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The Editor
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© F.Coakley , 2026
[from A.M Harrision's Descriptive List of Insular Societies]
This society,under its rather dashing second title, not commonly used on the Island, celebrated its 34th annual reunion with a gathering of five hundred people on 5 December 1907. Apart from the societies in Cleveland, Ohio, the major focus of mid-19th century emigration, this society, four years old by the time of the foundation of the Liverpool Society in 1877, must be the oldest and one of the most active in supporting and promoting a Manx community in the new homeland
The Chicago Sunday Times Herald of 4 April 1897, published a charming account of the history of the Island and the ways and character of the Manx,recounted by a member of the Sons of Mona. Reprinted in the Manxman of 15 May 1897 for the home public, the feature ends with approval. 'This peculiar and unique people carry with them wherever they go their discipline of church and state, obedience to the law of the crown, as represented in the bishop. The House of Keys, the Deemster, and an arbitrary folk lore which in its way is a code of morals and educational. So in any country the Manxman makes a good citizen.'
Hall Caine, whose fame as a Manx novelist had already come to the United States was an important promoter of a romantic way of life, which touched the Manx themselves with a little welcome glamour. The President and Secretary of the Sons of Mona wrote to Hall Caine asking him to address them on his forthcoming tour of North America in 1898. 'Each of us cherish the memory of the Isle of our birth and see to it that our children do not grow up in ignorance of its literature and traditions.' The Hall Caine papers in the Manx Museum Library do not reveal whether he ever came to address the Sons of Mona. The Chicago Manx Society is still in existence today.
M.N.H.L. Hall Caine Papers, :
Manx Society records reprinted in Manx Quarterly , and Ellan Vannin Magazine,
passim ;
Records of the Chicago Manx Society, Chicago.
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received
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