Biography: Nancy Gallagher

Nancy Gallagher’s grandfather, John Gallagher, and father, James Gallagher, were both born in Ireland. They arrived in Butler County, Pennsylvania in about 1797, settling in Muddy Creek Township. Nancy was born there on 13 February, 1829 to James and his second wife, Mary Albright. Nancy was their second child. Counting three children from the first marriage, there were a total of fifteen children in the household. The Revolution was fifty years in the past, and the War of 1812 had been over for about three years when Nancy was born. She no doubt grew up helping with the housework and caring for younger children. Nancy Gallagher married Lot Wilson in 1854. Nancy was twenty-five when they married; Lot was twenty-three. Their first son, Dunwoodie Wilson|Dunwoodie]] was born that same year. Nancy and Lot Wilson lived for a time in Muddy Creek Township, possibly near Nancy’s Gallagher grandparents. Two of their children are reported born in that township, including James L. Wilson in 1857. Later the family moved to Brady Township, and attended the Lutheran church in Prospect.

Two of Nancy’s brothers , James A. Gallagher and Robert W. Gallagher, served in the Civil War, and Robert was killed. This was an especially difficult time for Nancy’s mother, fifty-six year old Mary Albright Gallagher, for not only did Robert, her tenth child die in the war, but in February of 1863 her husband of forty years, James Gallagher died at age eighty-two.

None of Nancy and Lot’s children were old enough to be involved in the war.. During the Civil War years, Nancy and Lot had three children born, and one was named Robert , probably to honor Nancy’s brother who died in the war..

When Nancy was forty-three, her last child, Matilda, nicknamed Tillie, was born. When Tillie was seven years old, her closest sister, ten year old Mariah died, and was buried at Emanuel Lutheran cemetery, in Prospect. Five years later, in 1884, Nancy’s mother, Mary Albright Gallagher, died at age seventy-seven.

Of Nancy Gallagher and Lot Wilson’s nine children, six, possibly seven lived to adulthood. Nancy died on 9 March, 1904, at age seventy-five and was buried at Emanuel Lutheran cemetery in Prospect. Her husband died two years later, at age seventy-five.