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Contents
Rural Ulster
Ulster Street
Ship Gallery
American Street
Rural America
Page
3-7
12
8-9
10-11
12
13-16
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13
Folk Park
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11
Ulster American
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7
6
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Matthew T. Mellon
Information Centre
‘Emigrants’ Exhibition
Single Room Cabin
Blacksmith’s Forge
Weaver’s Cottage
Presbyterian Meeting House
Vestry
Mellon Homestead
Viewpoint
Campbell House
Tullyallen Mass House
Tullyallen Field
Turf bank
Hughes House
School House
Mountjoy Post Office
Ulster Street
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23
Map Key:
18.
19.
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21.
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24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
Ship and Dockside Gallery
American Street
Samuel Fulton Stone House
Log Cabin
Pennsylvania Log Barn
Corn Crib
Smoke House
Spring House
Pennsylvania Log
Farmhouse
Herb Garden
Cunningham Springhouse
Western Pennsylvania
Log House
Centre for Migration Studies
Museum Restaurant and
Residential Centre
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25
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16
24
15
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27
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19
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18
Recommended Route
Old World Area
2
1
Streets and Ship Gallery
New World Area
Field
30
31
Single Room Cabin from Altahoney, near Park
The Blacksmith’s Forge
This house was moved stone by
stone to the Ulster American Folk
Park from the slopes of the Sperrin
Mountains. Like most houses in
Ulster, the cabin was built of stone
and roofed with thatch. Many
homes were much simpler than
this one, without window glass or
proper doors.
These one-roomed houses were
often homes to whole families,
who lived on potatoes grown on
the small amount of rented land
on which the house was built.
Occasionally, some buttermilk
was available and as a special treat,
a salt herring or an egg.
One of the most important
craftsmen in the countryside was
the blacksmith. He shod horses
and made many of the tools and
farm implements for neighbouring
farmers. He made door latches,
tongs and griddles used in the
home and scythes, harrows and
ploughs for work in the fields.
The forge was always very
busy, especially in the spring and
summer, when farmers brought
horses for shoeing, reapers
for repair, and cart wheels for
hooping. The blacksmith worked
from morning to night over a
In the corner beside the fire is
the bed outshot. Here the mother
and father and sometimes the
youngest baby slept. The other
children slept on pallet beds that
could be stood up against the wall
during the day. More often, they
all slept huddled together on the
floor.
Life was hard; sometimes in the
summer the men and boys of the
family travelled to find work on
farms elsewhere in Ireland or even
in England or Scotland. Others,
especially single men and women,
emigrated to America if they could
afford the fare.
roaring fire, beating the red hot
metal into shape with the constant
swing of his heavy hammer. The
air would be thick with the sparks
from the iron and the burning
smell of horse hooves.
The forge was a popular meeting
place for men, where they would
discuss the events of the time,
while waiting for their work to
be done. The blacksmith’s craft
was usually handed down from
father to son and the forge often
remained in the same family for
generations.
Weaver’s Cottage
Meeting House
Two hundred years ago the
housewife produced many of
the family’s everyday needs at
home. She baked her own bread,
churned her own butter and often
made woollen clothes and socks
for the family. Children helped
by carding and combing the wool
in preparation for the spinning
wheel. Spinning was usually done
by the women and weaving by the
men, although some women were
also able to weave.
Wool was dyed using natural
materials such as onion skins,
blackberries and the flower of
the whin (gorse). Sometimes they
Presbyterian churches used to be
known as Meeting Houses. Like
many of the early Ulster emigrants
to America the Mellon family was
Presbyterian and later in his life
Thomas remembered clearly the
long low stone building in the
shape of a ‘T’ where he used to
worship as a child and how the
minister, Mr McClintock, “spoke
loud and cross”.
Sundays were very strictly
kept free of work. All farm and
household work was completed
on Saturday and only essential
tasks should be done on Sunday.
