The Georgia Families 
Egan, Bouhan, Dulohery, Ledlie
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Nineteenth century Savannah was an important commercial center, shipping loads of cotton to England for processing.  Even after the Civil War, the port continued its shipping, mostly to Liverpool, England.   The return voyages were used to transport immigrants, both from Ireland and England.  There was a small but robust Catholic community in Savannah, as well as in Augusta, and later Atlanta.  The Marist Fathers came to Georgia to service this community.  In the early 20th century, the Fathers attracted the Marist Brothers, who taught in the elementary schools until about 1940, when the Brothers concentrated on secondary education.  They moved to Boys Catholic High School in Augusta.

The  family for whom we have certain records seems to have come to Georgia in the 1880s.  Before that, however, the names appear in earlier censuses, but it is uncertain if we can make any definite connection to the groups we know.

 The 1850 census for St. Michael & St. Philip, Charleston, South Carolina lists John Egan, age 25 and his wife Edna, age 24.  John was born in Ireland, Edna in South Carolina.

The 1860 census for Charleston, South Carolina lists Charles Ledlie, age 25, a printer born in Ireland.

The 1860 census for Savannah lists Catherine Egan from Mayo, Ireland as an 18 year old servant for the James O'Byrne family also from Mayo, for which the father is listed as a clerk in a grocery story.  The same census page lists Patrick Hanley from Mayo, and several others from Roscommon and Galway.

Daniel Egan, age 40, and his wife, Mary age 38, also appear in the 1860 census for Savannah.  Living with the Egans are Michael and Harry Sullivan, age 15 and 14 respectively, both from County Kerry.

The 1870 Savannah census lists Charles and Catherine Ledlie. He is a 33 year old merchant born in New York, she a 22 year old born in Georgia.  The family includes a store clerk born in Holland, and two house servants born in Georgia.  Separately, there appear Rachel and Mary Ledlie,  Rachel a  51 year old keeper of the house and Mary a 33 year old seamstress, both born in Ireland.  Rachel is defined as single, but not as a widow.

Patrick Egan appears in the 1870 census as the light house keeper, age 47, born in Ireland, then living in Fort Pulaski & Cockspur Island region of Savannah..  His wife Anne, age 37 keeps house; she too is born in Ireland.  Their two oldest children, John age 15 and Thomas, age 12 are described as boatmen, and Mike, age 11, Maria age 9, and James age 1, have no trade described.  All of the children were born in Georgia.  This indicates that Patrick Egan arrived in Georgia at least as early as 1855, and perhaps sooner.  Perhaps Patrick is the older brother of Mary Egan (1828-1896) who married John Foy (1826-1890) in 1923 and lived in lower Garryedmond.

I could find no Bouhan in the 1870 Savannah census, but there is a John Bohan, born in Ireland, age 21, in the US Army stationed at the United States Barracks.

           Sister Mary Teresa Egan is the youngest daughter of Michael Egan, and her testimony is as good a starting place as any.  Her father was the son of John Egan and Catherine Doble.  The couple had two children, Mary and Michael.  John remarried a woman named Merrick, and several children were born of this union.  Sister knew James Egan, who married Kate Cooley of Savannah GA.  Most of the information which follows is either from Sister or from Joseph Ledlie, of Atlanta.

Mary Egan married William Bouhan and the couple lived in Savannah.  They had two children.  John Bouhan (1886 - 1971) became a prominent lawyer in Savannah.  Not much is known about the second child, William (1885  -  ), except that he married  Jane Berry of the Kansas Berrys.  They had a child, Leonard Peter Bouhan who died in November 1917 age 5 month and is buried in Vine Creek Kansas cemetery.  (Click here to see next generations of Bouhan family.)

Michael Egan went from Ireland to Liverpool, England, and on March 12, 1880 landed in New York.  He went to Savannah, possibly because his sister Mary was there.   A cousin, possibly a Foy or a Berry, wrote to Michael in due time and invited him to go to Kansas because he had a girl he wanted Michael to meet.   After two weeks Michael Egan and Mary Berry were engaged.  They were married 28 June 1889 in Vine Creek KS.  It is likely that Michael and Mary knew each other before each of them came to America.  Mary was the eldest of ten children of Martin Berry and Bridget Foy, who came to Kansas in 1884.  Michael and Mary Egan had nine children.  More about these in the next section.  (Click here for next generations of Egan family.)

