George Washington GAHAGAN

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         Tennessee The Volunteer State Vol 4 (pages 285 - 287)



                            ANDREW J. GAHAGAN


        It would be impossible to characterize Andrew J. Gahagan in a single
        word. To call him a Chattanooga capitalist would indicate that his
        life has been devoted solely to business, but while he has been
        connected with some of the most important commercial, industrial and
        financial enterprises of the city he has also found time for active
        public service. In young manhood he rendered valuable aid to the
        country and the preservation of the Union and in later years he
        worked most efficiently and earnestly to upbuild the interests of
        his adopted city and state as a public official. Into the field of
        philanthropy he has also extended his labors and he has put forth
        earnest efforts in the establishment and wise control of two of the
        leading hospitals of Chattanooga. So varied have been his activities
        and so important his service that no history of the state would be
        complete without extended reference to Andrew J. Gahagan.

        He was born in Madison county, North Carolina, February 23, 1844,
        and is a son of George W. and Mary E. (West) Gahagan. The family
        comes of Irish ancestry in the paternal line. The grandfather,
        Lawrence Gahagan, was born in the Emerald isle and in 1801 crossed
        the Atlantic to South Carolina but passed away in North Carolina the
        following year. He was a farmer by occupation. Leonard West, the
        grandfather of Andrew J. Gahagan in the maternal line, was a
        Scotchman, who spent his days in western North Carolina, where he
        was a prominent farmer. George W. Gahagan, the father, was born in
        South Carolina in 1802 and in North Carolina in 1841 he was married
        to Miss Mary E. West, whose birth occurred in that state in 1820.
        George W. Gahagan devoted his life to farming in North Carolina and
        was an honored and representative citizen of that state. He served
        as commissioner of readjustment and control of elections during the
        reconstruction period and he was a member of the state
        constitutional convention of 1868, aiding in framing the organic law
        under which that commonwealth still operates. He was a very strong
        Union man and by reason of his sympathies with the Federal government was
        arrested during the first part of the war and had to give bond. He
        later went to Kentucky, where he remained through the war period.
        His two sons, Andrew J. and N. B. Gahagan, both joined the Union
        army, being the first to enter the Union service of their county. N.
        B. Gahagan was taken prisoner and was incarcerated at Richmond,
        where he died in 1863. In the family were eleven children, of whom
        four are living: Andrew J.; Richard M., now a farmer of North
        Carolina; William Wade, a lumberman of North Carolina; and Lillie,
        who resides on the old homestead in North Carolina, which has been
        in possession of the family for ninety years. The parents were
        faithful members of the Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Gahagan
        was always a republican in politics. He served for many years as
        justice of the peace and following the restoration of the state to
        the Union after the Civil war he was a member of the general
        assembly of North Carolina and was serving as representative at the
        time of his death, which occurred in 1870. He long proved an
        influential factor in shaping the public policy of his community and
        the commonwealth and left the impress of his individuality and
        ability upon the history of North Carolina. His widow long survived
        him, her death occurring in 1900.

        Andrew J. Gahagan pursued his education in the schools of North
        Carolina and was a student in Bascom College at Leicester, near
        Asheville, when the Civil war broke out. Feeling that the south had
        no right to disrupt the Union, he enlisted on the 20th of January,
        1862, as a member of the First Tennessee Cavalry and served with
        that command until discharged at Nashville, Tennessee, on the 15th
        of April, 1865. He became a first lieutenant of his company and was
        quartermaster of his regiment during the last year of the war. He
        participated in many important battles and various skirmishes,
        taking part in most of the battles of the army of the Cumberland. He
        was at Shelbyville, Hoovers Gap, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Resaca,
        Dallas, Lost Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochie river,
        Franklin, Nashville and others and was also at Jefferson City,
        Dandridge and Fairgarden in eastern Tennessee. His regiment took
        active part in the campaign to Atlanta and thence to Nashville,
        participating in the battles of Nashville and at Franklin. He
        received special mention for his valor at Franklin and was honored
        with the privilege of leading the advance of the transportation
        department from Franklin to Nashville.

        After being mustered out of the army in April, 1865, Andrew J.
        Gahagan returned to the old home in North Carolina, where he
        assisted in planting the crop on his father's farm. When this work
        was finished he informed his parents that a future of working on the
        farm in the backwoods of North Carolina did not offer to him the
        attractions that he believed he could find in other sections of the
        country, and, with their consent, he would go back to Nashville,
        Tennessee, where he was sure he could get a place in the service of
        the government at a fair salary during the demobilizing period of
        the army. His father and mother readily gave their approval to his
        plans. On his return to Nashville he at once was given a clerkship
        in the quartermaster department, which he held for a few months and
        was then transferred to Atlanta, Georgia, in the office of the chief
        commissary of the Department of the South. From there he was
        transferred to the Chattanooga office, where his service continued
        until April, 1867, when he entered into the larger activities of the
        business life of his adopted city.

