Coming to America
O’Shea Builders started when John Timothy O’Shea (O’Shea President Mike O’Shea’s great-grandfather) listed himself as a contractor in the Springfield, Illinois City Directory in 1900.
His parents, James and Johanna O’Shea, immigrated to the United States in 1852 from Ireland, at the end of its devastating potato famine. About two million Irish fled here to escape hunger and poverty, according to the Library of Congress.
The O’Sheas arrived at a time when anti-Irish, anti-Catholic sentiment was high. Both Germans and Irish were targets, according to History.com, as Germans were coming to America in numbers nearly as large as the Irish.
“Nativists often played on stereotypes depicting Irish and German as immoral drunkards and often blamed them for social ills, such as rising crime and poverty rates,” states NationalGeographic.com. Riots resulted in cities across the country, including Chicago.
Even in Springfield, the two newspapers battled over the Irish. The October 3, 1860 (Democratic) Daily Illinois State Register stated that, during the 1858 election, “Republicans of the several counties were called upon to arm themselves and to shoot down the Irish who appeared at the polls, and who could not prove by American testimony that they had a right to vote.” While the April 15, 1857 (Republican) Daily Illinois State Journal said they didn’t worry about the Irish vote because they were all Democrats.
John’s family came to Springfield about this time. We know they were here by 1860 based on the federal census. They had settled in Sidney, Illinois but John’s father came to Springfield to help build the Illinois Statehouse. Extended family members came, too.
The O’Sheas joined the Reisches, Donelans, Grahams, and others as part of an influx of mostly Irish and German immigrants to Springfield during the middle 1800s, according to Springfield Home and Family: A Pictorial History.
John, the youngest of nine children, was born in Springfield in 1869 and was very proud of his Irish heritage.
“There were sour relations between our grandfather, John, and his only brother Mike, because John insisted that he and other family members retain the Irish O’Shea name,” says Pat O’Shea, John’s grandson. “Mike and his family, on the other hand, dropped the ‘O’ so their last name became Shea. Mike felt his coal hauling business would suffer if he retained the Irish name. In those days, many business establishments had signs in their windows about job openings that read, ‘No Irish need apply.’ My grandfather felt that everybody who was Irish should stay Irish and that the ‘O’ was representative of remaining Irish.”
John proudly celebrated St. Patrick’s Day every year. More on that in March!