St Patrick’s Day is over here in Australia and I didn’t celebrate but I could have. I’m only one eighth Irish but I think that still qualifies me for a green beer. My Irish ancestry is the most colourful part of my family tree and includes a bunch of rough and tumble Scots-Irish immigrants to America.

My Scots-Irish ancestors came to America in the 1720s and most likely joined thousands of other Scots-Irish immigrants who made the arduous trek along the ‘Great Road’ from Pennsylvania to the fringes of the frontier in the Shenandoah Valley and Rockbridge County in Virginia.

My ancestors kept moving as the edge of the frontier moved and when Virginia got too populated they moved into the frontier in Kentucky and West Virginia and then finally the wild territory of Ohio. Think of Daniel Boone and you’ll get an idea of how these rugged Scots-Irish lived. They were tough as nails.

My fourth great grandfather, Silas Johnston, was of strong Scots-Irish stock and served as an Indian spy during the American Revolutionary War. Native Americans sided with the British during the war so expert woodsmen like Silas were sent out to spy on them and learn of their movements.

After the war, it got too crowded in Virginia so he pushed on to Fayette County Kentucky. When that got too crowded he and his two eldest sons hiked up to western Ohio – then the far frontier – and carved out a homestead. He was the first white settler in those parts and lived somewhat in peace with the native Americans. Johnston Township is named after him.

In 1812 he again went to fight the British and rose to the rank of Major.

At a similar time around the early 1800s my fourth great grandfather, William McCrosky, the son of an Irish immigrant from Antrim, was having some moral issues in Kentucky. He opposed slavery and as a result was persecuted in the South. He pulled up stakes and took his wife and children north to Ohio and went to the Cincinnati Land Office and bought land in untamed Champaign County for $2 an acre. He died in 1856 and failed to see the abolishment of slavery but lived his life in Ohio as a staunch and uncompromising Democrat.

So I raise a mug of green beer in tribute to those Irish ancestors who played such a key role in the western movement in America.

[Image of A Matching of Instincts by Dann Jacobus]