Helping Irish Girls At Ellis Island - 1906
A Typical Italian Immigrant Family at Ellis Island. Photograph by Arthur Hewitt. The World's Work, October 1902. GGA Image ID # 14f9097c8d
During the past twelve months the Mission of Our Lady of the Rosary opened its doors to nearly fifteen hundred Irish girls, who had landed at Ellis Island. Of all the activities of the Church in this country there are few more effective or more singularly interesting than this great work for the protection of young women on the threshold of a new life—one fraught with numerous perils for the innocent and inexperienced.
To realize fully what this mission does one must make a personal visit to the State St. Home and watch the arrival of the groups of young girls. after the immigration officials have permitted them to leave the Island.
The great landing station for steerage passengers is Ellis Island, New York harbor. Here, almost daily, may be seen thousands from every land, gathered like anxious children at a mother's hem. The immigrants are accommodated in a handsome pile or buildings. well equipped and specially designed for their present use. Within this structure the candidates are examined by federal officials under a system that has been improved year by year.
No longer In the lead in point of numbers, the Irish immigration is still large. considering the population at home. According to the records in the department of statistics at Ellis Island, the Irish Immigrants for the year preceding June 30, 1906, numbered 28,772, including 6,559 who were here before. In the total were 14,617 males and 14,155 females. Of these. 1,171 were under the age of 14; 26,356 were between the ages of 14 and 44; and 1,245 were 45 years or over. The entire money brought amounted to $773,077.00.
The chief aim of the Mission of the Rosary from the beginning has been to guard the faith and morals of the Irish Immigrant girl, and, if necessary, to afford her temporary shelter and hospitality. This it has accomplished faithfully and well, with much other good besides. From continent to continent its Influence extends. Steamship and railroad companies recognize this, and, as a result, are the more vigilant in protecting the immigrant.
The Mission is now established twenty-three years, and, from its founding to the present, every ship that brought Irish immigrants to New York was met at the landing by one or more of its representatives. The girls are interviewed briefly, their names and destination recorded, and information helpful to their guidance and safety conveyed.
A friendly word from the priest, whose very presence inspires confidence, an assurance that relatives will be notified, that with a little patience everything will be well, and the heart is happier and the world much brighter. All the Irish girls not discharged before half-past four in the afternoon, as well as those going to points farther than New York, but unable to resume their Journey, are taken to the Home and kept free of charge until reputable relatives or friends call for them, or until communication with such is established.
For those who have no relatives or friends, as well as for those who have, but who wish to get work without delay, the Mission secures employment in good families. It Is well to add here that Protestant girls from Ireland, England and Scotland have often been willing guests, and that there never has been nor ever will be the least dis-crimination shown or interference with their religious belief.
Within the last twelve month the total number of girls received was 1,474, and for 337 of these positions were obtained.
The cost of maintenance is met chiefly by responses to the appeal in the annual report, and from membership fees in the Rosary Society.
The moving spirit of this great work is the Rev. Michael .1. Henry, who has perhaps the widest circle of acquaintances in all America, for remote indeed is the place where his name Is not known and revered. In the last report of the Mission this zealous director of the Mission pays a tender tribute to the memory of Mr. Patrick McCool, who for more than twenty years had been the agent of the Mission at Ellis Island. "He served his country and he loved his kind."
"Helping Irish Girls At Ellis Island" in Donahoe's Magazine, Volume LVI, No. 6, December 1906
Ellis Island Immigrant Landing Station
GG Archives
The Ellis Island Experience
- 1895 A Day in the New Ellis Island - British Perspective
- 1896 Handling the Immigrant at Ellis Island
- 1897 The Immigrant Question
- 1897 The Landing of Emigrants on Ellis Island
- 1898 The Threshold of America
- 1898 The Arrival of the Immigrant at the Barge Office
- 1898 Immigrants Christmas at the Barge Office
- 1899 The Great Gateway to America
- 1900 At Ellis Island - Poem for a Loved One
- 1901 Morning Scenes at Ellis Island
- 1902 Ellis Island Quarantine Sketches
- 1902 Enormous Flood of Immigrants from Europe
- 1902 Americans in the Raw
- 1903 In The Gateway of Nations
- 1903 The Great Migration
- 1903 The Flood From Europe
- 1904 Solving The Immigration Problem
- 1904 Photographs of Ellis Island Immigrants
- 1905 How Immigrants Are Inspected at Ellis Island
- 1905 How Immigrants Are Handled - Business Perspective
- 1906 Flood Tide of Immigration
- 1906 Gateway to America For European Immigrants
- 1906 The Child Immigrant at Ellis Island
- 1906 The Men Who Are To Vote
- 1906 Helping Irish Girls at Ellis Island
- 1906 Inspection and Registration of Immigrants
- 1906 - An Interview with the Commissioner of Immigration
- 1907 The Island Of Disenchantment
- 1907 A Look At Some Of Our Immigrants
- 1907 Curbing A Human Flood Of Immigration
- 1907 Duchess Samples Ellis Island Pie
- 1908 Face-To-Face Student Observations at Ellis Island
- 1908 The New Ellis Island
- 1908 Christmas at Ellis Island (M. L. Woodberry)
- 1908 The Immigrant Processing at Ellis Island
- 1908 Ellis Island As Seen By A Camera Man
- 1908 Government to Find Work For All Immigrants
- 1908 Christmas at Ellis Island (Eugene Wood)
- 1909 Mission Work at Ellis Island
- 1909 The Loves of Ellis Island
- 1911 A Mother's Story
- 1912 What Jewish Women Are Doing At Ellis Island
- 1912 Battery Park
- 1912 Protection of Immigrants at Ellis Island
- 1913 Immigrants Going Through Ellis Island
- 1913 Landing at Ellis Island - Processing the Steerage Passenger
- 1914 Edison Sheds Light on the Immigrant
- 1914 Immigrant Safety
- 1916 Performance by Thimble Theatre On Ellis Island
- 1916 Improvements at Ellis Island - Howe
- 1917 Our Foreign-Born Citizens
- 1918 Inspection and Social Economic Conditions of Arriving Immigrants
- 1918 Ellis Island From Three Points of View
- 1920 American Library Association's Work at Ellis Island
- 1920 New Regime at Ellis Island
- 1920 Ellis Island Filled to Limit with Immigrants
- 1921 Where Bad Citizens Are Made
- 1921 America's International Clearinghouse
- 1921 Need for Reforms at Ellis Island Called Urgent
- 1921 At the Portals of America
- 1922 Conditions for Receiving Immigrants at Ellis Island Revolutionized
- 1923 First Hand Impressions of Ellis Island
- 1986 Ellis Island Hopes and Tears
- 1986 Facts About Ellis Island
- 1986 How Many Immigrants Came Through Ellis Island?
Ellis Island Immigrant Images
Ellis Island Research and Resources
Immigration Archives
- Boston
- Canada
- Castle Garden
- Deportation of Undesireables
- Ellis Island Experience
- Emigration
- Immigrant Documentation
- Immigrant Story
- Immigrant Passage Tickets
- Immigrant Types
- Immigration Books
- Laws and Acts
- Medical & Mental Inspection of Immigrants
- Other Issues and Problems
- Passenger Lists
- Steerage - Life Between Decks
- War-Time Factors
- Immigration Research & Resources
Search Our Ship Passenger Lists