Kinney Road - #22

The little white house on the south side of Kinney Road is the only house currently identified as having been built by an Irish immigrant. It was built by John Howey between 1851-1857. John Howey sometimes recorded as Hovy was a skilled Irish papermaker who found employment with one of Hebron’s small papermaking mills. When he built this house, he and his wife lived here with their 14-year-old daughter.

In 1857, he sold his house to his neighbor Ira Bissell and moved out of town. Irish immigrants were subject to a great deal of discrimination in New England. Most were Roman Catholic settling in an area of the United States that was staunchly Protestant.

None-the-less Hebron did have a substantial Irish community in the mid 1800’s. The silk mills in Amston employed Irish girls. When the railroad went through Amston a large number of Irish men lived in boarding houses as they put down railroad tracks. Some Irish immigrants acquired farms or worked as farm laborers. Young Irish women worked as domestic servants.

By the 20th century, this house would be home to another immigrant family the Mosny family who had immigrated from Slovakia.

Think about it

All humans are 95% the same in appearance, why does prejudice exist?

Where to go from here.

Walk south toward the Church of the Holy Family.