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To the north of Carr Square was "Kerry Patch", inhabited by Irish immigrants. They built cheap, one room shacks housing at least one family each. The Irish occupied these under "squatters' rights", having no title to the land on which they were built. However, the tract was owned by a sympathetic family of Irish descent, the Mullanphys. (reference)  

I found an 1868 map that shows the Kerry Patch and compared it to the address on his marriage license. No, Patrick and Mary didn’t live in a shanty, but from the looks of an 1854 birds-eye view of the city, they may have lived in a long row of tenement houses.

I stare into the map and gather more information. They lived about 5 blocks from the riverfront where steamboat commerce fueled the economy. The levee area was busy night and day. Saloons, gambling, and prostitution flourished on this frontier edge of the Wild West.

There were also slaves. Within walking distance of Patrick and Mary was the old St. Louis Courthouse, where (over a span of 10 years in the 1840's and 50's) the Dred Scott case was played out – the drama of a slave who dared to sue for freedom, presaging the Civil War.

Not 5 months after their marriage disaster struck down the street. A steamboat named the White Cloud caught fire and pulled loose from its moorings. It drifted down river spreading flames. The fire reached from other boats to wooden warehouses along the riverfront. 15 business blocks were destroyed, with a total of $6 million in damage. Then the cholera epidemic hit, killing more than 4,000 of the total population of 64,000. (reference) 

Family lore has it that it was the cholera that drove them out of St. Louis, but the family tree says their first 2 children were born in St. Louis in 1850 and 1852... so apparently they hung around for awhile after the disasters. I’ve also heard whispers that Patrick engaged in some of the riverfront shenanigans and Mary finally put her foot down and made them move.

But they didn’t travel far. They didn’t join the droves of other immigrants who hit the Santa Fe trail and headed West.

Maybe they’d had enough of journeys. (Mary had also come from Ireland but immigrated up to St. Louis from New Orleans.) Maybe they were homesick. They found a small town southwest of St. Louis that offered the same rolling hills as Ireland and built themselves a log cabin and wound up selling farm equipment.

I stare at the map and wonder what it means for me. They were pioneers who went to the very edge of civilization – if you can call the St. Louis levee "civilization." It scared them: whether it was the cholera or the vice. They had been risk-takers – maybe driven by circumstances to take those risks – but they weren’t crazy enough to jump on a wagon train to California.

11.13.00

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