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ONE
OF THE LEADING BUSINESS MEN OF BUTTE
DEMISE
TRAGICALLY SUDDEN
Retired
In Good Health After Attending Theater With One
William Horgan, president of the M. J. Connell company, died at an
early hour yesterday morning, at the family home, Granite and Idaho
streets. His death has caused
universal regret. He retired
on Wednesday night in good health. He
had attended the performance at the Grand, given by local talent, and his
youngest daughter was his companion. He
enjoyed the performance, and before he retired he chatted cheerfully with
his children, not once uttering a complaint of ill health.
A few hours after midnight—it is thought that the hour was about
2 o’clock—Miss Eleanor, the oldest daughter, was awakened by a sound
similar to a moan coming from her father’s room.
She went in and her father complained of a severe pain in his
chest. After a few minutes,
however, the pain left, and the young lady bade her father goodnight and
retired to her room. She went
into her father’s room a few minutes later to satisfy herself that all
was well there, and hearing him breathing naturally, she retired thinking
the trouble was past.
The family had entered the dining room at 7 o’clock—all except
the father, who by the way, was usually the first to arrive in the dining
room. Miss Eleanor went to the
room and the sight that met her gaze was crushing.
Her father lay upon his bed in the attitude of rest, dead.
It had, it is thought, been hours since the reaper had entered to
claim his victim. A physician was summoned, but as life was extinct, all
he could do was to state his opinion as to the probable number of hours
Mr. Horgan had been dead.
Heart failure was assigned the cause of death. In
Good Health for a Year
Mr. Horgan had been in the enjoyment of unusual good health for the
past year, excepting a brief spell of indisposition.
In fact, ever since he came to Butte his health had been good.
His sudden taking off came as a great surprise.
He was 60 years old last November, and was a native of Ireland.
From Ireland Mr. Horgan came to the United States with his parents
when he was 12 years of age, and in Wisconsin he received his education.
He engaged in business in Cincinnati until 1868, excepting those
years he spent in the service of his country on the battlefield.
He served with honor and distinction in the war, and in 1869 he
moved to Memphis, Tenn., where he lived for 30 years, until he came to
Butte in August, 1899. In his
southern home he was at the head of a large mercantile establishment, and
in that city his children were reared.
In the spring of 1899 his wife died there. Drops
Into Western Ideas
It was soon known that Mr. Horgan was not only a competent,
capable, shrewd business man, but that he was rapidly adopting the western
idea of things generally and making himself popular with everybody; he
made friends everywhere he went. It
was soon his pleasure to be intimately identified with the Business
Men’s association, and in this body he was a recognized leader, and in
everything that pertained to the welfare of the community in which he and
his estimable family made their home he was foremost.
Mr. Horgan was regarded by all as a gentleman, a scholar and a
Christian. Of his home life
only words calculated to convey the most endearing impressions may be
said. He loved his family as
only a good, honorable father can, and he was the adored one in the family
circle. His life was clean;
his ways were honorable his acts were at all ties commendable, his
impulses generous and refined; his kindness was a trait most remarked
upon, and his business relations with his employees were most amicable.
His employees regarded him as a good friend, nothing less than
that. Family
That Survives Him
Six children survive him—W. D., Edward, Misses Eleanor, Viola,
Louise and Julia. Mr. Horgan
had attained considerable literary fame in his southern home, where many
magazine articles from his pen received flattering mention.
He had fitted himself for the priesthood, and he also devoted much
time to the study of the histrionic art.
He was a student, a deep thinker, a man of scholarly attainments. The
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