Oakland Underfoot

Patrick Joseph Ryan (1868-1929) was born in Turles, Ireland. He emigrated in the late 1880s to Massachusetts, where he married Margaret T. Meade, a daughter of Irish immigrants. They lost three children in infancy but had better luck when they moved west to Oakland in the early 1900s decade, where they lived at 937 26th Street and had two healthy daughters. He became a naturalized citizen in 1918. The Ancient Order of Hibernians, division #2, sponsored a Mass for him when he died. He’s buried in Hayward.

The Oakland directories list him as a cement worker or contractor from 1904 to 1915. In the 1920 census he said he was a street cleaner for the city, and the 1925 directory listed him as a laborer.

His stamp was always a cockeyed thing with missing and misaligned letters. I have recorded dates of 1910, 1912, 1913 and 1914.