Laughter, playing games or any
kind of amusement was not
allowed. The day should be given
wove different colours of wool
together to make tweed. You can
see an example of a Donegal tweed
loom in the room to the left of the
main door.
Many Ulster families also made
linen cloth for sale to earn some
extra money to pay the rent. They
grew the flax on their farms and
spun and wove it in their homes.
It was then sold to the bleachers
who turned it into the white linen
that was famous throughout the
world. By the 1870s most linen
manufacture had moved out of
the homes and into mills and
factories.
over to prayer, Bible reading,
religious discussion and attending
church.
In spite of its strictness, Thomas’s
parents probably looked forward
to Sunday. People worked very
hard all week, getting up at dawn
and working until well after it got
dark. Sunday was a day of rest
and going to “Meeting” provided
a chance to meet friends and
neighbours they hadn’t time to
visit during the week. Even the
two-hour sermons provided a
topic of conversation for the rest
of the week. Remember that there
were no televisions, no computers,
no telephones, no cinemas and
very few books to read.
Mellon House built on this site in 1812
Campbell House from Aughalane near Plumbridge
Thomas Mellon was born in 1813
in this house on his father’s farm
in County Tyrone. The house had
been built here by his father and
Uncle Archy who did most of the
work with their own hands.
Thomas’s grandparents and
many of his relatives emigrated to
America and although his father
and mother were quite well off,
they thought increasingly about
America. They read books and
papers about this new ‘Land of
Promise’. They read letters from
their relatives in America and
they must often have discussed
the new country by the fireside at
Aughalane House was built
by Hugh Campbell, senior, in
1786 near Plumbridge in County
Tyrone. The family claimed to
be related to the Scottish Duke of
Argyle and Hugh placed a coat of
arms to the left of the front door.
Hugh Campbell, junior, one
of the older sons, emigrated to
New York in 1818 aboard the
ship Phoenix and kept a detailed
journal of his voyage. He became
one of Philadelphia’s most
important merchants and he
later went into partnership with
his youngest brother Robert in St
Louis, Missouri.
Robert Campbell emigrated in
1822 and within two years was in St
night. Finally, in 1818, they made
up their minds: they too would go
to America.
For young Thomas it did indeed
prove to be a “Land of Promise”.
He became a lawyer and a judge
and later in his life, he set up the
Mellon Bank, which today is still a
very important bank in the United
States of America.
Louis, Missouri. He then became
a beaver trapper and trader in the
Rocky Mountains at the same time
as men such as Jedediah Smith and
Jim Bridger. He built the first Fort
Laramie in 1833 and his journal
and letters from this period have
survived.
By 1836, beaver hats were no
longer popular and Robert settled
down as a storekeeper in St. Louis
supplying other trappers and
pioneer settlers as they set out on
the Oregon Trail. He prospered
and later became a property owner,
bank president, hotel owner, and
Indian Commissioner. His home
in St Louis, Missouri is now the
Campbell House Museum.
Tullyallen Mass House
The Hughes House
Roman Catholic churches used
to be known as Mass Houses. This
Mass House was built in 1768 in the
townland of Tullyallen, between
Ballygawley and Dungannon.
The building has been carefully
recorded and re-erected here as it
was in 1768, with plain windows,
whitewashed walls, thatched roof
and the priest’s living quarters at
the back. During the week it was
used as a school with the pupils
sitting near the hearth fire.
The population of Ireland grew
fast in the late 1700s and early
This house from Dernaved
in County Monaghan was the
boyhood home of John Hughes.
He was born on 24 June 1797 in
the townland of Annaloghan
near Augher. His father Patrick
was a hard-working farmer who
later rented this second farm and
farmhouse nearby at Dernaved.
The Hughes family, with seven
children, grew the usual Irish
crops of oats, potatoes and flax.
