Page 1 of 47 min readPrint this page

Daniel Hanlon and Mary Ann McCann in Philadelphia, 1882 to 1946

Daniel Hanlon, Sr., was born at Ahadallane on 13 December 1859, the son of Jeremiah and Kate. His memorial says the surname was once O’Hanlon, and it names his parents as Jeremiah O’Hanlon and Cathleen (“Kate”) Buckley. He gave 1882 as the year he came to America, though one census says 1884, and he was naturalized in 1889. Mary Ann McCann came in 1883. No record of either crossing is known. His death certificate says he had been “in community 58 years,” which counts from 1885.

They married on 22 October 1885 at St. James the Greater, at 38th and Chestnut Streets in West Philadelphia. Founded in 1850, it was the first Catholic parish west of the Schuylkill River. Its present church, by Edwin Forrest Durang, was being built from 1881 to 1887, and which building the couple stood in is not recorded. The parish closed in 1976. The marriage license, no. 530, was sworn on 14 October and the certificate filed on 16 November. Daniel swore that he was born in Ireland on 23 December 1862 and was a gardener living at 38th Street and Elm Avenue. Mary McCann was born in Ireland in 1863, “day and month not known,” and was a servant at 3604 Chestnut Street. Neither had been married before, and they were not related. The pastor of St. James’ who married them signed a name that reads as P. J. Garvey. Both lived in the parish, Mary Ann in service three blocks from the church, which is why a South Philadelphia family married in West Philadelphia. Like his census ages, the birth date Daniel swore to made him younger than he was.

Daniel and Mary Ann raised their family in South Philadelphia and moved often within it. In 1892 they lived at 1816 Lawrence Avenue (a doubtful reading), in Ward 26. From 1900 to 1903 they were at 1842 Fernon Street, in Ward 36, where Daniel was a laborer. In 1910 they lived at number 1602, probably on South 16th Street, and Daniel was a packer in the drug trade. Three daughters at home worked as a stenographer for a rubber manufacturer, a “typewriter” (typist) for a commercial agency and a timekeeper for a dry-goods firm. In 1913 Daniel was a shipper. By January 1920 the Hanlons owned, with a mortgage, 2149 South 19th Street, in Ward 48, and Daniel was a watchman for an oil company. Their daughter Nora, 19, was a telephone operator, and their son Thomas, 18, a clerk for the street railway company. Patrick McCann, possibly Mary Ann’s brother, boarded with them.

In April 1930 Daniel, 66, was a pumper at an oil refinery. He and Mary owned 2204 Norwood Street, worth $4,300, and their son James, 23, an assembler for an electrical supply firm, was the only child at home. That census gives both as naturalized and, alone among the censuses, gives Daniel’s birthplace as the Irish Free State and Mary’s as Northern Ireland. Both had married at 22. Next door, at 2210 Norwood Street, lived John Hanlon, Sr., with his wife, Louise, and their children Katherine, John, Jr., and James. He was probably their son John Patrick, though the census does not say so. In 1940, indexed under “Henlen,” Daniel, 79, and Mary, 77, still owned 2204 Norwood Street, now worth $5,000, and had been there in 1935. At 2210 lived John P. Hanlon, 35, a clerk at a car company, with Louise, 32, and Katherine, 13, John, Jr., 12, James, 11, and Mary S., 8. John P. was probably their son.

Daniel retired from the Atlantic Refining Company. He died on 20 July 1943 at 2210 South Norwood Street, probably his son John’s house, of cancer of the prostate. The certificate names his parents as Jerry Hanlon and Catherine Buckley, both born in Ireland, and gives his own birth as 6 January 1865. Mary A. Hanlon gave the information. The certificate’s reading of her maiden name, “McGlenn [?],” and her age, 73 [?], are probably misreadings of a poor copy. His death notice gives his home as 2210 South Norwood Street; the family’s own record gives 2205. His funeral was held from Victor J. Ruffenach’s funeral home, 2109 South 21st Street, before a Solemn Requiem Mass at St. Edmond’s, and he was buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Yeadon, on 24 July.

