On Ellis Island stands a bronze statute of a young girl and her two brothers, this statute was placed as a reminder of the first person who, in 1892 passed through the portals of then new Immigration center at Ellis Island. In the years following there would be more than 12 million other immigrants who would follow in this young woman’s footsteps, through the immigration process into what they hoped would be a better life for them than they left in the countries of their birth.
While each of these people have their own story, this is the story of that first young immigrant, Annie Moore.
Annie Moore’s life began in the village of Cobh, county of Cork, Ireland. In the years before her birth, Ireland had undergone many changes which would affect the life of this wee babe and her family.
The Act of Union which made Ireland part of the United Kingdom and subjected the Emerald Isle to laws instituted by the British government who had no understanding of Ireland’s people or their needs created problems for the country. Added to that a series of famines, caused many Irish people to flee to other countries, leaving those who remained to try and survive in a country where both food and jobs were scarce. This was world that Annie was born into.
Annie’s parents Mathew and Julia Moore, like many Irish men and woman of the times, tried to eke out some kind of living in the country they loved. Though times were hard, Julia bore 5 children whom she loved and worried about.
Ad was the case with many poor Irish men of the day Mathew would go out and try and find enough work to keep his growing family fed and clothed and a roof over their head. He found jobs few and far between and more often than not the family went hungry.
In 1888, at his wits end, Mathew was forced to make the difficult decision to leave his homeland and try for a better life in another part of the world. His limited income however, only allowed passage to America for 4 of his seven member family.
It was decided, that Mathew and Julia and the two oldest children would go to America leaving Annie and her two younger brothers to remain in Ireland with relatives. Once the family reached America they work hard and send for Annie and her siblings as soon as they had enough money to book passage.
How frightened Annie must have been when she heard of that decision. She was just thirteen years old, and now she was being left to care for her two younger brothers while her parents left for a strange country. It must have crossed Annie’s mind that she might not ever see her parents or older brother and sister again.
While there is little that is known of Annie’s life after her parents boarded a ship bound for New York, we do know that somehow Annie and her brothers survived. For two years, they waited, wondered and hoped that her family now living far away would find a way to send for them.
At last the much hoped for letter arrived containing the fare for Annie and her brothers fare to America.
That letter no doubt created mixed feelings within Annie. Excitement of at last being reunited with the family she loved and fear about what lay ahead, as well as sadness when thinking about leaving the only home, the only country she had ever known.
Whatever, her feelings must have been Annie did indeed embark on the trip to America. She and her two brothers, Anthony and Phillip boarded the S.S. Nevada which set sail December 20, 1891 for New York harbor.
Since their fare was only enough to allow them a berth in steerage, most of their 12 day trip was spent below decks crowded in with other steerage passengers. Annie needed to keep a close eye on her brothers in the close confines of the ship, and probably spent a good majority of her days just wishing the trip to be over.
At last, on January 1, 1892 they sailed into New York harbor. The first sight that probably greeted Annie and her brothers was the statute of liberty with her arm up stretched her torch lighting the way to the new life Annie was about to embark upon.
What a welcoming site that must have been to this young girl who had just spent the last twelve day traveling across the great expanse of ocean.
Her first sight of Ellis Island more than likely took her breath away. The immigration building must have looked like a castle to this young Irish lass, and given her the impression that America was grand place indeed!
Excitement and trepidation must have filled her as she made her way down the gang plank. Though at the time Annie probably had no idea she was about to make history.
No one knows how Annie came to be the first person off the ship that cold January day, but she found herself greeted by an immigration employee who welcomed her to Ellis Island and pressed a ten dollar gold piece into her hand, explaining it was a gift because she was the first person to use these new facilities.
Annie was taken aback to be handed more money than she had ever seen at one time in her life, and the gift was made all the more precious because this was her 15th birthday.
What followed was probably nothing more than a confused haze as Annie, went into the center, was asked information about herself, had her name pinned to her coat, and was given a quick physical. Being shuffled here and there until at last she climbed the staircase at the other side of the large building and out into her new life in America.
What happened to Annie Moore after those initial moments of landing would become a mixture of conjecture and mystery for many years to come, as Annie’s fate would become mixed up and commingled with the fate of another Annie Moore who was born in Illinois and traveled west, living the life of a frontier woman and dying in a street car accident in Texas in 1924.
For many years historians believed these two Annies were one in the same. It wasn’t until 2006 that the real story of what happened to Irish Annie Moore was uncovered by a geologist by the name of Megan Smolenyak Smomlenyak.
As it turns out Annie never left New York at all. She spent the rest of her life on New York’s rough and tumble seaport area. She married a German immigrant by the name of Joseph Schayer and bore him 11 children, only 5 of which would live to reach adulthood.
While different Annie’s life in America was no less harsh than her life in Ireland had been. She, her husband and children moved many times, though never more than a few streets away from their old home.
Her neighbors were other immigrants of Irish, Italian , German, and Asian descents a true mixture of the cultures that earned America the title of the Great melting pot.
While her life was not quite the romantic ideal of the other Annie Moore in many ways it is the story of America. Annie may not have found her fame and fortune in this new land she learned to call home, but she made the best of her life here. She found love, built a family and in 1923 died of heart failure and was buried in an unmarked grave in Calgary Cemetery.
While her story went on to become something it was not, her family grew and flourished and today combines a mixture of almost every nationality that makes up this country.
Finally at last, Annie’s real story got told, and in the telling the story regained new interest and a new chapter.
A headstone for Annie’s grave hand carved in Ireland and sent across the ocean to be placed on Annie’s grave in a special ceremony on October 11, 2009 is being held by the custom officials at the Port of Elizabeth, New Jersey. As of this writing there is no word on whether the headstone will be released in time for the dedication ceremony.
Let us hope, that this final tribute to Annie Moore reaches its final destination in time, and completes what for Annie, and those interested in her story the final chapter in this interesting tale.
