On This Day – April 17th

On April 17th 1907 Ellis Island, the station set up to process people immigrating to the United States, processed its highest ever number of applicants – 11,747.

For over 60 years the station was the main gateway for people immigrating to the country, operating from 1892 to 1954. The island is in Upper New York Bay, east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island, in Jersey City, New Jersey, with a small section that is part of New York City.

When it was acquired by the US government it was know as Little Oyster Island, due to the nearby oyster beds. During the colonial period, the island was known as Dyre's, then Bucking Island. In the 1760s, after some pirates were hanged from one of the island's scrubby trees, it became known as Gibbet Island.

Samuel Ellis, a colonial New Yorker and merchant possibly from Wales, acquired the island around the time of the American Revolution. In 1785, he unsuccessfully attempted to sell it, using the following advert:

TO BE SOLD By Samuel Ellis, no. 1, Greenwich Street, at the north river near the Bear Market, That pleasant situated Island called Oyster Island, lying in New York Bay, near Powle's Hook, together with all its improvements which are considerable;...

The State of New York leased the island in 1794 and started to fortify it in 1795. Ownership was in question and legislation was passed for acquisition by condemnation in 1807 and then ceded to the United States in 1808. Shortly thereafter the War Department established a circular stone 14-gun battery, a mortar battery (possibly of six mortars), magazine, and barracks.This was part of what was later called the second system of U.S. fortifications. From 1808 until 1814 it was a federal arsenal.

The island remained a military post for nearly 80 years before it was selected to be a federal immigration station.

The first immigrant to pass through Ellis Island was Annie Moore, a 17-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, who arrived on the ship Nevada on January 1st 1892. She and her two brothers were coming to America to meet their parents, who had moved to New York two years prior. She received a greeting from officials and a $10 gold coin (the largest sum of money she had ever owned).

The last person to pass through Ellis Island was Norwegian merchant seaman Arne Peterssen in 1954.

Today's question is this – how many people immigrated to the US via Ellis Island?

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