Cornelius Dulohery, age 41,appears in the 1920 census for Savannah GA as the head of a household which includes Margaret Berry, his 41 year old wife, and children Margaret, Josephine, Gertrude, Lucille and Cornelius.  Cornelius was a grocer,  born in Kansas, his father from Ireland, his mother from New York.  The ages give do not jibe with the ages I received elsewhere (Cornelius b 1874, and Margaret born 1875).  Margaret Berry was the daughter of Martin Berry and Bridget Foy, who had emigrated to Kansas.  This is another example of the close contacts kept early on between the Georgians and the Kansans.     Cornelius and Margaret Dulohery had five children: Margaret, Josephine, Gertrude, Lucille and Cornelius.  More about these in the following section. (Click here to view next generations of Dulohery family.)

Charles Ledlie (1841  -  )   deserves mention in this generation because his grandson, Sam Ledlie, married Gertrude Dulohery.  Charles and his wife Kate (1844  -  ) list five children:  Charles (c1870  -  ), Katie (c1872  -  ), Sam (c1875  -  ), Mary  (c1877  -  ), Edward (c1879  -  ); and a servant Louisa Evans (c 1859  -  ).  All the children were born in Georgia; Louisa was born in Ireland.

By the 1930 census, Charles' son, Samuel F  is listed  as a telegraph operator married to Rosa, born in Georgia circa 1873 of a New York father  and Irish mother.  The oldest son, Laurence (c 1900  -  ) is listed as single and is listed as a sampler for a fertilizer plant.  The youngest son, Samuel (c 1905  -  ) is listed as a railroad clerk. (click here to view next generations of Ledlie family.)

The Bouhan descendants

Sister Theresa notes: "Mary Egan emigrated to Savannah and her husband was William Bouhan.  This is probably why my father came to Savannah.  Mary Egan and William Bouhan had two children:  William Bouhan and John Bouhan, a prominent lawyer in Savannah."

William Bouhan had married Jane Berry of Kansas.  Their child, Leonard Bouhan, is buried in Vine Creek, KS,  having lived only from June to November 1917.  We know little about either William or Jane.

Joseph Ledlie writes:  "We are connected to this family by the marriage of my mother's aunt Jennie (Jane) to Tom Bouhan.  Jennie was a tough nurse, most unlovable;   the marriage ended early.  Tom's brother Johnny was the political boss of Savannah for 40 years, never serving in any capacity but city or county attorney.  His escapades were a subject of one of Ralph Nader's books The Water Lords, published in the  1960's.  He was the subject of a novel by my friend Bill Harris, a Savannah chiropodist, entitled Delerium of the Brave."  John also receives prominent attention in the book by Timothy Daiss: Rebels, Saints & Sinners; Savannah's Rich History and Colorful Personalities, and two stories about the Bouhans in John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil are listed below.

The following is by Bret Bell  Savannah Morning News
  breton.bell@savannahnow.com  912-652-0456
Posted to the Internet  March 15, 2004

Early Irish immigrants who arrived at the beginning of the 19th century were mostly Protestants – they were educated, and quickly established themselves as business and political leaders – Michael Dillon, for instance, served six terms as city alderman during the 1840s.

The Irish immigrants who followed later in the century faced a different lot – they were mostly poorer Catholics escaping the potato famine. At the time, Catholics in Ireland were not allowed to attend school, and many were poorly educated and discriminated against when they arrived. They were shunned from established society.

In Savannah, they settled in Irish ghettos like the Old Fort section on the eastern end of Bay Street and Yamacraw to the west. Already a tight group, their grouping, common plight and shared religion led to high organization. The Irish-Catholics voted like no other block in the city, and they quickly saw the ballot box as the tool to re-invent themselves.

"Politics was the only way they could build themselves up," said Judge Frank Downing, an Irishman who spent a career in politics. "It was their way to ensure that their children got an education."

And they found that they were very good at it, perhaps a product of another natural talent.   "Irishmen are schmoozers – they love to stand around and talk and drink whiskey," said Williams Harris Jr., a local podiatrist and member of the Hibernian Society. "And a lot of politics is schmoozing."

