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Thomas Ryan

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Attorney Thomas Ryan was the first owner of the home at 703 S. Memorial Dr. (then 395 Cherry.) He became a municipal court judge and lived in the Memorial Dr. home until the time of his death. His widow Elizabeth still lived there when she died in 1963.

The following is taken verbatim from theHistory of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, [1911?], Part 14. Thomas Henry Ryan was the editor-in-chief of this publication. Judge Ryan died February 3, 1944. His wife Elizabeth died November 24, 1963.
Reproduction of the portrait from Thomas Henry Ryan's History of Outagamie County, Wisconsin, [1911?], Part 14 used with permission of the Appleton Public Library.

THOMAS H. RYAN, Judge of the Municipal Court at Appleton, was born in the town of Buchanan, this county, January 21, 1867. Daniel and Winnifred (Powers) Ryan, his parents, were natives of Ireland, born in County Limerick and County Clare, respectively, and both came to the United States about the year 1848 and were married in Massachusetts two years later. After seven years they came to Outagamie county, Wisconsin, and bought unimproved Government land in the town of Buchanan. To the original purchase of eighty acres Mr. Ryan added at different times until he had acquired 300 acres. He died February 24, 1907, preceded by his wife on October 16, 1903.

They were the parents of four sons and four daughters and reared their children in the same faith to which they belonged---the Roman Catholic religion. Their children were: Ellen, the wife of Peter Cripps, of Kaukauna; Mary, deceased; Daniel J., residing on the old homestead and chairman of the board of supervisors; Malachi, a resident of Buchanan; Anna, who married James Harney and has her home in Duluth; Thomas H.; Winnifred, whose home is with her brother, Malachi; and Dr. M. C. Ryan, of Oklahoma. Mr. Ryan was a man of pronounced characteristics, possessed of a level business head, strictly temperate in his habits, an abstainer from the use of tobacco, a consistent member of the Catholic Church and of Sunday observance, never aspired for official position, kindly as a father and neighbor and a man of unblemished reputation.

Thomas H. Ryan was educated at the Ryan high school, Appleton, and was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from the University of Wisconsin in 1891. He took the law course in the State University from which he was graduated June 16, 1892, and succeeding which he began practicing his profession at Appleton, first in partnership with A. B. Whitman and later alone. He was city attorney from 1897 to 1907, and was then elected Judge of the Municipal Court in which official position he has since served. The principal recreation of Judge Ryan is in looking after his farm and engaging in literary pursuits. He is a Catholic in religion, a Democrat in politics and socially is identified with the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Order of Foresters. October 27, 1897, he married Elizabeth Cuthbert, and to this union three daughters and two sons have been born.