Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Ryan, Thomas F 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 2, 2008, 3:05 am

Author: Past & Present Will County, 1907

Thomas F. Ryan, for forty-five years a resident of Lockport, the monuments of 
his business activity and skill and enterprise being seen in many of the most 
substantial structures here, is a native of Ireland, and in his youth learned 
the carpenter's trade, with which he was familiar at the time of his 
emigration to America, at the age of seventeen years. He arrived in Lockport 
in 1861, and two years later his father came to America, remaining here until 
his death in 1878. Thomas F. Ryan, after living in Lockport for some time 
learned the boat builder's trade, and in connection with his brother John 
built canal boats. In 1890 he entered the field of commercial activity, under 
the firm name of Ryan & Sullivan, as dealer in lumber and coal, at the same 
time conducting an extensive contracting business, building many prominent 
business blocks and residences. Since 1894 Thomas F. Ryan has been alone in 
the same business, which has increased in each department to large and 
profitable proportions and from a humble and almost penniless employe he has 
worked his way steadily upward to a prominent place as a representative of the 
industrial and commercial interests of the city. On the 1st of January, 1872, 
Mr. Ryan was married to Miss Catherine O'Connor, of Chicago. They had seven 
children: Lawrence P., Philip C., Nellie J., Anna L., Thomas F., Marie L., and 
Margaret E., who died at the age of twenty-three years. In 1886 Mr. Ryan with 
a number of prominent Lockport business men organized the Lockport Loan and 
Homestead Association, of which he was vice president until 1902, at which 
time he was selected as its president. He was a member of St. Denis Catholic 
church, and his political allegiance was given to the democracy. He was for 
two or three terms a trustee of the village, was one time chairman of its 
board and also a member of the board of education at the time of his death. He 
came to America with but limited capital and encountered many difficulties and 
obstacles in his path, but a resolute purpose and unfaltering energy enabled 
him to overcome these, while his business interests have increased in scope as 
the years have gone by until he is today remembered as one of the foremost 
representatives of Lockport. Thomas F. Ryan died February 15, 1907, at the age 
of sixty-four years. The business is continued under the name of the Ryan 
Lumber & Coal Company.

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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