I wrote this history to celebrate our Irish pioneers on St. Patrick’s Day.

In the first half of the 19th century, the fur trade was in decline and the insatiable demand to build large cities required a lot of lumber and cheap labor.

With rampant famine and disease in Ireland, many Irish Catholics migrated to North America where they hoped to find work and housing.

It was a dangerous voyage. The ships were known as “coffin ships” because 20 percent of those who traveled from hard-hit County Cork did not survive the three-month trip across the Atlantic.

The new arrivals were despised and looked down upon. They were forced to accept the menial, difficult and dangerous jobs no one else wanted.

Word of mouth promised opportunity in Michigan. Jobs in the booming lumber industry and cheap land enticed them to come north.

Some of the earliest pioneers in Cheboygan were Irish. Brothers Alexander and Ronald McLeod came to Cheboygan from County Clare in 1844 and built the first sawmill. Ronald was named postmaster.

In 1849, Peter McDonald moved to the area and purchased acreage on the east side of the river near where Lincoln Avenue runs today. McDonald farmed his land for more than 50 years.

That same year, 34-year-old Philip O’Brien escaped the cruelties of the famine and made it to Cheboygan.

O’Brien bought land near McDonald’s farm on the east side. It contained a lovely stand of virgin White and Norway Pine. His parcel ran north from what is now East Lincoln Avenue to East Seymour. It was bounded on the east by Garfield Avene and on the west by South Street.

Per family lore, Indians and gypsies often camped on the east side of the river during the summer, catty corner from the O’Brien’s and McDonald’s.

Many of the Indians were taught to read by Irishman John Heaphy and his daughter, Mary.

By the 1850s, about 300 families lived in the area. The Irish were sprinkled among them. Many were leading citizens.

Philip soon fell in love with Margaret Hughes, who was living nearby with her sister and her husband, Peter McDonald.

There were no priests in Cheboygan, so Philip and Margaret took a sleigh across the Straits of Mackinac to St. Ignace where they were married in February 1851 by Father Reverend F. Peret.

Soon after, the local Irish held their first local Roman Catholic services in the home of Charles Bellant, another early pioneer.

In 1853, Reverend Augelles VanPamel, an Indian missionary from Little Traverse Village, accompanied by Bishop LeFevre, of Detroit, and 20 Indians, conducted the first mass and baptisms at Philip and Margaret’s house.

By 1856, the first Catholic chapel (St. Mary) had been built on Peter McDonald’s farm nearby.

In 1868, the first parish, St. Mary, on State and D Streets, was constructed. The church is still in use today for worship, Mass, weddings, baptisms and funerals. In 1876, St. Mary’s school was established with 150 students enrolled.

Philip was a struggling shoemaker and farmer. He and Margaret had five children: Daniel (Mary Heaphy), Hannah (Daniel Kellaher), Michael, Charles Henry and William Smith.

When the American Civil War began in 1860, 44-year-old Philip enlisted in the Army of the United States. He was assigned to the cavalry and then to the Horse Artillery, fast and mobile mounted artillery.

Philip was severely wounded October 4, 1862, in the First Battle of Corinth, Mississippi. His right arm was amputated. He was disabled and received a pension of $15 a month.

O’Brien was no longer able to work, so the family was forced to sell parcels of their land to survive.

In 1882, Phillip deeded his remaining property to his wife Mary, who in turn was compelled to deed 40 acres to the city for delinquent taxes dating back to 1871.

Their grandson, William, inherited the Phillip O’Brien home on Cleveland Avenue, where it still stands today at 511 Cleveland Avenue, just east of, and across, from Williams Street.

Philip lived to be 95-years-old. He lived his later years in a home for retired soldiers. He died in 1911. He and Margaret are buried in Cheboygan’s Calvary Cemetery, not far from their old property.

The area has long been known as O’Brien’s Grove. Nearby O’Brien Drive was named after Phillip and Margaret. Family legend is that O’Brien’s Grove was to be a public park in perpetuity and returned to their descendants if not.

Presently, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church lies on East Lincoln Avenue, gently nestled in O’Brien’s Grove amongst a forest of beautiful pines.