You can really tell the seasons are changing as it is still dark on our way up to Grafton to see Owen this morning, the upside is that I don't leave my sunglasses sitting on my head. It is hard for us to believe that we have only been going to visit O for less than 6 months, but Saturday morning trips up to Grafton feel like second nature to us now, and Paul and I look forward to those special Saturdays that end in an odd number. We can only hope that we bring as much joy and laughter to Owen's life as he brings to ours. We know that in Owen we have found a friend for life!
As many of you know, Owen has been suffering with some health problems of late, and he has a hernia that is causing him a huge amount of discomfort. The good news is that he should be having surgery within the next week to have the hernia fixed, and I would ask that you all send positive and healing thoughts his way!
On the visit today we spent a good deal of time talking about karma, or paying it forward and how important it is to try and touch the world in a positive way. And then on our way out of Grafton, I saw my husband do exactly what we talked about, he stopped to lift a wee woman who was in wheelchair into her mini-van. So to Owen...you do have a legacy and it thrives in each and everyone of us who loves you and who you love back! xoxo Kathy & Paul
Note from JC - this text was too large to post on Facebook, hence the link. Paul is a brother Hibernian of Owen and Martin in the Medina County, Ohio Irish Brigade Division.
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Monday, October 11, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Sullivan combat dead interred in Richmond, Virginia's Hollywood Cemetery
Dennis Sullivan, Co. D, 8th Alabama. D. August, 1861. Soldiers section, Lot unknown.
Dennis O. Sullivan, Co. H, 7th Reg’t, Louisiana. d. 28 APR 1865. Sect. W, Lot 261.
James H. Sullivan, Co. B., 30th Reg’t, Virginia. B. 1841. D. 13 DEC 1906. Soldiers section East Lot 14.
John E. Sullivan, Co. E, 2nd Reg’t, Maryland. D. 15 Aug 1863. Gettysburg section, Lot 1.
John S. Sullivan, Co. G, 27th Reg’t, Georgia. D. 28 SEP 1864. Section V, lot 454.
Pleasant M. Sullivan. Co. B, 10th Virginia. B. 1839. D. 24 Jun 1862. Soldiers Section O, lot 237.
T. Sullivan, Co. B, 2nd Reg’t, South Carolina. D. 13 JUN 1864. Soldiers Section U, lot 578.
William R. Sullivan, Co. A, 49th Virginia. D. 12 JUN 1864. Soldiers Section U, lot 577.
Friday, April 9, 2010
The Best Irish Whiskey
We were meeting Plain Dealer reporter Janet Cho for lunch at Cleveland's Irish Harp Restaurant and Pub. She was doing a story on my discovery that Medal of Honor recipient James Corcoran (Indian Wars), did not have an MOH stone at his final resting place in Calvary Cemetery. The Medal of Honor Society concurred and was sending one to Calvary. I had contacted the Plain Dealer thinking that perhaps a story about it might find Corcoran's descendants. (A descendant, Patti K, later told me she cried when she read the first of the three articles about it and realized it was her family we were trying to locate)
With me at the Harp that day was Blane P., Vietnam medic and fellow member of American Legion Post #196, Brecksville. I didn't see anyone who might look like what I pictured Janet Cho to look like so we bellied up to the bar. We'll define Blane as a very hard drinker and first-time visitor to the Harp. He bellowed out to the bartender, "What's your best Irish whiskey?" Glancing at the rows of whiskey bottles behind the bar I saw a familiar product. There in it's very own prominent wooden cradle, hanging upside down, was a bottle of Midleton Irish Whiskey ($125.00 usd in Ireland ).
The young lady who was bartending said, "Why, that would be our Midleton sir."
"How much IS a shot?" I saw it coming.
"It's twenty-five dollars a shot sir."
After a momentary pause Blane inquired again. "What's your next-best Irish whiskey?"
With me at the Harp that day was Blane P., Vietnam medic and fellow member of American Legion Post #196, Brecksville. I didn't see anyone who might look like what I pictured Janet Cho to look like so we bellied up to the bar. We'll define Blane as a very hard drinker and first-time visitor to the Harp. He bellowed out to the bartender, "What's your best Irish whiskey?" Glancing at the rows of whiskey bottles behind the bar I saw a familiar product. There in it's very own prominent wooden cradle, hanging upside down, was a bottle of Midleton Irish Whiskey ($125.00 usd in Ireland ).
