Illinois, USA

Michael Molloy from Kilbride to Illinois, USA

Michael Molloy was born in the Corn Mill in Kilbride on the 12 of April 1845. He was the son of Patrick and Jane (Dowling) and the brother of Eliza who married Henry Quinn in 1866 and the brother of Darby who was married to Bridget and who farmed in the Kilteel area of County Kildare and are buried in the family grave in Kilbride Cemetery, as recorded on headstone number 2.

Corn Milling of the type engaged in at Kilbride was coming to an end in the 1870’s and seeing no great prospects of making a living there, Michael decided to seek his fortune elsewhere and emigrated to America. Why or how he made his way so far inland to the State of Illinois is not known for sure but indications have come from other similar cases showing that perhaps he had a contact there already, maybe a relative or a friend from home.

He quickly settled in to working at what he knew best and was described as a farm labourer in the US Census returns for the year 1870. On October 5th 1872 he had applied for a marriage licence in Livingston County, Illinois. His bride to be was Rosanna Fay who lived with her parents on a farm in Charlotte Township, in Livingston County. Rosanna was the eldest child of Patrick and Margaret who were immigrants from County Roscommon in Ireland and it appears that Rosanna was born in New York, shortly after they arrived in America.

Their children were as follows; Margaret (1873), Jane (1875), Mary (1878), Patrick(1880), James Michael (1882), Catherine (1885) Anne (1897).

The census returns show that Michael and his family moved about a great deal. Although the oldest daughter was born in Chatsworth, their two sons were born in Piper City, Illinois. Once they moved to Peoria they stayed in the City but lived on many different streets.

We know that Michael and Rosanna owned the Southern Hotel in Peoria. Prior to that Rosanna was listed as proprietor of several different boarding houses, while Michael was a bartender for saloons connected to the boarding houses. It would appear that Michael had left behind him any thoughts of milling or farming as in 1904 he was himself listed as owner of the Southern Hotel and Saloon, where his daughter Catherine was listed as a waitress.

Michael’s great granddaughter Corinne Biersdorff from the City of Peoria, gave us the information that his mother Jane had gone to live with her daughter Eliza at Ballinahown and relevant to that she tells the following story;

“When the town of Ballinahown was about to be flooded and the houses were being emptied of their contents. There was a letter written by Michael to his mother, found behind a picture that was taken down from a wall. Whether this letter was forwarded to my Grandfather, (Michael’s son) I do not know. It must have been or we wouldn’t have known the story. If it was it has been lost over the years. Again, it has been said that Michael was very closed mouth about his life in Ireland and although it was said he wrote letters to his mother and received letters from Ireland, he never shared the contents of the letters with family”.

To complete this story we will list all who were resident in the Quinn household at the time and surmise who it was that made contact with the Molloy cousins in America, to tell them about the letter. They were the grandfather John and his wife Mag, their daughter Kathy and his sons Harry and Jim from his first marriage.  

Michael died on Saturday the 24th February 1905 at his residence, 2125 South Washington, Peoria, aged 59 years.  His wife Rosanna died on Sunday December 26 1909, of heart failure. They are buried in Saint Mary’s Cemetery.