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This site was created to facilitate the exchange of information and to help people with the last name Gavigan, and other names learn more about their history, their roots, who they are related to, about each other, and/or connect

Anyone listed in the Genealogy pages NOT named Gavigan or McGilligan are related to a Gavigan or a McGilligan by a marriage or an adoption It’s a very Small World!

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Distressing Suicide

A Woman Drowns Herself in a Well

Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Johanna Janeck, a German woman some 85 years old, wife of Mr. Gustav Janeck, for more than a dozen years employed in Mr. Darwin Clark’s Cabinet and Furniture establishment, and for some time foreman of the shop, went to visit Mrs. Lang, who lives in the first ward, about a block south of Nolden’s Hall, near the edge of the flat north of the depot.

Tragedy On Lake Monona

There were occasional tragedies. The first year one of the girls in Slightham’s dining hall was scalded by boiling water.

On July 26, 1900, Ellen Jane Rupp “Jennie”, Fannie Dunn, and Nellie Dunn were being rowed back to Madison by Alexius Baas at 11 p.m. when their rowboat was struck by one of the lake steamers, the Tonyawatha, and the four were thrown into t he water. Ellen Jane “Jennie” Rupp drowned. “Lex,” the oarsman, saved both of the Dunn sisters.

He claimed he did not see any lights on the Tonyawatha; crew members insisted the lights had been on.

Thomas Gavigan son of John and Mary (Collentine) Gavigan operated the Gavigan Hotel from 1892- to 1896 at the Corner of Main and Elm in Downtown Blanchardville. Thomas was on the board of Directors for the Blanchardville Driving Association (racing, training horses)

Census Records

Today in History

Mt. Horeb, Wis. –(AP) — Victor R McKay, 38, of Madison, shot and killed Mrs. Ruby Lund Heydon, 25, of Mt. Horeb, and then fatally wounded himself

Mt. Horeb, Wis. –(AP) — Victor R McKay, 38, of Madison, shot and killed Mrs. Ruby Lund Heydon, 25, of Mt. Horeb, and then fatally wounded himself while they sat in a car in a hay-field near here August 17, 1942, a coroner’s jury decided after an inquest yesterday. Testimony indicated the motive was either jealousy or McKay’s concern over the possibility he might be drafted and forced to leave Mrs. Heydon a divorcee.

Edward Roarig, son of Mr. and Mrs. Gus Roarig of Fayette, died April 10th, at Trinity hospital, Milwaukee, where he had been taken for an operation. As was stated in last week’s paper the young man had been working for his uncle, Robert Williams, where he was kicked on the head by a horse. How long he laid in the stall under the animal is not known but he was found by Mrs. Williams in a semi conscious state and taken to the house.

1983: Madison West Goes 18-2 to Win the State Hockey Championship

Dan Gavigan grandson of Thomas Leo Gavigan was a member of this Team

The only State Hockey Championship in School History!

Q: Where did the original Statue of Liberty on Lake Mendota end up?

Answer: The Bill Weege farm near Barneveld Wisconsin

Rev. Edward L. Buckner Dies After Being Shot Near His Home

Rev. Edward L. Buckner, of Zalma, died last Friday morning at the Cape hospital where he had been taken for an operation after being shot by an unknown person near his home Thanksgiving morning.
He was but a short distance from his home when the shots were fired at him with a shot gun.

Past Reunions

Those That served

Upcoming Birthdays

Virginia G DERLETH	22 APR
Patrick Michael MCGILLIGAN	22 APR
Paul HARRISON	22 APR
Ellen Nora FLANAGAN	23 APR
Bridget C DALY	23 APR
George Elmer LUND	23 APR
George Anthony RUPP	23 APR
Mary Irene ROSE	23 APR
Austin John MCDERMOTT	23 APR
Ole Olafsen HOMMERSTAD	24 APR
Elizabeth Ann RUPP	25 APR
Thomas L CROWLEY	25 APR

Upcoming Anniversaries

Michael L YAGER and Susan MEUDT	23 APR
Sam BARLOW and Carol Irene DORAN	23 APR
John Robert MCGILLIGAN and Helen Elizabeth DUNN	24 APR
Gerald Charles DORAN and Sandra Diane RUEM	24 APR
Thomas GAVIGAN and Anna DURKIN	27 APR
Ralph Michael GAVIGAN and Bernadine Deloris SAINSBURY	27 APR
Edward C GAVIGAN and Hanorah MCCUE	28 APR

In Memoriam

Richard Patrick DORAN	22 APR 1949
Mary GAVIGAN	23 APR 1957
Mary Ellen DOWNEY	23 APR 1963
Nora Fay JANECK	24 APR 1917
Thomas Leo GAVIGAN	24 APR 1981
Larry Arthur FELDT	24 APR 2022
Laura Christin LAMBERTON	25 APR 1935
Lillian K. SULLIVAN	25 APR 1949
Thomas CROWLEY	26 APR 1896
Michael F CROWLEY	27 APR 1898
Edward Fletcher MCGINLEY	27 APR 1950
Joseph Francis PURCELL	27 APR 1974
Mary KINNEY	28 APR 1893
Verna E EGAN	29 APR 1973
Roy Albert SPEICH	30 APR 1976