Lawrence's Gallagher Ancestors - Our Past
This is a story of the writer’s family based
on what the writer has been able to learn over the last three decades. This has been written to pass down
to the next generation what is known about the family. Too often this writer has found that
information is
not available because family members are not interested in the past, or are
unwilling to share for whatever reason, or because information has been lost when
family members have died far too young (e.g., Bessie & Lena).
This blog covers the writer’s father’s side – the Wolff, Gallagher and Peterson families. First up are the ancestor's of Lawrence Gallagher.
The family chain:
Michael Gallagher Great Great Grandpa ca 1844-?
Patrick L Gallagher Great Grandpa 1866-?
Lawrence Patrick Gallagher Grandpa 1891-1959
Ken Gallagher Dad 1920-2007
The Gallagher’s came to America from Ireland sometime before 1866. Patrick indicates on his marriage certificate and the census records show that he was born in the US in 1866 and that his parents were from Ireland. Unfortunately it is not known where in Ireland they came from. Most folks with the Gallagher name come from the northwest corner of Ireland in Ulster and North Connacht, with Gallagher holding the number one position of surnames in Donegal.
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| The Gallagher Name in Ireland |
Patrick lists Michael Gallagher and Mary Brown as his parents on his marriage license.
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| Patrick & Lena's Marriage Certificate, June 1888 |
Unfortunately not much more is known about them. Nor is it known whether Patrick had any siblings. A Michael and Mary Gallagher was found in the 1870 census with a four year old child named Patrick.
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| Michael Gallagher is listed on line 10, followed by wife Mary, John and then Patrick. Hard to know if this is the correct family. It is the best match found so far. |
However, it indicates that Patrick was born in Pennsylvania. In the 1900 census record it says he was born in Maryland. That is the most that has been found to-date about Michael and Mary. None of the writer’s older relatives had any information on them. The information may not have been passed down for a couple of reasons. In general, many immigrants wanted to forget where they came from either due to bad memories or in an attempt to assimilate more quickly in America. The Irish of Michael and Mary’s generation certainly had the bad memories due to the Irish Potato Famine in 1845-1852 that resulted in starvation for many and forced some one million Irish to flee the country. The second reason the information was probably not passed down, or to put it more correctly, lost, is due to the early passing of Lena Gallagher and the probable desertion of the family by Patrick Gallagher. More on both of these events later in this blog.
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| Patrick Gallagher aka Black Pat Sometimes he is referred to as "LP Gallagher" in newspaper articles and on the badge (see below) |
Patrick made his
way from the East Coast all the way to Montana.
The first record of him being in Montana is from his marriage license
referred to above. The license is
dated June 13, 1888 and it indicates that Patrick was living in Billings,
Montana. It is not known when he first
arrived there or how long he lived there.
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| Lena Peterson Gallagher, ca 1900 |
Lena was born in 1865 in Wisconsin. It is not known why or when she left for Billings. The next time the couple shows up is in the 1900 census for Anaconda, Montana.
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| Patrick, Lena & family listed at the bottom of this page from the 1900 census |
The family may have lived in several locations but the one that is documented is at 837 Birch Street in Anaconda, Montana. That address is printed in school textbooks formerly used by two of Patrick & Lena’s children, Helen and Violet. An article in the Anaconda Standard that shows that Lena bought the property in 1899 for the princely sum of $1.
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Anaconda Standard, 25 Sep 1899, pg 3 |
Even though a dollar was worth a lot more back then, it still isn’t much for a lot. It is not known what kind of structure they put on the lot. Also, it is not known why Lena purchased the lot and not Patrick. Back in that day it was much more common for the husband to handle such transactions. The property would typically be in his name or possibly in both of their names.
The writer was in Anaconda in 2011. Birch Street is at one end of town and goes up a rather steep hill. It was a rather well known street in Anaconda's heyday. Apparently back in the day before too many cars showed up, Birch Street was used as a toboggan run whenever there was sufficient snow. Many of the tobogganers tried to go as far as they could and they had contests to see who would go the farthest. The hill was steep enough that the best of them were able to get clear across town.
At the time the writer visited Anaconda,
there was nothing but dirt at the spot where 837 Birch Street would be
if there was a home there. In talking
with some of the older local residents and folks in the county courthouse, they had no recollection of anything
being on that spot. When there was a
home there it would have been the last home on that street and almost at the top of the
hill.
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| 837 Birch St., Anaconda. Doesn't look like anything was ever there. |
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| Looking uphill on Birch Street. 837 Birch Street would be on the left. |
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| Looking downhill on Birch Street into the city of Anaconda. 837 Birch St would be on the right and the pavement ends there. |
It has not discovered what Patrick did for a living from his marriage in 1888 up to 1900, although the 1900 census shows him as a "Laborer". From 1901 through 1904 Patrick takes on what turns out to be a very public occupation of constable. Hard to know if he realized it would be so
public. There were a number of articles written
about him in the Anaconda Standard, the newspaper in Anaconda back in his day
(the paper is now known as the Montana Standard and it does not focus on
Anaconda in detail like its predecessor).
Patrick’s job as a constable was to bring people in to stand before the county judge who may not otherwise want to do so. Sometimes they were folks that were not supporting their own families
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 28 Sep 1903 |
and sometimes they were folks accused of more violent behavior as exhibited by a Mr. Capo in the 1904 article below.
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Patrick seems to have built something of a reputation for himself. The Anaconda Standard in 1904 referred to him as the “Sherlock Holmes of the courthouse".
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 29 Jan 1904 |
In 1903 a number of
his friends presented him with a badge.
