An Irish Ancestor Revealed in Federal Records - Maurice
Kelleher
By
Arlene Jennings,
CG
Of my grandfather Kelleher’s father I once knew only that he
was Irish and that my grandfather, Linnehan Maurice Kelleher, was named for him
and for his mother, Ann Linnehan. Everything I will tell you about him, I
learned from federal records. And if you are willing to glance at the endnotes
you will know how I learned these things.
Maurice Kelleher was born in Ireland, in County Kerry, on 15
June 1845. That is what his mother taught him. 1 He came to America
when he was only ten years old2 and in 1860 was working as a
farmhand, apparently alongside his two older brothers, Daniel and Thomas, on the
Lloyd farm in Western Township, Henry County, Illinois.3 But he soon
found himself caught up in the turmoil of the Civil War, and that would alter
his life forever.
A fairly tall young man for the times, at 5' 11" with a dark
complexion, hazel eyes, and black hair, he mustered in at Chicago on 18
September 1861 as a private in Company H of the 37th Regiment Illinois Infantry,
otherwise known as the Fremont Rifles. He served until 14 Aug 1865 when he was
discharged at Beaumont, Texas. In December of 1862 he saw duty at the Battle of
Prairie Grove and suffered a gunshot wound to his left foot, which caused him to
require a cane for walking in later years. He was treated at the rebel hospital
near Prairie Grove from the 7th to the 10th of December and then at the
Regimental Hospital until January 1863. Six months later he was in Mississippi
present at the siege of Vicksburg. While there he began to lose his eyesight,
and failing vision plagued him throughout his life. 4
Company I of the 11th Kansas Infantry also fought
at the Battle of Prairie Grove, and in that unit was James E. Bush, 5
who had settled in Burlingame, Kansas, in 1857.6 Jim Bush and Maurice
Kelleher may not have met on the battlefield at Prairie Grove, but twenty-one
years later Maurice’s first son, Linnehan Maurice and Jim’s first daughter,
Nellie, my grandparents, would marry.
Like so many of those who survived the war, Maurice returned
home in a terrible state of health. His discharge papers attributed his illness
to syphilis, but his physicians’ testimonials in support of his pension claim
argued that neither he nor his wife and children had ever shown any trace of the
disease. One of those physicians, his future father-in-law, had understood his
condition from the time he returned from the war. And in fact, the authorities
who reviewed his application accepted the revised diagnosis of “scrofula” or
“breakbone fever” when they granted his pension.7
In civilian life our young Irishman, now just 20 years old,
returned to farming and teaming as a profession and so he would continue to
labor for as long as he was able. 8 Only four months after he returned
to Illinois, on Christmas eve of 1865, at Orion, Illinois, he married Hannah
Hoover,9 who was four years his senior.10 The Hoover
family had previously lived in Pennsylvania.11 Sometime during the
following year Maurice and Hannah and her parents, Christian and Mary Hoover,
moved once again to Keeokuk County, Iowa, and it was there in the tiny town of
What Cheer that their first son, Linnehan Maurice, was born on 27 October 1866.12
Between 1870 and 1874 they would have three more children, Thomas (born about
1870),13 Clark B. (16 January 1872),14 and Florence (7
September 1874).15
In 1868 at Sigourney, Keeokuk County, Iowa, Maurice received
his naturalization certificate as a U. S. citizen. 16 In Iowa Maurice
and Hannah and the children were living as part of a large extended family
household. In the home were Christian and Mary, Hannah’s parents; her 22 year
old brother, James; her 12 year old nephew, George Lefler;17 and
another young woman and three children who were perhaps Hannah’s sister Barbara
with her children.18 This was recorded by the census of 1870, fifteen
years after Maurice came to America and five years after his military service,
and he now owned real estate worth $1,500 and personal property worth $1,135.19
Sometime toward the end of the decade the family undertook
one more migration, this time to Burlingame in Osage County, Kansas, where three
of Hannah’s cousins from back home in Plum Creek, Pennsylvania, had been among
the first settlers in the mid 1850’s when the area opened for settlement. 20
Maurice and Hannah were established there by 1880 living next door to her
parents, and Maurice was still working as a teamster.21 By 1882
however he began to receive a partial pension of four dollars a month for his
disability from the gunshot wound and later received a full pension for his
illness. By 1912 and until his death in 1914 his pension amounted to nineteen
dollars a month.22
“Grand Army of the Republic”
Maurice Kelleher is third from the right, front row27
Maurice and Hannah were still living in Burlingame in 1900, 23
and in 1910 Maurice was there living on Lincoln Street but married to Ellen.24
We have to go beyond federal records to learn the details of Hannah’s death, but
we do know from the marriage certificate filed with Ellen’s application for a
widow’s pension that she and Maurice married 12 September 1906. (Ellen, née Job,
was previously twice widowed. Her first husband, Daniel Amalong, also a veteran
of the Civil War, had died 6 January 1870, and William McCutcheon died 6 March
1891.)25
Despite his ill health, much discussed in the documents filed
for his pension, Maurice lived to the age of 69, but finally succumbed to
pneumonia at ten minutes of four on the morning of 25 November 1914 in Stormont
Hospital, Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas. He was buried three days later in the
Burlingame cemetery. 26
About Maurice and his family I now know more, of course, from
other kinds of records, and all that I have written here has also been supported
by these other sources. One thing I haven’t found that I hoped would turn up at
the Archives is a passenger arrival record. Since several members of the family
came from Ireland, and all within a period of ten to fifteen years, it seems to
me I ought to be able to locate at least some trace in the ships’ records. My
Kellehers may be lurking there, but so far they have evaded my pursuit.
