USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Biographical history of the American Irish in Chicago > Part 17
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A bicycle trip was made to Europe, in 1889. England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and HIol- land were visited, the Alps twice crossed on his wheel, and a large number of sketches made. He was twice arrested by the French military and some of his sketches confiscated. His journey was in- teresting and amusing. The old style, hard solid rubber tire, forty-
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five pounds Columbia Roadster was used; his own weight was about 135 pounds; in addition, a small knapsack. This was con- sidered the best way to see the country then, and with the twenty- two pound wheel of to-day and less restrictions, bicyclers will find it much easier.
Returning to Chicago he worked for the best architectural firms of the city, including those of W. I. B. Jenney and D. H. Burnham. While with the latter he was engaged in laying out the wooden frame work of the World's Columbian Exhibition Buildings. He has also laid out the steel skeleton construction work and founda- tions for some of the leading stores and office buildings. His ex- perience has also covered the laying out of several large shops and factories. As superintendent for Mr. F. M. Whitehouse his work was chiefly with residences.
At last, considering himself sufficiently equipped, he started in business for himself, with the result that he has gathered around him some first-class clients and with very definite success, both to them and himself. He has a large acquaintance in Chicago, gained professionally, and while a member of the Architectural Sketch Club, the Columbus and Sheridan Clubs. Mr. Mullay is thoroughly American in his ideas and sentiments, a free lance in politics, and votes for what he considers the best interests. His American edu- cation has developed only some of the best traits which character- ize the Celtic genius, which make his personality no less interest- ing than his achievements. He is a man genial in his habits, kindly in his disposition, and generous in his nature and of very good judgment.
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WILLIAM ERWIN KEELEY.
William Erwin Keeley was born December 1st, 1853, at Fox Lake, Dodge County, Wis. His father, Michael Keeley, was a native of Galway, Ireland, and coming to America in 1848, settled first in the State of New York, and later in Wisconsin. He followed the occupation of farming until his death, in 1886, and was very highly respected by all who knew him. He had married Catherine Kenney, also of Galway.
The subject of this sketch attended in his youth the public schools of his native town, afterward for some time teaching school and utilizing what moneys he received to defray his expenses at Wisconsin State University. From the latter he graduated in 1878 with high honors and the degree of Bachelor of Arts. For two years afterward, Mr. Keeley taught in the public schools of Ran- dolph, Wis., and during this time was so highly esteemed by his fellow citizens that he was chosen to hold the office of Village Pres- ident. While teaching school he devoted his spare time to reading law and when, in 1880, he moved to Beaver Dam, Wis., his whole time was given up to its study, and on March 1st, 1880, the Circuit Court of Juneau, Dodge County, Wis., granted him a license to practice.
Being of a very ambitious disposition, he at once entered into politics, and at the following election received the nomination by his party for the office of District Attorney of Dodge County, and was elected in the fall of 1882 for a term of four years. When his term expired he returned to the practice of law at Beaver Dam, but his fellow citizens, without consulting him, elected him Alderman, and several times he was honored with re-election. Desiring a
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larger field for the exercise of his abilities, in February, 1893, Mr. Keeley sold his practice and moved to Chicago, where he enjoys already a large general practice and bears a very high reputation.
Mr. Keeley was united in marriage July 30th, 1884, to Mary Ogar, of St. Paul, Minn. They have had four children, of whom three are living.
He is a member of the Catholic Order of Foresters, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Columbian Knights, the Knights of Pythias, and in all has held high office. A strong Republican in his political opinions, he is a member of the Hamilton and the Thirty-fourth Ward Republican Clubs, and during the last cam- paign was very active in the interests of his party. In religious matters he is a Roman Catholic and belongs to the congregation of St. Thomas' Church at Hyde Park.
RICHARD CAMILLIUS GANNON.
