Thomas A. Egan Biography This biography appears on pages 854-855 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 THOMAS A. EGAN. Thomas A. Egan, one of the representative agriculturists and well known citizens of Buffalo township, Minnehaha county, owns and operates a farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 26. His birth occurred near Mason City, Iowa, on the 11th of August, 1874, his parents being Thomas and Mary (Haden) Egan, who were natives of Ireland and emigrated to the United States as young man and young woman. In 1876 they established their home on a timber claim in South Dakota. The country was still comparatively wild and but sparsely settled, and they underwent all the hardships and dangers of the pioneers, experiencing the grasshopper plague and other trials of early times. Both Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Egan are deceased. Thomas A. Egan, who was but an infant of two years when brought by his parents to this state, was reared at home and obtained his education in the common schools. When seventeen years of age he began cultivating rented land in association with his brother John, but the latter was married the following fall and since that time the brothers have carried on their interests independently. Thomas A. Egan was engaged in agricultural pursuits as a renter until 1908, when he purchased his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres from the G. F. Packard estate, this property being the original homestead of Richard Collins, the father-in-law of our subject. The place is well improved and in a high state of cultivation, returning bounteous harvests as a result of the care and labor bestowed upon it. In November, 1897, Mr. Egan was united in marriage to Miss Nell Collins, whose father, Richard Collins, homesteaded in Minnehaha county in 1878, coming to this state from Iowa in that year. He now makes his home with Mr. Egan of this review. Our subject and his wife have three children: Lila Mary, Leroy Alton and John Orville. Mr. Egan is a republican in politics, and both he and his wife are members of the Seventh Day Adventist church. They are well known and highly esteemed throughout the community and enjoy the hospitality of the best homes. Mr. Egan has lived in this state throughout nearly his entire life, or for a period of thirty-nine years, and has been an interested witness of its marvelous growth and development.