The flax was made into brown
linen at home with all the family
members helping out. Although
it was not compulsory to attend
school at this time, John was sent
to school in Augher and later to
from Ballygawley, County Tyrone
1800s and the number of Catholic
emigrants from Ireland began to
increase. Some went to England
and Scotland to assist with the
harvest; others went to America
and sent back money to help the
rest of their family to join them
there. During the Great Famine of
the late 1840s emigrant numbers
rose greatly and people often
visited their priest and place
of worship before leaving for
America.
Tullyallen Masshouse was used
for worship until 1952.
from Dernaved, County Monaghan
school in Aughnacloy. He hoped
to become a priest.
When market prices for crops
and linen fell, John left school and
got part time work as a gardener.
His father emigrated to America
in 1816 and John followed in 1817
when he was twenty. He settled in
Emmitsburg, Maryland and after
several different jobs he trained as
a priest.
He became the first Roman
Catholic Archbishop of New York
and was responsible for building
St Patrick’s Cathedral which was
opened in 1879, fifteen years after
his death.
Castletown National School
Mountjoy Post Office
This one-room school was built
in the townland of Castletown in
1845 and was moved two miles to
the Folk Park in 1976. Country
children often walked barefooted to
school where they learned to read,
write and do simple arithmetic.
They used the National School
readers, which taught the pupils
their first steps in reading and later
introduced them to subjects such
as geography, science and history.
The first National Schools
were set up in 1833 and were
open to children of all religious
denominations.
Even though
education did not become
compulsory in Ireland until 1892,
the National Schools were often
well attended, as parents were keen
Mountjoy Post Office is an
original building which once
stood in the village of Mountjoy,
close to the Ulster American Folk
Park. The first post master was
Nathaniel Maginnis who took up
his position in 1855. At that time
his main work was selling postage
stamps and processing letters. He
also kept the local shop where he
sold a variety of goods such as
thread, soap, bacon and bread.
In later years post offices did
more business. In 1861 the Post
Office Savings Bank was set up
and in 1871 dog licences were
from Castletown, near Omagh
to provide their children with the
opportunity to better themselves.
When Castletown school opened
in 1845, it had an average daily
attendance of 70 pupils. People
who could read and write could
often get good jobs in America.
In 1845 the ‘Master’ of
Castletown School was Mr Patrick
Mulligan who taught the older
pupils and earned £25 per year
while his daughter Mary was paid
£6 for helping out with the infants
and the girls’ needlework classes.
The school day lasted from 9.00
am to 4.00 pm in summer and
9.00 am to 3.00 pm in winter.
On Saturday mornings the local
clergymen came in to provide
religious instruction.
from Mountjoy, near Omagh
introduced, which could be bought
at the post office. In 1881 postal
orders were first issued and two
years later they handled parcels as
well as letters.
The post office was very
important in the lives of those
families whose relatives had
emigrated. Letters were sent and
received through the post office
and often read aloud to friends and
neighbours at home. Sometimes
the letters would contain a present
of money or a ticket for America
for a younger brother or sister.
Shipbuoy Street
This street leads down to the Ship Gallery and is an
example of the type of street that emigrants walked
down on their way to board their ship. The wooden
shopfronts are original and have been brought in from
various parts of Ulster. ‘D. Reynolds, ropemaker’, with
its small panes of glass is the oldest shopfront in the
street and is over 200 years old. The larger plate glass
windows of Blair’s and Hill’s date from the late 1800s.
There are three kinds of business in this street – crafts
(making things), retail (selling things) and services such
as the post office and pawnbroker.
Name
Business
Shopfront came from
R J Blair
Printer
Main Street - Strabane
J Devlin
Pawnbroker
Glenarm and Belfast
J Hill
Chemist
Castle Street - Strabane
W G O’Doherty
Licensed Grocer
Bishop Street - Derry
W Murray
Drapery & Hardware
Killyman Street - Moy
D Reynolds
Ropemaker
Irish Street - Dungannon
J Reilly
Publican/Grocer
Main Street - Newtownbutler
J McMaster
Saddler
Stonewall - Co Cavan
N Maginnis
Postmaster
Mountjoy - Omagh
Ship and Dockside Gallery
Thousands and thousands of emigrants travelled, many on foot, to the
seaports where they crowded onto the small sailing vessels that were to
take them across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.
