Dignan, William Joseph
Edna Mary Josephine (Verdier) Dignan
__ __Jack, James __Frances, Edna, Josephine, Lorna, Kathleen, William, Sheila, Patricia, Jim, Fracnes, Margaret, Thomas
Family: three sons, eight daughters: Kathleen (Keme), William (Buddy), Sheila, Patricia, Edna Wilma, Frances, Jim, Frances (Frankie), Margaret Ann, Thomas, ?
William Joseph Dignan was born in Austin, Minnesota, USA, on August 20, 1881. He met Edna Verdier in 1917 and they married in 1919. He died in Saanich, BC, on February 7, 1960. He worked as a farmer in until May 1953.
Billy Dignan was the captain of Princeton’s first good baseball team, the Princeton Stalwarts.
See photo of Princeton’s baseball team in 1918 here.
He worked for Granby Consolidated as a millwright. He started in the Allenby Concentrator and, in 1925, in Copper Mountain Mine as the crusher boss.
The Similkameen Star reported on November 2, 1939 that Mr. and Mrs. William Dignan had been honoured with a farewell party in the Parish Hall. They were moving to her father’s farm near Victoria. Daughters Edna and Frances remained in Princeton.
He was a Similkameen Star subscriber in December 1942. Address: 1502 Beacon Ave., Sidney, BC.
Edna Dignan died in Port Hardy, BC on June 3, 1966.
Princeton Our Valley, pages 319, 320; Death registration (BC Archives); Similkameen Spotlight, November 2, 1939, page 1