By Paul Della Valle, copyright 1994

The author sent a copy of this article to the DGS for publishing in Daltons in History. It first appeared in Worcester Magazine, June 8, 1994. Paul is a journalist from the Worcester, MA area.

One day in 1905, 14-year-old Richard Dalton walked down the lane outside of his family’s home in the hills west of Ninemilehouse, County Tipperary. He was an orphan and dirt poor, bound for Wales to mine coal for a year or so, long enough to earn passage to the United States.  Could that boy have guessed then, as he walked down that dirt lane, that he would never again gaze across the valley of patchwork wheat fields and green pastures? That he would never again see Slievnamon’s round peak crowned by sunset. That he would never again smell the pungent sweetness of peat smoke hanging in the morning mist?

When young Richard Dalton said goodbye to his sister Katie and brother Peter and walked down the lane, the lane his father had dropped dead on walking home from Mass on Christmas morning, could he have known then he would never again see any of his kin? That the family home and little church on the lane would both crumble, their foundations covered by vines and brambles. That the names on the slate markers of his parents’ graves in the overgrown churchyard would be rendered unreadable by thorns and rain and sun and time?

Could the boy have guessed then? Or did the terrible hunger gnawing at his belly, the same hunger felt by the displaced millions who had left in the five decades previous, quicken his steps down the hill to the village, to Dublin, then Wales and beyond the great sea to an unknown destiny in the New World?

It would be impossible to go to Ireland and not become sentimental, to not think about family and about the passing of people and time. Ruins abound in Ireland. Around every turn on the narrow winding roads, at the edge of each emerald field outlined by stonewalls and hedgerows of yellow-flowering furze, are ruins. Ruins of stone houses 200 and 300 years old. Ruins of Anglo and Norman castles and Viking towers and Celtic forts, 800, 900, 1,500 years old. And nothing will remind you of your own mortality so much as the bushes growing from the thatched roof of an old cottage on the windswept Burren of County Clare.  “ ‘Tis true, isn’t it, we are just passing through?” Paddy Cotter had said as we hoisted yet another pint of Guinness in the Jolly Swagman Pub in Waterville, County Kerry.

My wife Joanne and I had come to Ireland, a credit-card-funded celebration of her 40th birthday. While there, I would play golf at Waterville, one of the top courses in Europe, beautiful beyond words, unforgiving beyond cruelty, where 54-year-old Paddy is the starter.  We would laugh in the smoke- and music-filled pubs of Galway. We would drive on the left on the impossibly narrow roads and sometimes off the impossibly narrow roads while avoiding tour buses in the Caha Mountains between Kerry and Cork. We would listen to beautiful women singing ballads for tourists at a banquet in 800-year-old Bunratty Castle. We would stand in J. Kearney’s Pub in Ennis, where a sign over the portal says, “Let it be known that this good public place shall be a place for all musicians to rest and play their music shall they desire,” and we would listen as the musicians sat around a table, sipping Guinness and ale and playing the traditional songs on the pipes and fiddles and flutes and accordions and bodrhans and bones.

And because my wife is a waitress at O’Connor’s Restaurant here in Worcester, and because Brendan and Claire O’Connor and chef Eoughan O’Grady are our friends, and because hospitality is not just a business to them, we were treated like family by their families and friends on the Old Sod. We marveled at the country’s roughhewn and ancient beauty. We saw sun for four days; clouds for three. We took a couple hundred pictures. We drank too many pints too often. The food everywhere was good; the talk everywhere about World Cup soccer.

And we drove to Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary on the Kilkenny Road, as my mother and father had done 12 years ago. We stopped at the church in Grange Moeckla as they had. There we looked upon the unmarked grave of Ned McGlynn and Katie McGlynn, nee Dalton. There we saw the big marble stone of Michael Hogan, a patriot and footballer killed by the Black and Tans on Bloody Sunday 1920. We drove on and stayed in the Grand House Inn at Ninemilehouse as my parents had.

When my parents were there they went up into the hills, driving on that lane still so narrow you must beep your horn at each curve. And there, in an old four-room house without running water, my mother found Annie Freaney, who had married Ned McGlynn after Katie died in 1960. And Annie showed them the remains of the original Dalton home and, in the overgrown yard of the crumbled church, the graves of Michael Dalton and Peggy Dalton, the grandparents my mother had never known.