The dockside was always busy. As
well as taking emigrants on board,
the ships unloaded their North
American cargoes of flaxseed,
timber and cotton.
The Merchant’s Office building
came from Great George’s Street
in Belfast and an eighteenth
century house from Bridge Street
in Londonderry shows the type
of boarding house where Thomas
Mellon and his family spent
several weeks before setting out
on the long sea voyage.
Fares varied, and were usually
about £4 in the early - mid 1800s,
although at times the fares were
£10 per person and more. By the
1850s it was possible to travel from
Liverpool in England to America
for £3.
Dockside
Brig Union
10
The Emigrant Ship
Lying in the dock is a reconstruction
of an early nineteenth century ‘brig’
modelled on the Brig Union, which
carried older members of the Mellon
family to Baltimore in 1816, two
years before Thomas Mellon and his
parents emigrated.
Conditions on board were very
uncomfortable. As many as 200
people and their belongings could
be squeezed into the ‘tween decks’
area. Much of the atmosphere of the
ship’s interior has been re-created the sounds of creaking timbers, the
roughly made berths, a few cooking
utensils and a variety of sea-chests.
The Arrivals Area
Always at the mercy of winds and
weather, the ship could take anything
from six to twelve weeks to reach the
east coast of North America. A few
ships never arrived at all.
After the long sea
voyage the emigrants
were very glad to see dry
land again. After cleaning
up the ship for inspection,
they were finally allowed
to land in ports such as
Philadelphia, Baltimore
and New York.
The American quayside
was a busy, noisy place
where there were many
strange sights and sounds
as people from different
countries landed there.
Sights such as a fisherman
carrying a basket of
oysters, then the food of
the American poor, were
common.
Some people had friends
to meet them but many
had to find their own
way and were sometimes
cheated by people who
pretended to be helping
them.
11
American Street
E. Pattison
Tin, copper and brass
The Pattison family emigrated
from
County
Tyrone
to
Connecticut, America about 1740.
Edward Pattison made small items
such as boxes and candle holders
out of tin and was one of the
earliest tin workers in America.
At first he was a peddler travelling
around the country selling the
items he made; later his sons took
over the business. Inside this
shop you can see different kinds
of tinware which were made in
America, such as punched tinware,
baking tins, and decorated boxes.
Mellon Bank
12
After a successful career in
America as a lawyer and a
judge, Thomas Mellon set up
his own bank in Pittsburgh on
January 1st, 1870. He was 56
years old. It prospered and
after a year and a half he moved
to a larger building. In later
years, the Mellon Bank set up
branches throughout the state
of Pennsylvania and beyond.
Today the Mellon Bank is still
very important in America.
General Store
The general store was very
important in early America,
providing all sorts of goods for the
rural settlers.
Farmers brought in their farm
produce such as eggs, chickens,
flaxseed, and flour and exchanged
it for other things they needed
such as cloth, axes, food, books,
gunpowder,
and
tobacco.
Sometimes
the
storekeeper
allowed his customers to pay their
bills only two or three times a year,
when they could afford to.
The general store also had a
post office counter, so they could
send letters to their friends and
collect letters sent to them. It
was heated by a pot-bellied stove,
and customers, especially men,
sometimes sat down to play a game
of checkers (draughts) beside it
and discuss the local news.
The Fulton Stone House
from Donegal Springs, Pennsylvania
The Conestoga Wagon
The first Conestoga wagons
were built by immigrants
from
Germany,
living
in the Conestoga valley
area of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania in the 1740s.