__________________
Endnotes
1. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491, Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15,
National Archives. (In a deposition dated May 3, 1913, he stated that there is
no public or church record of his birth that he is aware of, but that he was
taught by his mother that he was born on the 15th day of June 1845.)
2. Morris Kelleher household, 1900 U. S. census, Osage
County, Kansas, population schedule, Burlingame, enumeration district [ED] 113,
supervisor's district [SD] 4, page 7, dwelling 142, family 142, National
Archives microfilm T623, roll 494; Maurice Kelleher household, 1910 U. S.
census, Osage County, Kansas, population schedule, Burlingame township, ED 94,
SD 4, sheet 13, dwelling 124, family 126, National Archives microfilm T624, roll
451.
3. Dal Keller [sic] household, 1860 U. S. census, Henry
County, Illinois, population schedule, Western township, Dearington post office,
page 472, dwelling 70, family 79, National Archives microfilm M653, roll 182, (Mory
Keller, 16, m, farm laborer, Ireland).
4. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491, Civil War pension file,
Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15, National Archives.
5. James E. Bush, Civil War pension file, SO864327, SC601739, WO1199349,
WC929249; Records of the Veterans Administration; Record Group 15, National
Archives, Washington.
6. J. E. Bush household, 1859 Kansas territorial census, Osage County,
Kansas, population schedule, Burlingame township, page 4, voter 65, Kansas State
Historical Society, Topeka, Kansas, microfilm K-1.
7. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491; Civil War pension file,
Records of the Veterans Administration; Record Group 15, National Archives
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. 1900 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population schedule, Burlingame,
ED 113, SD 4, page 7, dwelling 142, family 142.
11. Crist Hoover, Jr. household, 1850 U. S. census, Armstrong
County, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Plum Creek township, page 358,
dwelling 349, family 349; National Archives microfilm M432, roll 749.
12. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491; Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration; Record Group 15,
National Archives; Maurice Kelleher household, 1880 U. S. census, Osage County,
Kansas, population schedule, Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21,
dwelling 177, family 182, National Archives microfilm T9, roll 391 (age 35, born
in Ireland).
13. Chris Hoover household, 1870 U. S. census, Keokuk County,
Iowa, population schedule, Van Buren township, Sigourney post office, page 10,
dwelling 59, family 60; National Archives microfilm M593, roll 402 (age 7/12,
born in Illinois (?).)
14. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491, Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15,
National Archives, Jan. 16, 1872; 1880 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas,
population schedule, Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21, dwelling 177,
family 182 (age 8, born in Iowa.)
15. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491, Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration, Record Group 15,
National Archives, Jan. 16, 1872; 1880 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas,
population schedule, Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21, dwelling 177,
family 182 (age 6, born in Iowa.)
16. Maurice Kelleher, naturalization certificate, 9 October
1868, District Court of Iowa; Keokuk County; Sigourney, Iowa.
17. 1880 U. S. census, Osage county, Kansas, population
schedule, Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21, dwelling 176, family 181 (Leffler,
George F., age 22, grandson of Christian Hoover).
18. 1870 U. S. census, Keokuk County, Iowa, population
schedule, Van Buren township, Sigourney post office, page 10, dwelling 59,
family 60.
19. Ibid.
20. A. Hoover household, 1855 Kansas territorial census,
population schedule, NARA microfilm M1813, roll 1; Geo. Hoover household, 1855
Kansas territorial census, population schedule, NARA microfilm M1813, roll 1; A.
Hoover household, 1859 Kansas territorial census, Shawnee County, population
schedule, Burlingame Township, page 5, family 95, NARA microfilm K-1; David
Hoover household, 1859 Kansas territorial census, Shawnee County, population
schedule, Burlingame Township, page 5, family 94, NARA microfilm K-1.
21. 1880 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population
schedule, Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21 , dwelling 177, family 182;
Christian Hoover household ,
1880 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population schedule,
Burlingame Township, ED 30, SD 2, sheet 21, dwelling 176, family 181, National
Archives microfilm T9, roll 391.
22. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491; Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration; Record Group 15,
National Archives.
23. 1900 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population
schedule, Burlingame, ED 113, SD 4, page 7, dwelling 142, family 142.
24. 1910 U. S. census, Osage County, Kansas, population
schedule, Burlingame township, ED 94, supervisor's district SD 4, sheet 13,
dwelling 124, family 126.
25. Maurice Kelleher, SO 173983, SC 230870, WC 916491; Civil
War pension file, Records of the Veterans Administration; Record Group 15,
National Archives.
26. Ibid.
27. Original is in the collection of Dan Keleher,
Orion, Illinois.
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