Irish immigrants Bridget and John Degnan, along with their infant son Laurence, moved to Yosemite Valley in the mid-1880s. Mountain living proved tough at first. The family first lived in an abandoned barn and had to carry household water from a nearby stream in a five-gallon oil can. Shortly after, they built their own house, which included plumbing.

To support her growing family, Bridget began selling bread and baked goods from her home while raising eight children. With increasing numbers of tourists visiting Yosemite, Bridget helped meet food service demands by baking up to fifty loaves of bread a day in her small household oven. From her porch, she sold bread and home-cooked meals to Yosemite locals and toursits, each loaf selling for 12½ cents.

Around 1898, the Degnans built a larger home and Bridget purchased a large brick commercial dutch oven for a more permanent bakery. She could then bake 400 loaves a day, and began serving full meals on her front porch to locals and park visitors. Her bakery (pictured below) was originally connected to their family home near the chapel in Yosemite Valley and is an important reminder of Yosemite's early visitor services. Bridget's legacy continued when her children opened an even bigger bakery in 1958, still open today as Degnan's Kitchen in Yosemite Village. It remained family-owned until 1972.