Gone To His Reward
 |
| Mike Brannigan; from the El Paso Herald, July 24, 1899. |
From the El Paso Herald, July 24th,
1899:
GONE TO HIS REWARD
Mike Brannigan, the Hackman, Died
Suddenly Last Night
Was Widely Known
He Numbered His Friends and
Acquaintances Among Millionaires and Could Secure a Pass on Any Road
in the United States.
Colonel Mike Brannigan, the hackman and
one of the best known residents of El Paso, died suddenly this
morning at four o’clock of heart failure at his residence on North
Oregon street.
Mike, as he was familiarly called by
all his friends and acquaintances, was slightly ill yesterday and Dr.
Justice called to see him during the day and left a prescription. The
sick man complained of pains in his left side in the region of his
heart, but the trouble was not considered serious.
Last night he was restless until about
3 o’clock. He talked constantly about the business of the morrow
and was up and down during the night.
“Just about 4 o’clock,” said Mrs.
Brannigan, “I told him he had better leave a sofa in which he was
sleeping and get in bed. A few minutes later I heard him breathe
heavily and went to him. I shook him violently and told him to get
up, but he did not stir and continued to gasp for breath.
“I ran to a neighbor’s and awakened
them and asked them to send for a priest, but before the priest
arrived poor Mike was gone.”
The funeral will take place tomorrow
morning under direction of Emerson and Berrien. It will be held at
the Catholic church, at 8 o’clock, and requiem mass will be said.
Deceased came to this city from
California and had been a resident 13 years. He was born in Ireland
and was 70 years old. In 1846 he landed in New Orleans and during the
gold excitement in California left New Orleans for that state and was
there during the rush of ‘49 and ‘50. Mike was known from San
Francisco to New York and had friends among all the millionaires who
prospected in California in the early days. He and millionaire John W. Mackay were boon companions in 1849 and whenever he passed this
point he and Mike always spent a social hour together talking about
old times.
Mike was intimately acquianted with the
late Senator Hearst and some time ago the widow presented the hackman
with a double harness trimmed with silver on account of the
friendship existing between him and her husband.
It was Brannigan’s boast and pride
that he could get a pass over any railroad in the United States on
account of his influence with millionaire railroad men.
Brannigan leaves a widow, but no
children. He was married 24 years ago in Galveston. His nephews,
Edward and Pat and Jim Sexton will arrive from Chihuahua and John
Sexton from Casas Grandes to attend the funeral.
EVENTFUL LIFE.
“Mike Brannigan was a man with a
heart as big as a house,” said Mr. Berrien this morning, after he
had called at the residence of deceased to look after the body.
“He was known to every man, woman and
child in El Paso, and nobody ever asked him for a favor and was
turned away empty handed. He was lacking in education, probably, but
he had many noble qualities.”
Mike Brannigan led an eventful career
in the early days in California, if reports be true. Prior to the
time he married and settled down his life was full of exciting
incidents.
He was a gold digger in ‘49 and not
meeting with any great amount of success concluded to seek his
fortune in another direction. He owned and operated hacks both in
Sacramento and San Francisco, California, and made money. Mike was of
a turbulent and restless disposition when he was young, however, if
reports be true, and got into some trouble in California, when the
population was unsettled and lawless, and was given notice by the
vigilantes to leave town. He went to New York and the entire press of
the country was in an uproar about it. Mike was interviewed by
reporters of all the leading papers and quickly became widely known.
He threatened to sue the city but nothing ever came of it. He
afterwards came to El Paso and located and during his residence here
has been exceedingly hard working and attentive to his business and
made money while his competitors slept.
He used to tell a good story on himself
about selling a Chihuahua dog to a tourist. He had a little
Newfoundland pup and sold it for a fancy price to a man who wanted to
buy one of the famous Chihuahua dogs. The man took the dog east and
it grew to be the size of a burro.
Months afterward he came to El Paso and
upbraided Mike for deceiving him. Mike said:
“Faith, if you had kept that dog in
Texas it would have been a Chihuahua dog, but I couldn’t guarantee
that it wouldn’t grow any bigger, if you took it east.”
The tourist had to laugh and admit that
the joke was on him.
From the El Paso Herald, July 25th,
1899:
Mike Brannigan’s Funeral.
Mike Brannigan’s funeral occurred at
8 o’clock this morning. It was attended by a large number of
friends of the deceased.
Requiem mass was said at the Catholic
church and the funeral procession afterwards wended its way to the
cemetery.
Brannigan, who had been a hackman in
this city so many years, owned and operated the first hack in San
Francisco at the time when it cost $100 to take a ride in a carriage.
 |
| El Paso's legendary Concordia Cemetery, where Mike Brannigan is buried. (NPR) |
(Next time: The Last Word)
No comments:
Post a Comment