Esther Devine Breslin
1832 - 1900
Jan., 1832 - Esther Devine was born in Glasgow, Scotland, her father, James, was 27 and her
mother, Martha was 17. Esther was the first of seven children to be born to the first generation
Irish American - James and Martha Devine.
1844 – The Scottish census of 1851 shows that twelve year old Esther married - William Breslin.
William Breslin’s US Civil War draft registration shows that he is 5’7”, has Red hair and
Blue eyed. The US census of 1900 shows that Esther gave birth to twelve children of
which eight lived to maturity.
1851 - The Scotland Census shows Esther Brusland living in Rutherglen Parish, Lanarkshire,
Scotland (just outside of Glasgow) with her husband William Bresland. William is listed as a
‘Laborer’.
By the 1840s the annual harvest migration of Catholic Irish from Ireland to Scotland had
grown to 25,000 over the agricultural season. On the whole, the Catholic Irish settled
wherever muscle and strength was in demand, and as such they found their way into coal
mining, dock work and laboring of all kinds. The Catholic population in Glasgow grew
and shrank depending on the time of year. It was not uncommon for some of the poor
tenant farmers in Northwestern Ireland to travel to Glasgow Scotland at the end of the
growing season in Ireland - where the men would look for work as Laborers and the
women and children tried to find work in the textile mills. Children would normally start
in the mills at age eight. The Irish would do almost anything to earn a few extra pennies
for the family. Workers in the textile mills worked a fourteen hour day with an hour and a
half allowed for meal time.
1852 - Nineteen year old Esther, along with her husband William and their two daughters
Elenorah / Ellen and Hannah arrived in Philadelphia Pennsylvania from Londonderry, Ireland
aboard a sailing ship, (believed to be the Mohongo, which was part of the McCorkell Line). We
also know from the US census of 1900 that Esther still can not read or write, which is not
unusual for an Irish Catholic immigrant of that time.
1852 - Esther’s husband William along with Esther’s father James and her younger brothers
Thomas, John, Patrick and Joseph all begin working in the coal mine at the Silver Creek Colliery
in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.
1860 - Twenty-eight year old Esther is living in the Silver Creek mining patch with her husband
William. Esther had gave birth to four more children, Daniel, James, Anna and Esther.
1861 - Esther’s husband thirty-six year old William is drafted into the Union Army and goes off
to fight in the Civil War.
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1864 - Esther’s husband William returns, uninjured from the Civil War and resumes working at
the Silver Creek Colliery now as a railroad laborer.
1870 - Esther is thirty-eight years old and continues to live in the Silver Creek patch in Blythe
Township, Pennsylvania. Esther has given birth to five additional children, William, Thomas,
Martha, Alice and Mary.
1875 - Esther’s husband William is working as a ‘Rail Road Laborer’ and dies in what is
assumed to be a railroad accident.
1880 - Esther is now forty-eight years old, a widow and has moved. She is now living in
Shenandoah, Pennsylvania with five of her sons and three daughters. Esther has also given birth
to her eleventh child, a son named John.
1890 – All of the Federal Census records were destroyed by fire – nothing survived.
In 1900 - Esther is sixty-eight years old and still living in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania with her
son and daughter.
In 1900 - Esther died while living in Shenandoah. Esther is buried near her husband and with
some of her deceased children in Holy Family Cemetery in New Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
All of the known details, pictures and references can be found on Ancestry.com. As always, I
welcome your Views, Thoughts, Opinions, Recommendations, Questions and old pictures – we
love old, old Devine related pictures.
By: Tom Kenny – dive4bucks@comcast.net – 610.405.3157
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