A Garden to Grow a Family In
And the Harte to do It
2018 Atlanta, Georgia
A white fence surrounds bright green grass and acres, it seems, of flowers of all kinds. The scent of roses, lilies, and hydrangeas escapes softly through the fence’s perimeter. Colors of bright red, soft pink, stark whites, and lovely blues dance around in the wind. A cottage-esque house overlooks this scenery from the kitchen window filled with gentle lace curtains. Susan Harte resides in the center of this botanical garden with her two black, sister border spaniels, Melba and Poppy. A dog lover to the bone, Susan’s home is riddled with puppy love. She has a passion for classical music, Broadway plays, and opera. Her adoration is apparent by the contents of her house.
Beautiful antiques and a brick fireplace with a wood burning stove grace the entryway into the cozy dwelling. The living room orderly filled with classical CD's, movies, and books. The rooms all pristine and comforting. Brimming with the warmth a grandmother’s house always emits. Surrounded by a garden made of her own love and hard work, Susan puts the same attention to detail into her social life as she hosts brunches and helps out in her community. Susan is not a person who lies around all day, she always has something to be focused on, putting as much effort in as she does to her garden.
As a child running through the vast flower beds and the many vine covered arches and on the moss covered stone steps was a magical experience. I always felt closest to nature and my grandmother in that fairy playground she so carefully created. Imagining faeries and dragons from the Irish stories she would tell me as she tucked me into bed on summer nights spent at her house. Teaching me to be proud of my Irish heritage and of my family.
1850 County Sligo, Ireland
The farm is devastated. Barren and dead. The vast garden that sustained the family for generations in the heart of County Sligo, Ireland has fallen. The blight ate up all the potatoes leaving none for the people nor the Harte family. The Irish government could do nothing to help, and the British refused to send much aid. The potatoes had let the country that desperately depended on them down. Many would die, but my family would survive.
It would take them many years to work up the money for passage to the new world, but they knew opportunities were waiting for them over there. In the end, only one of them would go, but there in America, this one Harte would begin to build my family from scratch. Those who stayed behind didn’t give up either. They would keep the Hartes alive on the other side of the pond through their own hard work as well.
1892
Now forty years after the devastation, Thomas J. Harte boards a ship and makes the journey to America. He arrives in New York City, and this is where he meets his wife, Susan Fitzpatrick who is also a famine survivor. Together, they make Manhattan’s 12th ward their new home. Thomas Harte successfully lands a job in the transportation, shoveling coal into the engines of trains. Employed by the Power House company, Thomas Harte provided for his family starting their new life in America. Its hard work to shovel coal all day long, but Thomas knew that he needed to work hard for the future of his family. He knew that his perseverance would pull him forward in this world. Susan doesn’t sit around either. She runs a boarding house to keep the family going. Together they grow their family in America through hard labor.
1918 April 2 Manhattan, New York City, New York
Thomas Harte is taken by the Spanish Flu that would also claim the life of most of his family, including his brother, and five percent of the world’s population at the time. Forty-nine years old, he is finally laid to rest after laboring endlessly to make a life for his family in the New World. Susan Fitzpatrick Harte would carry on this work of supporting a budding family in America for two more years until consumption would claim her. They both still lie today in the New Calvary Cemetery, in Queens, New York City as a foundation for their descendants to rise up and grow upon in this blossoming country they journeyed to with such hope.
1929 Guilford, North Carolina
John J. Harte, the youngest son of Susan and Thomas, who was orphaned by the Spanish Flu and other fatal medical conditions was quickly rising up in the world. He wouldn’t let anything slow him down as he got an amazing education that would then take him to college and then to a high-paying job. He didn’t let the poverty he grew up in block him from a better future, and America, at the time, was the perfect place for an orphan boy to rise up in ranks.
