Ronald Reagan Trail: Fulton and the Reagan graves

The next stop on the Reagan Trail is Fulton, a Mississippi River town in Whiteside County.

Ronald Reagan's parents, Nelle (Wilson) and Jack, were born in Fulton eleven days apart in 1883. They were married in 1904 at Fulton's Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, although the Fulton website says the Reagans were married in the church's rectory. In 1906 they moved to Tampico.

Immaculate Conception Church, Fulton

In An American Life, Reagan wrote, "My brother and I never knew our grandparents." John and Jennie (Cusick) Reagan were his paternal grandparents, they were married at Immaculate Conception. The both died young of tuberculosis in the 1880s, orphaning Jack. Dutch's maternal grandparents were Thomas and Mary Anne (Elsey) Wilson. Thomas was born in Whiteside County, Mary Anne was born in England. They were married in nearby Morrison.

Our 40th president's great grandfather, Michael Reagan, was born in Ballyporeen, County Tipperary, Ireland in 1829. He married Catherine Mulcahey in London in 1852. They emigrated to the United States in 1856, and unlike most Irish immigrants of that time, they became farmers. Their farm was just north of Whiteside County in Fair Haven. Michael died in 1884, after her husband's death, Catherine moved to Fulton. She died in 1908, five months before Ronald's older brother Neil was born in Tampico.

Buried at Fulton's Calvary Cemetery are 16 relatives of the Gipper, including his paternal great grandparents. Many of the engravings on the gravestones are faded, I was only able to identify three names on them, Michael, Reagan's great grandfather, Thomas, his great uncle--he died in a drowning accident at a July 4th picnic--and his great aunt Mary.

Gravestone of Mary (Reagan) Clendenen

The Reagan graves are on top of a hill at Calvary. From there you can see the greatest American river, the Mississippi.

It's always "morning in America" from that hill.

In 1984 Reagan visited Ballyporeen and gave a speech about "the great legacy" of Irish-Americans.



Next: The town of Fulton

Earlier posts:

• Tampico
• Chicago and the likely demolition of the Reagan apartment
• Hennepin Feeder Canal
• Walnut
• Ohio, Illinois
• Princeton
• Henry
• Chillicothe
• Peoria Heights
• Washington, Illinois
• The town of Eureka
• Eureka College's Reagan Museum
• Returning to Eureka College and the 1982 address
• Eureka College
• Carl Sandburg
• Galesburg
• Wyatt Earp
• Monmouth