Biography - William H. Ragan
WILLIAM H. RAGAN, although among the younger members of the bar, has an
excellent reputation as a criminal lawyer. He was born in Fairfield County,
Ohio, September 30, 1830, the son of James W. and Ellen (Springer) Ragan.
His paternal ancestors were of Irish extraction his great-grandfather being
born on the Emerald Isle. The maternal ancestors were of German and Swedish
blood but came to this country in the early Colonial days and one of his
great-grandfathers served as a soldier all through the Revolutionary War.
Fairfield County, was the native home of his parents and there they were
married and reared their family, but removed to Illinois in 1867, and
located first in Clark County, next in Effingham County, whence they came to
Shelby County. The mother, who still survives, is a widow, her husband
having died in 1886 at the age of sixty years.
.lames W. Ragan, the worthy father of our subject, was a soldier in the
Union army during the Civil War, being a member of Company C, One Hundred
and Fourteenth Ohio Infantry. After the battle of Haines Bluff he was
detailed as nurse on a hospital boat which bore the name of the "City of
Memphis" and went up the Mississippi River to Paducah, Ky., at which place
he was injured by a fall, while unloading the dead bodies of the brave boys
who had fallen in conflict. In consequence of this accident he was placed in
the hospital at St. Louis, from which he was in due time discharged, but he
never entirely recovered from the injury, and his sufferings from it
hastened his death.
There were eight children in the family of the parents of our subject,
namely: Laura A., now Mrs. John J. Gallagher; William H. our subject; Silas
A.; Eber A., George W., James F. and Joseph A. (who was drowned at the age
of five years, in a small creek near their home in Fayette County, Ohio) and
Addison A.
The early life of William Ragan was passed upon the home farm and at the age
of fourteen he hired out as a farm hand at $5 a month, anil served in this
capacity until he reached the age of eighteen years. He then saw the need of
an education and so for a number of years we find him attending school and
teaching and he finally became a teacher in the High School at Shelbyville.
He studied law in the office of Hamlin & Holloway and in 1884 was admitted
to the bar. After practicing for one year he entered the Union College at
Chicago, which college is the law department of the Northwestern University
at Evanston. Since taking his diploma in 1886 he has given his entire
attention to his profession at Shelbyville. He has a general practice but
gives particular attention to criminal practice.
The domestic life of Mr. Ragan is a very happy one, as he was married July
1, 1877, to Mary C. Gallagher, daughter of Jacob and Sarah Gallagher, who
was born in Shelby County, where her parents are among the pioneers. They
have had three children gather about their fireside, the eldest, Jennie,
dying in infancy, but Elza M. and Maude A., remain to be the joy and comfort
of their parents. He is deeply interested in political movements and
espoused the cause of the Republican party until 1888 at which time he
supported the Democratic ticket, stumping the State and making brilliant and
effective speeches in sixty different places. He has never sought office and
prefers to give his attention to private practice. He is identified with the
Masonic fraternity and has been an earnest and consistent member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church since he was fourteen years of age.
Extracted 29 May 2017 by Norma Hass from 1891 Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties Illinois, pages 281-282.
