John Condon

Acting Ensign, United States Navy.

by John Duggan.

John Condon, son of John and Ellen Condon, was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1820.   He arrived in America, with his parents, at the tender age of five, and later attended school at West Point, New York.   At the age of fourteen he relocated to Freedom, Michigan, and later to Detroit.   In 1840 he began sailing, as wheelsman of the side wheeled steamer Erie.   After a couple of seasons on this vessel, he went before the mast, with Captain Raymo, on the schooner Mississippi.   Condon was on many vessels and steamboats, in almost every capacity, and he had varied experiences.   Besides service on the Great Lakes, Condon also sailed the high seas for about two years.   He was mate on the ship Lanark on a voyage to Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans, with a cargo of coffee, and afterwards shipped out of Boston on the Gov. Hibbard, to Havana, in the West Indies trade with a cargo of ice and Yankee notions, returning with tobacco and sugar to New York.

Condon married Abby D. Langley in November, 1844.   Abby passed away on April 27, 1853.   She is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery at Buffalo, New York.   They had two children, Mary J. Condon and Kate M. Condon.   Condon later married Caroline Langley at Buffalo, New York, on March 25, 1854.   Caroline is also buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery.   Abby and Caroline were cousins.

On June 1, 1861, he enlisted as an able seaman in the Naval service of the United States government, and was placed aboard the receiving ship North Carolina, at New York, commanded by Captain Mead.   He was soon after promoted to master’s mate, which berth he filled for five months until transferred to the frigate Wabash, as able seaman, remaining on her for seven months, on the expedition to Port Royal.

In 1863 he took a draft of men for the Naval service to Cairo, Illinois, and was there appointed to the gunboat Fawn, filling the berth of master’s mate on her until the close of the war, at about which time he was appointed acting ensign on the Fawn, by Admiral Porter.   At a later stage he was sent aboard the USS Samson, from which vessel he was sent home, to Buffalo, New York, in August, 1865, to await further orders from the Navy Department.   [ORN 1, 27, 334.]   He received an honorable discharge from the Navy on October 21, 1865.

Photo of John Condon, in his uniform as an acting ensign of the United States Navy.
(Copy of an original photograph in the possession of John Duggan.)

Discharge document, from the United States Navy of John Condon.
(Copy of an original document in the possession of John Duggan. Due to the extra large nature of the copy, the document was scanned, top and bottom halves, separately.)

After the war Captain Condon went on to a career of more than thirty years commanding vessels on the Great Lakes.   His two brothers, Edwin and James, were also steamer captains.   John Condon is credited with saving the lives of passengers when the propeller Coburn, owned by Ward of Detroit, foundered.  

Condon died at the New York Veterans’ Home, Oxford, in 1899, and is also buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery.

Sources:

ORN: "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion," originally published, 1894, by the Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.; reprint edition published 1987, by The National Historical Society, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Citation includes series, volume and page numbers.

History of the Great Lakes, volume 11, by J.B. Mansfield.