Joseph W. Hogan

performer

b. Ireland? circa 1879
d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania July 5, 1914

Poster for the "Ivy Leaf," detail, "the dance," with a piper, probably not Hogan. The poster almost certainly predates Hogan's involvement with the play.
Poster at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City.

Joseph W. Hogan was the stage name of Joseph Morgan, active as a musician and music teacher and based in Philadelphia.

As Irish piper he was part of the touring company of the play "The Ivy Leaf," 1899-1902. This melodrama, "The Most Beautiful and Realistic Irish Drama Ever Produced" was first performed in 1885 and enjoyed great success for many years. The play was famous for its spectacular stage effects. In the second act, for example, an eagle flies down and carries off an infant playing in the cabin yard. The father pursues the eagle to its aerie and rescues the child.

Several pipers graced the play at different times, including Barney Delaney, Eddie Joyce and Pat Touhey. The piper played music for dancers, and in at least some productions, played solo as a "specialty" entertainer between the play's acts. Hogan was likely part of one of the last, if not the last, touring companies. They played cities and towns in the northeast and upper midwest US.

In 1903 he played at a "Hibernian Reunion" in Baltimore, and is described as playing both Irish and Scotch pipes.

He is listed as both Joseph W Hogan and Jos W Morgan, music teacher, in the 1905 Philadelphia City Directory. He is listed as musician in the 1910 and 1913 Directories, in the earlier as Morgan and the later as Hogan.

The 1910 US Census has him as Joseph Morgan, born Pennsylvania, married for five months to Mary, with Occupation "Musician Studio."

Francis O'Neill mentions him in Irish Minstrels and Musicians, published 1913. He writes that his father John Morgan was a piper in Philadelphia, and that Joseph is "a creditable performer on the Union pipes, is equally proficient on the violin, and personally conducts a serviceable orchestra which enjoys a liberal patronage." Coming from O'Neill, this description ("creditable," "serviceable") is not high praise.

Hogan died in Philadelphia in 1914, age 34. The Pennsylvania Certificate of Death gives his name as Joseph P. Morgan, birthplace Ireland and Occupation Laborer. Most of the other information is a match: wife and parents names; address. Cause of death was Pharyngeal Tuberculosis, an apparently rare disease.

Selected References

"Amusements. The Ivy Leaf." Salt Lake City UT Salt Lake Herald March 10, 1888 p. 5 column 3
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85058130/1888-03-10/ed-1/seq-5/

"Irish Pipers will Attend A Novel Feature Of Today's Hibernian Reunion." Baltimore MD Sun Aug. 3, 1903 p. 9 column 6
Newspapers.com

O'Neill, Francis Irish Minstrels and Musicians Chicago 1913 p. 336

"Third Avenue-The Ivy Leaf" New York Dramatic Mirror Oct. 18, 1902 p. 17 column 2
New York NY Dramatic Mirror 1902 Aug-Jun 1903 Grayscale - 0322.pdf

Nick Whitmer
July 2018