Catherine F (Kate) Callaghan
No photos available

Birth:                    Apr 1870, Empire Township, Minnesota
Death:                   14 Jul 1958, Inver Grove, Dakota, Minnesota
Burial:                  St. Agatha’s Cemetery, Coates, Vermillion TWP, Dakota, Minnesota
 
Never married; no children.
 
Catherine F (probably Frances) Callaghan was born in April of 1870 in Empire Township, Minnesota.  Known as Kate (likely named after her father’s youngest sister), she was the fifth child of William Callaghan and Mary Condon.  Like her siblings, Kate, though long-lived, did not leave much of a footprint behind.  She lived most of her life on her father’s farm.  She never married nor had any children. 
 
After an upbringing very similar to her siblings, Kate took her education one step further and was the only member of the Minnesota Callaghan branch to go to college.  Concern about teacher training led the 1858 Minnesota legislature to fund Normal (teacher training) Schools in Winona, Mankato, and St. Cloud. It added schools in Moorhead, Duluth, and Bemidji by 1913.  The Mankato Normal School, now Minnesota State University, Mankato, is the closest to Dakota County.  Kate may have gone there, though Winona is a likely candidate as well. 
 
After a year of training, Kate became a teacher like her sisters Mary Ann, Nora Maggie Nora.  She taught in many rural school houses between 1890 and 1930.  According to the Hastings Gazette, (January 19, 1895), Kate was a teacher at the school house in Miesville in District 65.  By 1930, she had retired. 
 
After her father died in 1924, Kate was named Executrix (probably because she was the one with the highest education) settled the estate.  Each surviving child received $800, except Nellie, who received $2500 in recognition for her running the household for 25 years.   and bought a house at 40 – 3rd Street in the town of Farmington.  The house no longer exists.  In the 1930 US Census, six years after her father’s death, Nellie was listed as Head of household, and she owned the house free and clear.  Kate, Mary Ann, and William were living with her. 
 
Sometime after 1935, Kate, Nellie, and Mary Ann moved to Los Angeles to live with Maggie at 2140 ½ Vallejo Street.  James came down from Portland, Oregon, to live with them as well.  They were all there in 1940 for the 1940 US Census.  By 1942, though, and the sisters had moved back to Farmington where they bought the three-bedroom, one bath house at 701 - 3rd Street in Farmington.  Built in 1916, the three sisters would live the rest of their lives there. 
 
According to the Dakota County Tribune,
 
“After a long illness, Miss Catherine Callaghan, a life-long resident of this community died in Sanford Hospital on Monday July 14.  The Callaghans are a pioneer family of Empire township and are well respected in the community.” 
 
She was 88 years old.  The wake was held at the house on 3rd Street and the funeral was at St Michael’s Catholic Church, followed by burial in the family plot in St. Agatha’s Cemetery.