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The McCauleys and the Wallaces

Kitty’s mother’s parents were Charles James McCauley and Mary Wallace, both born in Ireland. Charles was born about 1861 or in 1863. His memorial gives 1861 and his age at death puts his birth about 1860 or 1861, while the 1900 census gives March 1863. The censuses of 1930 and 1940 say he was born in Northern Ireland, meaning one of the six counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone. His death certificate names his parents as James McCauley and Mary Hoey [Foey?], both born in Ireland.

In the Catholic register of Killesher, in the Diocese of Kilmore, a Charles McCauly was baptized on 2 January 1859, the son of a James, of Whitehill. A James McCauly was baptized there on 16 February 1862, “of James & Margt Leonard of White Hill.” The Charles of 1859 was probably a son of James McCauly and Margaret Leonard rather than of Mary Hoey, so he is at most possibly Charles James McCauley.

Charles gave his year of arrival as 1883, 1880, 1885 and 1882 in different censuses. He was probably the Charles McCauly, 20, a laborer born in Ireland, who landed at Philadelphia from the Lord Gough on 13 March 1883. Mary Wallace also gave 1883 as her year of arrival.

When and where Charles and Mary married is not known. A Charles McCaulay, 24, possibly he, married a Mary Wallace, 24, at Camden, New Jersey, on 12 January 1887. The ages match those of the 1900 census, and the date fits that census’s thirteen years of marriage and the twins it gives as born in December 1887. But it does not fit Mary’s age at her death, and the index names no parents, so it remains a candidate.

In 1900 the McCauleys lived in Ward 36, the same ward as the Hanlons, and Charles worked at a refinery. In 1910 Charles’s brother-in-law, Patrick McCauley (so entered), 20, a wagon driver born in New Jersey, boarded with them. By 1914 their home was 1419 South 21st Street. In 1910 the next household on the census page, at 1417, was that of William McCauley, 40, born in Ireland, a fireman in a boiler house, with his wife, Mary, 32, their daughters Annie, 4, Catherine, 3, and Margaret, 8 months, and a brother-in-law, Alexander Connor, 30. William, born in Antrim on 16 February 1870, a fireman of 2137 Wharton Street, had married Mary Connor, born in County Antrim on 28 March 1878 [?], a servant at Norristown, at Philadelphia on 13 July 1904. James T. Higgins, a minister of the gospel, married them. On 3 June 1907 Alexander Connor, 27, a joiner of Armoy, had landed at Philadelphia from the Merion, going to his brother Francis Connor at 1417 South 21st Street. Mary McCauley was probably born a Connor, and Alexander was probably her brother. No record ties William to Charles.

Mary Wallace McCauley died on 2 December 1914 at 1419 South 21st Street, aged 49, of a dilated heart with kidney disease (nephritis). She was a housekeeper, born in Ireland. Her husband gave the information, leaving her parents’ names blank but giving both as born in Ireland. The undertaker’s name reads as Owen F. Canavan. She was buried at Holy Cross. Her age wanders across the records: born in March 1863 by the 1900 census, in 1866 by the 1910 census, and about 1865 by her death certificate and memorial.

The children are known from their memorials. Catherine’s death notice of 1953 names the four sisters and two brothers who outlived her: “Mrs. Edward Dougherty, Mrs. Anna Peck, Mrs. Charles Fortescue and Mrs. Charles Donahue and two brothers William and Charles”. The 1900 census gives Mary and Annie as twins born in December 1887, and the 1910 census gives Annie as born in 1888. Martha Loretta was “Loretta” in the 1910 census.

Mary married Francis Heron on 24 November 1909, with F. P. Coyle officiating, and Helen married George F. Houseman on 18 November 1910. Both died young, Helen in 1918 and Mary in 1921, and their father took in their sons. Rachel married Edward W. Dougherty on 26 July 1913 (license 299298). Anna Marie, a nurse, married Bernard J. Peck, a patrolman, on 2 February 1920. Her application gives her birth as 10 October 1894 at Philadelphia and her home as 1419 South 21st Street, and names her mother as Mary Wallace, dead. Bernard was born at Philadelphia on 6 September 1891 and lived at 1248 South 21st Street; his parents, Frank(?) Peck and Sarah Murray(?), had died. Elizabeth married Charles I. Fortescue on 23 November 1929, and Martha Loretta married Charles J. Donahue on 27 December 1937; both records name the brides’ parents as Charles McCauley and Mary Wallace. Martha was then a housekeeper. Charles J. Donahue’s parents were Patrick Donahue, a paperhanger, and Sallie Noble. Social Security records give Rachel’s birth as 26 August 1891, a day before the date on her memorial, and list Elizabeth as Elizabeth R. Fortescue.

After Mary died, Charles kept a house that took in the family’s motherless grandchildren and a widowed daughter. In January 1920 he was 60, with Margaret and Elizabeth, both telephone operators, Charles, William, a machinist’s apprentice, and Loretta at home, and a grandson, Joseph Houseman, 3 years 3 months old, whose mother, Helen, had died in 1918. In 1930, aged 69, he lived with Charles A., a veteran of the First World War, William J. and Loretta; his daughter Anna Peck, 42, and her daughter, Marie, 9; and two grandsons, Francis Heron, 18, and Charles Heron, 13, the sons of his daughter Mary. In 1940, aged 78, he was in the house he had lived in since at least 1935, with Charles A. and William J., both single, Anna M. Peck, by then a widow, and Marie B. Peck, a stenographer for the Unemployment Compensation office. Martha Loretta’s application of December 1937 gives her home and her father’s as 5821 Chester Avenue, and his work as retired.

Charles James McCauley died at 5821 Chester Avenue on 3 August 1943, aged 82, of chronic heart disease (myocarditis) and high blood pressure, with a cancer of the right parotid gland. His son Charles A. McCauley, who lived with him, gave the information, and he was buried at Holy Cross on 7 August.

A handwritten family chart says the McCauleys “came to America during the Potato Famine,” the years of hunger of about 1845 to 1852, and it names a Daniel McCauley in the line down to Catherine Hanlon. The records do not fit that story. Charles James McCauley was born a decade or more after the Famine and came to America in the 1880s, and his death certificate names his father as James, not Daniel. No record attaches the name Daniel to the family. The same chart carries the words “Came from Rome” near the Hanlon entries, without saying whom they describe. No Hanlon, McCann, McCauley or Wallace tie to Rome has been found.