My mom reminded me of a photo she found at the Archdiocese Archives in Saint Paul, Minnesota…
Oster on the Farm, no date (courtesy of Archdiocese Archives - Saint Paul, MN)
Oster is the one with the beard. Does anyone recognize the two gentlemen and the boy baling hay with Father?
Note to Jim: I forgot about Shannon’s book – I do have a copy. I need to look at his bibliography again. I still would love to find some sort of advertisement for the settlement at Clontarf.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Clontarf History 
I’ve looked through the Shannon book…makes for an interesting read…how the Catholic hierarchy managed to entice Irish, German and French settlers to Minnesota. I found it also interesting that the French made better farmers than most Irish since they understood what it took to make a go of it in America and that the French tended to succeed at farming in the first area they settled while the Irish farmers tended to move from one place to the next, looking for “better” land to farm. I know that my great grandfather and his brothers were that way…and dirt poor til their dying days.
Jim – I think this is a complex issue. It does seem like the Irish were unable to adapt to farming conditions in America. Was it just because it was so different from Ireland? So much bigger, more/different crops, different methods. I admire the Irish settlers who moved further West in search of better land. In my family, the first generation to settle in Tara farmed, but of the next generation, only one of my great-grandfathers farmed and he had a tough time of it and gave it up in the mid-twenties and moved to MInneapolis. What do you think? – Aine