Stories of Our Emigrant Kinsfolk

JOHN EGAN

He had a town named after him.

John Egan was a native of Aughrim, Co. Galway. He emigrated to Canada in 1832. In 15 years he did as much as any man every achieved in such a brief period. Few men were better acquainted with the trade of Ottawa. The resources of the country and its requirements were thoroughly mastered by him. He worked his way from nothing to the head of the largest business on the river. It was he first gave system to its lumber trade.

Before his time lumbering on the Ottawa was a wild venture. The annual business of his house ran up a few years before his death from $800,000 to $1,000,000. It gave employment to over 2,000 men, it required 1,600 horses.

A handsome man, whose life was divided between business and public service. He represented the county of Ottawa, until it was divided, he then became the member for Pontiac. He died at the age of 47. He was the founder and the man after whom the town of Eganville, Ontario was named.

WILEY M. EGAN

Wiley M. Egan is numbered among those whose keen insight enabled them to recognise the opportunities that Chicago offered at an early day and in their utilization to advance steadily to a foremost position in the business circle of the city. He was equally prominent as a representative of the Masonic fraternity and his memory is honoured in Wiley M. Egan Chapter, R.A.M. He left his impression upon all the different activities—commercial, fraternal, political and social—with which he was connected and each responded to the quickening touch of his enterprising spirit. He was born in Ballston, New York, on the 1st August, 1827, a son of William and Mary Egan, who were farming people of the Empire State. He came with his parents to Chicago, arriving on the 9th of October, 1836,—about a year before the incorporation of the city. He was identified for many years with the commerce of the Great Lakes and the strength of his character, his forceful purpose and his laudable progress which characterized his business career. The interim between 1842 and 1853 was spent as sailor and master and from that time until his death as owner of sailing and steam vessels. During the period of his active connection with lake commerce he built and owned some of the best and finest vessels that floated on the island seas, yet this did not compass his business activity nor suggest the scope of his ability. In connection with his vessel agency he conducted an extensive and important insurance business, embarking in that line in 1857. He represented many marine insurance companies, including the Corn Exchange, the Mercantile Mutual of New York, the Pacific Mutual of New York, the Boston Marine of Detroit, the Mercantile of Cleveland and the Buffalo of New York.

During the long years of his experience as insurance and vessel agent he became widely known in the commercial circles of this city. He was the owner of twenty-five different vessels and no name has figured more prominently in connection with shipping interests in Chicago. Although his, business activity brought him prominence, Mr. Egan was perhaps even more widely known as one of the leading members of the Masonic fraternity. On the 7th of September, 1855, he became a Master Mason in Garden City Lodge, No. 141, A.F. & A.M. He took the degree of Royal Arch Mason on the 23rd February, 1857, became a Royal and Select Master July 16, 1861, attained the Knight Templar degree on the 27th October, 1857, and in the Scottish Rite proceeded through the various degrees until the thirty-second was conferred upon him in the Chicago consistory, April 22, 1864. Then came to him added honour of election to the thirty-third degree in the Supreme Council for the Northern Jurisdiction of the United States, June 18th, 1870. This elevation comes only in recognition of superior service rendered to the organisation. Again and again he was called to official positions in Masonry. He acted as master of Cleveland Lodge, as King and High Priest of Washington Chapter and was Grand High Priest of the grand chapter. He was also eminent commander of Chicago Commandery and grand commander of the grand commandery of Knights Templar of Illinois. He served as treasurer of the grand lodge and grand chapter, continuing in that Masonic relief committee after the memorable Chicago fire of 1871.

