Sacramento County
Biographies
JOSEPH HANLON
JOSEPH HANLON was born in West Meath, Ireland, in
1837, his parents being James and Catherine (Garrity)
Hanlon (sic) They were the parents of four sons who grew to manhood, of whom
three emigrated to America,
and one remained at the old home, and another has lately returned
there. The maternal grandmother lived to the age of ninety-seven, the only
relative known whose age extended beyond seventy. Joseph Hanlon arrived in
New York in 1854, and soon afterward went West, going to work near La Porte,
Indiana, in that year. In 1857 he came
to California, and went to mining at Iowa Hill, Placer
County, but with only moderate
success. In 1858 he came down into the plains and went to work for the
owner of the place he now owns. In 1859, he and his partner, Timothy McEnerney, rented 160 acres of the same, and in 1862 they
bought eighty acres, to which they added by later purchase until they owned 760
acres in 1875. They ran a dairy and did general faring besides raising cattle
and horses. In 1881 Mr. Hanlon paid a visit to Ireland,
returning in 1882; and in 1883 he bought out his partner’s interest, becoming
sole owner of 760 acres of land. September 21, 1884, Mr. Hanlon was
married, in San Francisco, to Miss Catherine Callahan, a
native of Rhode Island, the only
child of Michael and Julia (Gavegan)
Callahan. The father, who was an assistant railroad superintendent, was
accidentally killed at the age of twenty-nine years. The mother, who was
fifty-five years old in January, 1889, resides with her daughter in the placid
enjoyment of the health and vigor of well-preserved womanhood, with a fair
promise of reaching the age of her father, who was ninety-eight years old at
his death in 1883. Her maternal grandparents, who were also named Gavegan, —Matthew and Ann,—died at the ages of eighty-one
and seventy-seven, the husband being two years older than the wife and
surviving her two years. He was a leather merchant in Strokestown,
County Roscommon, Ireland. Mrs.
Hanlon is an accomplished pianist, and a singer of marked ability. Before
her marriage she was a teacher of vocal and instrumental music in San
Francisco, where her musical talent was in frequent
demand for charity concerts and entertainments, her generosity and
self-sacrifice being widely known to the benevolent projectors of such
enterprises. Mr. and Mrs. Hanlon are the parents of two boys: Joseph
Aloysius, born December 28, 1885, and James Ignatius, born August 24, 1887.
Transcribed 9-13-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Page 639.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.