Harris' father was one of them. He was county sheriff from 1948-1960, and the right-hand man of John Bouhan – perhaps the most powerful political boss in the history of Savannah politics.

For decades, Bouhan's control of local politics was absolute – as county attorney he created political teams, and hand-picked Irishmen to work as policemen and firemen and jailers. Few won political office without Bouhan's blessing.

"You had Richard Daley in Chicago, Tom Pendergast in Kansas City and Johnny Bouhan here," said Rex Templeton Jr., chairman of the Chatham County Democratic Party.

During the height of his power, he was known simply as Boss Bouhan. Though the Irish-Catholic was never elected to public office, he controlled local politics like no politician every has in Savannah. A talented attorney with a charming demeanor, he quickly rose up through the ranks of the law firm Barrow and Osborne, which eventually became Bouhan, Williams and Levy, now located in the Armstrong House. Bouhan ran the most powerful political machine in Savannah, an influence that only heightened when he was appointed county attorney. He hand-picked political candidates in both local and statewide races, and appointed men to key positions to do his bidding. "Not since occupation had the city witnessed such subjugation," Mayor MacLean said of Bouhan in the book, "Rebels, Saints and Sinners." His power began to wane in the 1950s, as Savannah became more diverse, and the machine had essentially broken down by 1960, when he was replaced as county attorney by John Sognier.

John Berendt, in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994) relates two little stories about Bouhan.  The narrator notices a very old and very dignified black man walking along Bull Street every morning around seven o'clock.  The narrator finds out his name is William Simon Glover.

"Every day at the same time, the old man walked through the ... north end of Forsyth Park.  He turned left and proceeded up Bull Street all the way to City Hall and back.  he was very much a gentleman.  he tipped his hat and bowed in greeting.  But I noticed that he and the people he spoke with — usually well dressed businessmen — played a very odd game.  The men would ask him. 'Still walking the dog?'  It was perfectly clear that the old man was not walking the dog, but he would respond by saying, 'Oh, yes.  Still walking the dog.'  Then he would look over his shoulder and say to the air behind him, 'Come on Patrick!'  And off he would go.

In later conversations with William Glover, the narrator listens:

"I'm eighty-six yers old.  I'm retired, but I don't stay still.  I work as a porter for the law firm of Bouhan, Williams and Levy.  ...  Another thing I learned: Don't ever ask a man, 'How is Mrs. Brown?' You ask him, 'How is Miss Julia? Tell her I ask about her.'  I never did ask Mr. Bouhan about Mrs. Bouhan. I ask him, 'How is Miss Helen? Tell Miss Helen I ask about her.' He liked it and she liked it. Mr. Bouhan gave me his old clothes and shoes. Miss Helen gave me records from her collection, all kinds of records. I got records I don't even know I got.  I even got records of that great opera singer. . . Henry Coca-ruso! ....

 "Glover!" came a booming voice from behind us. A tall white-haired man in a gray suit approached. "Still walking the dog?" "Why, yes, sir, yes I am." Mr. Glover did his little bow and tipped his hat and gestured to the invisible dog behind him. "I'm still walking Patrick." "Glad to hear it, Glover. Keep it up! Take care now."  With that, the man walked away.

 "How long have you been walking Patrick?" I asked.   Mr. Glover straightened up. "Oh, for a long time. Patrick was Mr. Bouhan's dog. Mr. Bouhan used to give him Chivas Regal scotch liquor to drink. I walked the dog, and I was the dog's bartender too. Mr. Bouhan said that after he died I was to be paid ten dollars a week to take care of Patrick. He put that in his will. I had to walk him and buy his scotch liquor. When Patrick died, I went to see Judge Lawrence. The judge was Mr. Bouhan's executor. I said, 'Judge, you can stop paying me the ten dollars now, because Patrick is dead.' And Judge Lawrence said, 'What do you mean Patrick is dead? How could he be? I see him right there! Right there on the carpet.' I looked behind me, and I didn't see no dog.