And my mother’s heart leapt up when Annie said, “Maybe you know these people’’ and pulled out a photo Richard Dalton had sent from America and my mother, named Peggy Dalton then too, was in the photo, the maid of honor at her sister’s wedding four decades earlier. And then my mother’s heart leapt up again when she looked upon the round peak of Slievnamon and finally knew why her father had stood at the window of the three-decker in Quincy and stared at the  round peak of Blue Hill for hours in the evening.

Now Annie Freaney has passed. Her niece, 26-year-old Geraldine Hennessey lives in the home now with her 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, dirt poor and surviving barely on a widow’s pension. She had found other photos and correspondence in the house on the lane since Annie died. She showed Joanne and me a one-line newspaper announcement of Richard Dalton’s and Lillian Wheatley’s wedding. She showed us the death notice of my older brother Michael, a crib death. She gave us many photos sent from America that she had found in Katie’s belongings.

“Maybe you know these people,” she said and indeed one was of my brother and me on tricycles. And when we walked outside of the little house, grass growing in its gutter, I stood in the lane in the mist of an Irish morning, the magpies cawing and the donkeys and cows grazing in the green fields defined by patches of furze. And I looked across the valley of pastures and hayfields, surely much the same as they looked when 14-year-old Richard Dalton took that last look in 1915.  My grandfather died when I was 3. As I stood there, though, for the first time, felt his ghost beside me. Almost a century gone by and I could taste his tears as he trudged into forever down that narrow lane.

Writing of his own journey of flesh and spirit through Ireland, Australian author Thomas Keneally wondered about the loss his grandmother felt as she boarded a ship in Cork in 1889 and left behind her home, her Ireland. Her grief must have been great, Keneally decided.  “For what does cause someone from so far away, both in terms of geography and blood descent, to come to Ireland and feel at once her sense of wistful and ecstatic recognition,” he wrote. “Is it a matter of grandparental propaganda, murmured in the ear of childhood? Is it things forgotten but absorbed into the fibre?

“We people of the diaspora, whether from Australia or Michigan or the plains of Canada, get back here, returning ghosts, utterly confused and in need of guidance; and we see a place like Bally cotton, and recognize it straight away as a never but always known place.” A never but always known place. Aye, Paddy, ‘tis true. We are just passing through, all of us. But what a long strange trip it is.

Over the last century, articles and books have been written that characterize Jack Dalton as the proverbial wild west cowboy.  However, Michael Gates of Whitehorse, Yukon has been researching Dalton for a number of years and  based on court transcripts from Dalton’s trial, and  description of these events in a book by historian William Hunt titled “Distant Justice”, the circumstances were more like this, written by Gates.

"On  March 6, 1893, Dalton entered Murray’s cannery Store in Chilkat (in the vicinity of present-day Haines), whose non-native population totalled 13 individuals. Dalton was upset and agitated when he confronted the 120 pound clerk of the store, Daniel McGinnis, who Dalton accused of circulating rumours to the local Chilkat population of his plans to establish a trail for the purpose of trading with the native people of the interior.

McGinnis claimed ignorance of this accusation and Dalton accused him of being a liar. At this point, McGinnis, who had to his point been seated, rose from his chair, but Dalton pushed him back down, pulled out a revolver and started hitting McGinnis on the head with the butt, shouting “you are a liar” with each blow from his gun. McGinnis raised his hands to defend himself, at which point, Dalton’s gun went off at close quarters, penetrating the clerk’s stomach and inflicting a mortal wound.

McGinnis was taken immediately by boat to Juneau, where he died in the boat before he could receive any medical attention. The following day, a murder complaint was filed and Dalton was arrested and taken to Juneau, where trial was set for June 7th.

Dalton was defended by lawyers A.K. Delaney and J. F. Maloney of Juneau, and was acquitted by the jury after short deliberation. This decision split the community, and the Sitka Alaskan newspaper reported that Dalton was advised to get out of town as quickly as possible to avoid hanging at the hands of vigilantes. Federal prosecutors believed that the jury had been fixed by Dalton’s high-living attorney, Maloney. The events that followed the decision of the jury are not well known, although the Sitka Alaskan reported that the jurors who had been employed by the Treadwell Gold Mining Co. were immediately fired by their employer.

In the following years, Dalton and Maloney were partners in business, and both did well financially. As the years went by, the memories of the trial faded and their reputations improved as their personal fortunes increased. Later accounts of the events surrounding the shooting vary dramatically from the facts presented in court at the time.

