About Patrick T. Conley

Eliza Jumel (nee, Elizabeth Bowen) was born in Providence on April 2, 1775, the daughter of Phebe Kelly and John Bowen, a sailor. After her parents separated, Phebe lived in …
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The Gilbane family, like the Banigans and the Hanleys, were driven from Ireland to America by the potato blight that caused Ireland’s Great Famine. William Gilbane, who was born in …
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[This article is based mostly from the introduction by Patrick T. Conley appearing in Russell J. DeSimone’s recent book, Rhode Island Election Tickets: A Survey of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century …
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Providence and the rest of Rhode Island have an amazing history of impressive manufacturing companies. Of all the hundreds from the nineteenth century, I call five of them based in …
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[Note from the Author:  Written in 1999 as an entry in The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, ed. Michael Glazier (Notre Dame, 1999), 803-08, this essay was an abridgement …
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[Note from the Author:  Written in 1999 as an entry in The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, ed. Michael Glazier (Notre Dame, 1999), 803-08, this essay was an abridgement …
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In the run up to the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we will hear much about the Founding Fathers. Portsmouth, Rhode Island, however, was the first American community that …
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LaSalle Academy, as most readers know, is a Catholic college preparatory school located in Providence. It began in 1871 as a result of discussions among Bishop Francis McFarland, Rev. Michael …
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Rhode Islanders have produced some of America’s greatest patriotic songs. Julia Ward Howe, who composed “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a Civil War anthem, was descended from two Rhode …
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Two of Rhode Island’s greatest companies in its history are Brown & Sharpe and the Gorham Manufacturing Company.  Each company showed remarkable innovation, produced incredible products, employed thousands of Rhode …
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