Shillelaghs, Shovels, and Secrets: Irish Immigrant Secret Societies and the Building of Indiana Internal Improvements, 1835-1837

Abstract

In the 1830s, Indiana undertook an ambitious internal improvements program, building the state’s first railroad and multiple canals. To complete the projects, Indiana used Irish immigrant laborers. The Irish laborers developed a reputation for brawling amongst themselves, highlighted by a riot involving 600 laborers working on the Wabash and Erie Canal in 1835. Multiple volumes of Indiana history identify the Wabash and Erie riot as a one-time event inspired by Protestant and Catholic animosity imported from Ireland. A review of the historical record, however, contradicts these long-held assumptions. Inspired by Irish traditions of faction fighting and peasant secret societies, Irish immigrant laborers formed secret societies that used violence against competitors in hopes of securing access to internal improvement jobs for their own membership. The rival secret societies, the Corkonians and the Fardowns, organized based on their provincial origins in Ireland. Examples of Corkonian and Fardown violence occurred throughout the country. In Indiana, a pattern of Corkonian and Fardown conflict resulted in skirmishes on at least three different construction sites between 1835 and 1837. In contrast to the traditional narrative, the Corkonians and Fardowns were both pioneers of the first wave of large-scale Irish Catholic immigration whose rivalry centered on job protection and economic grievances.