Some of the early Irish migrants from the Ottawa area went to Illinois 
to work on the railways and in the giant meat-packing plants in Chicago. However, the 
following posting to Newsgroup soc.genealogy.ireland relates how many Irish
came to Chicago to help re-build the city after the Great Fire:


My ggrandfather, Michael Foley, came to Chicago after the Chicago fire
which was in 1871.  I'm not sure when exactly but he married about 1880
in Chicago to Kate Caulfield or Canfield.  He was a stonecutter who came
over to build the skyscrapers.  Unfortunately he died of consumption
caused by stonecutting (per his death certificate).  His younger brother,
Patrick,  also came to Chicago but I don't know when.  I don't think Pat
was a stonecutter.  Does anyne know anything about where the
stonecutters were recruited?  Thanks
Janice Foley Bessinger
----------
Janice, I found your marriage for you... a whole lot faster than I have
found most things for myself!  Everybody at the small Mormon library where
I do my work would burst out laughing that I found anything this fast.
This was not on the Web when I started.

On the Illinois Marriage Index on the Web.  I just took a stab and there it
was.

FOLEY, MICHAEL                       CANFIELD, KATE
COOK        04/10/1882

I wish I had known two years ago when I did Holy Name Cathedral page by
page for a whole summer and I would have watched for it.  No index.
To get the certificate, go to LDS catalogue, Chicago or Cook County, Vital
Records.  You know the year now, so you don't have to order the index
first, you can go right to the year.  That MAY give you a church, usually
just a priest's name.

I don't think they were building skyscrapers then...they were rebuilding
the whole city.
Find a book on the Fire with some pictures and you will see what I mean.  I
don't have a scanner or I would scan you a picture of the standing Chicago
Water Tower in endless blocks of stone rubble.

My Michael Carbine was in Chicago by 1857, came from outside Syracuse,
Famine Immigrant from Ireland.
All census records say he was just a laborer, but Chicago city directories
are sometimes more specific.  Chicago city directories are at LDS too.
One of his jobs was at a Dewey and Co, and I found that under businesses,
and it dealt with stone.
The Irish went where the jobs were, and in Chicago after the Fire, there
were plenty of jobs, there were also lots of railroad jobs.  People came
from everywhere after the Fire...the whole city had to be rebuilt.  I am
sure there were ads in papers.  If you read about the Fire, emergency help
came from all over the country immediately after.
The whole center of what was Chicago burned.
Coming after the Fire should help you, mine came before, so all records
(save a few like the city directories) burned.  Most church records in the
Fire area did, with Old St Mary's being an exception.  Holy Name, the
cathedral, starts in 1872, as do most.  Naturalization burned.

If you have his death certificate, it should have his address and the
cemetery where he was buried.  Probably Calvary?  Depending on how much he
moved, you should be able to find him on a city directory and if you really
luck out, find a Patrick at the same addrees, or nearby.

The above was posted by Barbara Ford
Providence RI
March 26, 2003:
           
Here is another link to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871

______________________________________________________________



And some excerpts from the Ottawa Free Press of 1881. (Thanks to Sue Barr).

FEB 1:  Patrick O'MEARA, an old resident of Ottawa who carried on a thriving hotel 
business in this city some years ago, left with his family last evening to take up 
residence in Chicago, Illinois.  He will open a restaurant on State Street in that city.

MAR 15:   Messrs. M. COUGHLAN / COUGHLIN and E. HAYES, members of St. Patrick's Literary 
Association Band, left last night for chicago, where they have secured situations.

MAR 17:  Mr. Horace LANGRELL, son of the ex-Chief of Police, has left for the North West 
where he takes up his residence.  Mr. E. BAMBRICK, a brother of Mr. Bambrick, of 
BAMBRICK & WALL, who went to Rockaway Beach with the exodus party of a year ago, 
has returned.  He gives a good account of Chicago, where he was employed of late, 
and intends returning in a couple of weeks.  He states that ex-P.O. (police officer?) 
MCKENNA is employed at a distillery in that city and at good pay.

APR 19:  Mr. David KENLY, (McKINLEY ?)an Ottawa boy, has returned from a two years' stay in 
New York, looking well.  David LEWIS, of North Augusta, recently paid Thomas PADGETT, 
of Nepean, $500 for a young stallion.  Mr. W.J. MCDERMOTT, now employed at Patterson 
& Law at New Edinburgh, shortly returns to Chicago, where he has received a good situation.  
Mr. Joseph HARTUEDY, for many years a clerk for ex-Alderman STARRS / STARR, left this morning 
for Cincinatti, Ohio, where he has been offered a lucrative position.
 
APR 20:  Mr. Thomas COSTELLO, of Murray Street, an old and respected citizen of Ottawa for 
over 40 years, leaves tomorrow to take up residence in the city of New York.  
Mr. J. SPELLMAN, a native of Ottawa and a recent graduate of the Kingston Military College, 
left town yesterday for Chicago.  Messrs. SHAW and E. BAMBRICK, two city carpenters, 
also left last night for Chicago, where they have secured employment.  
Masters R. WALKER, Thomas FRASER, and Alfred RIDDELL, of Kinburn, have gone to attend 
the Agricultural College at Guelph.

_____________

A very interesting book,City Life by Witold Rybczynski, has a lot of material on 
19th Century Chicago and urban history in general. Published 1996 by Harper Collins,
ISBN 0-00-638545-1.



 March 28, 2003:
Thanks to Kathy Adamson for the following:

Good morning Al:
 
Here are some Chicago Irish Parishes:
Old St Patrick 1853 
Holy Family Church 1857  
Holy Name Cathedral 1874       
St Anne's 1875                 
St James 1875                      
 
Old St Patrick's founded 1846 was the 2nd Catholic Parish in Chigago-following St Mary's 
in (1833). St Patrick's is noted for interior decoration based on The Book of Kells. 
It has stained glass windows by Chicago artist Thomas O'Shaughnessy, produced by 
Kinsella Art Glass Company of Chgo. Early Irish dug canals, quarried Lemont limestone, 
worked for railroads,worked in all construction unions, as well as holding civil service 
jobs as policemen, firemen, and politicians. Irish still well represented in the City. 
The Mayor is Richard M. Daley.
Kathy Adamson