The presentation party even made it into the daily paper. The badge is not
actually made of gold as the article below says. When it was new
it probably did shine like gold, but it appears to be brass or bronze.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 18 Feb 1903 |
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| LP Gallagher Presented by his Fellow Workman (sic) Anaconda, MT 1903 |
But there
also appears to have been another side to Patrick. It appears that he had a mean streak that
would surface when he had too much to drink.
The writer’s uncle Russ Gallagher used to tell a tale about “Black Pat”
kicking a fellow through a fence. Russ
was a good teller of tall tales. He was fun to listen to and at the time the writer did not take him too seriously. He
truly had the “gift” of blarney.
However, it appears that there was some truth in the tale. Old Black Pat did kick a fellow down Main street in Anaconda. Of course, both had
been drinking according to the newspaper reports.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 1 June 1900 |
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 7 June 1900 |
Montana was
wild and woolly back in that day. Patrick
seems to have fit right in. And he
wasn’t above using a gun to make his point.
There are at least two articles that talk about Patrick threatening and
shooting people. They both make mention
that he had been drinking. The first
article the writer found was written in 1903 while Patrick was serving as
constable. The problem, aside from his
being drunk, was that he did not use his gun in his role as constable.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, Aug 1, 1903 |
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 2 Aug 1903 |
The other
article the writer found was written in 1907 when Patrick was working as a
bartender. The gun play this time
occurred at his place of employment, but apparently not on his shift. The press called it the “Shooting Affair at Monogram Saloon”. Interestingly enough, this is the last
mention of Patrick in Anaconda. More about this later.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 4 June 1907 |
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 5 June 1907 Nothing further has been found on this matter. |
The family may have referred to Patrick as “Black Pat” due to his temper. Uncle Bill Gallagher said that when the
family was in Anaconda to visit his father’s (Lawrence’s) siblings someone gave Uncle Dean a picture of Black Pat. When it was
time to return home to Renton, Lawrence refused to get in the car if the
picture was coming back with them. Bill
thinks it was because Patrick beat Lawrence.
Bill said that his dad had the marks on the back of his legs to prove
it. No proof of any of this has been discovered. It possibly may be just stories.
But as the above articles show, Patrick did have quite a temper!
After 1904 it appears that Patrick left his position as constable. It may have had to do with the lack of adequate income for the job, which is something the constables protested in 1903. As the article below states, a new ruling required that court fees, other than the constables fees, be paid in advance. That ruling led to a decline in court cases and thus, a decline in business for the constables. Up to that point all costs were paid after the case was decided and the constables fees were part of what the court collected.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 10 Jan 1903 |
Patrick with another constable, E.J. Henroid, helped to draft a bill that went before the state legislature to pay the constables’ a salary of $150 to $200 a month depending on the size of the city a constable worked in. It should be mentioned that the previous article states that the county judges were receiving $150 per month.
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| From The Anaconda Standard, 25 Jan 1903 |
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| From The Anaconda Standard, 30 Jan 1903 |
Just before it went to the legislature they agreed to adjust that down to $100 a month for constables, except in Butte where it would be $150. Butte was one of the larger cities at that time and the most unruly. No article has been found about whether the bill passed or not. In either event, Patrick did not continue on as a constable.
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 11 Feb 1903 |
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| continue below |
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 24 Feb 1903 |
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| From the Anaconda Standard, 24 Dec 1906 |
In October 1906 Lena passed away at only 41 years of age. The newspaper said that it was due to pneumonia.
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| From The Anaconda Standard, 18 Oct 1906 See enlargement of notice below |
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| From The Anaconda Standard, 20 Oct 1906 |
However, at least one family member disagrees with the account of Lena's passing. The writer spoke with his cousin, Lanny Linehan, Violet Gallagher’s grandson. On January 19, 1999 Lanny spoke with Helen Kulander. Helen was the eldest child of Violet. Helen told Lanny that Lena died when Violet was about 5-6 years old. Violet had told her and always maintained that her mother died in childbirth at the family home and the baby did not survive either. The writer has been to the family grave site in Anaconda (picture below). If the story Lanny heard is correct, there is no grave for the child. No additional evidence was found to confirm the story.
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| Gallagher Family Plot, Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Anaconda, MT The tall headstone is Lena's (see below), the lower one on the left is her daughter, Helen Gallagher Andersen |
The last record of Patrick in Anaconda was in the Anaconda Standard article in 1907 about the shooting at the Monogram (article is posted above). After this there is no more mention of him. The 1910 census shows some of the children (the youngest) living in an orphanage in Helena. So it appears that Patrick left the family (or maybe died) between 1907 and 1910.
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| 1910 Census, Helena Township, St. Joseph Orphans' Home Cornelius (14), Violet (11) and Herbert (7) are listed as residents |
Helen Kulander told Lanny that Helen Gallagher
(Violet's older sister) kept the family together after Lena's death and cared
for her siblings. Patrick Gallagher did try to take Violet with him when he
left, but was not successful. The law tried several times to take the kids away
from Helen Gallagher, but they were also unsuccessful. So she must have been able to get Cornelius, Violet and Herbie out of the orphanage. Helen Kulander thinks that Patrick Gallagher left maybe because of stress (of raising the children) that mounted following Lena’s death.
The writer has not found convincing evidence
of where or when Patrick died. The writer’s uncle,
Bill Gallagher, said that acquaintances of his saw Patrick in Arizona. Unfortunately, he had no further information
and so far on-line searches have not turned up any additional information. Part of the problem being that "Pat Gallagher" was a common name. Without additional reference points it is hard to tell one Pat Gallagher from another!
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Future posts will cover:
- Patrick and Lena’s children - Helen, William “Poker Bill”, Lawrence, Cyrus, Cornelius, Violet and Herbert “Herbie”
- Lawrence's wife Bessie's side of the family, the Wolff's
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