John, now a bright, young architect from Atlanta, walks by the same farm in High Point, North Carolina every morning on his way to work, and every morning he sees the same girl sitting in her garden on the farm. For months, he walks by and sees her without doing anything, but as every seed that grows needs to first be planted, John finally takes action to grow a relationship. He steps over and says hello. Sarah Pauline Harte had made notice of the man who walked by her house every morning and was not against getting to know him more. Now the two are getting married in Guilford, North Carolina as celebration of their relationship that has finally flowered.
1939 August 7 Atlanta, Georgia
Sarah Pauline Harte and her husband, John Joseph Harte, weep with joy as their little girl is brought into the world. Just as a sprout bursts from a seed, Susan Harte cracks her way into the world and will soon burst out of the dirt to make her mark as well.
2018 Atlanta, Georgia
Gardens do not spring into existence on their own. Neither do families. Effort, consideration, risk, and a strong heart all go into the creation of a family. To grow a family and a flower, love is the best place to start, and love requires attention. It was hard work that got my family to where they are now as they grew and grew. Fighting for happiness as a flower on the forest floor fights for sunlight.
My ancestors came to America with the hope that it would be the place to begin a new garden. A place where they could grow a family and better their lives. They hoped for their children and their children’s children to have a life worth leaving their homeland behind for as this was no easy task. However, is this what happened for my family? Did they obtain the happiness they yearned for? Not every lineage that made it to America prospered in the way they had hoped. Growing a foundation from scratch is not easily done, and it may take several generations to grab a hold of solid ground.
I have known of my Irish descent since I was a child. My family is proud of that connection as it brings us strength to know our ancestors’ struggles and their joys brought us here today. I have always loved Ireland and the Celtic culture it brings to the world. I have done research in the past on my ancestors’ homeland, but I have never focused solely on my family’s history before. I am excited to begin delving into my family’s role in history and seeing how they fit into the bigger picture of the world! I want to know more about the people who gave me the life I had today through sacrifice and hardships.
Through interviews with my grandmother, Susan Harte, and through historical sources, I will be exploring the lives of several generations of my kith and kin, starting with the generation that came over from Ireland and then tracing all the way back to me. By asking my grandmother about her grandparents, her parents, and herself, I will be able to not only discover new information about my ancestors and myself but also discover how my family’s life was changed by their decision to immigrate to America.
My ancestors’ time may have passed, but they did not leave this world without first leaving a lasting impact on it. They planted the seeds for a garden that our family continues to grow today.
Questions
- What was the main push factor that caused our family to immigrate from Ireland to America? Were there any other factors that contributed to their decision to leave?
- What were their lives like before the Great Famine in Ireland?
- What level of education did they get?
- Did their lives change for the better when they came to America? Why or why not?
- What was your grandmother’s, Susan Fitzpatrick’s, occupation or was she a stay at home mother?
- When did your father, John Harte, move from New York to Georgia and why?
- Was John Harte a wealthy man? Did he have an advanced education?
- Did your mother, Sarah Pauline Kivett, have a job? Did she have an advanced education?
- What was John Harte’s childhood like?
- What was your childhood like?
- What degrees do you have?
- What jobs have you had, and what was your favorite?
- How often do you visit Ireland?
- What relatives do we have in Ireland?
- Why did they stay in Ireland?
- What are their lives like? What jobs do they have?
- Where in Ireland do they live?
- How did you find our Irish relatives?
- Why did you apply for duel-citizenship with America and Ireland?
- Do you love your Irish heritage?
Working Bibliography
Almeida, Linda Dowling. Irish Immigrants in New York City 1945–1995. Indiana University Press, 2001. Print.
Bayor, Ronald H., and Timothy J. Meagher. The New York Irish. The John Hopkins University Press, 1996. Print.
Cronin, Mike. A History of Ireland. Hampshire, PALGRAVE, 2001. Print.
Duffy, Sean. The Illustrated History of Ireland. Dublin, Contemporary Books, 2002. Print.
