Source: Portrait & Biographical Album of Whiteside County, IL
Originally published 1885 Chapman Bros., Chicago, IL
Transcribed by Brandi McLoughlin

Peter Hagan, general farmer and stock-raiser, section 14, Tampico Township, was born in Elizabethtown, N.J. His parents, Patrick and Catharine (Anthony) Hagan, were natives of Ireland and New York State respectively his mother was of French and German ancestry; his father resided in Ireland until he was about 20 years of age, when he emigrated to America. A few years afterward he was married, in New Jersey, and after the birth of his fifth child he moved to Franklin County, Ohio, settling upon a farm. In 1850 he moved to Greenville Township, Bureau County, Illinois, where Peter, the subject of this sketch, was reared to manhood and completed and completed his education, and where his parents died, his father in 1880, aged 78 years, and his mother in 1883, aged 87 years. They were prominent­­­ and highly respected members of the farming community. In 1864 the subject of this sketch left his parents home and came to Tampico Township, purchasing 80 acres of the section where he now resides, which was the “raw” prairie, and he began at once to improve it and lay the foundations for a comfortable home. Thus he labored for ten years before he was married, boarding at some of the neighbors. Mr. Hagan is successful in agricultural pursuits. In his political principles he is a firm Democrat. He was married in Greenville Township, Bureau County, Illinois, February 4, 1874, to Mrs. Rachel Melvin, daughter of Reverend John and Anna (Carson) Brook. Her father, a Methodist minister, was a native if England, her mother of America and they were married in Pennsylvania. Mrs. Hagan was born in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, October 18, 1843. In 1845 her parents removed to La Salle County Illinois, where her mother died; and, her father being an itinerant preacher, she was reared by strangers. When she attained the age of 17 years and obtained a good education at Wheaton (Illinois) College, she went to New Bedford, Bureau County, where she was for the first time married. She had by her first marriage,viz: Frank, born March 8, 1866; Minnie C., born April 5, 1869. By her present marriage she has three children, namely; William, born November 30, 1874; Catharine, born April 12, 1876; and Emma, born May 12, 1878. Mrs. Hagan is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.