BIO:  John Irrgang, York County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Kathy Francis

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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History of York County, Pennsylvania.  John Gibson, Historical Editor.
Chicago: F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1886.
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Part II, Biographical Sketches, Warrington Township, Pg 196

JOHN IRRGANG was born in Philadelphia, December 25, 1841, to Benjamin and Julia (Doll) Irrgang, 
natives of Germany.  Benjamin Irrgang began learning cabinet-making in Germany, and finished 
his trade in France.  On coming to America he landed in Baltimore, whence he walked to 
Philadelphia, where, for a number of years, he followed his trade, and then opened a fancy 
goods store, which he conducted to within ten years of his death in 1881, at the age of eighty-
two.  The mother still lives in Philadelphia at the age of eighty.  John Irrgang, our subject, 
at the age of sixteen, came to Wellsville, this county, and worked in a whip factory until the 
opening of the late war, when he enlisted in Company H, Seventh Pennsylvania Reserves, under 
Gen. Meade, and took part in the engagements at Gainesville, Mechanicsville and Ganes Hill, in 
the last of which he was wounded and captured, and imprisoned in Libby prison and at Belle 
Island for three months; on his release he was place in parole camp at Annapolis, whence he was 
taken to Alexandria, Va., where he received his discharge, December 26, 1862.  Returning to 
Philadelphia he learned the hatter’s trade, which he followed until the invasion of this State 
by the Confederates, when he enlisted in the militia, from which he was discharged July 13, 
1863, when he resumed his trade.  In May, 1865, he settled in Wellsville, acting as postmaster, 
and was engaged in mercantile business four and a half years.  In May, 1875, he married Miss 
Emma, a daughter of Thomas Medcalf, and a native of Maryland.  To this union have been born 
four children:  William F., Blanche, Julia and Lewis E.