Fagin Family Genealogy
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John Martin Fagin
My great-great-great-grandfather, John Martin Fagin, was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1842, the son of Joseph Fagin and Mary Martin. After 1850 he was raised in the home of Samuel Killin, his stepfather. After the outbreak of the Civil War, he enlisted in the Loth, Ohio Infantry on April 18, 1861 for a period of three months. On June 3, he reinlisted for three years in the same regiment. During the war he fought in eight battles including Stone River and Chickamagua, Tennessee, and with Sherman in Georgia.
John Martin Fagin came to Lafayette in about 1862, and married Susan S. Rugg on January 28, 1863. Susan Rugg was born in Massachusetts, and was the daughter of Luther Rugg. Luther Rugg was born about 1804 in Massachusetts and married a woman named Mary. They lived in Charlestown, a suburb of Boston, in 1850, where Luther worked as a lamp lighter. The Ruggs had moved to Lafayette, Indiana, by January, 1854, when Luther Rugg bought a piece of property. As of 1860 he was working as a painter, and the 1870 census lists him as a “painter in shop.” Luther Rugg seems to have died sometime between 1870-1880. His children were Martha Rugg (c.1835-), Joseph Rugg (c.1839-), George H. Rugg (c.1841- post 1910), Susan Rugg (c.1843-1910), and Eliza J. (Rugg) Stewart (c.1847-post 1910).
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| John Martin Fagin, c.1909 | Susan S. (Rugg) Fagin, c.1909 |
John Martin Fagin was listed as a painter in the 1870 census and worked as a drayman during the 1880s-1900s. The family lived at 102 Front Street from the 1870s into the early-20 th century, above the banks of the Wabash River near the foot of South Street. Front Street was a one-block long street between the Wabash & Erie Canal and the river, connected by a bridge at South Street. A few small houses lined the west side of the street while warehouses stood on the canal side. To the north, the power house of the electric street railway was built in 1892 and expanded in 1896 and 1907. East of the canal was the vast freight depot built in the 1850s, later serving the rail lines which were built along its east side. Beyond the rail yard stood the Big Four Passenger Depots, and beyond that, Downtown Lafayette.
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| 1868, small houses along Front Street are shown at along the banks of the Wabash River, with the South Street bridge over the Wabash & Erie Canal at center | 1894, Front Street at left, with South Street at center and Big Four Freight and Passenger Depots at right between Canal and 2nd Street (John Purdue Block at upper right of center) |
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| 1899 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing the houses on Front Street (left), with the Wabash River at upper left, Street Railway Power House at top, former canal at right of center, and freight depot at right. | 2005 aerial photo showing the same area after Railroad Relocation. The site is now an industrial property owned by Midwest Rentals. |
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| c.1911 view looking south from the Main Street Bridge, showing the twin smokestacks of the Street Railway Power House and the Big Four Railroad Bridge, just beyond which stood the Fagin house. The smokestack of the Lafayette Box Board Co. can be seen in the distance. |
Their children were George B. Fagin (b.1865), Lewis Joseph/Joseph “Louie” Fagin, (1867-1946), John Martin Fagin, Jr., (1872-1943), Ida (Fagin) Noble Baxter, (b. 1871), Orrin Stark Fagin (1874-1959), Edward E. Fagin (1875-1918), Frank McCarty Fagin (b. 1884), Delia (Fagin) Brinson, (b. 1881), and Elizabeth (Fagin) Neubauer.
Susan Rug died of pneumonia at the Fagin house on Front Street on February 14, 1910, at age 67. Her funeral was held the next day at the home of her son, Edward Fagin, at 610 Oregon Street, February 15, 1910. She was buried in Springvale Cemetery. John Martin Fagin died of hardening of the arteries on August 4, 1913, and was also buried in Springvale Cemetery.
The Fagin house on Front Street was later demolished, as were all surrounding buildings. Railroad Relocation in the 1990s erased the street and severed its connections with Downtown. The site of the Fagin house is now an industrial property owned by Midwest Rentals.
John Martin Fagin, Jr.