But then I thought a minute and I said, 'Oh! I think I see him too, Judge!' And the judge said, 'Good. So you just keep walking him and we'll keep paying you.' The dog is dead twenty years now, but I still walk him. I walk up and down Bull Street and look over my shoulder and say, 'Come on, Patrick!' "

N.B.  In April 2004, the law firm of Bouhan, Williams and Levy still operated its business from  447 Bull Street, Savannah GA  31401
 

The Egan descendants

Three children are missing from this list.  Martin Egan is listed in the census for St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore as a 23 year old seminarian.  Patrick Egan died in 1899 soon after his birth.  Mary Ann Cecile Egan had entered the Ursuline Sisters and was probably in Ontario, Canada during the census.  Marguerite Egan, born in 1900,  died in 1912.

I was unable to match census records for any other of the children in 1930, the last year for which census figures are available.

Children of Michael Egan (1855 - 1931)  and Mary Berry (1867 - 1912)  :

Michael Egan (1891 - 1966) did his secondary education at the Marist College in County Louth, Ireland.   He then attended University of Maryland and the Medical School, where he achieved the highest grades on record.  He married Elise Robidere (1894 - 1981) and practiced as a surgeon in Savannah.  The couple had three children: Joan, Michael, and William Robi, (see below for next generation).

Although John Egan (1893 - 1928) is listed as a government clerk in the 1920 census, his family remembers him as an insurance agent.  He was married to Edith Sack.

Martin Egan (1895 - 1973) also studied at Marist College in County Louth, Ireland.  He studied for the priesthood at St. Mary's Seminary in Baltimore, where he was ordained by Cardinal Gibbons.  He did further studies in Rome, and worked most of his life in the Diocese of Charleston, West Virginia, where he was as a powerful pastor and a social reformer in the mining industry.  He was a charming fellow. (see his obituary by clicking here.)

James Egan (1897 - 1936) also studied at Marist College in County Louth, Ireland.  He then studied for dentistry in either Maryland or District of Columbia, where he met his wife Helen Cunningham, born in Pennsylvania.  He set up his practice in Savannah.

It is not known why Michael Egan sent his sons to Ireland for their education.  It may have been that the parents lived in a parish conducted by the Marist Fathers, who were active in Georgia, both in Savannah and in Atlanta.  (The Marist Fathers are separate from the Marist Brothers associated with Richard Foy and Marist College in Poughkeepsie NY, but they were established in France about 1817; Saint Champagnat, founder of the Marist Brothers, was a member of the Marist Fathers.)  Mary Egan Sweeney thinks that Michael wanted his sons to remember their Irish heritage.

Patrick Egan (1899  -  1899)  died shortly after birth.  Marguerite Egan (1902 - 1912) died in her early years.

The remaining three daughters all entered the Ursuline Sisters based in Chatham, Ontario, Canada.  The three sisters concentrated on teaching music.  Joseph Ledlie describes them as the "sweetest nuns you would ever want to meet.  Very close to their nephew Michael and to all our family."

Mary Ann Cecile Egan (1900  -   1985)  became Sister Mary Marguerite, with Ursulines in Canada. 

Theresa Agnes Egan (1904 - 1977 became Sister Saint Margaret with the Ursulines in Canada.

 Catherine Marquerite Egan (1907  -  )  became Sister Mary Theresa with the Ursulines in Canada.  She has been most helpful to furnish information about the Egan family.
 

Next Generation of Egans:
 

  The Dulohery descendants

Margaret Berry, wife, was the daughter of Martin Berry and Bridget Foy.  She had moved to Kansas with her parents in 1886.  Cornelius' father was born in Ireland, his mother in New York.

"Margaret Dulohery Johnson (Mrs. William R.) of Savannah (1905 - 1996) , a beautiful, generous and fashionable lady whose life of good works offset the notoriety of her husband William Reilly (Bubba) Johnson,  (1909 - 1973), a dashingly handsome man with a roguish reputation who became the kingpin of the thriving gambling industry in Savannah and coastal Georgia .  Margaret often inspired her husband to good works, including the construction of a beachside convent on Tybee Island for the Sisters of Mercy on property the couple owned and also the expansion of Blessed Sacrament School in Savannah.  She served as regional head of the National Conference of Catholic Women and as such was received by Pope Pius XII in a rare semi-private audience with her peers in the early 1950s." — Joseph Ledlie