On the 28th of November, 1849, Mr. Egan was united in marriage to Miss Mary P. Helm, who was born January 10th, 1827, in the town of Willsborn, Essex County, New York, a daughter of William and Mary (Phillip) Helm, who were natives of Scotland and settled in Chicago in the later '80s. They became the parents of five children: William, George, Marion, Helen and Charles. Of these, two have passed away. Marion is the widow of Lucian P. Cheney, formerly a druggist of Chicago; Helen I. is the widow of S. W. Wyett, of the city; and Charles W. is also a resident of Chicago. Mr. and Mrs. Egan celebrated their golden wedding in 1899. For nearly twenty years prior to the death of Mr. Egan the family residence was at 1224, North State Street, where his widow still resides. He passed away on the 12th of February, 1903, at the age of about seventy-six years. Throughout the period of his residence in Chicago the city remembered him among its prominent and valued residents. He was long a member of the Board of Trade and was honoured with its presidency in 1867 and 1868. His ability won recognition in political circles and he was elected to represent the ninety-fifth district in the general assembly of Illinois, where he took his seat on the 1st January, 1871 , participating in the de1iberations of the first assembly to enact laws under the state constitution adopted in 1870. He was closely identified with the Union for its upbuilding. Above and beyond all, he was noted and honoured for his commercial integrity. 1n business affairs his word was never questioned and in all things his life measured up to the highest standards of honourable manhood. For two-thirds of a century he resided in Chicago and his life gave impetus to the city's substantial growth m many ways.

TRAILING AN EMIGRANT FAMILY FROM WEST LIMERICK
By: Aiden Plunkett (The Kerryman—18th March, 1967)

For a panoramic view of the Shannon's Estuary, it would be difficult to choose a more appropriate spot in the County Limerick than the Ice-House Cross at Ballygloughlin in the parish of Glin. Moving Westwards towards the Tarber-Listowel Road, along what is popularly known as "The Line" one passes the house of Mr. James Holly. It is on the left hand side quite close to the Limerick/Kerry border. Well back from this house and to the left of the hay barn it is possible to observe the outline of a building that has been demolished. The grass-covered foundations are clearly discernible. Mr. Patrick Egan of Tarmon's Hill, Tarbert, who died in April, 1963, at the age of eighty-three, claimed that these foundation stones belonged to his paternal grandfather's home. It had been raised to the ground by a battering ram in the bad old days of post-famine evictions.

Bailiff Arrived

According to Mr. Egan the bailiffs arrived to throw his grandfather and family on the roadside. The old man, also Patrick Egan was dangerous ill at the time and the family managed to extort a stay of eviction for about two weeks, when the sick man had recovered sufficiently he and his wife, Ann Wallace, and their children moved to Mohernagh in the present parish of Ballyhahill, and old Ballygoughlin homestead was reduced to the ruin it is today. Mr. Egan's story was pretty well corroborated by his brother John who died in 1959.

The family evicted from Ballygoughlin numbered nine children six boys and three girls. One, Michael, died in the l850s at the age of fifteen. Old Patrick himself passed away about 1860 before his family scattered. His wife survived him by about a quarter of a century. Of the remaining eight children, seven, as we shall see, emigrated. William, Catherine, John and Ann, went to Australia; Frank, Thomas and Ellen went to the United State of America. Their Australian descendants have inherited some interesting family letters and papers from which the following notes were culled. They help us trace, in broad outline anyway, the fortunes of one group of West Limerick emigrants of a century ago.

William Egan married Brigit Naughton of Lisready in Loughill Church on 20th January, 1864. The witnesses were William Managan and Catherine Egan, William's sister. A certificate of the marriage is still in the hands of their Australian grandchildren. It carries the signature of Father Daniel Kennedy who had become the first parish priest of Loughill when that area was detached from Glin in 1855 and erected into a separate parish.

William and Brigit left Ireland for Australia in the mid-1860s, leaving behind their baby daughter, Catherine. The child remained here until she was about 12 years old and then joined her parents 'down under'. Like many another Irish gold-rush country around Bendigo in Central Victoria. Letters show that they lived at various times at Eaglehawk, also at Myer's F1at, nearer Bendigo and finally in Bendigo City itself, where William died in 1912.

Coincidence

By a curious coincidence, a hilltop village near Daylesford, between Bendigo and Ballarat is today named Eganstown. John Egan (1811-1896), a native of Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary, who had come to Victoria in 1841 founded this township in 1848, John is credited with being the first to discover gold.in the Daylesford district in 1851. Many Irish surnames appear on the tombstones in the neighbouring churchyard. There is evidence that John from Borneight was a relative of William from West Limerick. A cousin of William, named Patrick O'Meara, was in the same district of Central Victoria in 1869. It is not clear if Patrick came from North Tipperary where the surname "O'Meara" is quite common. A grandson of John Egan, Father John Francis Egan, parish priest of West Gee1ong, Victoria, died suddenly in November, 1957.

