William Edward Callaghan
No photos available
Birth: 19 Sep 1873, Empire, Dakota, Minnesota
Death: 9 Mar 1958, Hennepin, Minnesota
Burial: St. Agatha’s Cemetery, Vermillion Township, Dakota, Minnesota
Never married, no children.
William Edward Callaghan was the seventh child and third son of William Callaghan and Mary Condon. He was born on his father’s farm on September 19, 1873, and was named after his father according to the family tradition.
William’s early life on the farm would have been much like that of his siblings. Farming did not seem to suit him, though, and he tried his hand at teaching in 1900. Around 1908, he moved to Minneapolis where he got an apartment at 813 5th Avenue North and took a job as a machine worker.
When his siblings left a small footprint on history, William seemed to actively avoid leaving any prints at all. After 1900, he does not appear in any Census state or federal records and was not recorded among draft registrants for either world war. He only appears in the Minneapolis City Directories four times in 50 years. Too further obscure his existence, there were a William Edward Callahan (married), Edward William Callaghan, William R Callaghan, William H Callaghan living in either Minneapolis or in Dakota County—or BOTH—during his lifetime. In 1939 and 1941, he seems to have been a laborer living at 202 Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. In 1952, he was living at 223 ½ Marquette Avenue. Both buildings have long since been replaced by luxury condos.
William died on March 9, 1858 at General Hospital in Minneapolis. He was 84 years old. Nordquist and MacPhee undertakers handled the funeral. There was a grave-side service by Fr. Paul Murray at the family plot in St. Agatha’s Cemetery, but there does not seem to have been a rosary or mass. All that could be said in his obituary was that he had lived in Minneapolis for 50 years, that he was not married, and that his parents had been pioneer settlers of Empire.
