Hugh J. Ryan was born in Boston the year 1846. His parents and extended family arrived in the United States from Ireland during the "Great Hunger" there and dispersed to Ohio, (1850 U.S. Census). He volunteered for the 5th Ohio Cavalry when a teenager in the final year of the American Civil War. Hugh moved his wife, Margaret, and their daughter, Maria (they called her "Daisy") to Las Vegas, New Mexico about 1885 where he became employed by the Santa Fe Railroad as a "Tie and Timber Inspector". Margaret died 1929 and Hugh died 1930, they are buried with "Daisy" in Mount Calvary Roman Catholic Cemetery, Las Vegas, NM.