A Carhart Avenue man has connected Peekskill yesterday and today in a documentary and folk song about his great-great grandfather, a teen Civil War hero who later settled here.
Tim Feeney, 47, operations manager for a financial company by day, and songwriter/musician and genealogy buff by night, released a song and documentary on June 5 about his great-great granddad, Irish immigrant Jim McKeon.
McKeon is a relative on Feeny’s mother’s side of the family. Feeney was inspired to write an ode to his great-great grandfather, “Jimmy McKeon (1864),” the year he made his mark on the Civil War. Feeney also convinced the YouTube channel Inside Irish Music to produce a 20-minute documentary about McKeon’s immigration to New York City, service in the Civil War Navy, and raising 10 kids in Peekskill. Irish YouTuber Ronan Kerr narrates the documentary and seems genuinely intrigued by McKeon’s life. Feeney plays guitar and sings “Jimmy McKeon (1864)” in the video amid a montage of historical photos.
He sings:
And we finally found a family home
602 John Street, where all the kids have grown…
My father gave me fertile ground, a life that’s worth the fight
“At its core, the documentary and song are about the ‘Peekskillness’ of it all,” says Feeney, the married father of a 7-year-old and 3-year-old. “The literal bricks and dirt of our town. My great-great grandfather worked the local iron foundries here, and six generations later, I’m raising my kids in the exact same place.
“It’s an immigrant story and the American Dream come to fruition. I know that wasn’t so easy back then, and it definitely isn’t these days.”
A story for America’s 250th anniversary
Feeney, who spent months researching McKeon, thought it timely to release the song and story during America’s 250th anniversary. McKeon had an interesting life, and his gravestone is a landmark at Peekskill’s Church of the Assumption cemetery on Oregon Road.
“I recorded the song right here in town, and I love the idea that when people walk around Peekskill or down by the river, this song can make them stop and think about the layers of life and history that happened on these exact streets before us. It bridges our past to our present in a very real way,” Feeney adds.
He recalls that as a boy his family would point out his great-great grandfather’s grave, and he often wondered about McKeon. But the connection became more real after he started researching. Feeney learned that McKeon moved to John Street, a house that remained in the McKeon/Feeney family for generations.
The Irish YouTuber Kerr made the documentary from information provided by Feeney, telling the story of the McKeon family fleeing the Irish famine and coming to New York City, only to find poor living conditions, squalor and illness. As a baby, McKeon lost his dad, probably to cholera.
To escape the slums of New York and seek a better life, at 14 years old, McKeon joined the Union Navy in the Civil War, making history during the rescue of Lt. William Cushing in the North Carolina Battle of Albemarle in 1864. McKeon was the lookout for Cushing as he torpedoed the Confederate’s ironclad ship the CSS Albemarle. McKeon alerted the Union Navy to rescue him.
“My great-great grandad’s obituary was full of history,” Feeney recalls. “I wanted to write a song about him and how we got to America. This man is the reason I’m here. I wanted to honor the story of immigrants. We were all immigrants once.”
Steeped in local history
“The documentary doesn’t just trace his life, it also dives deep into iconic local history, connecting his story to Abraham Lincoln’s famous visit to the Peekskill landing, our historic foundries, and even local lore like the Crayola and Wizard of Oz connections,” Feeney explains.
Fittingly, he recorded the song in a Peekskill studio, Woodside Productions, not far from where McKeon worked for 40 years at Southard, Robertson & Co. on Water Street, making cast iron stoves back in the day.
Feeney also credits cousin Lauren McKeon Jenkins, who grew up locally but now lives in Virginia, with encouraging his interest in McKeon, who was also her great-great grandfather. “We had a McKeon cousins Facebook group, where we shared historical facts. When I dug up more things on him, from the Peekskill Museum, it piqued my interest.
“I realized that my great-great grandfather’s story was one of people grabbing themselves by their bootstraps to make a better life and was a good story.”
Feeney’s band, Phineas and the Lonely Leaves, which plays at Irish music venues and the Birdsall House, among other places, will likely include the song in its playlist. “The band is made up of friends from high school,” according to Feeney. “With relationships that long, you’re like brothers,” he says of Tim Cavanagh, bass; Larry Ohlmann, drums; and Mike Spinelli, guitar.
The more things change…
As Feeney looks back on his great-great grandfather’s story, he realizes that things change but stay the same. “I’m in a Peekskill dad phone group chat of about 40 dads whose kids are in the district. We’re constantly talking local politics, complaining about flooded basements after a heavy rain, discussing wood stoves, trading tools, investigating weird noises outside, and groaning about our latest physical ailments.
“It hit me that my great-great grandfather and the guys working the iron foundries were probably standing around doing the exact same thing 150 years ago. The technology changes, but the rhythm of looking out for your neighbors and complaining about the same stuff in these hills stays the same.”
To see the documentary and hear the song, visit Youtube.
To hear the single, visit Soundcloud.
Jimmy McKeon (1864)
Music & Lyrics by Tim Feeney
My daddy rode a Coffin Ship, across the angry sea
He left the place the Crown erased, for a better life for me
He pawned a fiddle for the shillings, just to get inside
It seems the devil builds a boat for every man to ride.
Jimmy McKeon is the name, and I sailed on the Chicopee
Fourteen winters old, just trying to be me
My daddy sailed to live… I sailed to maybe die. Trading one dark raging water for a different unfair sky
Before I ever kissed a girl, or understood the cost
I was sailing south, mouthing off, counting up the loss.
And they raised the stars and stripes on that Carolina shore
We were kids, New Americans, living through a war
You heard about the night that they drove old Dixie down?
Well I was on the water when they blew a hole into the Ram.
Spotted a circle of huge logs, a monster slept inside
Billy rowed with Cushing, another teenage suicide
They blew a hole so big, that the devil shook his head
One Bill will tell his story, one Bill will wake up dead.
I came home to the dirty city, ghosts inside my head
If I stayed I’d just end up another Rabbit laying dead
So I sailed again, without my friend, up a river that flows both ways
And I sunk my feet in the muddy streets along the Peekskill Bay.
And they raised the stars and stripes on that Carolina shore
We were kids, New Americans, living through a war
You heard about the night that they drove old Dixie down?
Well I was on the water when they blew a hole into the Ram.
Last chorus: Yeah I was on the water… when we sunk that Rebel plan.
Got a job casting stoves, breathing in the shit
Met a girl from County Clare, and we had a bunch of kids
Had to fight for every penny that the Navy owed to me
Had to drink the demons gone, just to get some sleep…
And we finally found a family home
602 John Street, where all the kids have grown…
My father gave me fertile ground, a life that’s worth the fight
And I’ll drink to all the boys who never made it back… that cold dark night.
“The Union Forever, Hurrah Boys Hurrah! Down with the Traitors, Up with the Star”
Hear the song on Soundcloud.