The young lady who was bartending said, "Why, that would be our Midleton sir."
"How much IS a shot?" I saw it coming.
"It's twenty-five dollars a shot sir."
After a momentary pause Blane inquired again. "What's your next-best Irish whiskey?"
Thursday, February 25, 2010
MARCH, 1777 General Washington to General John Sullivan. The Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799.
Morris Town, March 15, 1777.
Do not, my dear General Sullivan, torment yourself any longer with imaginary Slights, and involve others in the perplexities you feel on that Score. No other officer of rank, in the whole army, has so often conceived himself neglected, Slighted, and ill treated, as you have done, and none I am sure has had less cause than yourself to entertain such Ideas. Mere accidents, things which have occurred in the common course of Service, have been considered by you as designed affronts. But pray Sir, in what respect did General Greene's late command at Fort Lee, differ from his present command at Baskenridge? or from yours at Chatham? And what kind of separate command had General Putnam at New York? I never heard of any, except his commanding there ten days before my arrival from Boston, and one day after I had left it for Harlemheights, as senior Officer. In like manner at Philadelphia, how did his command there differ from the one he has at Princeton, and wherein does either vary from yours at Chatham? Are there any peculiar emoluments or honours to be reaped in the one case and not in the other? No, why then these unreasonable, these unjustiafiable Suspicions? Suspicions which can answer no other end, than to poison your own happiness, and add vexation to that of others.
General Heath, it is true, was ordered to Peeks Kill. So was General Spencer, by the mere chapter of accidents (being almost in the Country) to Providence to watch the motions of the fleet, then hovering in the Sound. What followed after to either or both, was more the effect of chance than design.
Your ideas and mine, respecting separate commands, have but little analogy. I know of but one seperate command properly so called, and that is in the Northern Department, and General Sullivan, General St. Clair or any other General Officer at Ticonderoga, will be considered in no other light, whilst there is a Superior Officer in the Department, than if they were placed at Chatham, Baskenridge, or Princeton.
But I have not time to dwell upon Subjects of this kind; in quitting it, I shall do it with an earnest exhortation, that you will not suffer Yourself to be teized with evils that only exist in the imagination, and with Slights that have no existence at all; keeping in mind at the same time, that if distant armies are to be formed there are several Gentlemen before you, in point of rank, who have a right to claim a preference. I am etc.
Do not, my dear General Sullivan, torment yourself any longer with imaginary Slights, and involve others in the perplexities you feel on that Score. No other officer of rank, in the whole army, has so often conceived himself neglected, Slighted, and ill treated, as you have done, and none I am sure has had less cause than yourself to entertain such Ideas. Mere accidents, things which have occurred in the common course of Service, have been considered by you as designed affronts. But pray Sir, in what respect did General Greene's late command at Fort Lee, differ from his present command at Baskenridge? or from yours at Chatham? And what kind of separate command had General Putnam at New York? I never heard of any, except his commanding there ten days before my arrival from Boston, and one day after I had left it for Harlemheights, as senior Officer. In like manner at Philadelphia, how did his command there differ from the one he has at Princeton, and wherein does either vary from yours at Chatham? Are there any peculiar emoluments or honours to be reaped in the one case and not in the other? No, why then these unreasonable, these unjustiafiable Suspicions? Suspicions which can answer no other end, than to poison your own happiness, and add vexation to that of others.
General Heath, it is true, was ordered to Peeks Kill. So was General Spencer, by the mere chapter of accidents (being almost in the Country) to Providence to watch the motions of the fleet, then hovering in the Sound. What followed after to either or both, was more the effect of chance than design.
Your ideas and mine, respecting separate commands, have but little analogy. I know of but one seperate command properly so called, and that is in the Northern Department, and General Sullivan, General St. Clair or any other General Officer at Ticonderoga, will be considered in no other light, whilst there is a Superior Officer in the Department, than if they were placed at Chatham, Baskenridge, or Princeton.
But I have not time to dwell upon Subjects of this kind; in quitting it, I shall do it with an earnest exhortation, that you will not suffer Yourself to be teized with evils that only exist in the imagination, and with Slights that have no existence at all; keeping in mind at the same time, that if distant armies are to be formed there are several Gentlemen before you, in point of rank, who have a right to claim a preference. I am etc.
