James Milligan Note

James Milligan

Note: He was a craftsman, a Stone Mason. He may have served in the Civil War. Is this why he moved to Illinois for bounty land? In doing research I found a number of people from Hunterdon Co., N. J. who settled in Ogle Co., Illinois. He was a farmer in Iowa. He stated he would retire when he was 50. This he did. . This from James Newton Milligan's notes: James was a lather and plasterer by trade so that in addition to the operation of his farm, would accept work in that field. His services in his trade took him at times considerable distances from the farm and while remunerative, these jobs were distastful in some measure for he told his family, he would never accept any "outside" work after reaching the age of 50. "He never did. " stated both Tom and Uncle Will. . Marriage Certificate, County Clerk's office, Rockford, Winnebago, Ill. His name on certificate is James Melligan. . It always seemed to me (James Newton Milligan) that there was, and perhaps is, an inherent religiosity in the Illinois-Iowas countryside for, as I told my family in my travels by train throughout a great deal of the United States. It was my observation that on Sundays, viewing from the train window, I never saw farms being worked on the Sabbath Day in Illinois and Iowa. This Sabbath observance was not countrywide, for I saw huge tractors at work in Washington, Montana, Idaho and many other states, but never in the Corn-Hog country. James Milligan and his family fit nicely into this observance, except James did not think it other than custom that his wife, Jemima Jane Bull Milligan, was to prepare a big Sunday dinners for their large family while James took all the children to church and brought them home to these Sunday repasts. These Sunday religious services inclined to be on the lengthy side and Elmer enjoyed getting the brothers and sisters in the barn at times when Em would imitate some of the men of the church in their prayers for the dismissal of the worshippers. "Now this is Deacon Smith--He was in a hurry to get home to feed his pigs," and Em would go on for a long recital of "blessings" etc. and the "Amen" would be much deferred to the amusement of the [those] assembled in the barn, children of James Milligan And, too, James was pretty strict in matters bordering on religion--a curse on cards and any games bordering on gambling...some of the older boys cut from lath (perhaps left over from a Lathing-Plastering job of thier father) enough "men" to make a domino set of the double nine number. They scraped these lath dominoes with their pocket knives to the smoothest possible and burned the numbers into the pieces with wires heated in the flame of their mother's kitchen range. Because of their father's dislike of "games", the dominoes were used in the barn until one day, hearing a bit of fracus in the barn, James entered and placing all the dominoes in a coal "scuttle", dumped them into the kitchen range fire, much to the discomfiture of his wife. . Death certificate: Mason City, Cerro Gordo, Iowa. . In writing of the death of James Milligan (father of Tom Milligan): At the time of Grandfather Milligans's death, My Dad was not employed on the railroad and resultantly could not get a pass to travel. However, he had his order of Railway Conductors card and when the conductor would come through, my dad would show him this card and I know we got there and back without doing any walking. So it worked. I know we had some anxious moments on the trains, but I was too young to understand what that was all about. [from notes of James Newton Milligan] . Obituary: Mason City Newspaper: JAMES MILLIGAN A most honored citizen of this county was suddenly called to his home above on Saturday morning March 11. It was Mr. James Milligan, a man who has been a resident in this vicinity since 1877. It would appear that on that morning Mr. Milligan arose as usual and ate a hearty breakfast. Shortly after he went out in the grainery and secured a pail of oats. He had evidently just shut the door when his death stroke came, for he had fallen over backward and was found lying at full length upon the ground, the bail of the pail still held in one hand. The death occurred at the home of his daughter Mrs. [Martha] Babcock, the farm being opposite to that of Wm. Letts in south Mason Township. Mr. Milligan was born in Hunterdon county, N.J., Feb. 23, 1827 and so had just passed his 78th birthday. In 1853 he went to Winnebago county Ill., and lived there until coming to Iowa. Oct. 6 1858, he married Miss Jane J. Bull, who died some two years ago. They had eleven children, nine of whom are alive and who attended the funeral. The children are Math. B., of Crookston, Minn.,, Elmer C. and John B., of Salt Lake City; Mattie Babcock of Mason City; Thos. M. of Grand Junction, Colo.; Rebecca and Grace of this city, and James B. and Wm. P. of Minneapolis. He leaves a brother William, and a sister Mrs. [Sarah Elizabeth] Snyder of New Jersey. The deceased joined the Methodist church in 1878 at Mason City and ever lived a good member. He was a most worthy citizen, highly esteemed. He was a constant attendant on the Sunday meeting. Having sold his land he contemplated making a visit to his sons in the west. But this joy was denied them both...The sons and daughters who have grown to manhood and womanhood have much to be thankful for in the good life of their father. . Death certificate from the Iowa State Dept. of Health, his daughter states James' "father was William Meligan and Elizabeth Elsworth. Research of many years on Elsworth was fruitless in the Hunterdon Co., of N.J. area. A war hero in the Illinois area was a Elsworth and this is where their son got the name of Elmer Elsworth and maybe that is why they thought their mother was an Ellsworth. One does state wrong things on the distressful occasion of death. It was not until we found a marriage record on James's sister that it was Eldridge and there are a few Eldridges in the Hunterdon area. James sister Harriet also came to Illinois, her daughter was born here. It is not known if his mother came west with his sister. It is thought she died in Illinois. Her children are in the Hunterdon, N.J. census, but the mother is not, nor in the N. J. census. There was a new group of Milligans that came to N. J. from Ireland and they do not appear to be related. . The brother's and sister got together at this time and had a lovely picture taken. James N. Milligan relates that all the boys were pall bearers for their father and after the funeral on the walk to