Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

Thomas KEEGAN, retired millwright, Joliet; born in county of West Meath, Ireland, April 11, 
1803, where he learned and worked at the millwright trade until 29 years of age, when he 
immigrated to Canada, landing at Quebec in 1832; here he engaged upon Government works until 
the cholera forced him to leave, when he went to Toronto and engaged at his trade for three 
years; next, to Rochester for three years, then to Rome, Mich., for eighteen months; from 
there he went to Chicago, from which place he came by stage to Joliet, where he located his 
family May 20, 1840, which place he has since made his home; he owns a fine residence on 
Centre St., which he erected in 1850; Mr. K's first work in Joliet was building Jones' steam 
flour-mill in 1840, being the first mill of the kind in Joliet; from there he, with John 
CLARKSON, went to Marseilles, and built the first flour-mill of that place, then to New 
Orleans, where he remained until being driven away by the yellow fever, when he came back 
to Joliet, since which time his skill and labor have been extensively employed in all the 
neighboring towns as well as in Janesville and Watertown, Wis. He married May 11, 1835, to 
Ann O'BRIEN, born in Ireland in 1807; ten children were the fruits of this union, nine of 
whom are deceased; Ellen, the one living, now lives with her parents.