Source: History Morris County New Jersey, Volume II, Lewis Publishing Co., 1914
John MULLIGAN, actively identified with industrial and manufacturing interests in Morris county, New Jersey, makes his home in Dover. He is deeply interested in community affairs and his efforts have also been a potent element in the business progress of this section of the State. He has with ready recognition of opportunity directed his labors into various fields wherein he has achieved success and at the same time has promoted a business enterprise that has proved of more than local value, largely promoting the commercial activity of the State. He is vice-president of the Ulster Iron Works, formerly known as the Dover Iron Company of New Jersey. He is also serving as mayor of Dover and in that connection has brought about many important improvements for the good of the town.
A native of the old Empire State, John MULLIGAN was born in Ulster county, New York, January 10, 1871. He is a son of Cadwallader Roberts and Sarah M. (FULLER) MULLIGAN, the latter of whom died in 1898 and the former of whom is now living in retirement at Dover. Mr. and Mrs. MULLIGAN were both born and reared in New York. He was an iron manufacturer during practically the entire period of his active career and he was an important factor in the founding and promotion of the Ulster Iron Works in Morris county, New Jersey. He is a man of broad mind and keen intellect and although now seventy-five years of age he is still hale and hearty and retains in much of their pristine vigor the splendid mental and physical qualities of his prime. He and his wife became the parents of three children:
- John, the immediate subject of this review;
- Cadwallader R. Jr., a resident of Dover;
- Emily, who died at the age of three years.
After completing the curriculum of a private school of New York City, John MULLIGAN was matriculated as a student in St. Paul’s School at Concord, New Hampshire, which institution he attended for six years, being graduated therein in 1888. After leaving school he began to work for his father in the iron business at Dover, New Jersey. He has continued in that line of enterprise during the long intervening years to the present time, in 1913, and he is now vice-president of the Ulster Iron Works, of which his father is president, and J. D. B. VREELAND, secretary and treasurer. The big iron manufacturing concern, formerly the Dover Iron Company of New Jersey, was incorporated under the laws of the State in July, 1903, under the name of the Ulster Iron Works. The company employs about 310 men the entire year around. Mr. Mulligan has considerable money invested in the National Union Bank of Dover and is a member of the board of directors at that substantial financial institution.
In politics, John MULLIGAN is aligned as a supporter of the principles and policies for which the Republican party stands sponsor and since 1909 he has served as mayor of Dover, this being the last year of his second term. He has been a member of the city council of Dover, two terms, of two years each, thus being in continuous official connection with the city for eight years. He is affiliated with the B. P. O. E. at Dover and is connected with the following clubs: Morristown Club, Metropolitan Club, New York Yacht Club, Southside Sportsmen’s Club of Long Island, and the Pontiac Game Club of Quebec, Canada. He is unmarried and resides at home with his father.
This biography was transcribed by John Cresseveur (1949-2003).