The first Scotch Irish first began coming to the New World in the early 1600's, They were so reproductive that they dominated and reigned supreme in very place they choose to dwell. These initial settlers were a hearty lot who, lived off the land, making do with materials on hand and constructing their homes of logs. This has led many to give the Scotch-Irish credit as the originators of log construction, and their simple homes are often erroneously labeled"typical Scotch-Irish cabins."They were clannish, aggressive, violent and devoted to their livestock, and they influenced the USA more than any other group.

They have been the backbone of the nationality, by them independence was first advocated. Just a little before the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the Scotch-Irish of North Carolina in convention at Charlotte had adopted the Mecklenburg Declaration. It read "We do hereby dissolve the political bonds which have connected us with the mother county and hereby declare ourselves a free and independent people, are, and of right ought to be a sovereign and self-governing association under the control of no power other than that of our God and the general government." The Declaration of Independence itself, as we have it today is in the hand- writing of a Scotch-Irishman, Charles Thompson, the Secretary of Congress, was first printed by another, Captain Dunlap, and was first publicly read to the people by another, Captain Nixon.

Between 1715 and 1776 some 250,000 of them arrived, mainly in the Chesapeake Bay region, and settled all along the east coast, particularly in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina and later in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, and beyond. For a little while the Ulster Protestants sought Boston, others sought other parts of New England. But by far the largest stream of emigration entered the United States at Philadelphia. From 1727 through to the Revolutionary War, many turned aside into New Jersey, but a famous Scotch Irish Quaker Pennsylvania governor directed the main stream west in the state to battle on the frontier with the Indians.

They crossed the Allegheny Mountains to the headwaters of the Ohio; they followed its valleys south as far as the mountains extended; they settled West Virginia and west North Carolina, and met there another stream of Ulster immigration coming in from Charleston.

They found their way from these main lines over all the United States. They gave the free school system to New Jersey and Kentucky, and for nearly a century taught (the) most classical schools south of New York.

It was in Nashville that the foundation of Scots/Irish political power was laid. In 1829, Andrew Jackson, an Ulsterman, was the first "people's President". Jacksonian democracy was to be the foundation of American politics with one man, one vote, and was rooted in Scots/Irish Presbyterianism. For the first half of the 19thcentury, the Scotch Irish dominated the Presidency. James Polk of NC, James Buchanan, son of an immigrant , Andrew Johnston a grandson of a Co. Antrim farm laborer, and Ulysses S. Grant were all Scots Irish. The Civil War divided the S/I into both camps, but most fought on the southern side. Stonewall Jackson was a Scots/Irish Presbyterian deacon. His Shenandoah Valley campaign became a classic in military textbooks.

Referring to the formation of the Southerner from their Scotch-Irish roots, Frank L. Owsley in his work Plain Folk of the Old South maintains says that many things distinguished the them from any other people. "Appearance, the indefinable qualities of Personality, and their manners and customs . . . set them apart from the inhabitants of the other sections of the United States, and in this way strengthened their sense of kinship. That sense of kinship was so strong that the Southern people . . . were a genuine folk long before the Civil War."

‘‘These hard-as-nails Protestants defied clerical edicts of the Catholic Stuarts when they migrated to Ireland,’’ Snider wrote. ‘‘History shows they cut their veins and submitted testaments of faith to the Reformed Presbyterian church written in their own blood. They fought storms of religious persecution’ and indeed still do.

Perhaps, he added, ‘‘that partially explains why Presbyterians produced some of the county’s most famous sons – and why western farm lands have been the richest and most bountiful.’’

It is said these Protestant immigrants brought from Ulster to New England the potato. Some of the New Englanders procured a few of these potatoes from the Ulstermen and planted them in their gardens according to instructions, but pronounced the little balls found on the top of the stalks rather innutritious food. They found in plowing their gardens in the spring that they had boiled the wrong end of the vegetable.

Another tribute to the Scots of Ulster, as well as the Scots of Scotland, is from the address given by the late Ambassador Whitelaw Reid before the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution of "The Scot and Ulster Scot in America."

Ambassador Reid inferred in this address that these two branches of Scots "deserve more credit for the making of America than any other race of people - that there would have been no United States without them."

The first migration to America, were Ulster Scots who lived in Northern Ireland for four generations or more, and who were quite a different people from the Irish.

Call your ancestors Scotch-Irish or Ulster Scots, millions of Americans do— probably 1 in every 15 they find them hanging upon their family trees and agree THEY ARE NOT IRISH

We could have picked any of a thousand place's to finish with, we picked this town because of the name.

To the right is a typical Scotch-Irish cabin which would have been found all across the USA. Many city's and town's stared out just like this.

In 1719- sixteen Presbyterian Scotch-Irish families arrived from Londonderry, Ulster. They stopped at West Running Brook easterly of Beaver Brook, Initially known as Nutfield. They built two rows of cabins just like this one, to day it is a vibrant community living in absolutely idilic surroundings, its Londonderry, NH.

People come from all over the world to enjoy New Hampshire's White Mountains, picturesque sea shore, and our numerous lakes and rivers. Londonderry has tennis courts, several playgrounds, athletic fields and sports teams for all ages. There are 27 public and private golf courses in the area. The town also has an extensive conservation area with hiking trails.

Here are some images of Londonderry some 220 years on.