. Patrick in our four-room schoolhouse over on Bradley Street so many decades ago. Yes, fond memories indeed, especially if you were very Irish.

My maternal grandfather Cahill was born and raised in County Kerry, Ireland. My paternal line starting in Concord with great-great-grandfather Spain was also 100 percent Irish. I descend from a wonderful and very talented lot of storytellers, certainly a gift from dear ol’ Ireland. My first great-great-grandfather arrived in Concord in 1850; his name was Martin Spain, and he arrived with his three brothers – Michael, Thomas and James Spain. It was the great potato famine that chased him from Ireland in pursuit of a better life. He and his brothers were young men and suffering the famine along with the rest of the population in Ireland. A gentleman from America stood upon the street in his village and held a ledger that provided hope for a better life. With the many deaths, lost farms, poverty and starvation that surrounded the people of Ireland, it was my great-great-grandfather and his three brothers who made their mark in this ledger.

His mark provided him a ticket to America, meals each day and a contract that made him and his brothers indentured servants. After they sailed from Ireland and arrived in the port of Boston, they would be required by law to work in the mills at Manchester, N.H., for a period of two years. They would be compensated, housed and provided with meals, but the indentured servitude was indeed a cruel living for these four young Irishmen. The hours were long, the working conditions were not safe, and fatigue became a common thread.

The four Spain brothers did indeed survive their two years of hard labor and were released from their concluded contract. Martin and his brothers had a good friend from Ireland living in Concord, and their friend told them jobs were available and labor was needed.

The pay was good, and room and board available. So it was, the four Spain brothers left the mills of Manchester behind and walked north along the Merrimack River to Concord and their futures.

Upon arriving in Concord, they found a busy little community and many fellow Irishmen. The Irish were a loyal lot, and they worked, lived and socialized together each day. The Spain brothers met the young friend from Ireland who encouraged them to travel to Concord. He was an Irishman named Luke Bray, who had arrived years before and purchased a home where he offered newly arriving Irishmen to pay for room and board. Luke quickly became good friends with Martin, Michael, Thomas and James Spain and introduced them to fellow Irishmen living in Concord. All four brothers immediately found employment as quarrymen on Rattlesnake Hill and set out to make new lives here in our town. In an age where there was much prejudice against those arriving from Ireland, it took much effort and strong friendships to forge a bond that supported the lives they lived each day.

As my ancestors worked each day on Rattlesnake Hill, they began to establish themselves. They joined fraternal organizations that supported those from Ireland. The Spain brothers rented and then purchased homes in the town of Concord, and then their thoughts turned to establishing families. With the influx of those from Ireland being primarily men who left Ireland because of the famine and in search of opportunities, the number of Irish women in Concord was far less.

Article continues after...

Yesterday's Most Read Articles

‘What the hell is going on?”: Chichester votes to defund entire town administrative office, but may reconsider

‘Voting our wallets’: Loudon residents vote overwhelmingly against $1.7M bond for new fire truck

Boys’ hockey: Concord takes championship in historic quadruple overtime victory over BG, 2-1

Man dies in mechanical accident with dump truck in Bow

Letter: End New Hampshire vehicle inspections

Hopkinton voters call for action on ‘inadequate’ state funding for public education

Your Daily Puzzles

Cross|Word

Flipart

Typeshift

SpellTower

Really Bad Chess

The thought in the mid-1800s was to keep the Irish blood pure and no Irishman would marry a woman that was not from Ireland herself. Family ties remained strong with the homeland. With those relationships in Ireland, many a letter was exchanged with ladies and lasses. With the Spain brothers now established in Concord, it was the search for a wife that was on their young minds. My great-great-grandfather had strong ties back in Ireland, and, in time, a young woman named Bridget Madden boarded a steamer ship and traveled across the ocean to the port of Boston.

Bridget Madden safely arrived in Boston and traveled north to Concord, where she rented a room and found employment as a domestic servant locally. Martin courted her, and, in time, they married, and their union produced two children. I have always found it quite interesting they named their son Martin and their daughter Bridget, essentially naming their two children after themselves. Bridget assumed the nickname “Delia,” and young Martin was affectionately nicknamed “Black Martin” to distinguish themselves from their parents. Young Martin and Delia were descended from the “Black Irish” of Ireland as all Spain family members would be, myself included. The dark hair, complexion and traits are still evident over 150 years later.

Young Martin followed well the lessons he learned from his parents. He was to be my great-grandfather and was educated here in Concord during his primary years. His father taught him the art of the quarrymen, and soon Black Martin was up on Rattlesnake Hill himself working beside his father and uncles. When the years passed and he grew to adulthood, he once again listened to the advice his parents provided: “Martin, you will marry a woman from Ireland and nobody else!” This was a point well taken, and that is exactly what my great-grandfather did. He exchanged letters with a young Irish woman who still maintained ties with the Spain family in Concord. This woman was Mary Ellen Cooley, and she became my great-grandmother.

Martin and Mary Ellen were soon married here in Concord, and the marriage produced six children. As the family was being established, my great-grandfather started his own business, Spain Quarry, which was located just a short distance west of Perry Quarry. Martin worked very hard and provided well for his family, purchasing a home at 210 North State Street; his future was indeed bright. It was with great sadness when the Spanish Flu visited the Spain household, claiming the lives of the first children. Their little Mary Spain died at the age of eight, Michael at the age of one, and little Martin at the age of four.

My great-grandparents had endured the most dreadful experience, the loss of their three young children. As I visit their graves each Memorial Day and pray for them, I read the names of the young Spain children and touch the letters forming each name in granite. Black Martin and Mary Ellen decided to start their family once again. Within the next years, Mary Ellen gave birth to three additional babies: Francis, Martin and Helena.

Their newborn son named Martin became my grandfather. My entire Spain family in this area is descended from Martin and Frank Spain. It is a multitude of cousins who continue to grow each and every year. I often think about Black Martin and Mary Ellen Cooley, especially each St. Patrick’s Day. The hardship and sorrow they experienced was so very extreme.

When my great-grandmother Mary Ellen Cooley left Ireland, she possessed very little. She was a young beautiful lady from Ireland traveling alone to this unknown place named Concord. She was to marry Martin Spain, a gentleman who initially courted her with a series of letters that convinced her to leave her Cooley family behind in Ireland. She carried her steamer trunk with her few belongings; nestled within her trunk she had two prized possessions: her small black crucifix and her recipe for Irish soda bread. Mary Ellen Cooley Spain was a devout Catholic and very accomplished baker. Her love of her faith and her time in her kitchen sustained her while she mourned her lost children and, in time, the loss of her husband in 1916. Ellen Cooley joined her husband in 1931, and they are eternally at peace with four of their six children in Blossom Hill Cemetery. They rest beneath a granite gravestone that Martin carved himself when they buried their first three children.

It is this St. Patrick’s Day in the peace and comfort of my home, I will enjoy my Irish soda bread that I make from an old recipe that traveled in a steamer trunk next to a small black crucifix destined for the port of Boston.

It is my great-grandmother Mary Ellen Cooley Spain who I honor this day.