Series 9 - Michael Kilcran memoir

119pp

Kerby A. Miller created his transcripts of the Michael Kilcran memoirs from scans of the originals provided by Kilcran's granddaughter, Denese Wojcik, in October 2020. Wojcik later donated the original manuscripts to the Imirce project on 26 August 2026 [see collection P237].

Materials pertaining to the Michael Kilcran journals. Michael Kilcran was born around 1862 in Mohill, near Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim and emigrated to Chicago, Illinois in 1882, following an uncle who paid for his passage. Kilcran wrote his 'Stockyards Memoir' in 1912 and wrote another memoir ca. 1913-1914 about his time in the Chicago Police Department. Upon arriving in Chicago, Kilcran worked a number of labouring jobs for stockyards and meatpackers between 1880 and 1892, when he then joined the Chicago Police Department. He worked for the Chicago police until 1912 and in that time was a plainclothes detective for 12 years, a patrol sergeant for 6 years, and a street patrolman for 2 years. He died in 1914. Per Kerby A Miller: 'Kilcran's memoir covers the 12 years or so from his arrival in Chicago in 1880 to his joining the Chicago police force in 1892, although most of the memoir details his first year or so after his arrival, his searches for work and his various jobs (primarily in the stockyards). The principal themes of Kilcran's descriptions of those early years are: his disillusionment with many older Irish immigrants and the ways they mistreated "greenhorns," such as himself; the brutal working conditions and exploitation imposed by many Irish-American and other "bosses"; and the degraded and polluted social and physical environment of Chicago's poor neighborhoods. The traumatic effects on Kilcran of these early experiences are doubly revealed through his unusually vivid descriptions of nightly dreams, as well as his homesick and prayerful lamentations for his mother and Irish home.' The series consists of: two partial transcripts of Kilcran's memoir; census research; and Miller's research notes and correspondence with colleagues and Kilcran relatives.

The original manuscripts of the Kilcran journals are located in P237.

Copies of the Kilcran journals, along with Kerby A. Miller's transcripts, are located in P155/125/5. Additional research compiled by Miller on Kilcran is located in P155/12/1/2.