There is no doubt that Jack Dalton was an historically interesting individual. His exploits across Alaska and the Yukon at and after the turn of the twentieth century are legendary. Unfortunately, the legend can become something other than the truth".

The following data was extracted from the 'Index of officers: D', Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Court Officers, 1660-1837 (2006), pp. 912-56. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk

Dalton, Charles (ktd. 18 May 1727) Gentleman Usher Quarter Waiter 9 July 1702 (LC 5/166, p. 89). Assistant Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter 7 June 1710 (Ibid., p. 245; LC 3/63 p. 60). Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter 14 June 1715 (LC 3/63, p. 102; LC 3/64, p. 82). D. 18 Aug. 1747 (GM [1747] XVII, 399).

Dalton, Richard, [sen.] Gentleman and Yeoman of the Cellar 16 Aug. 1660 (LS 13/7, f. 3). Sergeant of the Cellar 24 Oct. 1660 (LS 13/252, f. 11v). D. 4 Oct. 1681 (LS 13/9, f. 5).

Dalton, Richard, jun. Page of the Cellar 5 Aug. 1670 (LS 13/252, f. 199). Supernumerary Page of the Cellar Est. of 30 June 1674 (LS 13/36, f. 19). Page of the Cellar by promotion to Groom 29 Oct. 1677 (LS 13/254, f. 21).  Groom of the Cellar 29 Oct. 1677 (Ibid.).  Second Yeoman of the Cellar 5 Aug. 1681 (Ibid., f. 40v).  First Yeoman of the Cellar and Yeoman Keeper of Ice and Snow 14 Nov. 1681 (Ibid., f. 41v). Gentleman and Yeoman of the Cellar 27 Sept. 1683 (Ibid., f. 54v). Yeoman of the Cellar and Yeoman Keeper of Ice and Snow 14 Apr. 1685 (LS 13/9, f. 5). Gentleman and Yeoman of Cellar 30 Mar. 1689 (LS 13/257, p. 12). First Yeoman of the Cellar 14 July 1702 (LS 13/259, f. 19v). Gentleman and Yeoman of the Cellar 27 Feb. 1714 (LS 13/258, f. 105; LS 13/260, 26 Jan. 1715).  Vac. 11 June 1727 on d. of George I.

Dalton, Richard Librarian at Buckingham Palace Nov. 1760 (GM [1760] XXX, 542: "Datton" [sic]). Last occ. 1773 (RK [1773], p. 76). Surveyor of the Pictures Dec. [1778] (LC 3/67, p. 110). First occ. 1780 (Ibid. [1780], p. 75). D. 7 Feb. 1791 (DNB, supp. II, 109).

Notes: Also see Back Issues, Volume 8, Number 6, "Forbidden Images; Richard Dalton's Career" for an interesting highlight in his life. Look for an article on Richard Dalton's ancestry in a forthcoming issue of the DGS Journal by DGS Archivist, Michael F. Cayley.

Over 400 years ago, Sir  Robert Dalton of Thurnham Hall  leased the Green Ayre to build a mill. In later years, population and building expansion followed by environmental pollution took its toll on the raceway. Keith Horsfield has written a concise account of the situation.

The written history of the mill race started in 1574 when Robert Dalton leased the Green Ayre from Lancaster Corporation to build a mill. The mill passed down the family until John Dalton sold it, along with the fishing rights and the upper Green Ayre, to William Bradshaw of Halton Hall in 1745. The Bradshaws had legal battles with Lancaster Corporation which effectively stopped a proposed housing development. Lancaster was inspected in 1844 by Sir Richard Owen. He found the mill race to be a prolonged cesspool and recommended that Lancaster build sewage and water systems, which was eventually done. For a further 45 years the mill race continued to be a stinking mess, until its floor was concreted in 1891. Meanwhile, downstream from Skerton Bridge, it had been gradually covered over by bridges and houses. Upstream the mill race was lost with the building of railway sidings and the Kingsway. The combination of sewage pollution from storm overflow, and danger of collapse under heavy traffic, last year necessitated repairs to the mill race and the construction of new overflows and a solids trap, causing chaos to Lancaster’s traffic.

