This estate account voucher for Patrick Halligan’s estate was found in a local probate file at the LaSalle Genealogy Guild in Ottawa. At first glance it may seem like a simple listing of materials sales. However, a deeper dive into it reveals so much more history of our area.
A Peru Business Still Operating Today
The ornate billhead connects the document to a Peru business that remains in operation more than 150 years later.
Samuel Nesbitt Maze established his lumber business in Peru in 1848, the same year the Illinois and Michigan Canal opened. Maze Lumber remains at its original Water Street location and is now operated by members of the fifth and sixth generations of the family. (You can learn more about the Maze Lumber company here: https://www.mazelumber.com/about)
This is therefore not merely a bill from a long-vanished merchant. It is an early record from a business that remains part of Peru today.
A Record of Building Materials and Prices
The account lists materials purchased between April and July 1869. Among the entries are flooring, siding, shingles, fencing, and nails, together with their quantities and prices. The purchases totaled $235.12—a substantial account at the time equal to about $6,000 today.
For anyone studying nineteenth-century buildings, construction practices or local commerce, the document offers a valuable snapshot of the materials available in Peru and what customers paid for them. What it does not tell us, at least by itself, is precisely where or how the materials were used.
The Woman Named on the Account
The most revealing words may be those written at the top: “Mrs. Halligan.”
The customer was Bridget Halligan. Although the convention of the period identified her by her late husband’s name rather than her own, the account belonged to her. Patrick Halligan had been dead for approximately ten years when these purchases were made.
Patrick and Bridget had come to the Illinois Valley from County Mayo, Ireland, around 1848. Patrick became a local merchant and was associated with the construction of Peru’s City Hotel and LaSalle’s St. Charles Hotel. He died in 1859 at approximately 57 years of age, leaving Bridget, then about 39, to raise their family, including two children under five years old.
Bridget and Patrick’s oldest son from his first marriage were responsible for administering Patrick’s estate. It was no small undertaking. The Halligans owned several properties in the area, including a farm, and the probate proceedings continued for nearly two decades. Final documents were not filed until 1878.
Evidence of Nineteenth Century Women in Peru Holding Their Own
This document provides direct evidence that Bridget was conducting business in her own right.
She purchased building materials, maintained an account with one of Peru’s leading merchants, and made payments toward its balance. The document does not merely hint that she was working behind the scenes: Maze recorded Mrs. Halligan as the customer.
Records like this complicate the common impression that nineteenth-century women were absent from business affairs. Widows such as Bridget managed property, maintained farms and households, dealt with merchants, paid creditors, and appeared in court on behalf of estates. Yet even while doing so, their identities were often partially concealed by the convention of recording them under a husband’s name. Bridget is present on this page, but we must look beyond “Mrs. P. Halligan” to recognize her.
A New Chapter
The handwritten payment entries reveal one final story.
During the years in which Bridget was administering Patrick’s estate, Nicholas Duncan, the estate’s attorney, also suffered the loss of his spouse. His wife Isabella died in 1869, the same year this voucher was created in Mrs. Halligan’s name. Nicholas, then 53, and Bridget, approximately 50, married the next year in January 1870.
Two months later, on March 14, “N. Duncan” paid the remaining balance on Bridget’s account, and S. N. Maze marked it paid in full.
Sources and Further Reading
- “About Maze Lumber,” Maze Lumber, accessed 28 August 2026, https://www.mazelumber.com/about.
- Patrick Halligan estate file, dated 1860, Box H, File 203, LaSalle County probate records; consulted at the LaSalle County Genealogy Guild, Ottawa, Illinois. The file includes the receipted account from S. N. Maze & Son documenting purchases and payments made between 1869 and 1870.
- 1850 United States census, LaSalle County, Illinois, population schedule, household of P. Halligan; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 28 August 2026, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8054/images/4193364-00313.
- 1860 United States census, City of LaSalle, LaSalle County, Illinois, population schedule, household of Bridget Halligan, page 525; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 28 August 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/7667/images/4213702_00500.
- History of La Salle County, Illinois, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Towns, Educational, Religious, Civil, Military, and Political History, Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Representative Citizens, vol. 1 (Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Company, 1886), 782–783; digital image, Ancestry.com, accessed 28 August 2026. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/18497/images/dvm_LocHist005452-00395-0.
- “Illinois, County Marriages, 1810–1940,” database, FamilySearch, entry for Nicholas Duncan and Bridget M. Halligan, married 24 January 1870, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q288-6CMX.
- Find a Grave, database and images, memorial for Nicholas Duncan, 21 October 1816–18 November 1879, Memorial ID 74994194, citing Saint Vincent Cemetery, LaSalle, LaSalle County, Illinois; accessed 28 August 2026, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/74994194/nicholas-duncan.
- Find a Grave, database and images, memorial for Isabella McBoyle Duncan, 23 March 1822–14 July 1869, Memorial ID 27092738, citing Saint Vincent Cemetery, LaSalle, LaSalle County, Illinois; accessed 28 August 2026, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27092738/isabella-duncan.
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