St. Edmond’s, at 21st and Snyder Streets in Point Breeze, was the family’s parish from its founding on 1 June 1912. Its permanent church went up during the Depression under Fr. James Duffy, “the House that Duffy Built,” and the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary taught in its school, which at its peak had more than a thousand pupils. The parish was merged into St. Monica in 2014.

Mary Ann died on 7 March 1946 and was buried with Daniel at Holy Cross.

Daniel and Mary Ann’s Children

Daniel and Mary Ann had fourteen children. The list comes from linked memorials on Find a Grave, and the dates of the eight who grew up rest on those memorials, so they are probably right but not proved by a parish or civil record. Five of the children died young, and their Philadelphia death certificates, each naming Daniel and Mary Hanlon as parents, confirm them.

The deaths of the little ones came in the family’s early years. Hannah died at 1816 Lawrence Avenue in 1892 and was buried at Holy Cross. Daniel, Jr., was buried there on 1 June 1895. William F. Sweeney, an undertaker of 1629 South 17th Street, buried Hannah, Daniel and Joseph. Francis died at 1842 Fernon Street and was buried at Holy Cross the next day, and Elizabeth died at the same house in 1903 and was buried there too. In June 1900 Mary Ann told the census taker she had borne ten children, seven living; Francis died that November.

Jeremiah, the eldest, was probably the Jeremiah A. Hanlon, a conductor, who married Mary A. Guinn at Philadelphia on 19 June 1909 (license 239707½). In his affidavit, sworn on 15 June, he gave his birth as 11 July 1886, the date on Jeremiah’s memorial, and his home as 1602 South 16th Street, the family’s house. Mary was born on 1 October 1887 and lived at 1803 Fernon Street. Neither had married before. The license names no parents, so the match rests on name, age, birth date and neighborhood. In 1910 the couple, married one year, lived in the same census district as his parents with Mary’s sister, Sarah Gunn, 18, and an infant indexed as “Frances”. A Virginia marriage record for a Frank Aloysius Hanlon, born in 1910, names his parents as Jeremiah Hanlon and Mary Guynn, which fits that baby, who was probably their son. Jeremiah died in 1927, aged 41, and the Philadelphia Inquirer printed his obituary on 25 August. He was buried at Holy Cross.

Mary, the eldest daughter, became Sister Mary Thomas Aquinas of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), the congregation based at Immaculata, Pennsylvania. Her Social Security record, under “Thomas Aquinas” and “Thomas Hanlon,” gives the same birth date as her memorial, 16 July 1887. She is buried in the congregation’s cemetery at Immaculata.

Kathryn was a stenographer when she married Peter Francis McCullough, a crane operator, on 25 November 1913. Her application, sworn on 22 November, gives her birth as 27 October 1888 and names her parents as Daniel Hanlon, a shipper, and Mary McCann. Peter was born in Scotland on 10 January 1883, the son of Francis McCullough, who was born in Ireland and had died, and Katharine McMenamin. Kathryn was buried at Holy Cross.

Sarah married John A. Grady on 19 June 1913 and is buried at Saints Peter & Paul Cemetery, Springfield.

Nora married Thomas Francis Bell on 21 September 1923. Both were clerks. Thomas was born on 13 May 1900, the son of Anthony Bell, a pipe fitter, and Winifred McLaughlin, and Fr. Eugene J. Travers married them. They had three children. Nora is buried at Saints Peter & Paul, in Section 11, Range 5, Lot 10.

Thomas was a clerk for the street railway company in 1920. He died in 1938 and was buried at Holy Cross.

John Patrick probably lived next door to his parents on Norwood Street, with his wife, Louise, and their children, as described above. He is buried at St. Thomas the Apostle Cemetery, Chester Heights.

James was an assembler for an electrical supply firm in 1930. When he registered for the draft on 16 October 1940, he gave his birth as 17 September 1906 at Philadelphia, his wife as Emily Hanlon and his employer as the Chichester Chemical Company. He is buried at Resurrection Cemetery, Bensalem.

Their son Charles Francis, Kitty’s father, is the subject of the rest of this chapter.