Joseph Leo Hogan

Joseph Leo Hogan was born in Mansfield, Ohio on February 12, 1892, the fifth of six* children born to Michael J. Hogan, an Irish immigrant, and his wife Sarah, the Ohio-born daughter of Irish immigrants. Joseph's father, Michael, worked as a laborer in a boiler shop - with six young children, one can probably assume that money was tight for the Hogan family at the turn of the century.

At the young age of 7 or 8, Joseph took a job walking dogs for the owner of the Ohio Brass Company, which had its headquarters in Mansfield. By the time Joseph was in his mid-teens, he was working full-time in the offices of Ohio Brass. Within a few years of his eighteenth birthday, sometime between 1910 and 1917, Ohio Brass transferred Joseph to their Northeast regional office in New York City, where he became Chief Clerk. The rest of the Hogan family - Joseph's parents and five siblings - remained in Mansfield, Ohio.

Shortly after his move to New York, Joseph met Catherine Margaret Fagan, the daughter of Irish immigrants, who lived with her family in Westchester County, New York. On October 9, 1917, Joseph and Catherine were married at the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in Scarsdale, New York, in a ceremony officiated by Rev. William C. Rourke. Catherine's older brother, Edward Fagan, served as Joseph's best man, while Catherine's maid of honor was Kathryn Callery, who four years later would become Catherine's sister-in-law when she married Edward.

After his marriage, Joseph brought his widowed father, apparently now blind and in poor health, out from Ohio to live with his new family in Manhattan. On July 28, 1918, Joseph and Catherine welcomed their first child, John E. Hogan. By 1920, Joseph had also been promoted at Ohio Brass, this time from clerk to salesman.

After the birth of his second son, Joseph, in 1921, he and Catherine moved their young family out of the city to the town of Teaneck, New Jersey, where they purchased a home at 583 Wyndham Road. In 1925, the family expanded again, this time with the birth of a daughter, Frances. Two years later, Joseph and Catherine welcomed their fourth and last child, another daughter, Rosemary.

Joseph's career with the Ohio Brass Company continued to flourish, as he eventually rose to sales manager (or some similar title - his exact job title is unknown) for the entire Northeast region. This stable career allowed the family to remain relatively sheltered from the economic woes of the Great Depression. In fact, throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Joseph and Catherine opened their home to a variety of friends and temporary lodgers.

On January 20, 1950, Joseph died in Teaneck, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife, Catherine; his four children, John, Joseph, Frances and Rosemary; and several grandchildren. When he left Ohio, Joseph left behind five siblings: four brothers, Patrick Arthur, George M, Frank J, Harry Thomas, and one sister, Marie. At least one brother, George, preceded Joseph in death, and he was survived by at least one brother, Harry. At this time, I don't know exactly what happened to the remaining three siblings after Joseph left Ohio, but hopefully research will turn up something eventually.


Next steps: Thus far, the majority of my research on the Hogan family has been focused on census and birth/death records. To go into further depth and better trace Joseph's parents and siblings, I would like to start looking at church records. Fortunately, there is only one Catholic church in Mansfield, St. Peter's, founded in 1844. St. Peter's has also had its own cemetery since sometime in the 1860s. Given the fact that our Hogans did not arrive in Mansfield until the 1870s, it is highly probable that they will be found in the records of St. Peter's, and that those who died in Mansfield will be found in the Mansfield Catholic Cemetery.

St. Peter's is part of the Diocese of Toledo, which according to its website has microfilmed all parish records up to and including the year 1930. The diocese maintains a copy of the microfilmed records, as do two libraries in Ohio. Most importantly for my research, the diocese website says that it also provided a copy to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. If this is indeed the case, I should be able to request these records be sent to my local Family History Center (sort of like a little branch of the main library) and have access to them there.

*Quick note on the Hogan children - there is some confusion as to whether the oldest child, Patrick, is actually a biological child of Michael. He is almost certainly not Sarah's biological child. It is possible that he was either adopted or fostered by the family, or that Michael was married before Sarah and Patrick is his son from that marriage. I am hoping that something in church records will shed light on this little mystery.