THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 21, 1994 TAG: 9411190003
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 32 lines
The Rev. Ian Paisley said during his visit to Norfolk (news, Oct. 31) that Ulster contributed greatly to the United States' birth and development. Mr. Paisley is correct.
National Geographic (August 1964) noted that by 1776, one-sixth of the population of the United States was of Ulster origin.
Eight Ulstermen signed the Declaration of Independence - John Hancock was one. John Dunlap, printer from County Tyrone, set type in Philadelphia for the first copy. The print shop where he learned his trade still stands in Strabane.
Of the first 36 presidents of the United States, nearly one-third came from Ulster stock - and this from a country with a population smaller than the Borough of Brooklyn: Andrew Jackson, James Polk, James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Ulysses Grant, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson.
Other famous Americans of Ulster ancestry: Davy Crockett, Stonewall Jackson, Horace Greeley, Stephen Foster and inventors Cyrus and Robert McCormick, Robert Fulton and Samuel Morse.
JOSEPH D. MOORE JR.
Portsmouth, Nov. 4, 1994 by CNB