Debbie Bowman Shea - Irish Butte

Throughout his lifetime, Marcus Daly was devoted to Ireland and to the Irish of Butte. Marcus Daly died in November 1900, his obituary from the Butte Miner reads: A true empire builder, a friend to his friends, to his enemies remorseless and unforgiving. Daly, a father figure watched over his family, his friends and his employees with a heartfelt benevolence. When he ran the Anaconda Mining Company, he treated his employees better than most corporations of the time. More than any other man, he built the Montana mining industry, he was a true son of Ireland, which he never forgot and helped. (Courtesy of the Butte Silver Bow Archives.)

In 1876, Daly purchased the Alice mine and successfully managed it for the Walker Brothers. The town of Walkerville would spring up around the mine and mill. In 1880, Daly would sell his interest and purchase the Anaconda mine. Daly also founded the town of Anaconda near the smelter he built west of Butte. (Courtesy of the World Museum of Mining.)

With promise of work and good wages, Daly recruited a workforce of Irish to man the mines of Butte. Hearing the call from County Cork to Donegal and from the coal mines of Pennsylvania to the copper mines of Michigan, they came to work the copper mines that spanned the hill. Sisters and brothers, cousins, friends, and strangersall with promise of work and a better lifemoved into Dublin Gulch, Corktown, Centerville, Walkerville, and Muckerville. (Courtesy of Butte Silver Bow Archives.)

John Shea (right) and unidentified fellow workers stop to pose for a picture around 1920 before going underground for the afternoon shift at the Colusa mine. According to Fr. Gregory Burke, it was commonplace for Irish miners to pray the Act of Contrition before going underground and to give thanks to God upon safe return to the surface. (Courtesy of Carol Driscoll Brown and Shelly Hoar.)

Nora and Patrick D. Harrington owned and operated the Mullen boardinghouse right off North Main Street. The Mullen House, shown above, was the largest of Buttes boardinghouses, accommodating 400 single miners, with several miners on different shifts sharing the same bed. (Sketch by Elaine McGree; courtesy of Frank Grady.)

Mary Buckley was born in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland, in 1875 and came to America at 18. Marys maiden name and married surname were the same as she married Mike Buckley, also an immigrant from Macroom. This union produced six children. Mike worked in the mines, and Mary ran and ruled the Buckley boardinghouse on Wyoming Street. She fed and housed 17 to 20 men and provided meals for 30 to 40 others, mostly of Gaelic origin. (Courtesy of Mary Lou Mansanti.)