Letter from Julia [Aide] Egan to her young niece, Mary Pugil

NOTE:  You can click on most of the names in this letter to visually see where individuals fit into the family tree!  🙂

Highland, Wis.

Nov. 16, 1931

Dear Mary Pugil,

I’ll try to answer your request.  Hope it is what you want.

My father Edward Aide, better known as Ned Aide, was born in Kilkenny, Ireland about the year 1808.  His mother and father died when he was eight years old.  He was adopted by an Englishman named Forsal, with whom he stayed until he was twenty years old.  There were two other brothers James and Tom who were also adopted by Englishmen.  He had a sister, Mary, that was Mrs. Nugent of Chicago.  She is dead now.

My father and James Aide came to New York from Ireland, where they worked at odd jobs.  A year later they came westward to the mines of Wisconsin.  Father (Ned) finally came to Highland, then known as Franklin, where he cleared land for farming.  He also mined during the winter months on his farm.  A near neighbor was Walter Kent who came from the same town in Ireland he did.  At Walter Kent’s farm, after about four years of farming, he met Anastasia Kent a sister of Walter’s.  Later they married.  They had six children.  Their names were Pierce, your grandfather, James, Ellen (who died at three years of scarlet fever), Kate, Mary, and Julia (myself).

Father’s brother, James, lived at Mineral Point.  His brother Tom married and moved to England.  He never came to the United States.

Mother had three sisters and two brothers.  Her sisters were Kate, Mary and Ellen.  Mary married a Duggan and never came west of New York.  Kate married twice her first name being Mrs. Whalen and her second Mrs. J. Lynch.  She lived in Madison.  Ellen married Mr. Tom Wall of Highland.

My brother, James, married Mary Ann Ford and they had ten children.  Three of the children are dead now.  The mother and several of the children live in Chicago.

My sister, Mary, married Bill Cody and they had fourteen children.  One of the fourteen is dead but the others are all living.

Sister Kate, married John Egan and she had five children. Two of them Bertha and Howard are in Chicago.  Howard is teaching in Loyola University.

Of course there are three in my family but one child died in infancy, making four in all.

My father was about seventy years old when he died and that’s about fifty-two years ago as I’m seventy now.  Your grandfather was about seventy-five when he died some years ago.  All my brothers and sisters are dead and I’m the only one left.  I was the youngest.  Your grandfather was the oldest, then Mary, James, Kate, myself, and Ellen.  I should have written Ellen before myself.

This was written by Anna Egan, for Mother doesn’t write much, as her eyesight bothers her.

Your Cousin,

Anna Egan

**Note on letter: This letter was generously provided to me by Maureen [Aide] Kraak, Great Granddaughter to Pierce Aide.  The letter was given to her several years ago by Mary Pugil’s sister, Virginia Pugil.