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| Solomon Spector, Established 1886. "Brass, Zinc, Lead. Tin Foil, Paper, Ginseng. Poultry, Butter, Eggs. Hides, Wool, Fur, Sheep Pelts." | The man standing on the right appears to be my great-great-grandfather, John Martin Fagin, Jr. |
My great-great-grandfather, John Martin Fagin, Jr., was born at Lafayette, Indiana, on March 18, 1872. His parents, John Martin Fagin and Susan (Rugg) Fagin, were living in a frame double-house on Kossuth Street east of Fourteenth. At that time there were two or three blocks of houses along Kossuth Street in this area, being one of the denser parts of the thinly-settled outskirts of Lafayette. When John Martin Fagin, Jr., was three days old, and while his mother was sick in bed, the house caught on fire. They escaped safely and the family saved most of their possessions. While doing some newspaper research I accidentally came across an article about this fire, which had been unknown to our family.
From the Lafayette Weekly Journal, March 22, 1872
Fires Yesterday.
…Another alarm was sounded about 5 o’clock in the evening from the sixth ward, caused by the burning of a frame tenement house owned by Dr. Isler, on Kossuth Street east of Fourteenth, and occupied by Messrs. Saunders and Fagan. The steamer and hose cart, after a long and hard pull up the extension of Tenth Street, reached the fire and the former stationed at the cistern in front of the residence of Charles P. Curtis. Two streams were speedily thrown upon the flames and a portion of the house saved. The fire originated from a stove-pipe running up through the roof in that part of the house occupied by Mr. Fagan. Most of the goods and effects of the parties were saved. At the time of the fire Mrs. Fagan lay sick in bed, having a child but two or three days old. She was taken to the residence of a neighbor and properly cared for…
John Martin Fagin, Jr., married Clara White, September 1, 1892, at Indianapolis, Indiana. Clara White's father, Joseph White (c.1855-?), was a stone mason who had immigrated from England about 1882-1883. Joseph White was a 20-year-old widower when he married Sarah Jane Cook, July 28, 1875, at the Parish of Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, England. His father was also named Joseph White and he was a stonemason at Denton, Northampton, England. The younger Joseph White is said to have worked on the construction of one of the palaces of the royal family in England as well as the Tippecanoe County Courthouse (1882-1885) at Lafayette, Indiana. He may also have worked on the Indiana State Capitol Building (1880-1888) at Indianapolis. Clara's mother, Sarah Jane (Cook) White (c.1857-1936), was the daughter of George Cook, a boot maker at Ivinghoe, Buckinghamshire, England. After the death of Joseph White she married a Mr. Jameison, a Civil War veteran. She spent her last years at St. Anthony's Home for the Aged in Lafayette. As a child, Clara White was hoisted up into the tower of the courthouse by her father in a bucket that the stonemasons used to bring up supplies and their lunches.
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| Joseph White and his brother (also a stone mason), c.1880s | Sarah Jane (Cook) White, c.1880s, probably in mouring for her husband, Joseph White |
The first child born to Clara (White) Fagin and John Martin Fagin, Jr., was a son, Arthur John Fagin, who was born January 25, 1894 at Indianapolis. Soon after they returned to Lafayette. My great-grandmother, Dorothea Eleanor (Fagin) Jones was born at Lafayette in 1906.
Snapshots from the Fagin family provide a rare glimpse into the life of a working-class family in Lafayette during the early-20th-century.
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| An unidentifided tintype from the papers of Dorthea (Fagin) Jones, c. 1900-1905. | Enlargement. Woman in the large hat to left of center appears to be Clara (White) Fagin |
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| Sarah Jane (Cook) White Jamieson, c.1905 | Dorthea Fagin, c.1909 |
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| Sarah Jane (Cook) White Jamieson with her roses, c.1910 | |
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| "Dorothea& Billy," probably c.1911-1912 | "The McDaniel Girls & Dorothea Fagin" (lower left in dark sweater), early-1910s |
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| Dorothea Fagin with her dolls, c.1913-1914 the "toy" rocking chair remains in the family |
"Dorothea Fagin 6-15-1914" with a typical photographer's donkey as a prop |
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| Two children in the snow, c.1915 | Marjorie Jane Fagin in the snow, c.1915? |
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| The Fagin-Jones house, 1120 N. 8th Street, c.1930 | Clara (White) Fagin tending the roses at the house on N. 8th Street, c.1930s. |
John Martin Fagin, Jr. worked for the Altas Produce Company for 42 years and later worked for the Oscar Winski Company until around December 1942, when he became a janitor at the Ross Gear and Tool Company plant. The Fagins were members of Trinity Methodist Church. John Martin Fagin, Jr., died April 19, 1943, at the age of 71. The Bradshaw Funeral Home served as undertaker and the funeral took place at the Fagin home, 1120 N. 8th Street.