There are two reasons why the name of Gannon should strike a warm chord in the hearts of every reader of this work, one being that no name is more familiar in Chicago among the tens of thou- sands who have had occasion to bless the broad and noble charities of St. Vincent de Paul, than that of Mr. Richard C. Gannon, who for the last ten years in the capacity of president has had to a large extent the guidance of its great and wide spread benevolence, and the second, that the late Patrick Gannon, revered and lamented father of our subject, in the noble warfare which Ireland's sons have so unceasingly waged in the cause of political freedom, was
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a recognized leader and on account of his activity and influence, suffered the penalty of life-long banishment from the land of bis birth.
Patrick Gannon was born in Naas, County of Kildare, in 1796, received a very fine education, was afterwards the bosom friend of Daniel O'Connell, and also a recognized leader of the Young Ire- land Party. The better days of his life were spent in Dublin, where he labored incessantly for the independence of Ireland. In the rebellion of 1848 he took an active part and it was because of this association that he was forced to seek a home in a foreign land. In 1853 he came to Chicago, where the remainder of his life was spent. He engaged here in the retail grocery business, in which he continued until his death, October 10th, 1874. Although so far removed from his loved country, he never ceased his efforts for her welfare, and a grand monument to his memory is the Dublin branch of the St. Andrew's Benevolent Society, which he was suc- cessful in establishing. He died in the consciousness that his labor had not been entirely in vain and firmly convinced of the justice and right of the cause to which he had so largely contributed, en- tirely satisfied of its ultimate triumph. His wife was Elizabeth Low, a native of Dublin, Ireland, to whom he was married in 1835. Mrs. Gannon died while on a visit to the city of her birth, October 1st, 1872, aged fifty-four years.
Richard C. Gannon, the eldest of thirteen children of Patrick and Elizabeth Gannon, was born in Dublin, December 19th, 1843, . and came to this city with his parents in 1853. He had previously gone through the primary grades of his educational career at the famous school of Dr. Quinn, in Dublin, where one of his classmates was the present primate of all Ireland, the Most Reverend Dr. Walsh, Archbishop of Dublin, and finished at old St. Mary's of the Lake, in Chicago, in 1865.
In early life his inclination and desire made him anxious to be-
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come a priest, but as he grew older, the duties of a life in which his services could bring immediate return in support of his father's efforts to bring up and educate his several brothers and sisters, were circumstances that determined him on a different career. In the course of life he was thus led into he has been in no way less successful because it was so dissimilar to his original choice.
Schooling over, he was for two years book-keeper in a whole- sale dry goods house, and subsequently for five years in the employ of the American Express Company as messenger, a place he re- signed to become city salesman for William M. Hoyt & Company, wholesale grocers. In 1874 he accepted a position as traveling salesman with the firm of Grannis & Farwell and continued in that position fourteen years, until the firm dissolved and retired from business. During his long connection with this house, Mr. Gannon made weekly trips through the coal districts of Illinois, and on the breaking up of the old associations he was the recipient of many marks of esteem from his old employers as well as his fel- low employes. A similar position was at once offered him with the well known firm of Franklin MacVeagh & Company, and to the new interest he took with him no less than fourteen of his old associates. This connection is still maintained, Mr. Gannon occupying the post of general traveling salesman, still covering his old territory and occupying an advanced place in the esteem and respect of his em- ployers. It is illustrative of the man's force of character, his gen- eral ability and the uprightness and honesty of his methods, that he should for so extended a number of years continue to control the trade of his territory, at the same time adding to and developing the business of his house therein, and well evidences the fact that his work gives entire and constant satisfaction to his employers.
The key-note of his success is possibly to be found in the princi- ple which seems to have dominated his life, that charity is the greatest of the virtues. The world in general, and the Catholic
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world in particular, knows him best in this connection, for of that great charitable organization, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, he has been a member for thirty years, having joined the conference of St. Patrick parish in 1865. Regarding this society, it was found- ed by Frederic Ozanam in Paris in 1833, and is now known through- out the whole world as one of the most perfect and meritorious. It possesses an active membership of about 87,000 and an honorary membership of over 100,000. The Chicago branch numbers twenty- four conferences, which report to the Particular and Central Coun- cils. The Particular Council was instituted in February, 1872, and the Central on January 5th, 1894. In 1883 Mr. Gannon was elected vice-president of the former, and in 1890 succeeded to its presi- dency, which he still holds. He was elected president of the Cen- tral Council on its organization, and in these high offices his services have been of the utmost value to the growth and development of the society in Chicago and in the prosecution of its noble work. The Chicago membership amounts to 500.
