Frederick J. Ratigan
Frederick J. Ratigan was born about 1857 in the First Ward of Oswego, New York, the son of Luke Ratigan, an Irish-born ship carpenter turned meat dealer, and Catharine Maguire, and lived in the ward all his life. After leaving school he worked for his father in the meat business, and then for a number of years for his uncle, Thomas Kehoe. In the early 1900s he was harbormaster of Oswego, a city office that paid $250 a year, and held it for two years until January 1906, when the ship broker Charles Buel succeeded him.
When his father died in April 1892, Frederick was one of the six bearers at the funeral from St. Mary's Church, with his brothers Edward and William and three cousins. He had married Julia Henrick about 1885, and they had two sons, William J., born about 1886, and Luke, born about 1888, and a daughter, Mary Agnes, born about 1891. In the census of 1900 Julia and the three children were living in the First Ward without him, though she was listed as married. He was living with his widowed mother, Catherine, in the same enumeration district, and was still with her in 1905. In the spring of 1911 he had been in poor health for some time and was living at his mother's house at 52 West Eighth Street. On Friday night, 7 April, he went to bed at the usual time and was heard moving about his room early on Saturday. Near noon his mother, an invalid, sent his brother Luke to call him, and Luke found him lying unconscious on the bathroom floor. A doctor was summoned, but he never woke, and he died that evening, 8 April 1911, aged about fifty-three, nineteen years to the day after his father. The funeral was held from the house on 11 April.
The Oswego Palladium wrote: "Few men in the city were better known or had more friends than Fred Ratigan." It described "a sunny, cheerful temperament" and "pleasing address," and said he "made friends early and rapidly and held them." His widow Julia was living at 97 West Seneca Street in 1915, when their daughter Mary married William Joseph Mack. Mary's son, born in 1918, was given his grandfather's name as his middle name: William Frederick Mack.
He was buried in the family lot in Saint Paul's Cemetery, where his name heads the face of the monument: "Fred J. Ratigan, 1858-1911." His brother Luke, who found him that morning, was buried in the same lot in 1948. His older brother Willie had died in 1862 at about six and is named on their parents' stone nearby.
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Cite: Heirology, "Frederick J. Ratigan (1857-1911)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/frederick-j-ratigan-1857-1911-142f4b.