“The top of the steeple hangs from a crane, close to the ground, after being cut from the former St. Francis Church in North Adams, Wednesday May 18, 2016. Gillian Jones” Jones, Gillian . St. Francis Steeple Removed. May 18, 2016. Berkshire Eagle , Pittsfield, Mass . In BerkshireEagle.com. May 19, 2016. Accessed September 10, 2017. http://www.berkshireeagle.com/stories/st-francis-steeple-removed-in-north-adams-but-more-work-to-be-done,200479.
Lacroix, Patrick. “A church of two steeples: Catholicism, labor, and ethnicity in industrial New England, 1869-90.” The Catholic Historical Review 102, no. 4 (Autumn 2016): 746+. General OneFile (accessed September 7, 2017). https://libproxy.mcla.edu/login?url=http://libproxy.mcla.edu:2099/ps/i.do p=GPS&sw=w&u=mlin_w_masscol&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA474548711&asid =e78c 556569eed60f55527257355a7482.
Written for the Catholic History Review, this article examines how French-Canadian immigrants during the late nineteenth century were at odds with their Irish counterparts who wanted to assimilate into preexisting American Catholic Culture. Settling throughout New England, most prevalent in Massachusetts the two groups were constantly competing for the same jobs and land, leading to great tensions. This source gives great detail about how the Irish immigrant workers became a vital part of the American workforce and how through their religion and work they set an example for other immigrant groups to the benefit of assimilation. One note of interest is that their religious differences, while both still Catholic, most likely stems from the way both countries were treated and viewed colonial British authorities. This source helps explain how the Irish felt when they saw their “control (they) had achieved over their industrial environment and religious existence in the United States” being threatened by the massive waves of workers migrating from Canada in the late eighteen hundreds. Both groups being heavily Catholic, churches began to pop up all over New England, however they seemed to not have very much overlap. This source is really helpful in understanding the thought process of what has going on in the minds of the workers as they gathered and built the numerous Catholic Churches in Berkshire County. Saint Francis of Assisi was the first church built by the Irish workers in the eighteen hundreds which was sadly torn down in early 2016.
Very interesting Kaitlyn — Can you trace the contention between French-Canadian and Irish Catholics to a specific time? The implication here is that the Irish arrived in New England before the French-Canadians? When would that have been? Were there differences in the manner in which each group practiced Catholicism perhaps? Or were the tensions caused by competition for jobs and land between the two migrant groups?