February 8th, 1877, Mr. Gannon was united in marriage to Mary Anna, daughter of the late Isaac C. Hildreth, of Chicago. Mr. Ilildreth was a native of Massachusetts, but had resided in Brook- lyn for many years, being engaged in the dry goods business. He moved to Chicago in 1872 and took up the coal business. His wife was Mary A. Brown, a native of New Hampshire. She died in 1885, aged sixty-four years. At one time Mr. Hildreth was a deacon of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's Church, but later he became a convert to the Catholic faith, in which he died at the advanced age of eighty-two years, in 1895. Mr. Hildreth was for ten years prior to his death, vice-president of the Particular Council Society of St. Vincent de Paul. As an officer he was most devoted to the interest of the society, and was beloved by all who knew him for his kindly nature and his gentle, unassuming piety.
Mrs. Gannon was educated at Notre Dame Convent, in Balti-
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more, and is an active member of St. Patrick's Church, By virtue of her many estimable qualities, she is one of the most popular members in the west division of Chicago's social and charitable circles.
To Mr. and Mrs. Gannon have been born two children-Richard C., Jr., on December 29th, 1877, and Edward R., on February 7th, 1882, both of whom are receiving their education at St. Ignatius College.
Mr. Gannon is a member of the Illinois Traveling Men's Associa- tion and the Northwestern Traveling Men's Association. He also holds membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen and in the National Union. He is a member of the Columbus Club.
PATRICK JAMES O'KEEFFE.
Patrick James O'Keeffe is an Irishman who, while compara- tively a young man, has passed through much suffering and hard- ship for his native land. Born March 29th, 1861, in Broadford, County Limerick, Ireland, his parents were Patrick and Margaret (Sullivan) O'Keeffe. The O'Keeffes have an interesting history. They belonged to the four tribal chieftains of Kerry, the others being the Sullivans-Bere, the McCarthy-Mores, and the Fitzmau- rices, and lineage is traced back for many hundred years. Patrick O'Keeffe, the father of the subject of this sketch, who is still living and now over seventy years of age, was arrested by the English Government at the time of the 1865 troubles on the suspicion of being a Fenian. The mother came of a prominent Cork family, her father, Geoffrey Sullivan, being a leading surgeon of that county,
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whose father, James Sullivan, had been dispossessed of several thousand acres of land because he refused to conform to the Prot- estant form of worship. On her father's side she belonged to the Sullivan-Bere clan, and on her mother's side to the Fitzmaurices of Lixnaw, Kerry. She had two brothers, one of whom, James Sul- livan, chief engineer of New York City about the year 1860, was burned to death in his efforts to save some city property from the fire; while the other, William by name, who came to the United States at an early age, settled in Virginia and became a very wealthy planter.
The subject of this sketch attended a private classical school at Charleville, County Cork, and was later a student at the old Dio- .cesian College in Limerick City, from which, in November, 1876, he passed an examination for the Queen's University, in Cork, and in the following year matriculated at the college in Glasgow. The business reverses suffered by his father then forced him to seek a living, and he applied himself to the profession of journalism. His first work in that line was done on the Cork "Daily Herald," and later he became a correspondent for the Dublin "Freeman's Jour- nal," and afterwards secured a position as special correspondent for the London Associated Press.