the cemetery a half mile away, they stopped at the tavern and went in [James Newton Milligan suggest they held a wake] and became very intoxicated. Eventually they came out, picked up the coffin and finished carrying it to the cemetery, the best they could in their drunken state. James notes that the boys were very much miffed at their father. He had joined the Methodist church and became a very pious individual. The Methodist frowned upon dancing and merriment and James upbraideth his son as to their conduct. See story above. Their father came home and became very angry with them exploiting the Sabbath day. He gather the dominoes up and burned them. The boys became very angry and hostile at such acts. In addition to my father, Tom, I heard this domino incident from Mathew, John, Elmer and Will...It must have been an incident which rancored the whole family. Not one of the boys wanted to stay "on the farm" and all of them gravitated to the railroad which must have held some glamour for farmers' sons in the era of 1870 to 1890. Mathew became an Engineer, John and Elmer (EM) Conductors in the Salt Lake City area, Will and Joe, Trainmen in the middlewest and my dad Thomas a Trainman. They hurt their father by not becoming a stone mason like him. When they becames the age to be employed, they signed on with the wicked railroad to their father's strong disapproveal. Each joined different lines. Two went on the Canadian run from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They lived in the same house and when one came home to sleep the other got up and run the route. A couple served on the Northwest R.R. My grandfather worked for Denver and Rio Grande as did Elmer. They would all do anything for their mother, who was a peacemaker and gentle from her Welch background. . A story related by James Newton Milligan (2\23\1965) was either his Uncle Will or Uncle Mathew were speaking to his father Donald Alonzo Milligan in Seattle in 1909 (That is the year Mathew Bull Milligan visited my folks and the world's fair in Seattle) that there were THREE James Melligans in the (Winnebago and Ogle Counties of Illinois) in that vicinity and that mail and court records were getting out of hand for none of them had a middle name or initial. The three of them got together as to would retain the `e' - in other words: MELLIGAN, MULLIGAN, or MILLIGAN and my Grandfather drew the `i' straw! At that age of myself, I thought it was a good laugh and inquired why they did not solve the dilemma by inserting letters for a middle initials but it was not answered - but my own dad told us how at the time he got married in 1897 he had been careless in signing his name. Some times, so dad told us, he would be Tom Milligan, at others T. M. Milligan, and Thomas M. Milligan. . .and at one time he had to spend something like $50.00 to prove that all these names represented one and the same individual, one THOMAS MEREDITH MILLIGAN. He told me to remember what he had told me and I guess I did, eh? [One of the Milligan's was Reverend James Milligan, son of Thomas Milligan and Jane Irvine Milligan. Not related. He married 1828 to Eleanor Linn daughter of John Linn and Mary Ross. Mary was the cousin of his wife, Jamima Jane Bull, whose mother was a Linn.] They were also from Perry Co. Penn. and they moved to Winnebago Co., Ill., also.) We ask Will (for the umpteenth time) what he could tell us about his father's birth, forbearers, etc. and Will said he was not able to help us much in that direction. Will said his father was (contrary to some of his male and female offspring) not given over to much wordiness; he would answer the things he wanted to answer, and that was about all. James Newton Milligan states he got his middle name from his aunt who was nicknamed "Nute". The Passing of the Back House by James Whitcomb Riley When memory keeps me company and moves to smile or tears, A weather-beaten object looms through the mist of years, Behind the house and barn it stood, a half a mile or more, And hurrying feet a path had made, straight to its swinging door. Its architecture was a type of simple classic art, But in the tragedy of life it played a leading part. And oft the passing traveler drove slow and heaved a sigh, To see the modest hired girl slip out with glances shy. We had our poesy garden that the women loved so well, I loved it too, but better still I loved the stronger smell That filled the evening breezes so full of homely cheer, And told the night-o’er taken tramp that human life was near. On lazy August afternoons it made a little bower Delightful, where my grandsire sat and whiled away an hour. For there the summer mornings, its very cares entwined, And berry bushes reddened in the streaming soil behind. All day fat spiders spun their webs to catch the buzzing flies That flitted to and from the house, where ma was baking pies; And once a swarm of hornets bold had built their palace there, And stung my unsuspecting aunt - I must not tell you where. My father took a flaming pole - that was a happy day - He nearly burned the building up, but the hornets left to stay. When summer bloom began to fade and winter to carouse, We banked the little building with a heap of hemlock boughs. But when the crust is on the snow and sullen skies were gray, Inside the building was no place where on could wish to stay. We tarried not, nor lingered long, on what we left behind. The torture of the icy seat would make a spartan sob, For needs must scrape the flesh with a lacerating cob, That from a frost-encrusted nail suspended from a string - My father was a frugal man and wasted not a thing. When grandpa had to “go out back” and make his morning call, We’d bundle up that dear old man with a muffler and a shawl, I knew the hole on which he sat - “Twas padded all around”, And once I tried to sit there - “Twas all too wide I found”, My loins were all too little, and I jack-knifed there to stay, They had to come and get me out, or Id have passed away, My father said ambition was a thing that boys should shun, And I just used the childrn’s hole `Til childhood days were done. And still I marvel at the craft that cut those holes so true, The baby’s hole, and the slender hole that fitted sister Sue, That dear old country landmark, I tramped around a bit, And in the lap of luxury my lot has been to sit, But ere I die I’ll eat the fruits of trees I robbed of yore, Then seek the shanty where my name is carved upon the door. I ween that old familiar smell with soothe my jaded soul, I’m now a man, but none the less I’ll try the children’s hole.