The following data was submitted by DGS member, Gerry Dalton of Australia. Our appreciation is extended to Gerry who may be contacted at:

tomngerrytravel@hotmail.com

Alexander McPherson Dalton, labourer, residence Ernest St, polling place Geraldton, division Herbert

Alice Dalton, boarding house keeper, residence Ellenborough St, polling place Ipswich, division Morton

Anistasia Dalton, domestic duties, residence Sugarloaf, polling place Meringandan, division Darling Downs

Andrew Dalton, labourer, residence Jubilee Hill, polling place Mt Morgan, division Capricorn

Andrew Redmond Dalton, labourer, residence D'Arcy St, polling place Mt Morgan, division Capricorn

Annie  Dalton, domestic duties, Cribb St, polling place Ipswich, division Morton

Annie Dalton, domestic duties, residence QN Bank, polling place Clifton, division Darling Downs

Annie Maria Dalton, domestic duties, residence Wagner Rd, polling place Clayfield, division Brisbane

Augustine Adolphne Dalton, commission agent, residence Golden Fleece Hotel, polling place Dalby, division Darling Downs

Bridget Dalton, domestic duties, residence D'Arcy St, polling place Mt Morgan, division Capricorn

Catherine Dalton, domestic duties, residence Douglas, polling place Crow's Nest, division Darling Downs

Catherine Dalton, domestic duties, residence Royal Hotel, Alfred St, polling place Charleville, division Maranoa

Catherine Dalton, domestic duties, residence Spring Creek, polling place Spring Creek, division Darling Downs

Daniel Richard Dalton, grocer, residence Moffatt St, polling place Ipswich, division Morton

Edmund Dalton, fruit grower, residence Montville, polling place Montville, division Wide Bay

Edward Dalton, labourer, residence Imperial Hotel, polling place Winton, division Maranoa

Edward Dalton, farmer, residence Douglas, polling place Crow's Nest, division Maranoa

Edward Dalton Jr, farmer, residence Douglas, polling place Crow's Nest, division Maranoa

Edward Dalton, blacksmith, residence Wolfgang St, polling place Claremont, division Capricorn

Eliza Dalton, domestic duties, residence Sugarloaf, polling place Meringandan, division Darling Downs

Elizabeth Dalton, domestic servant, residence William St, polling place Brisbane South, division Oxley

Elizabeth Dalton, domestic duties, residence Wolfgang St, polling place Claremont, division Capricorn

Ellen Dalton, domestic duties, residence Rose Vale, polling place Eton, division Herbert

Emily Dalton, domestic duties, residence Goowarra, Challinor St, polling place Ipswich, division Morton

Emma Jane Dalton, domestic duties, residence Brookfield, polling place Brookfield, division Oxley

Ernest Edmond Dalton, orchardist, residence Brookfield, polling place Brookfield, division Oxley

Farncis William Dalton, carter, residence Balaclava St, polling station Woolloongabba, division Oxley

Gertrude Dalton, domestic duties, residence Montville, polling station Montville, division Wide Bay

Hannah Dalton, domestic duties, residence Balaclava St, polling station Woolloongabba, division Oxley

Henry Dalton, farmer, residence Nobby, polling station Clifton, division Darling Downs

James Dalton, labourer, residence Revilo Farm, polling station Mitchell, division Maranoa

James Dalton, miner, residence Golden Gate, polling station Golden Gate, division Kennedy

James Dalton, labourer, residence Mazlin's Creek, polling station Atherton, division Herbert

James Dalton, horse driver, residence Bimbah Station, polling station Bimbah, division Maranoa

Jane Dalton, domestic duties, residence Montville, polling station Montville, division Maranoa

Joanna Mary Dalton, domestic duties, residence Victoria Rd, polling station Monkland, division Wide Bay

John Dalton, grazier, residence Rose Vale, polling station Eton, division Herbert

John Dalton, stockman, residence Buckingham Downs, polling station Noranside, division Maranoa

John Dalton, civil servant, residence 49 Duke St, KP, polling station Woollongabba, division Oxley

John Dalton, labourer, residence Corranna, polling station Listowe Downs, division Maranoa

John Dalton, vanman, residence Painswick St, polling station North Rockhampton, division Capricorn

John Dalton, farmer, residence Newland's Farm, polling station isis North, division Wide Bay

John Dalton, farmer, residence Douglas, polling station Crow's Nest, division Darling Downs

John Dalton, tinsmith, residence Walsh St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

John James Dalton, residence Depot St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