For the next hundred
years these large wagons
carried heavy loads of
fruit, vegetables, and dairy
products to Philadelphia and
brought back manufactured
goods into the countryside.
Conestoga wagons were often
painted red and blue and were
pulled by 4 to 6 horses.
Samuel Fulton emigrated from Co.
Donegal in Ireland, to Pennsylvania in
America, about 1722. The township
where he lived in America was called
Donegal Springs, and many people
from Ulster were settling there at that
time. Some of these families had come
from Scotland to Ireland in the previous
century and are sometimes known as
the Scotch Irish.
When Fulton arrived in Donegal
Springs, there were still many trees in
the area, which he and his neighbours
cut down so they could farm the land.
He later built this American house with
stones he found on his land. The house
was built over a spring (a well) and
upstairs was a loft which is one large
room stretching from one side of the
house to the other.
The Fulton family, like many other
new settlers, owned livestock, grew a
variety of crops such as wheat, flax and
rye and ate foods such as deer, wild
turkey, native fruits and vegetables,
which were plentiful in the area. Samuel
Fulton’s farm of 309 acres was known as
Fulton’s Pleasure and passed to his son
James after Samuel died in 1760.
In 1997 this house was dismantled
stone by stone in America and brought
here to the Folk Park.
In 1818 Thomas Mellon’s
father hired a Conestoga
wagon in the port of Baltimore
to carry his family and their
belongings to their new home
in western Pennsylvania.
Their 300 mile journey took
three weeks. The Mellon
family slept by night in the
wagon and prepared their
food at a campfire at the side
of the road during the day.
The Conestoga wagon in
the Emigrants Exhibition area
was built in 1790.
13
Log Cabin
14
The log cabin was the most
common type of house built by
emigrants who settled on the
land when they reached the New
World. Building a good log cabin
took weeks of hard work. They
felled the trees, cut and shaped
the logs, and prepared the site.
When all was ready, a cabin could
be erected in a day with the help of
neighbours who came to the ‘cabin
raising’.
The Mellons made their first
home in America in a log cabin
like this one. They were luckier
than most settlers as there already
was a log cabin on the land they
bought.
People from Europe,
mainly Germans and Irish, had
The Log Barn
been living in that area for over
40 years and the Native American
Indians had already moved further
west. The settlers often kept a rifle
in place over the door to deal with
any animal (or unwelcome human)
that came too close for comfort.
The Mellon family spent almost
six long, hard years in such a cabin
until they built the two-storey log
farmhouse.
and other farm buildings
Pennsylvania barns were usually
built of logs, with a stone base.
The barn was a very important
building and was a sign of a farmer’s
increasing wealth. Sometimes the
barn was more impressive than
his dwelling house. The basement
(lower level) was often used to
house larger animals such as cattle
and horses, during the long, harsh
Pennsylvania winters. On the floor
above, hay and other crops were
stored. The centre of the barn was
kept free so that the grain crops
could be threshed here and the
farm wagon could be driven in to
unload its crop.
The Corn Crib was where
farmers stored their Indian corn
[maize] during the winter, using it
as needed to feed livestock. Gaps
were left between the logs to allow
air to circulate freely through the
grain.
The Spring House was built over
a spring well and the cold water
helped to keep butter and milk
fresh during the hot summers.
These were put in pottery crocks
which were set down in the cold
water.
The Smoke House was used to
preserve and flavour meat. Pigs,
which were allowed to roam wild
in the woods during the summer,
were butchered in the autumn and
then the pork sides were salted
and smoked to flavour them.
Pennsylvania Log Farmhouse
Western Pennsylvania Log House
The Pennsylvania Farmhouse
is an exact copy of the house
into which the Mellon family
moved in 1824 when they left
the two-roomed log cabin. In
his autobiography Thomas
Mellon described how they cut
down trees in the wood, then
chopped them into logs and
dragged them to the site of the
new house. The stones for the
chimneys were also gathered
from the fields.
