BOOK DESCRIPTION

In 1830 Hugh McKenna, a widowed farmer and father of eleven, left his home in Ireland's County Tyrone for economic survival in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Arriving in Quebec on a "timber ship", Hugh and the family walked the twelve hundred miles to a new life in the raucous, burgeoning gateway to the American West. Thus began nearly a hundred years of trial and triumph for Hugh's widowed daughter-in-law Annie, and two of her sons, Bernard and Charles. Through financial struggle, fire, civil war, flood, labor unrest, political corruption, and reform they met their challenges with fortitude and civic devotion. Whether defending the Union from Antietam to Appomattox or helping to build a new industrial and political order, the McKenna men and their remarkable mother are emblematic of the many contributions Irish-Americans have made to a great city and a great nation.