John Joseph Dalton, miner, residence Mt Leyshon Rd, polling station Charters Towers, division Kennedy

Joseph Francis Dalton, stockman, residence Buckingham Downs, polling station Noranside, division Maranoa

Julia Dalton, domestic duties, residence Mt Garnet, polling station Mt Garnet, division Herbert

Lily Dalton, domestic duties, residence Moffatt St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

Lucinda Dalton, domestic duties, residence Royal Hotel, Alfred St, polling station Charleville, division Maranoa

Margaret Dalton, domestic duties, residence Granite Creek, polling station Miriam Vale, division Capricorn

Margaret Dalton, domestic duties, residence Cabarlah, polling station Canbarlah, division Darling Downs

Martha Addlean Dalton, domestic duties, Rose Vale, polling station Eton, division Herbert

Martin Dalton, fireman, residence SS Dolphin, Fitzroy Rd, polling station Rockhampton, division Capricorn

Mary Dalton, licensed victualler, residence Royal Hotel, Alfred Rd, polling station Charleville, division Maranoa

Mary Dalton, domestic duties, residence Ernest St, polling station Geraldton, division Herbert

Mary Dalton, domestic duties, residence Yatesville, polling station Woodford, division Morton

Mary Dalton, domestic duties, residence Newland's Farm, polling station Isis North, division Wide Bay

Mary Angela Dalton, domestic duties, residence Jubilee Hill, polling station Mt Morgan, division Capricorn

Mary Anne Dalton, domestic dutyies, residence Depot St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

Mary Elizabeth Dalton, domestic duties, residence Wagner Rd, polling station Clayfield, division Brisbane

Mary Ellen Dalton, domestic duties, residence 49 Duke St, KP, polling station Woolloongabba, division Oxley

Mary Frances Dalton, domestic duties, residence Young St, Stephens, polling station Fairfield, division Oxley

Mary Lenor Dalton, domestic duties, residence Royal Hotel, Alfred Rd, polling station Charleville, division Maranoa

Maurice Dalton, licensed victualler, residence Central Hotel, polling station Esk, division Morton

Michael Dalton, storekeeper, residence Victoria Rd, polling station Monkland, division Wide Bay

Michael Dalton, farmer, residence Cabarlah, polling station Cabarlah, division Darling Downs

Michael Dalton, packer, residence William St, polling station Brisbane South, division Oxley

Michael Dalton, farmer, residence Revensbourne, polling station Bavensbourne, division Morton

Michael Dalton, farmer, residence Sugarloaf, polling station Meringandan, division Darling Downs

Patrick Dalton, tinsmith, residence Walsh St, Newtown, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

Patrick Dalton, labourer, residence Depot St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

Patrick Joseph Dalton, bank manager, residence QN Bank, polling station Clifton, division Darling Downs

Richard Dalton, lengths man, residence Granite Creek, polling station Mirian Vale, division Capricorn

Richard Dalton, farmer, residence Cabarlah, polling station Cabarlah, division Darling Downs

Robert George Dalton, gardener, residence Wagner Rd, polling station Clayfield, division Brisbane

Rose Dalton, domestic duties, residence Royal Hotel, polling station Charleville, division Maranoa

Sarah Anne Dalton, domestic duties, residence Montville, polling station Montville, division Wide Bay

Susan Dalton, domestic duties, residence Waterworks Rd, polling station Red Hill, division Brisbane

Susan Dalton, domestic duties, residence Painswick St, polling station North Rockhampton, division Capricorn

Susan Dalton, domestic duties, residence Esk, polling station Esk, division Morton

Susan Dalton, domestic duties, residence Central Hotel, polling station Esk, division Morton

Thomas Dalton,

Timothy Dalton, labourer, residence Yatesville, polling station Woodford, division Morton

Walter Albert Dalton, schoolteacher, residence Wallangarra, polling station Wallengarra, division Darling Downs

William Dalton, farmer, residence Spring Creek, polling station Spring Creek, division Darlnig Downs

William Dalton, farmer, residence 42 James St, polling station Fortitude Valley, division Brisbane

William Dalton, railway porter, residence Wagner Rd, polling station Clayfield, division Brisbane

William Dalton, grocer, residence Cribb St, polling station Ipswich, division Morton

William John Thomas Dalton, salesman, residence Wagner Rd, polling station Clayfield, division Brisbane