Biography of Michael H. Egan, MD

	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1898. Pages 386-387

	Scan and OCR by Joy Fisher, 1997. This file may be copied for non-profit 
	purposes. All other rights reserved. 


MICHAEL H. EGAN, M. D., is one of the best-known physicians and surgeons 
in Kingsbury county. He has built up a large practice in and about 
Hetland, where he resides, and is one of the coming medical men of that 
section. Dr. Egan was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 15, 1866. 
His father, John H. Egan, was a native of northern Ireland, and was born 
in 1814. He came to this country in 1820, soon after the death of his 
parents, and settled in Corning, New York. He was bound out until his 
twenty-first year, but when twelve or thirteen ran away from his 
employer and became a clerk on a steamboat. He held that position for 
six years, and then took charge of one of the "Diamond Jo Line" 
steamers on the Mississippi river, which he ran for seven years. He 
later owned a number of barges on the upper Mississippi, near 
Minneapolis, and also went into farming and other kinds of business. He 
retired in 1890, and is still living in Minneapolis. Our subject's 
mother, whose maiden name was Julia Molaun, was a native of New York, 
and was married in Corning in 1846. She was of Scotch descent. There 
were nine children in the family, five boys and four girls, all now 
living. Michael, who was the eighth in order of birth, received his 
education in the public schools of Minneapolis, and at St. John's 
university, from which he graduated after a four-year course. From 1884 
to 1886 he attended the Curtiss Business college of Minneapolis, and 
then. deciding to take up medicine, he entered the Minneapolis College 
of Physicians and Surgeons. He pursued his studies there for the next 
four years and was granted a diploma. During the same year he went to 
the hospital at St. Cloud as one of its physicians. He remained there 
until 1891, when he was appointed a division surgeon on the Duluth & 
Winnipeg railroad. In the fall of the same year he located at Little 
Falls, Minnesota. He resided there until July, 1892, and then removed to 
Hetland, South Dakota, where he has been in continuous practice since. 
Dr. Egan opened a drug store in Hetland during the same year that he 
arrived there, and conducted it very successfully until 1896, when he 
traded the stock for a farm. He still owns the building, however, and in 
addition a number of others, which he has erected in the past few years. 
Dr. Egan is a Populist in politics, and has prominently identified 
himself with the party. He was coroner of Kingsbury county four years, 
and in the fall of 1892 was nominated for the office of state senator, 
and would have taken his seat in 1893, but he declined the honor and 
refused to allow his name to be used: in that connection. The Doctor is 
a member of the A. O. U. W. - Hetland lodge and Garfield lodge No. 28 - 
and is the local examining physician for the order. He is also a Master 
Mason and a member of Arlington lodge, R. A. M. In regard to religion he 
entertains very broad and liberal views.

	Dr. Egan married Miss Matie West in September, 1895,, in Hetland. 
Mrs. Egan is a daughter of Isaac West, who was proprietor of the hotel 
located at Hetland. He died in 1893. Dr. and Mrs. Egan are the parents 
of one son, Edwin Merel.