Tehama County Biographies

Martin Corrigan

Transcribed by Pat Houser

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
Martin Corrigan came to California in 1852, and for two years was a miner on 
Trinity River.  In 1954 he came to Tehama County, and has grown up with the city 
of Red Bluff.  It was an embryo town when he began his business career in it, 
and he has seen its wonderful growth and development, and has not been an idle 
looker-on, but an active worker and builder of the place.
 
Mr. Corrigan was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, November 21, 1826.  His 
parents, Thomas and Ann (Condor) Corrigan, were natives of the same county.  His 
father was a blacksmith, and also carried on farming in a limited way.  Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Corrigan were devout Catholics.  They were the parents of ten children, 
of whom the subject of this sketch was the sixth.  He received a limited 
education, and learned the blacksmith trade in his father�s shop.  In 1846, at 
the age of twenty years, he left home and friends, and sailed for America to 
make his fortune in the �land of the free and the home of the brave.�  He 
settled in Chicago when that city was in its infancy.  It was a muddy little 
town, with a pole stuck up in the middle of the street, with a sign on it which 
read �No Bottom.�  After working at his trade there for six years, he crossed 
the plains, in 1852, and spent two years at mining, meeting with indifferent 
success.  He then opened his blacksmith shop in Red Bluff, at the corner of Main 
and Pine streets, where his fine block now stands.  He carried on the blacksmith 
business for sixteen years, until 1870, when his shop burned.  The ground on 
which it stood had become too valuable to be used for that purpose, so he 
erected some storerooms on it, and rented them.  In 1882 they also were 
destroyed by fire.  He then put up his present handsome block of buildings. He 
has four storerooms in a row, occupied by first-class business firms.  He is now 
erecting another building on Main Street, 40x70 feet and two stories high.  The 
lower story is to be occupied by a merchant tailor and a restaurant, and the 
upper rooms are for a lodging house.  Mr. Corrigan owns a ranch of 1,315 acres, 
which also he rents.  It is used principally as a stock farm.  He owns a 
beautiful residence of High Street, only a short distance from the business 
center of the city.
 
Mr. Corrigan was married, in 1870, to Miss Catherine Sweeney, a native of Fall 
River, Massachusetts.  Their union has been blessed with five beautiful 
daughters, all born in Red Bluff.  All are at this writing residing with their 
parents.  Mrs. Corrigan and her daughters are members of the Catholic Church.
 
At the time of the great fire in Chicago, Mr. Corrigan returned to that stricken 
city to visit and, if possible, aid his friends.  He has since made two trips to 
Chicago, and on one of these visits his wife accompanied him.  Mr. Corrigan is a 
good citizen, who attends strictly to his own business, and thinks for himself.  
He is generous and liberal in all his views. Politically he is a Democrat.  He 
believes that one man is just as good as any other man as long as he is well 
behaved.  He is quiet and unassuming in his manner, and never seeks notoriety in 
any way.
 
Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California, Lewis Publishing Co., 
1891, Page 745