Anthony W Hagan

HAGAN RYAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 8/26/2010 at 22:25:01

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Anthony W Hagan
By MaryAnn Haafke

Anthony A O’Hagan can first be documented as living in Iowa by the registering of a land patent March 15, 1847. This Government land patent was for 160 acres of land in Dubuque County. It was in partnership with James O’Connor. In 1849, Anthony bough O’Connor’s share.

To this date, no records have been found to give the place or date, but probably sometime in 1848, Anthony married Margaret Devine. Their first child, Mary, was born in 1849.

Anthony A O’Hagan was born in Ireland, but nothing else is known about him until he buys the land in Iowa. Margaret Devine was born in Pennsylvania and nothing else has been found to date about her background.

Children arrived in regular sucession. After Mary in 1849, came James, John, Sarah and then Anthony W, born April 6, 1862.

Sometime in the next few years, Margaret Devine O’Hagan must have died. There is no record to confirm her death but on July 17, 1863, Anthony A married Ann Flynn. The marriage is recorded in Book #2 of marriages in Dubuque County. A new family was added to the first family. Francis L, ‘Frank’, was the first born of Anthony A and Ann. After Frank were Theresa, Lucretia, Clement, Edward, Vincent J and Gertrude. In the 1870’s, Anthony moved his family to East Waterloo Township, in Black Hawk County, Iowa.

In about 1875, James A moved to Sioux City. Most of the family followed in the next twenty years. Anthony W was the second to follow James to Sioux City. James had a drayage business and when Anthony W came, he went to work for James.

They both boarded with Mrs John Ryan. Mrs Ryan, a widow, had a small house on the west side of Water Street between 6th and 7th Streets. He had been left a widow with seven children when her husband, John, died in 1875. To support her family, she took in boarders. At times there were as many as fourteen people living in the little house. The Ryans had been early settlers in Sioux City, arriving in 1862. They bought a lot and built a house on the west side of Water Street with Perry Creek bordering their back yard. Other early Irish settlers were grouped in this area along Perry Creek. Some of their neighbors were the Hartnetts, Donovans, Kellys, Follis’ and Fitzgibbons. They were also parishoners of St Marys Catholic Church a few blocks away on West Seventh Street.

Anthony W (always known as Tony) must have fallen in love with Hannah Ryan, Jr. (she was always called Anna or Ann). On May 3, 1882, Anthony W Hagan and Anna Ryan were married at St Mary’s Church. Tony now had a hauling business of his own.

On January 3, 1884, Tony and Ann’s first child was born, David William. Mary Elizabeth, born September 22, 1887, died December 19, 1887. The second son, Geroge Anthony, was born February 25, 1880. The second daughter, Helen Gertrude, was born May 7, 1892, and the last child, Margaret Edna, was born October 31, 1895.

In 1886, Tony, Ann and family had moved to 611 Water Street, Ann’s mother’s house. They were to continue to live at this address for the next thirty years. Hannah Walsh Ryan died on November 19, 1900. Hannah had been a pioneer settle of Sioux City.

1906, Tony was appointed Overseer of the Poor for the City of Sioux City. In 1915, the family, includeing Ann’s sister, Kate, who made her home with Tony and Ann most of her life, moved to 2700 Douglas Street.

In 1917, son, George, went to war. He fought in some of the heaviest fighting in France. He was one of the unfortunate ones who were gassed. This was to have a negative effect on his health and consequently his life. He never married.

Dave, the eldest son, married Sue Wormley on September 25, 1918. Their first child, and Tony and Ann’s first grandchild, was born October 12, 1919. Hugh Harison Hagan wa to be the only grandchild for over five years and became the center of attention in the family.

Helen, the eldest daughter, married Lloyd G Oertel on September 5, 1920. Helen had been a Domestic Science teacher but had gone into merchandising in the area of Ladies read to wear, dresses. Lloyd was a registered pharmacist. Their only child, MaryAnn Oertel, was born May 20, 1925.

Margaret married John ‘Jack’ Butler and they had one son, John ‘Jack’ Butler, Jr. A few years later, Jack, Sr, disappeared and Marg was never to know what happended to him. She and young Jackie moved to Chicago and she later remarried.

In 1929, Tony, Ann, George and Ann’s sister, Kate Ryan, moved to 916 Douglas Street, wehre they lived for the rest of their lives.

On Augsut 1, 1929, Dave and Sue’s second child was born, Barbara Alexis.

In the fall of 1929, Helen, Lloyd and MaryAnn moved to California.

In the early 1930’s, Ann’s sister, Kate, became ill with tuberculosis. She decided to move to the better climate in California. During this time she lived with her niece, Helen and family in Long Beach. In 1933, she moved back to Sioux City to livewith her sister, Ann and Tony with whom she had always made her home. Her illness worsened and on August 30, 1935, she died.

Before this, Tony and Ann’s eldest daughter, Helen, died in Los Angeles, California on February 19, 1934.

Tony experience many losses in his family in the next few years. Ann, his wife of fifty-three years, died of a stroke, December 18, 1935. In the short space of twenty months, he lost his wife, Ann, daughter, Helen, two brothers, James and John, and his sister-in-law, Kate.

Tony lived another eight years after his wife, Ann’s, death. He died September 30, 1943. He and Ann are buried in Calvary Cemetery in Sioux City along with other members of the Hagan and Ryan families.

Margaret Hagan Butler Smith died in 1950 and is buried in Illinois.

George A Hagan, after suffering with lung damage for World War I for thirty-seven years, died in 1955.

David, the eldest child of Tony and Ann Hagan, died in Sioux City on April 27, 1961.

During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, the four grandchildren of Tony and Ann had married and had families. Today there are descendants scattered over the USA but some are still living in Sioux City and Woodbury County, Iowa. Descendants of the Ryan and Hagan families have lived in Woodbury County for 121 years.