They were Irish-Americans, however, and not ashamed of it, and their influence in the city and its environs were considerable along all lines. William Patterson gave Patterson Park to the city, and also contributed largely to the foundation of many public enterprises, some of which survive today as monuments to the activities of himself and his fellow Irishmen. Prime among those monuments is the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Isaac McKim, another Irishman, founded the first free school set up in Baltimore. It still stands at Baltimore and Aisquith streets a monument to him, and has been in its day a strong sphere of influence. John Oliver, another Gael, founded the Oliver Hibernian Free School, which has been for nearly a century a wide center of influence for good. It was the first school established in the United States for the exclusive education of Irish-Americans, and was established at a time when Americans of other races were without free schools of any kind. Prominent in the establishment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and of the Northern Central Railroad were other Irish merchants and professional men, such as Robert Garrett, Alexander and George Brown, the latter of whom conceived the idea of building the road; Isaac McKim, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, John V. L. McMahon, the Irish American lawyer, who drew that first railroad charter ever drawn for the Baltimore and Ohio, which has served as a model ever since; Patrick McCauley, the Irish educator; Talbott Jones, Robert Oliver and others. These men gave not only their influence to these roads, but their money. How well they built, facts establish. John O’Donnell, the Irishman, was the man who named Canton, on the southeast side of the basin, because he thought it looked like Canton, China; and he was the first president of the Baltimore Gas Light Company. What that company has developed into the present shows. His son, Gen. Columbus O’Donnell, was for many years the honored president of the company. Gen. Wm. McDonald was the first man to run packets on the Chesapeake Bay, and also the first to run steam vessels. And thus he was the founder of Baltimore’s great bay trade. That he was a man of influence the conditions of the present prove. He may have builded better than he knew, but he built greatly. Alexander Brown, Robert Garrett and Isaac McKim were practically the founders of the banking business of this city, and with others of the great Irish business men influenced the financial interests of Baltimore for many years. In fact, their descendants have a powerful influence in banking matters locally at this time. Every one is familiar with the tremendous influence exercised in railroad circles for many years by the Irish-American, John W. Garrett, and his son, Robert Garrett. There can be no question about those facts.