Monday, January 25, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Manifest Destiny -John L. O'Sullivan, 1839.
Excerpted from "The Great Nation of Futurity," The United States Democratic Review, Volume 6, Issue 23, pp. 426-430. The complete article can be found in The Making of America Series at Cornell University
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes.
On the contrary, our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity.
It is so destined, because the principle upon which a nation is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect, is universal. It presides in all the operations of the physical world, and it is also the conscious law of the soul -- the self-evident dictates of morality, which accurately defines the duty of man to man, and consequently man's rights as man. Besides, the truthful annals of any nation furnish abundant evidence, that its happiness, its greatness, its duration, were always proportionate to the democratic equality in its system of government. . . .
What friend of human liberty, civilization, and refinement, can cast his view over the past history of the monarchies and aristocracies of antiquity, and not deplore that they ever existed? What philanthropist can contemplate the oppressions, the cruelties, and injustice inflicted by them on the masses of mankind, and not turn with moral horror from the retrospect?
America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in defence of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement. Our annals describe no scenes of horrid carnage, where men were led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another, dupes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the human form called heroes. We have had patriots to defend our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns or thrones; nor have the American people ever suffered themselves to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might be placed on a seat of supremacy.
We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that "the gates of hell" -- the powers of aristocracy and monarchy -- "shall not prevail against it."
The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere -- its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood -- of "peace and good will amongst men.". . .
Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the cynosure of our union of States, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality of individuals; and while truth sheds its effulgence, we cannot retrograde, without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We must onward to the fulfillment of our mission -- to the entire development of the principle of our organization -- freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality.
This is our high destiny, and in nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?
The American people having derived their origin from many other nations, and the Declaration of National Independence being entirely based on the great principle of human equality, these facts demonstrate at once our disconnected position as regards any other nation; that we have, in reality, but little connection with the past history of any of them, and still less with all antiquity, its glories, or its crimes.
On the contrary, our national birth was the beginning of a new history, the formation and progress of an untried political system, which separates us from the past and connects us with the future only; and so far as regards the entire development of the natural rights of man, in moral, political, and national life, we may confidently assume that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity.
It is so destined, because the principle upon which a nation is organized fixes its destiny, and that of equality is perfect, is universal. It presides in all the operations of the physical world, and it is also the conscious law of the soul -- the self-evident dictates of morality, which accurately defines the duty of man to man, and consequently man's rights as man. Besides, the truthful annals of any nation furnish abundant evidence, that its happiness, its greatness, its duration, were always proportionate to the democratic equality in its system of government. . . .
What friend of human liberty, civilization, and refinement, can cast his view over the past history of the monarchies and aristocracies of antiquity, and not deplore that they ever existed? What philanthropist can contemplate the oppressions, the cruelties, and injustice inflicted by them on the masses of mankind, and not turn with moral horror from the retrospect?
America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminiscences of battle fields, but in defence of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement. Our annals describe no scenes of horrid carnage, where men were led on by hundreds of thousands to slay one another, dupes and victims to emperors, kings, nobles, demons in the human form called heroes. We have had patriots to defend our homes, our liberties, but no aspirants to crowns or thrones; nor have the American people ever suffered themselves to be led on by wicked ambition to depopulate the land, to spread desolation far and wide, that a human being might be placed on a seat of supremacy.
We have no interest in the scenes of antiquity, only as lessons of avoidance of nearly all their examples. The expansive future is our arena, and for our history. We are entering on its untrodden space, with the truths of God in our minds, beneficent objects in our hearts, and with a clear conscience unsullied by the past. We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that "the gates of hell" -- the powers of aristocracy and monarchy -- "shall not prevail against it."
The far-reaching, the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest to mankind the excellence of divine principles; to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High -- the Sacred and the True. Its floor shall be a hemisphere -- its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions, calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood -- of "peace and good will amongst men.". . .
Yes, we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Equality of rights is the cynosure of our union of States, the grand exemplar of the correlative equality of individuals; and while truth sheds its effulgence, we cannot retrograde, without dissolving the one and subverting the other. We must onward to the fulfillment of our mission -- to the entire development of the principle of our organization -- freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade and business pursuits, universality of freedom and equality.
This is our high destiny, and in nature's eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it. All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man -- the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this blessed mission to the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life-giving light of truth, has America been chosen; and her high example shall smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where myriads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity?
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