        After retiring from government service he engaged in general
        merchandising for a period of ten years, starting in a small way but
        building up a business of gratifying proportions. In 1877 he was
        appointed assistant postmaster of Chattanooga and made an excellent
        record in office. Previously he had been called upon for public
        service, having in 1874 been elected to the board of aldermen, to
        which position he was reelected for five consecutive terms. He
        succeeded Thomas J. Carlisle, who died of yellow fever, as mayor of
        the city in 1878 and he was elected a trustee of the county in the
        same year, holding the office for four years. With his retirement
        from public office he was elected assistant cashier of the First
        National Bank, in which important position he served until 1884,
        when he became interested in the Loomis & Hart Company of
        Chattanooga and his identification therewith covered a period of
        thirty-five years. His business force and resourcefulness and his
        executive ability contributed in large measure to the continued
        growth and success of that enterprise and he also became identified
        with various other important business concerns. He is still
        interested in manufacturing in this city and is a member of the A.
        G. Stivers Lumber Company, a stockholder of the Chattanooga Savings
        Bank and is still associated with the Loomis & Hart Company, of
        which he was president for many years. Today he ranks among the
        capitalists of Chattanooga as a direct result of his close
        application and indefatigable energy, for he came to the city
        practically empty-handed.

        His work has been of a most important character in the material
        growth of the city and in the promotion of other interests as well.
        He was one of the trustees of Erlanger Hospital from 1901 until 1914
        and in this was associated with A. W. Gaines, H. S. Chamberlain, E.
        Y. Chapin and others. He took active part in the organization of the
        Pine Breeze Tuberculosis Sanitarium at Chattanooga, which was opened
        in May, 1911, and he has been a member of its board of managers from
        the beginning. Mr. Gahagan has been president of the Chamber of
        Commerce and a director of the Manufacturers Association for many
        years and he was an active member and chairman of the commission
        that built the Walnut street bridge across the Tennessee river at
        Chattanooga. For eighteen years he was connected with the county
        court of Hamilton county, during which time he was chairman of the
        finance committee for seventeen years. He served in the county court
        for business reasons and during his eighteen years' connection
        therewith he never tried a case or married a couple. He has long
        been an enthusiastic supporter of the work of building roads and
        schools and has lent his aid and influence in every possible way to
        the improvement of the public highways and to the advancement of
        educational interests in this section of the state.

        In 1871 Mr. Gahagan was united in marriage to Miss Eliza J. Dugger,
        who was born and reared in Chattanooga and passed away in 1905, her
        death being the occasion of deep and widespread regret to many
        friends, as well as to her immediate family. She was the mother of
        four children, of whom two are living: Mrs. J. L. Rogers of
        Chattanooga, whose husband is a clothing merchant of the city; and
        Jesse D., who is assistant manager of the Tennessee River Navigation
        Company. Mrs. Rogers has two children: Mary and Dorothy. The son,
        Jesse D. Gahagan, married Helen Downing, who is very prominent in
        church activities and women's affairs in this city. In 1907 Mr.
        Gahagan was again married, his second union being with Elizabeth
        Telford, who was born in Toronto, Canada, and became a trained
        nurse. She was for ten years superintendent of Hahnemann Hospital of
        New York city and for three years prior to her marriage was
        superintendent of Erlanger Hospital of Chattanooga.

        Mr. Gahagan belongs to the First Methodist Episcopal church of
        Chattanooga and is a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Mystic
        Shrine. He is a past master of his lodge, past high priest of the
        chapter and past captain general of the commandery and has labored
        earnestly to advance the interests and high purposes of Masonry. He
        is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and he proudly wears
        the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of the Grand
        Army of the Republic. He is a past commander of the local post and
        of the state department as well and he is a member of the Military
        Order of the Loyal Legion of the Commandery of Ohio, of which he was
        junior vice commander for two terms. His political endorsement is
        always given to the republican party and he is untiring in his
        efforts to advance any political or other project that seems to
        promise benefit to city or state. For many years he has been closely
        associated with most everything that has been of vital interest and
        worth to the public welfare of Chattanooga and was ward chairman of
        the committee that conducted the city through its yellow fever
        epidemic, in 1878, in connection with which he helped to save many
        lives. He has participated in many military affairs and has
        delivered many public addresses on patriotic occasions. He is one of
        the best known and best loved citizens of Chattanooga. His labors
        have been so practical in support of the city's best interests and
        the results so tangible that none failed to see the worth of his
        work as a factor in the material, the intellectual, the social,
        political and moral progress of city and state. Captain Gahagan is a
        typical example of the old-time southern chivalry and hospitality.
        He has lived in the same location for more than a half century, in a
        modest well-kept home, surrounded by flowers and evergreens, and is
        never happier than when assisting Mrs. Gahagan in entertaining
        friends or guests in their home.