Peter Drugan ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

  General Notes:

Trempealeau, Wis., Dec. 5 -- Peter Drugan, of this village, who has been a contractor with the United States for the last four or five years for stone for the improvement of the upper Mississippi river, was found dead in bed. The cause of his death is apoplexy. He was fifty-eight years of age and leaves a wife and five children.

(Source: The St. Paul Globe, St. Paul, MN, 6 Dec 1898, page 9)
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  Birth Notes:

His record of death from the Catholic church indicates that his birth place was Elgin, Illinois with a birth date in 1846. That would seem to be incorrect because the Drugan family did not emigrate from Ireland until 1849 and even then it appears that all of the Drugan families did not come over at one time but rather one-by-one over a course of several years. Peter's parents, Patrick Drugan and Anne Coyle, both indicated that they emigrated from Ireland in 1849 so it would seem impossible for Peter to have been born in Illinois in 1846.

However, Peter's actual birth date is believed to be 1849 which means that he could have been born in either Ireland or somewhere in the US. All of his census records all clearly state that he was born in Ireland. If Peter's birth date was in 1846 as the death record indicates, then his birth location was in Ireland because the parents didn't leave Ireland until 1848-1849. His younger brother, Charles, was born in 1852 in Illinois after the parents arrived in the US.

Researcher Robert Westphal reports that naturalization papers can be found for other members of his family but not for Peter himself which suggests that he was born in the US.

Frances Drugan----Filed: 29 Mar 1856--Born in Ireland
Patrick Drugan----Filed: 29 Oct 1858--Born in Ireland,1803
Andrew Drugan----Filed: 30 Oct 1858--Born in Ireland, 1835
Francis Drugan----Filed: 6 Apr 1868--Born in Ireland, 1845
Patrick Drugan----Filed: 6 Apr 1868--Born in Ireland, 1847
Source: University of Wisconsin, Murphy Library, La Crosse, WI

It would be so easy to solve this matter of his birth location by locating a passenger list when his parent arrived in 1849 to see if they had 3 children or 4 children with them. Unfortunately, no passenger list has since been located and the indices all probably have the surname badly misspelled making the search all that more difficult.

Mt best guess is that Peter was merely a small newborn infant that traveled with the parents when they left Ireland. Thus his birth location was Ireland and not Illinois.
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Contrary to the information that appears on the Find-A-Grave memorial created by others (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=72438710), there is no evidence or documentation that Peter was born in Nov 1850 in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland.

The first problem with that statement is that there was no such place as "Northern Ireland" in the 1800s. Ireland was not divided until 1921 by an act of the British parliament.

The next problem concerns the date of birth as Nov 1850. As previously mentioned, given the fact that both of his parents emigrated from Ireland in 1849, it would be impossible for him to have been born anywhere in Ireland in Nov 1850.

And next, concerns the birth location being falsely presented as County Tyrone. While there is some documentary evidence that many of the Drugan family members and other relatives were from County Tyrone, there is absolutely no evidence or source documentation that suggests the Peter was ever born there in 1846, 1849, or 1850, ignoring for the time being the fact that his parents had already left Ireland in 1849.

In addition, the FAG page states that Peter came to America with his family in 1859, another incorrect date. Both parents left Ireland in 1849. Their youngest son, Charles, a brother to Peter, was born in Illinois in 1852. The fact that this page contains a link to the Charles Drugan page which provides his birth date and location in 1852 in Illinois just boggles the mind of a rational person as to how any person could publish such blatantly false information. To make matters even worse, the person who maintains the information on the Charles Drugan page (which shows a birth date of 1852 in Illinois) is the same person that maintains the page for his brother, Peter, upon which he claims the Drugans didn't arrive in America until 1859.

This particular memorialization on Find-A-Grave with incorrect dates and locations being presented as facts is a prime example of why many genealogist put any of the FAG pages at a very low level of reliability.
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  Death Notes:

La Crosse Diocese death/burial records for St. Bartholomew church in Book 1 (1874-1913) lists his date of death as 30 Nov 1898.
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Name: Peter Drugan
Event Type: Death
Event Date: 1898
Event Place: Trempealeau, Trempealeau, Wisconsin
Gender: Male
Age: 52
Marital Status: Married
Race: W
Occupation: stone Mason
Birth Year (Estimated): 1846
Birthplace: Elgin, IL
Burial Date: 01 Dec 1898
Burial Place: Trempealeau, Tremp. Co., WI
Cemetery: Catholic. Cem.
Father's Birthplace: Ireland
Mother's Birthplace: Ireland
Spouse's Name: Ellen Drugan
Reference ID: Vol 1 p 344 cn 01156
GS Film Number: 1311659
Digital Folder Number: 4207466
Image Number: 86

