THE MAHONYS OF YONKERS Report of the MAHONY GENEALOGY PROJECT Tom Mahony |
Summary
Our Irish immigrant ancestor, Abel Mahony, was baptized in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, on Sunday, March 21, 1824, the son of Kain and Margaret Sullivan Mahony. See document
Abel emigrated to America sometime in 1851, settling in NYC. He married Ellen Sullivan, on Sunday, January 11, 1852, at St. Stephen's Church, on East 28th Street, in NYC. Ellen had come to America the previous November.
Ellen Sullivan was born on Wednesday, June 1, 1836, in Killarney, Ireland, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Sullivan (nee Sullivan as well).
Another Abel Mahony (presumably Abel’s uncle), his wife Mary (nee Kerin), and their children, Mary, age 6, and Ellen, age 2, also emigrated from Castleisland to the U.S. in May of 1851.
Abel and Ellen had their first child, Mary A. Mahony, on Thursday, March 30, 1854, at home at 372 1st Ave., NYC. Dr. E. G. Rawson delivered the child.
Their next child, Daniel Joseph Mahony was born on Sunday, March 22, 1857, at home at 535 Third Ave, delivered by Dr. Rawson (See document), and he was baptized on Sunday, April 5, 1857 at St. Stephen's (See document). That the J is for Joseph is documented on D. J. (Jr.)'s Baptism Cert 1887.
Abel is listed as a plasterer in the New York City directories from 1854 until 1858. From our research in Ireland, we've learned that he came from a family of plasterers and slaters in Castleisland, County Kerry, which is apparently where his family moved to from nearby Killarney, also in Kerry, sometime before 1837.
Abel applied for citizenship on April 27th, 1858 and he became a U.S. citizen on June 19th. See document
Abel, Ellen and family moved to Chicago, probably in 1858. Abel is listed as residing at 220 N. Market St. in the 1859-60 Chicago city directory. See document
Ellen and the children--Mary aged 7, Daniel aged 3--are listed in the 1860 Federal Census for Chicago as living with Jerry and Mary Wren, their 10-year-old daughter Abby, Uncle Abel's son John Mahony, age 5, and a one-year-old named Abel. See document Note: Neither Abel Mahony is listed in this census nor is it known where they were at the time. It is also not known whose child the one-year-old Abel was. It is very likely that the Wrens were also from Castleisland. There is a building on Main St., in Castleisland, with the name Wren on it. It was built in 1835 and Mahonys did the plasterwork. See photo
Abel and Ellen had another child in 1863, Margaret E.
Abel, Ellen, and children moved to Yonkers, N.Y. sometime in 1865 or late 1864.
Abel and Ellen had four more children after moving to Yonkers: Ellen M. (1865), Abel F. (9/28/1866), James V. (5/3/1868), and another child, Catherine, on 2/27/1870. Because Catherine is not listed in the U.S. Federal Census of 1880, we believe she died in infancy. All of the Yonkers-born children of Abel and Ellen Mahony were baptized at the Church of the Immaculate Conception (St. Mary's) on South Broadway.
Abel Mahony died Saturday, February 6, 1875, aged 52, in Chicago, at St. Luke's Hospital. Note: Nothing more is known about why he was in Chicago. The great abundance of construction in rebuilding Chicago after the Great Fire possibly brought him back out there. Apparently the pay was very good for those days, so many laborers--and tradesmen such as Abel--went to Chicago after the fire.
Abel was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery in Yonkers. There is no gravestone.
A death notice appeared in the Yonkers Gazette on Saturday, February 20, 1875. See document
By 1882, Daniel J. Mahony had established a hat store, with James Jackson, on 218 New Main St., in Yonkers: Jackson & Mahony.
In 1883, Daniel J. had his own store at 28 North Broadway. See document
Daniel J. married Catherine “Katie” Dignan, daughter of Bernard and Johanna Dignan, also of Yonkers, on February 28, 1886, at St. Mary's church in Yonkers.
Daniel J. Mahony (Jr.) was born on July 14, 1887. Daniel and Catherine had five more children: Catherine (1889), Ellen (1891), Bernard (2/28/1893), Joseph (1895), and Francis (1896).
In 1893, Daniel J. took on a partner and renamed the store--still at 28 N. Broadway--Mahony & Flood.
In 1894, Daniel J. was also a partner with Herman Lyons, a fellow Yonkers haberdasher, in a suspenders' manufacturing plant, located on Canal Street in Manhattan. This apparently lasted only a year.
A brief bio of Daniel J. Mahony and a photo of his hat store on North Broadway appeared in the Rev. Charles Allison’s “History of Yonkers”, published in 1896.
In 1904, the hat store returned to Daniel J.'s sole ownership before ceasing operation.
Daniel J. went on to jobs as vice-president of the Sloan Furniture Co., in Yonkers, in 1905 and then as a “promoter” (of what, we don't know) by 1907.
In 1908, Daniel J. opened a real estate office in downtown Yonkers. In 1920, he took on a partner, Nelson A. Ball, a former fellow hat store proprietor in Yonkers, until 1929. He stayed in real estate until becoming vice-president of his son Bernard's Mahoney Motors, on South Broadway, by 1936. Note: Bernie Mahony, Bernard’s son, claims that Daniel J., known as “Grandpa” to his family, was never involved in Mahoney Motors, so it’s not known why he is listed as “vice-president” of Mahoney Motors in the 1936 Yonkers city directory. On a side note, Bernie said that his father finally gave in to the dreaded “e” and started to allow the misspelling of Mahony while playing professional baseball in Michigan after graduating from Yonkers High School where he was captain of the varsity baseball team.
Daniel J. Mahony (Jr.) married Mary L. “Mollie" Loehr, daughter of Yonkers saloon and hotel owner and, later in his career, Yonkers city alderman, John J. Loehr and his wife, Emily Logue Loehr, in Yonkers. Mollie's brother, Joe, was mayor of Yonkers from 1932-1939, and her brother, Monsignor Edward Loehr, was commissioned by Cardinal Hayes to establish Blessed Sacrament parish, in the Bronx, in 1927.
Daniel J. (Jr.) opened a billiard parlor at 488 South Broadway, Yonkers, in 1914.
Ellen O’Sullivan Mahony died on Wednesday, January 5, 1916, at her home at 80 Lawrence Street, in Yonkers, aged 79. She was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery. There is no gravestone. A substantial obituary appeared in the Jan. 7 edition of the Yonkers Herald.
Daniel J. died at his home at 1 Post St. in Yonkers on November 16, 1937. He was 80 years old. An obituary appeared in the New York Times, November 18th edition and in the Yonkers Herald Statesman on the 16th and the 17th with an accompanying photo on the 17th. He was buried at St. Mary's Cemetery. There is no gravestone.