John Edward Reagan (July 13, 1883 – May 18, 1941) was an American salesman. He was the father of

U.S. president The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...

Ancestry

Jack's paternal grandfather, Michael O'Regan, son of Thomas O'Regan and wife Margaret Murphy, was a native of the village of Ballyporeen,

County Tipperary County Tipperary () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary (tow ...

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, where he was baptized in 1829. O'Regan worked as a tenant farmer during his early years in

, before he moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

not later than 1851. While living there, O'Regan married an Irish refugee named Catherine Mulcahey, daughter of Patrick Mulcahey and wife, and

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

his family surname to "Reagan" before emigrating to

Carroll County, Illinois Carroll County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 15,702. Its county seat is Mount Carroll. History Carroll County was formed in 1839 out of Jo Daviess County. The county is named f ...

, in 1857.Gullan (2001), p. 320 John Michael, their son, born in 1855, became a grain elevator farmer, and married Jennie Cusick in 1878. Cusick was born in 1857 in today Canada, but, like John Michael, her parents Patrick Cusick (son of Patrick Thomas Cusick and wife Jean Gabbert) and wife Sarah Higgins came from Ireland. Their son, John Edward "Jack", was born five years later, in 1883.

Life and career

At the time of his second son Ronald's birth in 1911, the 27-year-old Jack was working at a store in Tampico, Illinois. He went on to work as a traveling salesman during Ronald's childhood. Politically, he was a populist Democrat, supporting economically progressive policies such as financial support for the

working poor The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...

, trust-busting, child labor laws, a

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

, and

progressive tax A progressive tax is a tax in which the tax rate increases as the taxable amount increases. The term ''progressive'' refers to the way the tax rate progresses from low to high, with the result that a taxpayer's average tax rate is less than the ...

ation. From his Irish heritage he inherited a dislike of the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

. He was a keen supporter of the United States' involvement in World War I and attempted to enlist. He was strongly opposed to the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...

due to his Catholic heritage, but also due to the Klan's

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

. Reagan was a member of the Catholic men's organization the Knights of Columbus, according to an address given to the group by his son, President

in 1986. Reagan died on May 18, 1941, at the age of 57 after a series of

heart attacks A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is retr ...

. It has been suggested that he might have survived if a nearby ambulance had been allowed to cross out of their service territory. This possibility may have been one reason that Ronald Reagan, as governor of California, signed into law the Wedworth-Townsend Paramedic Act of 1970, authorizing the first

paramedic A paramedic is a healthcare professional trained in the medical model, whose main role has historically been to respond to emergency calls for medical help outside of a hospital. Paramedics work as part of the emergency medical services (EMS), ...

program in the United States.

References

General * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reagan, Nelle Wilson 1883 births 1941 deaths American people of Irish descent Ronald Reagan Reagan family People from Fulton, Illinois People from Lee County, Illinois Burials at Calvary Cemetery (Los Angeles) California Democrats Illinois Democrats Works Progress Administration workers Fathers of presidents of the United States People from Tampico, Illinois Catholics from Illinois pl:John Reagan

Ancestry

Life and career

See also

References