The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-18
Reno County Citizen at the Age
of 81 Is Quite Young.
"Unele" Tim Horrigan in the
Hospital, Hopes to Get Well.
SOME EXPERIENCES.
Thrice Married and Has Reared
Eighteen Children.
Fought Against Mexico as a
"L0ne Texas Ranger"

Hutchinson, Kan, Dec. 1s.-"Uncle"
Tim Horrigan, one of the most interest
ing characters in the county, is i'll and
in the hospital. Uncle" Tim is only 81
years old. however. and he expects to
get well. AS he said to a friend who
called on him yesterday, I'm not rally
sick, yu' know. 1 never have been. 1
don't call this sickness. It's just
dis'ase."
Uncle Tim was born in County Tip
perary, Ireland, in 1906 That was
long time ago. Just how long few peo-
pie realize without thinking back over
it. That was before Queen Victoria
was born, before Tennyson was born, be-
fore Abraham Lincoln was born, before
Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, be-
fore even he was banished to the island
of Elba, before the United States had
licked Great Britain the second time, only
three years after that part of Kansas en-
braced in the Louisiana purchase was
acquired and years and years before the
part of Kansas in which Hutchinson lies
was acquired through the admission of
Texas and the subsequent war with Mex
leo. In that war, by the way, it was the
fortune of Uncle Tim to highland per
haps it were well to return to Uncle Tim
since he first saw the Emerald Isle is
well nigh endless
Well, Uncle Tim was adventurous as
lad-in fact he never quite got the love
of adventure out of his System--he has
been married three times He was an
adventurous lad, and when very
young man he came to America. Not
only did he come to America, but he
That was in the days before Texas had
become the great Lone Star state. She
was still an independent country, with
old Sam Houston as governor. The raw
Irish lad was as ready for fight in this
new country as ever he had been back in
Tipperary but he found that on the Mex
lean border the shelallah had to give way
to the bowie knife and the rifle. Tim
was equal to the demands and soon he
was fulI-hedged Texas ranger, prepared
to, defend his adopted country against
the assaults of Santa Ana and all the
other Mexican generals that might be
sent against it.
Then came the adoption of Texas into
the family of Uncle Sam, the quarrel
over the boundary line and the Subse-
quent war with Mexico. In that war the
Texas rangers did their part and Uncle
Tim was in the midst of the ARRAY. He
fought throughout the war without a
more serious injury than a scratch Then
Tim drifted-just where and when the
present chronicler is unable to record
and at, last about twenty-eight years ago,
in 1874 he found his way to Reno county,
where he has lived ever since. He has
been back to Ireland, but the land of his
boyhood did not have the attractions for
him that the land of his manhood had
and he was very glad to be back
In this almost century of life Uncle
Tim has seen much. He has been thrice
married and is the father of eighteen
children. He has never been sick a day
until this trouble with his kidneys placed
him on his back. He has been in the hos
very much improved. He expects to be
back on his farm near Lerado before
many weeks. A friend who visited him
yesterday of course asked him how he
was getting along.
The doctors say I'm improvin fast"
old Timothy replied, but thin" he added
with a sly Irish twinkle in the corner of
his eye, I'VE know that's their business"
Then followed the remark about his
trouble not being sickness ''raly, but jist
a dis ase.''