This remarkable memoir of immigration and assimilation provides a rare view of urban life in Chicago in the late 1800s by a newcomer to the city and the Midwest, and the nation as well. Francis O'Neill left Ireland in 1865. After five years traveling the world as a sailor, he and his family settled in Chicago just shortly before the Great Fire of 1871. His memoir also brings to life the challenges involved in succeeding in a new land, providing for his family, and integrating into a new culture. Francis O'Neill serves as a fine documentarian of the Irish immigrant experience in Chicago.

FRANCIS O'NEILL (1848-1936) was born to a farming family in County Cork in Ireland in 1848. He left home in 1865 and died a true Chicagoan in 1936.

MARY LESCH is Francis O'Neill's great-granddaughter.

ELLEN SKERRETT is author of Born in Chicago: A History of Chicago's Jesuit University and At the Crossroads: Old Saint Patrick's and the Chicago Irish.