Michael J. Gallagher was born March 4, 1892 in Casheloogary County Donegal, Ireland.   He had 8 brothers and one sister. They lived on a small farm in Ireland.  He came to New York in 1912 when he was about 20.  In New York he stayed with a cousin, Rose Gallagher Burke, also from Ireland.

While in New York he worked for a streetcar company as a conductor.  The next job we know about was in Cleveland, Ohio for a company that manufactured barbed wire. Then along with several others who had come from Ireland, he decided to go to Montana where there was work in the copper Mine’s in Butte.  And also land available for homesteads in the Flathead Valley.  Farming was the thing they were most interested in and they could work in the mines in the winter for money to use to improve the farmland.  Michael bought some acreage around Charlo and also homesteaded land bordering that which he had bought.  Many Irish family members settled in that valley including a brother Francis A Gallagher.  Rose Gallagher Burke from New York, who by that time was Rose Meehan, and Mary Gilruth and her three children.  Mary’s oldest daughter, Helen Loretta Gilruth became Michael's wife in 1918 and they raised a family of four boys and eight girls in MT.  One of the boys died at birth and the other three boys were all in the army during WWII.  Son Robert was killed in France and is buried there at a Military cemetery there. 

In the early 40’s the family sold the farm and moved to Butte.  Where his first cousin James and Mary Loftus Gallagher were living.  Two of the boys, Rob and Jim worked in the Mountain Con mine where Michael had worked.  Several of the girls attended St Mary's School on North Main Street during that time.  And this is where their 12^th child Sharon was born. 

Near the end of the war they moved to Seattle where they lived until the end of their lives several years later.   All the remaining members of the Gallagher family still live in Washington State.