The house has a kitchen,
a work area, a dining room
and a parlour downstairs and
three bedrooms upstairs. The
furniture in the house was
much better than the homemade furniture of the log cabin.
The family spent much of its
The Western Pennsylvania Log
House is an original building that
has been brought from America
and reconstructed here at the Ulster
American Folk Park. The porch at
the front was a common feature of
these log houses in the middle of the
19th century.
The house had been the home of
Uriah Hupp and his wife Marinda
Cox whom he married in 1851, and
their twelve children. The Hupps
were a German family who had
come to America in the early 1700s.
One of Uriah’s sons, Frank Hupp
married Clara Kelley, whose family
time outdoors or in the kitchen
and work areas. The other,
‘grander’ rooms were used
mainly for visitors or on special
occasions such as Thanksgiving
or Christmas.
The garden
contained herbs and vegetables
for their own use.
It was still a hard busy life.
Mother and daughter baked,
cooked, cleaned, sewed and
spun. Father and son did the
ploughing, tended the crops,
looked after the livestock,
repaired fences and cleared the
land of trees and bushes. By
the age of 17, Thomas Mellon
finally realised that he did not
wish to spend the rest of his life
farming and instead decided to
get himself a good education.
from Greene County, Pennsylvania
had emigrated from County Armagh
nearly one hundred and fifty years
before this, in 1719.
A photograph of Uriah and
Marinda Hupp can be seen hanging
on the wall of the kitchen. The Folk
Park also has in its collections four
patchwork quilts made by Anna, a
granddaughter of Uriah Hupp.
The building in front of the
Hupp house is the Cunningham
Spring House, which is also an
original building brought here
from Allegheny County in western
Pennsylvania.
15
McGavock House from Wythe County, Virginia
McCallister House
from Cabell County, West Virginia
The McCallister House, which
was brought to the Folk Park from
Salt Rock, Cabell County, West
Virginia was built by Richard
McCallister, junior, in 1827.
Richard’s grandfather James
McCallister was born in Ulster
about 1720 and emigrated as a
young man to Pennsylvania. By
1760 he was living in Bath County
in Virginia and in 1780 a son was
living in Greenbrier County in
West Virginia.
16
The McGavock House was built
in Max Meadows, Virginia by
James McGavock in 1792.
James was born in 1728 in
County Antrim. His ancestors had
come from Scotland many years
before and in 1728 the family was
living on a small mountain farm
near Glenarm. In the hard times
of the 1750s James emigrated to
America, leaving a brother Randal
at home on the Antrim farm.
James landed in Pennsylvania and
made his way south to Virginia. By
1772 he had settled at Fort Chiswell
in south-west Virginia where he
kept an ‘ordinary’ (inn) and built a
forge, a corn mill, a courthouse and
a jail. In his ‘ordinary’ he provided
food and lodging to thousands of
travellers on the Wilderness Road
who were going west to Kentucky
and Tennessee through the
Cumberland Gap.
In 1792 he built a house nearby
in Max Meadows for his son David
who soon afterwards moved away
to Nashville, Tennessee. James
McGavock then lived in the house
until he died in 1812. It was this
house that was brought from
America to be rebuilt here at the
Folk Park.
Richard McCallister, junior was
the first settler into the Salt Rock
valley in Cabell County. A family
story tells how Richard was chasing
thieves over the mountains after
they had stolen his horse when
he discovered the valley where he
later settled. He lived in this house
until 1854. Today many members
of the McCallister family still live
in Cabell County.
Find out more about emigration
• in the Emigrants Exhibition
• in the Centre for Migration Studies
• at www.folkpark.com
Ulster American Folk Park
2 Mellon Road
Omagh
County Tyrone
Northern Ireland
BT78 5QY
Tel +44 (0)2882 243292
Fax +44 (0)2882 242241
Email [email protected]
Web www.folkpark.com
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