Mr. O'Keeffe has the distinction of having been one of the first to be arrested during the Land League troubles of 1879 and 1880, and was for eleven months in prison at Naas, County Kildare. Some time before his release, his freedom was offered him on the conditions that he would refrain from taking any further part in Irish political matters or leave the country, but to both of these propositions he gave an absolute refusal. When released, he was cautioned that he would be under strict surveillance, and less than a month afterwards he was once more arrested as a seditious sus- pect and for ten days was detained in Limerick prison in a cell seven by six feet and there subjected to every possible humiliation
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short of absolute brutality. On several occasions his cell and his person were searched, even his shoes being removed and closely examined under the excuse that he might have some firearms or something else not allowed by the prison rules. Then, without a jury, he was tried before two judges, acting under the infamous act of Edward the Third, suspending the habeas corpus. However, as no act of sedition could be proved against him, even by the most unscrupulous detectives, one of whom particularly testified that Mr. O'Keeffe was a ring leader in everything that was antagonistic to the peace of her Majesty's Government, the judges refused to convict without positive proof of the commission of some crime.
A few months later he came to the United States, and after twelve months in the City of New York, where he resumed journal- istic work, doing some special work on the New York "Star," he went South. There he was shortly afterwards taken ill with a fever and for a time was compelled to visit the pine woods of Can- ada, where he succeeded in regaining his health. In the fall of 1882 he came to Chicago and since that time he has done special newspaper work for the "Chicago Tribune," the "Times-Herald," and other papers.
In 1886 he was offered the position of Auditor of the Board of Public Works by the late Mayor Carter Harrison, who desired to show his personal appreciation of some sketches Mr. O'Keeffe had written concerning him, and also to testify to the estimation in which he was held by his associates. The place was formally ac- cepted, but Mr. O'Keeffe having an inclination to learn something of a business career, in the following month-September, 1886- took a position at the Stock Yards with the packing company of P. D. Armour. There he remained until January, 1892, when he returned to newspaper work on the editorial staff of the old "Times," resigning, however, the following April, to return to the service of P. D. Armour, where he is at the present time.
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Mr. O'Keeffe continues to write for various publications and short articles from his pen have been published in the magazines, including a sketch of Chicago, which appeared in the New England Magazine. Ireland has also been revisited by him a number of times, and a considerable number of sketches on Irish scenes and on folk-lore subjects have been written by him for the papers of this city. In addition, he is now studying for the bar at the Lake Forest University, and expects to begin active practice of his pro- fession in 1898.
He was married, August 7th, 1889, to Isabelle Cecilia Kelly, also well known as a writer as well as for the great interest she has taken in charitable and Catholic associations. This lady was prac- tically the founder and first president of the Catholic Woman's National League. They have one child.
A Democrat in his political views, he is by religion a Roman Catholic and a member of the congregation of St. Cecilia's, of which parish Father Kelly, the pastor, is his brother-in-law. Mr. O'Keeffe is also a member of the National Union, North American Union, Royal League, and Lake Forest Alumni. He is a man of broad mind and liberal ideas, rich in his intellect and experienced in his judg- ment, a strong antagonist, but ever faithful to his word and trusts, and held in the very highest consideration by an immense number of devoted friends.
JOHN DADIE.
In this great city of Chicago are many striking examples of the possibilities before men of ability, enterprise and application. The progress made has been slow but regular, the path chosen has been never deviated from, and the result achieved is an honorable inde-
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pendence and the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. The subject of the present sketch is one of these men.
He was born in May, 1860, at Warrenville, Du Page County, Illinois, where his parents, Jeremiah and Mary Dadie, had settled in 1858. His father and mother are both of Irish birth, Jeremiah Dadie being a native of County Cork, who first settled at Bab- cocks Grove, Du Page County, afterwards moving to Warrenville; and his wife from Athlone, on the banks of the River Shannon, who came to this country in 1855 and settled with a sister at Naper- ville, Illinois. In the old country Jeremiah Dadie had been a farmer, but when he arrived in the United States he took up the trade of stone mason.
John Dadie was educated in the public schools of Warrenville and went to the North Western College at Naperville, in 1876. At the latter he took the commercial course, and general English branches, graduating in 1879. Having settled upon the occupa- tion of a book-keeper, he at once came to Chicago and found a place with Marshall Field & Co. Two years afterwards he availed himself of an opportunity to better his condition, and took a sit- uation with the W. J. Sloan Carpet Company, of New York, as book-keeper in the Chicago branch. Later he obtained a place in a similar capacity with the firm of W. J. Moxley. Afterwards, when that firm was incorporated, he became its secretary and treasurer, a position he still retains.
