Working on the Railroad (and living in it sort of)

 In many ways, John Ryan was a typical Irishman. He married in 1860 in Cappawhite, County Tipperary in Ireland. He was 35 and his bride, Mary Dwyer was 30. They had two children before leaving for America where they would have another six children.

One of their sons, John Henry Ryan, became the editor and publisher of a very short-lived newspaper called the Decatur Labor World, published in Decatur, Illinois. In the 25 February 1915 edition, he published his autobiography giving some details of his father's life in the U.S. 

The Ryan family landed first in New York and stayed in Orange County for a couple of years. It is likely that John started working on the railroad upon his arrival in the U.S. and followed it west. By 1870, they had moved to Bloomington, McLean County, Illinois, where they bought land from the Chicago and Alton Railroad, John's employer. He also bought the body of a box car which they moved to their lot. John Henry was born in the boxcar in October 1870. No pictures exist of this boxcar which had been made into a home, but it obviously provided them with shelter for a short period of time. 

 In the spring of 1874, the family moved to Gibson City, Illinois. John built a small house on a lot they had purchased, and it was in this house that he died of pneumonia, leaving his wife, Mary, with six children. The date of John's death is still undetermined. His son John Henry placed it in 1877, yet he is listed in the 1880 census. 

Stephen Ryan, my daughter-in-law's great-grandfather, was the second son born to John and Mary Ryan. He was born in Orange County, New York in 1865. By the time of his marriage to Helen "Nellie" Lanham in April of 1891, Stephen was working as a telegraph operator for the Wabash Railroad. After their marriage, they moved to Minonk, North Dakota, where he managed the Great Northern Railroad telegraph office. By 1907, Stephen had graduated from law school but continued to work for the railroad in St. Paul, Minnesota. He eventually left the railroad to practice law.

Only one of John Ryan's other children ever worked for the railroad. Michael Edwin Ryan worked as a telegraph operator for the Burlington Northern Railroad. Like his brother Stephen, he got a law degree and became a distinguished lawyer and judge in the Brainerd, Minnesota, area. 

As to John's other children--John Henry became an editor and publisher, as noted above. Patrick was a cigar maker among other things. His daughter Josephine, who never married, became a nurse. 

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This week's topic for #52 Ancestors was "Trains".