[p. 440] is a prosperous farmer residing along the Pennsylvania Railroad in Little Beaver Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and comes of an old and highly esteemed family of this section. He was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, October 5, 1855, and is a son of James M. and Rebecca (Ralston) Hagerty, both natives of Ireland.
James M. Hagerty was one of a family of six children born to his parents, and was the first of these to leave Ireland and take up his residence in America, the rest of them following later. He was a young man of eighteen or twenty years when he came to this country in 1840, and located in Philadelphia, where he learned landscape gardening and was employed to look after the gardens of old Judge Kane, who was a prominent resident of that city. In 1850 he made his first trip to Lawrence County, going by canal to Pittsburg, thence afoot to Enon Valley. He was favorably impressed with this new country, and when he went back to Philadelphia it was with the intention of returning to it at some future time. This he did, accompanied by some of his family, whom he located on the old William Irwin farm, where Robert Hagerty now lives. In 1854 he again returned to Philadelphia, where he was married to Rebecca Ralston, who had come to this country with her parents from Ireland. After the birth of their second child they left Philadelphia for Lawrence County, some time during the year 1856, and they located on the present home farm of J. R. Hagerty. This place had been purchased by his two brothers, George and Robert, from Robert Wylie, and although James M. Hagerty lived on it continuously after taking up his residence here permanently, it was not until 1874 that he purchased the farm. A small log house stood on the place and in this he lived until 1873, when he erected the frame house. He built the barn in 1870. Mr. Hagerty died here May 30, 1895, having survived his wife many years, she dying March 4, 1877. They had four children: Dora, wife of James Burnison; John Robert, George M., who farms in partnership with J. R., was born on the home farm and has spent all his life there, and Ella E., who also was born on this farm and keeps house for her brothers.
J. R. Hagerty was a child in arms when his parents arrived in Lawrence county, and there he grew to maturity, assisting in the work on the farm and attending the district schools. He has always lived on his present farm, except for two years in Michigan, which he spent at farming and a trip through the western states and along the Pacific Ocean in 1898. Upon the death of his father, the four children came into possession of the fifty-five acres which comprise the home place, and is undivided. John R. and George M. Hagerty also own a farm of eighty acres east of the home place, in Little Beaver Township, which was left to them in 1898 by Joseph McClintock, whom they had looked after and cared for during his old age. They engage in general farming and have met with deserved sucess. Religiously, the Hagertys are members of the old Reformed Church.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
Previous Biography | Table of Contents | Next Biography
Explanation/Caution | Lawrence Co. Maps | Lawrence Co. Histories
Updated: 22 Oct 2001