The following is a copy of a diary that was written by William (Will) Mogan on a trip to Ireland with his father, Thomas (Tom) Mogan, in 1887. Will and his father left Nashville on August 13, 1887, and Will returned to Nashville on September 2, 1887. There were a number of side stops in the United States and Ireland, to visit cousins and friends.
Foreward
"William was at the time of this trip 18 years old. He was a engineer for the railroad and was killed at age 40 when two trains hit head on in Pegram, Tennessee, just outside Nashville, Tennessee. He had married and had one child at his death.
The accounts in Will Mogan's diary show that he was a bright, caring person who loved his family and his Irish heritage. From his descriptions of his adventures, it is obvious that he loved and missed Nashville. He very much missed his mother and his sisters, as he mentions a number of times in his travels. Will was either in a hurry when writing his diary or he was lacking in grammar skills. His sentence structure left a lot to be desired, but he was very articulate in his discussions and observances of what was going on around him. William and his older brother, John, attended Catholic schools in Kansas and Kentucky. Both schools were called St. Mary’s, as there were no Catholic schools in the Nashville area. I have decoded the entries to the best of my abilities to give an exact translation of the diary as it is slowly deteriorating, and some of the words used are not clear to me in all instances. He seemed to like the young ladies, and they seemed to like him. A number were ready to marry him in Ireland and return to the United States with him as his wife. He had quite a large number of kin in Ireland and seemed to be interested in the Irish culture. We have a large number of ancestors in the Queenstown, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Ennis, Athnry, and Tuam, cities of western Ireland. There are many more small towns that are mentioned, but I do not find them on any maps of Ireland.
You can tell that he was very interested in the railroad and finally worked for the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad (N. C. & ST. L). He was a traveling engineer and a train inspector. He was killed in 1909 when two trains crashed head-on along a straight piece of track in the middle of Pegram, Tennessee next to Highway 70S. I remember a family discussion about the retrieval of his body from the wreck. The trains after the collision caught fire, and his body had not been found. Some members of the family got a wagon and went to the site of the wreck which was still burning. They searched for his body and eventually found only one arm, as the rest of his body burned up in the inferno. His meager remains were returned to Nashville and buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery in Nashville on Lebanon Road, just outside of downtown.
Will was married to Molly Cleary also from Nashville. They had one child who was born dead, and the infant is also buried in Calvary Cemetery in Nashville.
Thomas Mogan, Will’s father, was born in County Galway, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States when he was nineteen years old. He married Bridget Varley who was born in County Mayo, Ireland. County Mayo adjoins County Galway, and the two had met in Ireland, but they did not marry until they came to America.
They had five children, the first being John Mogan who never married, died in 1933 at the age of 82 in Nashville, and is buried in Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
Ellen or Nellie Mogan was born in Dayton, Ohio and married Michael Thomas Baine in 1889. She died in Nashville and is buried in Calvary Cemetery. William (Will), who wrote this diary, was born in Nashville and married Mollie Cleary from Nashville and died in 1909. Mary, or Mame, Mogan was born in Nashville, never married and died in Nashville in 1910. Julia Mogan, my Great-Aunt Julia, the youngest, never married and died the night that General Dwight Eisenhower was nominated for President of the United States. I had the distinct honor of knowing this holy lady. I remember her fondly. She was a positive influence in my life, and I can see her now sitting in her bedroom chair with white hair pulled in a bun saying the rosary and telling me how smart I was as I played the fake piano on her lower bedpost.
I hope you enjoy the Will Mogan Diary of his trip to Ireland, and I hope you someday will get to kiss the Blarney Stone on a trip to the “Green Island.”
Bernard St. Clare Butler, Jr.
June 29, 2006 -Updated-March 21, 2017
Biographical Details
William "Will" Mogan-- Born abt.1869--Died September 1909
Father: Thomas A. Mogan 1843 - 1917
Mother: Bridget Varley 1843 - 1914
August 13 & 14, 1887
Left Nashville at 8:05 P. M. and arrived in Cincinnati at 6:30 A. M. Sunday have felt very well we had a good nights rest. Arose at 5 am and eat my breakfast at 7 am my attention was taken up with the bridge that spans the river, it takes 3 eng. (engines) to assist up the ridge. We are now leaving Cincinnati 8:05 a m the sun is very warm. I got a spark in my eye and it has given me con-siderable trouble so we have now stopped at Xzenia (Xenia, Ohio). It is a very pretty place. 11:25 A M We stopped for dinner at Columbus we arrived at Pittsburg at 5:55 P M we passed through 3 very fine Union Depots the finest.
I even saw we passed over the R. R. Bridge at Pittsburg & there was the prettiest sight I ever saw to see the city lit up by natural gas & the furnaces was so thick that you could not see the ground for them we left Pittsburg at 7:10 with 10 coaches 5 of them was sleepers 2 Eng. (Engines) pulling the train we arrived in Jersy City at 6:20 am crossed over in the City of Chicago to N. York at 6:30 am it is very cool.
August 15, 1887
In looking up & down the street you can see wagons and street cars of every kind & every make. I'm sitting down writing now you see people coming from Jersey City. There is more people than I ever saw before. We have struck out looking for Pat Shindare and it seems impossible to find him. I have traveled all over in search of him and cannot find him. I have Recived a Telegram from Jon Mogan saying that he is at 397 Canal St. With Plastric we have found him and my Father recognized him and it is mutual. We must have a drink and Pat said we will see the city so we start after supper and looked at the post office and the Court House and then we started for the Brooklyn Bridge and we seen sights that made me open my eyes. We started across the bridge Eng (Engine) started us and then the cars were propelled by Cable we stand in Brooklyn ½ hour and I seen the prettiest interiore of a saloon of any I ever saw but I soon changed my mind for we went in to another saloon owned by the same man Mr. O’Bryan and it was on 14 street it was built on the inside like a square with mirrors on all sides and it was Decorated from stern to End. I was a regular palace if there ever was one in the shape of a saloon so we have taken the town in and arrived in the room at Hotel at 11 P. M
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