Patrick Charles Carrigan : Short Biography

Patrick Charles Carrigan claimed to have been born on St. Patrick’s Day, 17 March 1824 in County Tipperary, Ireland, at least according to his massive family gravestone, which stands as the centerpiece on the sole hill of St. Mary’s of the Lake Cemetery in Skaneateles, Onondaga County, State of New York.  He died on Thursday, 18 April 1895 in Satsuma Heights, Putnam County, State of Florida, on his eight-acre, horse & orange grove estate, which had served as his winter and retirement home since approximately 1891. His body was transported back to Skaneateles the Sunday for a memorial service and burial.  This would have indicated his age at death as 71 years, and 1 month.

However, various obituaries in the local paper claimed that his age at the time of death was 69, thereby indicating his birth in the year 1826, rather than 1824.  The year of his birth was further complicated by the various Federal and State censi between 1855 and 1892, as follows:

Census Year             Age at Census          Inputed year of Birth

1855                                       26                               1829

1860                                       30                               1830

1865                                       42                               1823

1870                                       49                               1821

1875                                       46                               1829

1880                                       53                               1827

1892                                       62                               1830

The issue here is that all of the censi were conducted always between June to August of the census year. Therefore, if his birthday was in fact in March, his age would have been expressed correctly – unless he was embellishing his age to make him seem younger.  Regardless, the census data would seem to indicate the possibility that he may have been born in yet a third possibility, i.e. 1829, and thus his age at his death as 66. Yet there is another possibility – that the gravestone engraver could have misread the year of birth, transcribing 1829 as 1824.

It is uncertain when PC as a young man emigrated from County Tipperary, Ireland, nor whom his parents or siblings might have been. From the census records of his wife’s family, however, some dates can be inferred. The most likely scenario is that PC emigrated to the USA before 1849, and probably between 1846 – early 1849, according to scant immigration records found on Ancestry.com.  By 1849 he had found his way to Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York, which was a bustling commercial center halfway along the east-west Erie Canal linking Albany and the Hudson River to Buffalo and Lake Ontario.  He married the daughter of Irish immigrants, Mary Riley (1830 – 1875), whom had been born in New York City.  They were married on 2 Dec 1849 in a Roman Catholic Church in Syracuse.  By 1851, they moved out of Syracuse, 20 miles to the west , to the Town of Elbridge, Onondaga County, where PC began farming and to begin raising a family.  Here are the children of the marriage with associated dates and places.

Children’s Name                 Birth Date  & Place                        Death Date & Place

Michael Charles      14 Mar 1852  Elbridge, NY           19 Aug 1936   Syracuse, NY

Mary                          25 Jan  1853  Elbridge, NY           07 Feb 1874   Elbridge, NY

Ellen E.                      15 May 1856 Elbridge, NY           ?? ??? 1950    Syracuse, NY

Thomas                     19 Apr 1857  Elbridge, NY            09 Apr 1918   Lansing, NY

Julian                         19 Apr 1857  Elbridge, NY            22 May 1863  Skaneateles, NY

Margaret                  26 Jan 1860  Skaneateles, NY     27 Mar 1953  Skaneateles, NY

William                      19 Jul 1860   Elbridge, NY             12 Apr 1863   Skaneateles, NY

Patrick                       02 Jun 1862  Elbridge, NY            12 Mar 1863   Skaneateles, NY

Julia                            24 May1864  Elbridge, NY           12 Jul  1864    Skaneateles, NY

Bridget F.                  ?? Dec 1864  Elbridge, NY            21 Mar 1941  Fulton, NY

Anne                          05 Jun 1865  Elbridge, NY            19 May 1868  Skaneateles, NY

Katie                          22 Jul 1867  Skaneateles, NY      02 Jan  1875   Skaneateles, NY

Elizabeth A.              09 Apr 1869Skaneateles, NY       ?? ???  1954   Skaneateles, NY

Andrew J.                 27 Jun 1870 Skaneateles, NY      25 Dec 1959   Skaneateles, NY

Out of the 14 children only 8 made it to adulthood.  Their mother, Mary Riley Carrigan, only survived to the age of 45, passing on 7 Feb 1875, perhaps heartbroken one month after daughter, Katie, died.  

Given that his first born child was named Michael, and given the middle name as his own middle name, it is quite possible that this son was named after PC's own father.  Since PC's wife's father or immediate family lacked a "Michael", this increases the probability that the son was named after the grandfather.  A search on Ancestry.com (primarily Griffith's Valuations) revealed that the only "Michael Carrigan" in Tipperary County during PC's early life had leased farmlands around Anlishcloghane and that he died there around 1878.