A Cosmopolitan Place – O'Neil Family

Colonized by the English, the Irish owned little land and subsisted largely on the potato. A blight devastated this crop in the 1840s and 50s. As a result, nearly 1.5 million people died from starvation or famine related disease. About one million Irish famine survivors immigrated to the U.S.

In 1851 Mary gathered up her children (ranging in age from 6 to 20 years old) and her meager assets, and boarded a ship to the United States. She planned to settle in Louisiana where she had purchased an interest in a land development company.

When the O’Neils arrived at the Port of New Orleans, their plans began to fall apart.

Because yellow fever was sweeping through the city, the O’Neils were transferred to a riverboat. This boat took them north to St. Louis. Somewhere along the way, Mary learned that the land company was a fraud and they that had lost all their money.

The O’Neils looked for work in St. Louis.

Phillip, the oldest son, found work on the railroad that was being built from Alton to Chicago. Through this work he learned of opportunities in Bloomington.

They narrowly missed death when the paddle wheel steamer they booked to Pekin in 1853 exploded a few miles up the river.

The explosion killed almost everyone on board, but the O’Neils had missed the boat. Phillip, who was off drinking, could not be found.

They took a later boat and, after arriving in Pekin, traveled overland to Bloomington.

The O’Neils began their new life in Forty Acres. Adjacent to the Chicago & Alton Railroad shops, developers laid out town lots and Irish families borrowed money to build homes. Daniel and William O’Neil opened a grocery store.

Forty Acres, an Irish neighborhood west of the Chicago & Alton Railroad shops, was the center of Irish life. It began as an unincorporated part of Bloomington just outside the city limits. It was remembered as . . .

“[a] squatter town [with] shanties here and there... about each home a garden and a pig sty on the back lot... cow paths across the western prairie led into the brush.”

Whether Judge David Davis was a shrewd businessman or was simply impressed by the labors of William O’Neil is unknown. But in 1855 Davis loaned him $100 to build a house for his mother, brothers, and sisters. The home was located on Lumber Street, just behind the O’Neil Grocery.

The O’Neils were devoted Catholics who had a lot to pray about. Two of Mary’s sons died violent deaths.

Thirty-three individuals, including William O’Neil, attended the first Catholic mass in Bloomington, held in 1853 in the McLean County Courthouse.

At the time, this was not an unusual practice for congregations that did not yet have a church.

The Irish enjoyed and preferred socializing with each other.

Large numbers of Bloomington’s Irish joined the Ancient Order of Hibernians. This Irish Catholic organization assisted and protected the Church and its parishioners from discrimination. It later evolved into a social insurance and fraternal organization.