SHEBOYGAN HISTORY

Capt. Peter Feagan, Page 388

CAPT PETER FEAGAN, an early settler of Sheboygan, Was engaged in merchandising in this place for nearly a quarter of a century, and is a veteran of the late war.  he was born in Syracuse, N. Y., June 7, 1836, and is a son of Patrick and Eleanore (Madden) Feagan, both natives of County Meath, Ireland, who came to the United States about the year 1818.  The father engaged in agriculture near Syracuse, where both parents spent their remaining days.  Of their family of thirteen children only three are living.

    Capt. Feagan, who is the youngest child in the family, was reared on the homestead near Syracuse and attended school in that city.  In 1851, when a youth of fifteen years, he came to this county with his eldest brother, Thomas, and was a student in the schools of this place for some three years.  At that time he started for California, intending to go by way of the Isthmus, but found he did not have enough money to make the journey, which then cost $450.  He waited in New York, believing that the fare would be reduced, and, in the meantime, shipped on board the clipper "John Stewart," bound for Cape Horn, and San Francisco.  As the vessel made numerous stops on the way, it was four months and seventeen days ere he landed in San Francisco.  He worked in a hotel until the mining season opened, and then went to Grass Valley with some friends and worked a quartz mine quite successfully.  He them went into the restaurant business at Marysville, and continued thus engaged for two years.  In the fall of 1857 he returned to Sheboygan, by way of Panama, and engaged in the real-estate business.

    On the 1st of August, 1861, the Captain enlisted in Company E, Seventeenth Wisconsin Volunteers, the regiment being mostly composed of Irish recruits, and he, being proud of his ancestry, appears on the roll as a native of the Emerald Isle.  he received a recruiting commission from Gov. Harvey and enlisted the larger part of Company E, of which he was chosen First Lieutenant.  The first active service which his command saw was at Pittsburg Landing, where they arrived the second day of the fight.  Going to Corinth, Mr. Feagan was Provost-Marshal from May until October, and there received his commission as Captain.  His command started for Vicksburg, and got within forty miles of Jackson, when Van Dorn, coming up in the rear, cut off their supplies.  Marching to Holly Springs, they obtained what they needed, thence went to Memphis, and down the river to Vicksburg, being present during the entire siege of that stronghold, under the command of Gen. Logan, who was at the head of the division.  After the surrender of Vicksburg, Ransom's Brigade went to Natchez, and captured it with all its supplies.  Returning to Vicksburg, they were placed on guard duty, and later allowed to go home on furlough.  Capt. Feagan was never wounded or taken prisoner, and during his entire service was only thirty days out of the field.  He went on the entire Atlanta campaign, taking part in the capture of that city, and then proceeded to Columbia, Jonesboro, Richmond and Washington, where he took part in the Grand Review.  Mustered out at Louisville, Ky., he received his final discharge July 14, 1865, just prior to which time he had received the commission of Lieutenant Major.

    On the 16th of November, 1861, Capt. Feagan and Josephine B., daughter of Peter W. Thomas, an old settler of this county, were married.  She was born in Jefferson County, N. Y., and has become the mother of three children, Sherman T., who is in the American Express Company's office in Sheboygan; Fabius, an employe in the electric-light office, and Mary E., who resides at home.

    Upon his return from Southern battlefields Capt. Feagan entered the mercantile business in Sheboygan, and was thus successfully engaged for twenty-four years.  He is largely interested in farms and city property.  He is a member of the Grand Army Post of Sheboygan.  In politics, he is a Republican, and, religiously, is a Catholic.