William and Brigit had seven children. Two of these died in childhood. Another William, Jnr. died in Western Australia in 1905 at the age of thirty-five. Catherine, who had been born in Ireland, married a man named Toop and died in Sydney in 1925. Michael John lived until 1953, Ann who became Mrs. Dowd, died in 1955, aged eighty seven. Most of her nine children still live in the Melbourne area and are prominent in civic as well as ecclesiastical affairs. A brother of Brigit Naughton also emigrated to Australia about a century ago and a number of his descendants still live in New South Wales. The name of Lisready (near Loughill), from where the Naughtons hailed, is still a household word in the family, though most of them have very remote ideas as to its exact geographical location. At least two of these Naughton descendants are sons, one at Lawson, N.S.W., and another at Snowy River, N.S.W.

Father Alan Naughton of the Diocese of Goldburn, who died in October, 1961, could trace his ancestry back to the Lisready family. Fr. Naughton was the son of William and Sarah Lyons and was born at Araluen, N.S.W. in 1905. He was a student for the priesthood at the Irish College in Rome from 1929 to 1932, but ill­health forced him to abandon his studies for a long period. Eventually he resumed his duties and was ordained almost at the age of fifty but the Lord willed that his career as a priest should be a short one.

Catherine Egan was the second member of the evicted Ballygloughlin family to make her home in Australia. She was baptized in Glin Parish Church on 5 June, 1845, by Father David Quaid, afterwards Parish Priest of Dromin. The sponsors were David Quiney and May Wallace. The Glin baptismal register for 1845 is no longer Intact. Catherine's descendants in Australia possess an authenticated copy dated 9 November, 1867, and signed by Father John Bunton, P.O., Glin. Catherine married Patrick Burns of Duncaha, Shanagolden, on 16 March, 1867, in Loughill Church. The officiating priest was Father James Hogan, P.P.

Marriage Certificate

An official copy of their marriage certificate, dated 11 November, 1867, is also in Australia. along with a certificate of Patrick Burns baptism. This latter certificate is dated 16 November, l867, and shows that Burns was the son of William and Mary O'Connell. He was baptized by Father James O'Donnell on 18th January, 1844. The proximity of the dates on these certificates would suggest that the newly-married couple were collecting essential documents with a view to leaving Ireland. A letter to Catherine from her brother Thomas indicates that she and her husband were well settled in Australia by May 1869. Patrick Burns is mentioned as being at some time in Bendigo and also at Long Gully, Victoria, where he seems to have stayed with a friend named Dan Dempsey. Catherine kept in touch with her relatives at home and sent her mother and brothers occasional sums of money. She was the mother of three children: Ann, who married a man named Gordon and died at the age of eighty-five in 1954: Mary, who remained unmarried and died in 1940 aged sixty-eight and Catherine Jnr., later Mrs. Foster who lived to be seventy-eight and passed away in 1947. All three are buried in Melbourne General Cemetery, where their mother lies also. She had died at Northcote, Victoria, in 1889.

John Egan was the third member of the evicted Ballygoughlin family to head for Australia. He arrived there sometime in 1868 when he was thirty years of age. For a time he worked at Ballarat, presumably goldmining, and he lived with his brother, William and family at Eaglehawk. John never married though he is believed to have been engaged once to a Protestant lady, but the engagement was broken off. Correspondence was not one of his distinguishing qualities, so it is was easy to lose track of him. His brother and sisters in Australia had no news of him for one long period. However, after William's death in 1912, a nun from Bendigo met John at Young, New South Wales. She duly reported this to William's widow and family and they duly invited John to come and stay with them. He remained with that family until his death in November, l 930.

