Andrew James Cogan Biography


	This biography appears on pages 582-583 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

	This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit 
	organizations for their private use. 

	Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval 
	system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other 
	means requires the written approval of the file's author.

	This file is part of the SDGENWEB Archives. If you arrived here inside
	a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at

	http://usgwarchives.org/sd/sdfiles.htm


				ANDREW JAMES COGAN. 

	Andrew James Cogan, one of Dakota's early journalists but now 
devoting his attention principally to agricultural pursuits, was born 
in Newark, New Jersey, on the 4th of January, 1856, and is a son of 
Michael and Bridget (Cole) Cogan. The birth of the father occurred near 
Saratoga, New York, and he belonged to an old colonial family that 
settled in the northern part of that state when it was still a vast 
wilderness. He died shortly after the birth of our subject, leaving the 
responsibility of rearing the son to his young widow. After spending 
about a year in Wisconsin Mrs. Cogan with her infant son removed to 
Pike county, Missouri, in 1858. There they resided during the stormy 
period of the Civil war, their sympathies being with the northern 
cause. Had our subject been of an age acceptable to the recruiting 
officers he would have entered the service and fought for the 
preservation of the Union. His uncle Barney, then eighteen years old, 
was the eighth volunteer to enlist in a company formed in Pike county 
and he continued in the service throughout the war. Both be and his 
brother Timothy were wounded in one of the last battles and for months 
were in a hospital in Alabama, during which time they were mourned 
among the dead. 

	Owing to the disorganized condition of the schools in Missouri at 
that time Andrew J. Cogan's educational advantages were very limited 
and he was only able to attend school for two years, either in Missouri 
or Dakota. He has, however, acquired a good practical education by 
reading and study and took a course in a commercial college at Madison, 
Wisconsin. It was in 1869 that he came to this state with his mother, 
who joined her brother at Bon Homme. 

	Here Mr. Cogan later established the Bon Homme Democrat, the 
second democratic journal published north and west of Sioux City, Iowa. 
It was only a small four page, three column paper, the make-up being 
seven by nine inches and the first issue bearing date early in August, 
1876. The following year the paper was enlarged to a four page, seven 
column folio and christened the Bon Homme Citizen. On the 28th of 
February, 1880, Mr. Cogan removed his entire plant, including the 
building, presses and equipment, to Scotland, everything being loaded 
on four wagons and hauled to its destination. He left Bon Homme at ten 
o'clock in the morning and reached the outskirts of Scotland at 
nightfall. The next forenoon the building with its contents were set up 
and business was resumed. The following year, however, Mr. Cogan sold 
out to M. H. Day & Company, whose successors still conduct the paper 
under the name of the Citizen-Republican. 

	On retiring from journalism Mr. Cogan returned to the farm near 
Bon Homme, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits until 1910, when 
he filed a homestead tract in Meade county and secured an additional 
quarter section under a "desert claim." This was further increased by a 
half section secured in 1914 under the enlarged homestead law, and he 
now has a fine tract of farming and grazing land, to the improvement 
and cultivation of which he is devoting his energies. However, he still 
owns his farm in Bon Homme county. 

	On the 29th of February, 1876, Mr. Cogan was united in marriage 
to Miss Emma M. Boyle, an adopted daughter of Judge Boyle, and to them 
have been born eight children, six of whom are still living. Beatrice 
is now the wife of Peter McDonald, by whom she has four children, and 
they live in Meade county. Agnes is the wife of Charles F. Sisson, 
making his home near Sioux Falls, and they also have four children. 
Paul, who lives in Meade county, is married and has three children. 
Evaline is the wife of Edward M. Mitchell, of Forestburg, South Dakota, 
and has one child. William B., a resident of Fort Clark, North Dakota, 
married Josephine Brasda and they have one child. May is the wife of 
Everett Jones, of Springfield, and they have two children. Mrs. Cogan 
passed away February 12, 1894, and in 1899 Mr. Cogan married Miss Fanny 
Dostal, who died March 27, 1908, leaving two children, Clara Anna and 
Frances Lillian. 

	Mr. Cogan was reared in the Catholic faith and is a member of the 
Knights of the Maccabees. He has been a lifelong democrat, supporting 
that party through the columns of his paper and by personal influence. 
When he entered journalism democrats were not so plentiful in Dakota as 
they are at the present time. He has seen almost the entire development 
and upbuilding of this state and can relate many interesting incidents 
of pioneer days. He well remembers the severe blizzards of April, 1873, 
and that of October beginning the "winter of the deep snows,' with its 
attending floods of the following spring. He also recalls the severe, 
though short, storm of January 12, 1888, when many human beings as well 
as stock lost their lives. One of his memory pictures is that of Custer 
and his men, who for a fortnight camped near Bon Homme on their way to 
annihilation a few months later in the disastrous battle of Wyoming in 
the spring of 1876. Sitting Bull and other noted Indians were friends 
of Mr. Cogan in the early territorial days. As a young man he was 
employed in building churches on the Yankton reservation at Greenwood, 
Swan Village and Choteau Creek. He is widely and favorably known and 
has a host of friends in South Dakota.