Kentucky: A History of the State, Perrin, Battle, Kniffin, 8th ed., 1888,
Jefferson Co.

IRWIN DUGAN was born June 29, 1846, in Brown County, Ohio, and is a son of
Robert C. and Elizabeth Bryant Dugan, of Scotch-Irish and Welsh extraction
respectively.  The former was reared a Quaker in Chester County, Pa., and
held many important positions of honor and trust in Brown County, Ohio,
where he moved in 1817.  When the subject was five years old his parents
removed to Covington, Ky., and in the schools of that city he was
principally educated.  There his honored father died in 1876; his mother
is still living in Louisville, and recently celebrated her eighty-first
birthday.  He attended Commercial College at Cincinnati, and at the age of
fourteen went Bolivar, Tenn., where he learned telegraphy, remaining
there until the civil war broke out.  He then returned to Kentucky, and
re-entered the school at Covington.  In 1863 he went to Crothersville,
Ind., as telegraph operator for two years, then to Seymour as telegraph
operator and ticket agent for two years, then to Holly Springs, Miss, and
thence to Memphis, Tenn.  In 1872 he went on the river, as clerk, and soon
became captain of the steamer T. F. Eckert, and four years later was
elected president of the Dugan Towing Transportation and Wrecking Company
of Louisville, Ky., which position he held until 1885, in September.  He
came to Louisville in 1876, and also engaged in the coal business as
junior member of the firm of Dugan & Co.  He was married in 1883 to Miss
Mattie G. Dickson, daughter of Francis W. Dickson, a retired business man
of Louisville.  They have two children: Frank Irwin and Martin Elizabeth.
Captain Dugan was appointed Supervising Inspector of Steam Vessels of the
Sixth District, by President Cleveland, Sept. 14, 1885, which district
embraces the Ohio river from Carrollton, Ky., to Cairo, the Mississippi
river from Greenfield, Mo., to Greenville, Miss., and all navigable waters
flowing in between these points, including the Cumberland, Tennessee,
White and Wabash in Indiana, White and Arkansas rivers in Arkansas, and
altogether about eight thousand miles of navigable water.  Captain Dugan
has made a very efficient and popular inspector, and enjoys the universal
respect of his subordinates as well as the men whose business brings him
in contact with.  He was recommended to the President for appointment to
the position he now holds, by nearly all the owners and managers of the
steam-vessels (without regard to politics) from Pittsburg to New Orleans,
and by the underwriters at Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Louisville, Evansville,
Ind., St. Louis, Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans.  He has eight
assistant (or local) inspectors, two stationed at each of the following
cities: Louisville, Ky., Evansville, Ind., Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.,
all of whom were appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury upon the
recommendation of Captain Dugan, who selected them for their knowledge,
skill and practical experience in the uses of steam for navigation, and
their temperate habits and good character.  He is very tenacious of the
rights of the traveling public, and his subordinate officers give him their
hearty co-operation.  Unless a person be of temperate habits and qualified
by experience to perform the duties of an office on steam-vessels he is
refused a license.  That Captain Dugan has made no mistake in the selection
of his staff-officers is shown by the fact that since he assumed the duties
of the office more than two and one-half millions of human beings have been
carried annually on steam-vessels in his district, with the loss of but
one passenger, a record he may well be proud of.

Dugan Dickson
=
Covington-Kenton-KY Brown-OH Chester-PA Hamilton-OH TN IN MS

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/jefferson/dugan.i.txt