Lake County's Irish Place Names

St. Patrick's Day postcard, 1911. CTPA G1428.

There are at least ten place names in Lake County attributed to the Irish. 

Some of the earliest Irish place names were surnames given to an area by settlers. Meehan's Settlement, for example, was located in today's West Deerfield Township along Telegraph Road, approximately one-mile south of Everett. In 1835, the location was settled by Michael Meehan (1808-1892) and his wife Bridget (nee Monahan), from County Meath, Ireland. 

Dulanty was located on Greenbay Road on the Shields-Deerfield Township line (and sometimes referred to as an early name for Lake Bluff). In 1837, Michael Dulanty (1799-1886) and his wife Ellen (nee Armstrong), arrived from County Tipperary, Ireland. They established a stage relay station and tavern known as the Centerville Inn or Dulanty's.

The area became officially known as Dulanty in 1846, when the post office took that name. It was common for post offices to be named for the postmaster, since the post office was located in their home or place of business. 

Leahy Hill in Newport Township is located south of Wadsworth Road and east of Cashmore Road. It was named after the Leahy family, Irish settlers, who owned the land. 

The place name Kennedy appears to have been used in southern Shields Township in the area where Irish immigrant, John Kennedy,  settled. 

Two locales in Lake County were named for the high percentage of Irish who settled there: Irish Hills in  Newport Township, and Ireland in Libertyville/Vernon Townships. Irish Hills was named for the settlers and the hilly topography in the area west of Route 41 along Route 173; and Ireland was the region east of and adjacent to the Des Plaines River. These names were commonly used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

Though Killarney Lake no longer exists, the name suggests an Irish connection. The "lake" was a marshy area once located in Antioch Township, west of Fox Lake, in Section 35.   The area was most likely drained for development and farming. 

The only Irish-influenced place names still in use are O'Plaine and Blarney Island. O'Plaine is derived from Aux Plains River, an early appellation of the Des Plaines River. Irish settlers reportedly changed the spelling of Aux Plains to O'Plain, and through the 1870s, the river was listed on maps as the O'Plain River. Today, the name is preserved in O'Plaine Road, with the addition of  an "e" on the end. 

Blarney Island was named by Irish immigrant, Jack O'Connor, who took over the famous bar on Grassy Lake in the 1920s. 

St. Patrick's Day postcard, 1908. CTPA G4296.

The most anecdotal of the county's Irish place names is Codfish Town. This name described an Irish settlement in Lake Forest near Washington Road. The name seems to have originated in the mid to late 1800s from the smell of codfish cooking on Friday evenings. Residents in the area were also referred to as "codfishers."

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Day is traditionally a religious holiday in Ireland. The celebratory nature of the day was created by Irish immigrants to the United States as a way to retain their Irishness and ease the transition into American society.

The Irish immigrated to the United States beginning in Colonial times, but the largest wave came between 1820 and 1880, when almost 3.5 million Irish arrived, among them my ancestors from County Meath. These millions left their homeland for many reasons including poverty, famine, religious prejudice, and political subordination.

This circa 1910 postcard from the collections of the Museum's Curt Teich Postcard Archives is a terrific representation of Irish immigration to the United States and the bond between the two countries.

One of the great motivators for Irish coming to the Midwest was the Illinois-Michigan Canal. Built between 1836 and 1848, this 100-mile commercial waterway, linked Lake Michigan in Chicago to the Illinois River in Peru. The canal’s contractors relied heavily on recruiting Irish for the work force and advertised in newspapers in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. After working on the Canal and saving enough money, many Irish decided to settle in Illinois and bought land in Lake County.

Evidence of Irish settlement was reflected in area place names. "Ireland" was located east of the Des Plaines River in Libertyville and Vernon Townships. "Irish Hills" referred to the area of rolling hills around Hunt Club Road and Route 173 where a high percentage of Irish farmers settled. "Codfish Town" was a designation used for the Irish neighborhood near Washington Road in Lake Forest where, in the late 1800s, the smell of codfish cooking on Friday evenings wafted in the air. (For more on Lake County's Irish Place Names check out my post.)

Shown in the photograph (above) is the Fuller family of Waukegan, welcoming their newly arrived Irish cousins in 1918.

Postcards reflected both positive and negative images of the Irish. This circa 1910 postcard proclaiming "Erin go Bragh" or "Ireland Forever" is illustrative of the positive.

Though the Irish immigrants were materialistically poor, they brought a rich cultural heritage with them. Cultural events such as the St. Patrick’s Day parade, first celebrated in Boston in 1737, were regarded by many Americans as evidence of the separateness of these new immigrants. But the Irish desire for self-expression through parades and the “wearing of the green” in their adopted country helped them to retain their heritage while embracing the freedom at the heart of being American.

In the last several years, the Irish-American secular celebration of St. Patrick’s Day has made its way back to Ireland. The national holiday honoring Ireland's patron saint is now marked by a multi-day festival of parades, concerts and fireworks.