As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, a great day for the Irish and those who wish they were Irish, it seems as though it would be good to look back and see what the Irish and their descendants have done to help make Williamsport and the rest of Lycoming County such a great place and to mark their role in its development.

The founder of Williamsport, Michael Ross, bears an Irish surname, even though it is reported he may have been born in Scotland.

Judge William Hepburn, the first president judge of Lycoming County and known as the “father of Lycoming County,” and the man responsible for making Williamsport the county seat of the new Lycoming County, was born in County Donegal, Ireland.

More humble sons and daughters of Erin came here during the early years of Williamsport and Lycoming County as well. They came here for the rich farmland; they came to toil on the digging of the West Branch Canal, and helped build and work the fledgling railroads that were arising here.

But perhaps more importantly, they served as a major source of labor during the development of the lumber industry, the thing that would firmly put Williamsport on the map. They helped cut the trees down, send the timber down to the Susquehanna Boom, and worked in the many lumber mills that processed that rich timber supply.

Many of the Irish who came to work in the lumber industry came from the southwest area of Ireland, where there was still a good supply of trees, even after the English had denuded the rest of Ireland of trees and timber. These immigrants from the province of Munster found plenty of timber-related work for them here in Lycoming County and the Williamsport area.

Before about 1850, there was only a trickle of Irish immigrants to the area, but with the advent of the tragic “Potato Famine” in Ireland in 1845 and 1846, a flood of Irish immigrants came to America. Many of these came to this area, and after they liked what they saw, they wrote home to Ireland, encouraging friends and relatives to come here.

These hard-working Irish immigrants also worked in the industries allied to lumber, such as tanning, furniture making, and machinery manufacturing jobs. No major industry of any type in Lycoming County was untouched by the hands of Irish workers or their families and later their descendants.

When their new country was torn by civil war in 1861, many of them answered the call to preserve the Union. These Irish and their descendants, would later — without hesitation — answer the call to the colors when the United States became involved in future wars.

Like almost all major cities, the Irish took a leading role in public service, particularly as firemen and policemen. One of the earliest volunteer fire companies in Williamsport was the Hibernia Fire Company, located on Campbell Street. The men from that station wore green uniforms and had their station painted green on the outside.

Charles Mahoney, a son of Irish immigrants, and a proud member of the local chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, a fraternal organization of those of Irish descent, died while fighting a fire at the Hippodrome Theatre on the Linck Block on West Fourth Street on February 16, 1927.

Another son of Irish immigrants, James Spellisy, died on September 24, 1910, on the way to a fire alarm that turned out to be a false alarm. While driving a horse-driven fire vehicle, the horse pulling the vehicle reared up and threw Spellisy from the vehicle breaking his neck and causing a fatal injury to him.

The early days of the Williamsport police department from the 1860s through the 1920s were dominated by officers with Irish surnames including, Carney, Berrigan, Dunn, Flynn, Garvey, Mahaffey, Marley, McCaffrey, and McCarthy, just to name a few.

John P. Maloney, murdered in the line of duty on March 13, 1907, is probably the most notable of these “Sons of Erin” on the Williamsport Police Department. He was the son of Irish immigrants and was a policeman for five years at the time of his murder.

As part of the continued love and interest in public service, there were others such as Daniel P. Kirby, the son of Irish immigrants, who became the city’s mayor from 1976 to 1980, and another mayor of Irish descent to serve was Michael Rafferty, who served from 2001 to 2004.

This pattern of dedication to public service carried was also repeated in the other boroughs, towns, and townships of Lycoming County and greatly enriching the public life of this county.

Within the city of Williamsport, the Irish families seemed to have been concentrated in Newberry. The area bounded on the north by High Street, south to First and Second Streets toward the river until about the 1950s.

The Irish took the lead in forming their own Catholic parish when language and cultural differences arose between them and those of German heritage at St. Boniface Church. The Irish immigrants preferred not having their Masses and church affairs conducted in German.

In 1871 they met at a property on West Edwin Street and by the late 1880s had acquired a property at West Fourth and Walnut streets and built what would become the Church of the Annunciation, now St. Joseph the Worker Parish, for about $60,000.

Later they would build their own parochial school — St. Joseph’s. When interscholastic sports became popular by the mid-20 century, one of the most highly anticipated events on the sports calendar were basketball games between St. Joseph’s and St. Mary’s, the other Catholic parochial school in the city before 1968. St. Joe’s was the “Fighting Irishmen,” and the St. Mary’s team was known as the “Dutchmen.”

It has certainly been with the “luck of the Irish” that Williamsport and Lycoming County has grown and prospered. These Irish immigrants and their descendants continue to contribute to the life of this county and to make it a better place and to live and are helping to develop a better future for it.