Ann Egan

Ann Egan was the last of the Ballygoughlin Egans to reach Australia. We know nothing about the time of her arrival there or her movements but she died on 2nd July, 1889, and like many of her relatives, is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. It is clear from letters available in Australia that two other members of the original Ballgoughlin family contemplated going to Australia, but never went there—Thomas and Patrick remained in Ireland, married Hanora Anglim, and settled in Tarmon's Hill, Tarbert, where he died on 15th May, 1914, aged eighty-two. So, the evictor's batteringram has provided a chain reaction that links Ballygoughlin with Bendigo and Ballarat at the other side of the globe, and has also helped to people Australia with foreign-born Irish.

TRAILING AN EMIGRANT WEST LIMERICK FAMILY "(Continued)

(The Kerryman—13 May, 1967)

The first article on the emigrant Egans from Ballygoughlin, near Glin (published in The Kerryman on March 18 last) traced briefly the movements of William, Catherine, John and Ann, who had made their homes in Australia in the 1860s. They left behind them in Ireland three brothers, Patrick, Thomas and Frank, and one sister, Ellen.

Thomas wrote to his sister in Australia, Mrs. Catherine Burns on May 27,1869, and made it clear that he hoped to see her "in the land of Sydney, and that before long." Further, he expressed the view that their brother, Patrick, who was evidently a successful farmer soon to be married would like-wise emigrate to Australia. The family movements over the next five years or so are not documented for us and 1874 is the next year that appears on the letters still available in Australia.

On June 27 of that year Patrick wrote to Mrs. Burns. Patrick was still in Ballyhahill and his letter mentioned a letter received from Thomas the previous February. Patrick pointed out that their brothers, Thomas and Frank (who was an accomplished flute player) were together, and that Ellen was in the same place. He added the significant sentence: "Last year (1873) was a slack year in America." He further indicated that he himself hoped to procure some good land the following autumn: "If I have enough money." This land may well have been the farm at Tarmon's Hill, Tarbert, where Patrick, who did not after all leave Ireland, at least for good, died in 1914.

Changed Mind

It is clear that Thomas Egan changed his mind about going to Australia and headed for the United States instead, along with Frank and Ellen. Of Thomas and Ellen we have no further definite information. John and Patrick Egan, who died in 1959 and 1963 respectively, confirmed that their uncles, Thomas and Frank, and their aunt Ellen had emigrated to America. They also related that Frank had died at Wilmot, Robert's Country, South Dakota, in 1901 and that he left a family of nine children.

After numerous efforts, the present writer has succeeded in locating a family of Egans, originally from Wilmot, South Dakota whose Irish-born father, Frank Egan, pretty well answers to the details related above. The Frank in question came to Wilmot about 1870. Wilmot was not properly established as a township until l 885 but the area was inhabited before that. Frank had an aunt in Wilmot named Catherine McEnery and married Margaret Ann Heath in 1884. She was born in Manitowoo, Wisconsin, in 1865 and came to South Dakota in 1878, settling first on a farm near Corona. Frank moved for a time to Brown's Valley, Minnesota, but later returned to Wilmot where he died in the Spring of 1901.

After his death two of his brothers are said to have visited his wife and his nine children. Quite likely one of these brothers was the Thomas of whom so little is known after 1869. Of his nine children six are still alive, Michael, Frank, William, Margaret, Lily and Charles. Agnes, Ann and John are dead; the last named succumbed to a bout of influenza contracted during the First World War; Frank's wife, who had re-married, died at Milbank, South Dakota in 1940. Those of their children who survive live mainly in Wilmot and Milbank, and one is in Superior, Wisconsin.

Quite Common

Apart from this family, the surname Egan is quite common in Wilmot and Milbank today. While most of the families claim Irish ancestors few of them have any clue as to the parts of Ireland from which their forebearers first emigrated. Like so many Irish emigrants, the Egans of South Dakota managed to retain their Catholic faith despite the shortage of priests and other difficulties. It is of interest to mention that Moody County in South Dakota has a town named Egan and so has Dakota County, Minnesota.

The Surname Egan is also known and honoured in Canada. At least one family in Port Credit, Ontario, is certain that their grandfather, Michael Egan, came originally from Limerick, more likely Limerick City. It should be noted that the surname was particularly common in Limerick.

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