Daniel J. Coughlin's Elgin Pocket Watch

 During the period of COVID-19 in 2020 when all of the archives and museums around the world were forced to close, many museums and individuals started posting photos with the hashtag #MyMuseum on twitter .

In particular, I was inspired by the tweets being posted by @farmersfriend who shared a photo and story of an item from his personal museum every day on twitter. He wrote, 

"As we grow older 

many of us create

our own museum of things.

The idea of sharing photos from our personal museums inspired me to create this new genealogy series entitled  #OurMuseum. 

 

Here is the story of an Elgin Pocketwatch that was given to Daniel J. Coughlin as a retirement gift and has been lovingly handed down over the years.

 

Daniel John Coughlin (1874-1948)

"The Elgin National Watch Company, commonly known as Elgin Watch Company, was a major US watch maker from 1864 to 1968. The company sold watches under the names Elgin, Lord Elgin, and Lady Elgin..... Elgin was founded in 1864, right as the civil war was coming to an end."

 

Daniel J Coughlin's Elgin Pocket Watch

The above photo is the Elgin pocket watch that was passed down from Daniel John Coughlin to his grandson John J. Pucino (1920-1983).

 

The treasured photograph below was a favorite one which John Joseph Pucino kept displayed in his home for his entire life. He was very fond of his grandfather and loved to show the picture explaining that it was taken at a baseball game that they attended together.
 

John Joseph Pucino eventually passed the watch down to his grandson in Connecticut where it remains today.

Daniel John Coughlin with his grandson "Jack"( John J.) Pucino

The watch was presented to Daniel at his retirement. The U.S. census states that he retired as a fireman from the "Electric Light Company" (presumably the Mid-Hudson Electric Company) however, his obituary states that he retired from the Cateract Steamer Fire Company in Poughkeepsie.

 

Unfortunately, there is not an inscription on the watch.

 

 

Daniel J. Coughlin's Obituary March 1948

 

The photo below was taken just before William H Coughlin (1901-1913) drowned in 1913 and includes his father Daniel John Coughlin (1874-1948) and his brother John J. Coughlin (1904-1925). Daniel's hat does have a firefighter symbol indicating that he was possibly with the Cateract Steamer Fire Company in Poughkeepsie.  

Sons William and John with their father Daniel Coughlin

    

Before Daniel's retirement, in 1936 the Coughlins evidently visited the NY branch of their Coughlin family in Poughkeepsie. below are some pictures shared by our Connecticut cousins as well as a picture of Main St in Poughkeepsie two years after the visit. 

 

1936: William H. Coughlin, Art Schofield and Daniel J Coughlin

 

The Coughlins at Poughkeepsie (1936)

 

Our Connecticut cousin surmises that the Coughlins "seem to have been a pretty tight knit group considering the frequency that they made the trip, the distance that they traveled to be together (Poughkeepsie N.Y, to Windsor, Ontario) and the limited means available to them ....

They are always so well dressed! I found this to be true in many photos on both sides of my family. My mother was raised by a single mother who barely spoke English but they always looked impeccable."

Poughkeepsie, Main Street (1938)

Thanks to our Connecticut cousin, we have another treasured object in "Our Museum" as well as many photographs never seen before!

 LINKS:

• The Elgin Watch Collectors Site http://elginwatches.org/index.html
• Main and Market: A digital local history project from the Poughkeepsie Public Library District http://mainandmarket.poklib.org/