Tuesday, March 17, 2009

St. Patrick's Day



My Great Grandfather in the late in 1880s.






They say St. Patrick's Day is serious business in many Irish families, which often involves a big dinner with extended family, lots of traditional cooking and excessive shamrock decorations and maybe a toast or two to their Irish ancestors. St. Patrick’s Day has come and gone in our household so far from America and so very far from the emerald island across the sea. Here’s a toast to my great grandfather who came to America without a penny in his pocket, worked as laborer with pick and shovel in hand building railroads across the plains of Texas in the late 1860s and then he arrived by horse homesteading in western Kansas. One can only imagine the hardships his family went through as he built his homestead into a large thriving farm. Bless you Archy Brown wherever you are. Your great grandson, Chuck

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