Citing this Record:
"Wisconsin, Death Records, 1867-1907," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/X2B9-XNB : accessed 10 Nov 2014), Peter Drugan, 1898; citing Death, Trempealeau, Trempealeau, Wisconsin, Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison; FHL film number 1311659.Marriage license: January 29, 1871, No. 533, Vol. 2, page 514, Trempealeau County Recorded Marriages (Whitehall, Wisconsin)
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  Noted events in his life were:

• He appeared on the 1860 US Census in Trempealeau, WI on 18 July 1860. ³

1860 US Census
Page 121-122, Family 1013, Roll 1434
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
Peter Drugan..10..IRE

(Living with parents.)
.

• He appeared on the 1870 US Census in Trempealeau, WI on 11 June 1870. ⁴

1870 US Census
Page 15-16, Family 124
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
Peter Drugan..21..IRE..Laborer

(Living with parents.)

.

• He appeared on the 1875 Wisconsin State Census in Trempealeau, WI in June 1875. ⁵

1875 Wisconsin State Census
Line 59, Image 56
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
P. Drugan:
Males 2 = Peter Drugan; (Hubert, son)

(Living with wife and 2 children.)
.

• He appeared on the 1880 US Census in Trempealeau, WI on 1 June 1880. ²

1880 US Census
Page 29A, District 72, Family 298, Roll 1448
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
Peter Dougan..Head..30..IRE..Farmer

(Living with wife and 4 children.)
.

• He was buried on 30 November 1898 in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Trempealeau, WI.

There are no dates or other information on the gravestone and judging by its relative new age, it was probably added by family members sometime in the 1950s or 1960s. There is a small cross engraved at the top. It is immediately adjacent to and identical to the gravestone of his wife, Ellen Gilroy. The original plot map obtained from the Catholic Church shows this gravesite as Lot 65, Grave 1 in which Peter was buried.

Find A Grave Memorial 72438710
. ⁷

Peter married Ellen G. Gilroy, daughter of Hugh Owen Gilroy and Margaret Tiffany, on 29 January 1871 in , Trempealeau County, WI.^{1 2} (Ellen G. Gilroy was born on 6 April 1846 in County Leitrim, IRELAND,^{2 9 10 11} died on 27 September 1911 in Trempealeau, WI ¹¹ and was buried after 27 September 1911 in Old Catholic Cemetery, Trempealeau, WI ¹¹.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1875 Wisconsin State Census in Trempealeau, WI in June 1875. ⁵

1875 Wisconsin State Census
Line 59, Image 56
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
P. Drugan:
Males 2 = Peter Drugan; (Hubert, son)
Females 2 = (Ellen Gilroy-Drugan, wife; Ella, daughter)
.

• They appeared on the 1880 US Census in Trempealeau, WI on 1 June 1880. ²

1880 US Census
Page 29A, District 72, Family 298, Roll 1448
Trempealeau, Trempealeau County, Wisconsin
Peter Dougan..Head..30..IRE..Farmer
Ellen Dougan..Wife..30..IRE..Keeping House
Hubert Dougan..Son..8..WI
Ella Dougan..Daughter..6..WI
Elizabeth Dougan..Daughter..4..WI
Mary Dougan..Daughter..2..WI
.

  Marriage Notes:

Name: Peter Druggan
Event Type: Marriage
Event Date: 29 Jan 1871
Event Place: Trempealeau, Wisconsin, United States
Event Place (Original): Trempealeau County, Wisconsin, United States
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: American
Race: w
Birthplace: Ireland
Father's Name: Patrick Druggan
Mother's Name: Annie Cyle
Spouse's Name: Ellen Gilroy
Spouse's Gender: Female
Spouse's Race: w
Spouse's Race (Original): w
Spouse's Father's Name: Orven Gilroy
Spouse's Mother's Name: Margaret Gilroy
Reference ID: Marr. 1858 - 1878

Citing this Record
"Wisconsin Marriages, 1836-1930", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRKR-SY7 : 30 January 2020), Patrick Druggan in entry for Peter Druggan, 1871.
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