On May 11, 2018, the Georgia Historical Society Research Center in Savannah accepted the donation of thirty-four items of correspondence written in 1887 to John F. Armstrong and several letters written in 1896 to his daughter, May Armstrong Casey Morrison.

Born in County Sligo in 1845, JF Armstrong left Ireland in 1865 at the age of nineteen. In the United States, he became involved in Irish nationalist and relief organizations and later, the Irish land reform and home rule movements.

John F. Armstrong's obituary was published in the Augusta Chronicle on November 10th, 1893. As a well-known leader in the Irish home rule movement in the United States in the 1880s, JF’s death was announced in newspapers throughout the country.

On May 4th, 1887, real estate broker M. F. Kennedy (1844-1923) of Charleston, SC, wrote John F. Armstrong (1845-1893) a letter about a new coercion act under consideration in the London Parliament.

I had never heard any stories about JF traveling to continental Europe. But my mother was adamant that her grandmother had told her he traveled to France for the Irish independence movement.

Daly & Armstrong, a wholesale and retail dry goods store, opened on Broad Street in downtown Augusta, GA, on October 1st, 1878.

John Francis Armstrong (1845-1893) immigrated to Augusta, GA, from County Sligo, Ireland, in the summer of 1865, shortly before his twentieth birthday. In Augusta, he found work as a bookkeeper and met Sarah Theresa McAndrew, whom he married in 1868.

My cousin, Marie, and I have compiled a list of references on the life of our great-great-grandfather, the Irish nationalist John Francis Armstrong. Like the research project itself, it’s a work in progress.

John Francis Armstrong was born near Tubbercurry in County Sligo, Ireland, in September 1845. According to stories handed down by his descendants, JF became involved in anti-British activities as a young man and had to leave Ireland quickly in 1865. He took a ship to the United States and eventually settled in Augusta, GA.