My Great Great Great Grand father James Geoghegan Was born in Kilbegan Ireland in 1816 and was married to Mary Highland they came to the united states in 1847 and started a family. James was a rail road worker and was section foreman of the Chesterland, Zanesville and Cincinnati railroad for almost twenty years, they lived in Marshallville Ohio.
William Highland Gagon Sr born 1850 in New York City and was the oldest son of James and Mary. At age 19 his mother Mary Died of rheumatic fever, and William was key in helping to raise his younger brothers and sisters. When he was about 26 years of age he moved to Utah to make it his home, and in December of 1867 married Lydia Ann Taylor. William worked on a railroad construction crew the Baltimore Ohio Railroad the timekeeper got tired of writing out "Geoghegan" and shortened it to "Gagon."
Williams family was one of the early founders of Roosevelt Utah. He held many ecclesiastical positions, worked in politics and retired from the general mercantile business.
In 1847 William Highland Gagon Jr was born in a small log cabin which today is used as a chicken coop, he was born to William Sr & Lydia and was the youngest.
William wrote "Mother died when I was sixteen months old. I was taken then to Ogden, Utah for Grandfather and Grandmother Taylor to rear. I lived with grandmother until I was nine years of age and with grandfather until the age of fourteen. "
William Jr and Albie Elnora Glenn were married October 3rd 1917. William continues: I was employed by the California Department of Corrections as a Correctional Officer at the Boys' Prison, I retired at the age of seventy.
My paternal grandma Venise Gagon was born 1908 to William Highland Jr & Albie Gagon she was the oldest of eleven cildren. I was 15 when my grandma died she had many health problems but had a passion for her family and wrote a book about her family history both past and present the title was Our Lives in Review.
Here is a picture that is from that book that shows my dad Kay O Durfee in the back and the family of Venice Gagon and Ralph Durfee.
This is my Irish heritage.