John Dadie was married first in 1885 to Agnes Adams, who died a couple of years later, leaving one girl, Gertrude, another daughter having died in 1886. He then married, in 1892, Mar- garette Moxley, daughter of W. J. Moxley, president of the Mox- ley Manufacturing Company.
The subject of this sketch is a member of several clubs, and also friendly societies. He was a charter member of the Chicago Athletic Club, and also belongs to the Columbus Club since 1894,
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in which year also he took a membership in the Chicago Board of Trade. He became a Knight of St. Patrick in 1893, being elected Commander at the first election following his joining the society, and has remained so up to the present time.
In religion he is a Roman Catholic; but as regards his politics he recently altered his views, which had formerly been Democratic, to those of the Republicans.
WILLIAM A. CUNNEA.
Young and energetic, forceful and well favored both physically and intellectually, William A. Cunnea, another bright young law- yer of this city, is a good example of the result of natural Irish gifts when united and tempered by the peculiar American conditions.
He was born in County Down, Ireland, some thirty years ago, his parents, Francis and Margaret (Haggerty) Cunnea, both being natives of County Donegal. The former, with a brother of his, who commanded a British gunboat, and several other relatives, all fol- lowed the sea in some capacity or another, for a livelihood, the first mentioned being in addition chief officer of coast guards. On his death, in 1884, the mother came to the United States.
William A. Cunnea received his earlier education until he was ten years of age in the national schools, from thence going to St. Mary's and afterwards to St. Patrick's, at Belfast, passing through all the usual studies and being a frequent prize winner. At six- teen, when his schooling was over, he came to the United States and for twelve months attended the Metropolitan Business College, afterwards reading law in the office of P. T. McElherne. For two
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years he then attended the North Western University, at the end of which time he received, in 1889, his LL. B. In the same year he was admitted to the Supreme Court of Illinois and deciding at once that he preferred working alone to the forming of a partner- ship, he has since been in active practice for himself. He has met with very good success and his name is well and favorably known among the successful lawyers of this city.
Mr. Cunnea was married in Chicago on Christmas Day, 1895, to Mary E. McElherne, a daughter of P. T. McElherne. They have one son.
He is a Roman Catholic in his religious views and a Democrat in his politics. Is a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and president of Division 33; is chief ranger of the Foresters; was formerly state secretary of the Old Continental League, and belongs to the Phi Delta Phi Society. He has traveled extensively through- out the United States and in Ireland and England. On all general subjects he possesses a fund of information, is kindly natured and generous in his disposition, and possesses, in addition to the faculty of making friends, the higher gift of an ability to retain.
JAMES JOSEPH KELLY.
The subject of the present sketch is another of this city's regi- ment of bright young lawyers. James Joseph Kelly was born March 21st, 1871, in Chicago, his father, Thomas Kelly, being a native of Tipperary, Ireland, and having come to America in 1859, settling first in Canada, and later, at the breaking out of the Re-
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bellion, moving to Cairo, Ill. Here he joined his brother-they both being carpenters by trade and they went to work in the govern- ment ship yards fitting out the gun boats which were then being constructed for use on the western rivers. The war at an end, he came to Chicago, where he gained considerable reputation as a builder, and more particularly as a stair builder. He married Ellen (Stapleton) Kelly, also of Tipperary, and one of a prominent family there, several of her brothers holding good positions in the govern- ment service. Both are still living.
James Joseph Kelly attended the public and grammar schools of Chicago in his youth, later taking special courses at the Chicago Athenaeum and also at the North Western University, at the latter in liberal arts. He also attended the law school of the University and, not content with this, completed his legal studies at the Kent College of Law, where he graduated with the degree of LL. B., and received in June, 1893, a license to practice from the Supreme Court.
At once he entered the law office of Ryerson & Taber, remaining there for a year in order to obtain some necessary legal experience before starting in business for himself. At the end of that time he opened an office and commenced the practice on his own account, and now enjoys a very successful general practice and represents a number of prominent business firms and corporations.
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