"Josephine Dulohery (1906 - 1989)  became Sister Mary Immaculata, Mother General of the Sisters of Mercy in North Carolina and Guam,  educator and musician  (degrees from Juilliard and Carnegie Mellon).  Infirm much of her life but unflagging in her devotion to her students, one of whom was my 85-year-old neighbor Frances Tankersley in 1943 (the year I was born), and another is a friend of mine in Atlanta, a lawyer named Kevin Grady.  How's that for close degrees of separation?"  — Joseph Ledlie  (click here for Immaculata Obituary)

"My mother, Gertrude Dulohery, (Salina KS1908 - Richmond Va1993).  Married Samuel Ford Ledlie Jr.  children: myself b. 1943 Savannah (a boring biography appears on the family firm's website theledliegroup.com); Eugene Ford, b. 1945 Savannah, resident of Richmond VA, and father of three; Leonard Gerard (Roddy) b. 1947, resident of Savannah, single; and Margaret Mary (Mag) b. 1948, resident of Savannah, divorced."  — Joseph Ledlie

"Lucille Genevieve Dulohery (1909 - 2000) became Sister Mary Cornile, a Sister of Mercy who built hospitals in Atlanta (St. Joseph's Infirmary) and Savannah (St. Joseph's Hospital) and headed a leprosarium in Trinidad during the 1950's.  She was a particular favorite of business leaders in cities where she served, but her patients were her lifelong concern."  — Joseph Ledlie     (click here for S Cornile obituary) (click here for interesting story of Sister Cornile and the author Margaret Mitchell) .

"Cornelius Jerome, the youngest of the family and a widely read man of stern principle and inquiring mind.  After boarding school at Belmont Abbey, NC, he  chose to be a plumber, the trade followed by his father-in-law, the famously energetic and good-hearted William Lang, who with his sweet wife kept a house in Savannah and later in life a cottage on Tybee Island overlooking the town park.  Mr. and Mrs. Lang had several children: Mae, Cornelius' wife; Bill Jr., a businessman in New Jersey, and Sister Mary Edward of the Congregation of Saint Joseph, who was simply "Aunt Nippy" to her nieces and nephews.  Cornelius Jerome became a quiet crusader against the slums in which virtually every black Savannahian lived when I was a child (his sister, my mother Gertrude, helped start the first venereal disease clinic for blacks in Savannah).  He married Mae Claire Lang. and they had four nice children; Jerry, a successful engineering firm owner in Savannah;  Claire Dulohery Frew, a manager in the chancery of the Diocese of Savannah,  Lucy Behr, a retired nurse; and Josephine, a medical technician."  — Joseph Ledlie

   The Ledlie descendants
 

"Samuel Ford Ledlie Jr (1905 - 1990) had a sister Sarah who married J. Lewis Asbell, a Southern Bell executive in Atlanta.  Sam's brother Lawrence suffered scarlet fever as a child and was mentally an physically affected by it, and was an invalid all his life.

"Sam's mother was Rosa Kelly, daughter (In a large family) of Patrick Kelly, a native Irishman who was a private soldier in the Confederate Army who founded in Savannah a ship chandler's firm called Smith and Kelly.  Smith was the Protestant money man from New Jersey;  Great-Grandfather was the Catholic with connections.  it was the oldest ship chandlery in Savannah, surviving from its founding in the 1870's (I believe) until the 1960's when it was acquired by a California company.  My great-grandfather's obituary is posted on the website fo the Diocese of Savannah, for reasons I don't understand.

"Rosa was married to Samuel Ford Ledlie, a telegraph operator." — Joseph Ledlie

References:

Information communicated orally by Mary Foy Mullin to Joseph Foy before she died in 1956
Sister Mary Teresa Egan, OSU, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Sister Ruth Marie Curry, OSU, Ursuline archivist, Chatham, Ontario, Canada
Margaret Riley and Marilyn Wasylk of Kansas
cemetery records of Vine Creek KS Catholic cemetery
Archives of Sisters of Mercy of Belmont, North Carolina, Sister M Andrew Ray, archivist
Social Security Death Index
census records for 1930, 1920, 1880, 1870, 1860
communications from Joseph Ledlie, Atlanta GA  March 2004 & November 2004
information from Tom Sweeney of Maryland, grandson of James Egan  rec'd Sept 2004

most recent revision:    29 November  2004

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