The following members of the Society died during the year 1906, much and
deservedly regretted:
COFFEY, JOHN J., born in County Kerry, Ireland, 1831; died at Neponset
(Boston), Mass., June 13, 1906. He enlisted for service in the Civil
War on December 13, 1861, in Company C, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts
Regiment (the famous Faugh-a-Ballaghs), which formed part of
Meagher’s Irish Brigade, and he later fought with the Fourth Heavy
Artillery of Massachusetts. Among the famous battles in which he
took part were Marye’s Heights, Gettysburg and Fredericksburg. He
was stricken with rheumatic fever, which necessitated his taking
furloughs. With the exception of these two absences he served from
the first year of the war until its conclusion, and was in the army
which assembled in Washington for review preparatory to its
disbandment at the close of hostilities. He returned to Boston after
the war, and was active in military organizations. He joined the
Montgomery Light Guard Veteran Association and various other Irish
societies. He was a most patriotic man and an active worker in the
interests of his native land. He was identified with the Irish
National League, Irish National Federation and the United Irish
League. He also belonged to Division 43, A. O. H., the Knights of
St. Brendan and John A. Andrew Post, No. 5, G. A. R. He is survived
by his wife and six children: James D. and Timothy J. Coffey of
Boston; Charles M. Coffey, who has been in the West and Alaska for
some years, part of the time serving in the United States Cavalry;
Mrs. George G. White of Dorchester, Mass.; Mrs. William H. Murphy of
Neponset; and Miss Anna S. Coffey, a teacher in the Henry L. Pierce
School, Dorchester, who lived with her parents. When a collection of
articles for an Irish-American loan exhibition for the World’s fair
at St. Louis, Mo., was being gotten up in 1904, John J. Coffey, the
subject of this obituary, contributed an Irish flag that had been
carried during the Civil War by the Twenty-eighth Massachusetts.
Accompanying the flag, he sent a letter, the following being an
extract therefrom: “This flag has a precious history. It was
presented to the Twenty-eighth Regiment, through the late Patrick
Donahoe, by the Irish women of Boston, on Sept. 24, 1861, at the
same time Governor Andrew presented the regiment with the flag of
the State of Massachusetts. My company (C) was selected as the right
center or color company, and my brother, Michael J., whose height
exceeded mine by two inches, was selected as color sergeant of this
green flag, and carried it until he fell mortally wounded at the
second battle of Bull Run, August 30, 1862; after that it went
through Chantilly, South Mountain and Antietam. On the memorable day
of the attack on Marye’s Heights, at Fredericksburg, it was the only
green flag unfurled—and by this I do not intend to cast any
reflections on the other four regiments of the Irish Brigade. Some
time before Chancellorsville, in May following, Colonel Byrnes and
the other officers of the regiment concluded that it was too
cumbersome, subscribed among themselves and procured a flag of
lighter fabric (worsted), and laid the old flag (this one) aside,
but in safe keeping, and you may rest assured that it has been
scrupulously cared for and treasured by the custodian.”
COLEMAN, JAMES S., builder of the new Croton Dam, New York, and street
cleaning commissioner from 1881 to 1891, died at his home, 38 East
69th Street, New York City, December 17. Deceased was one of the
best-known contractors in this country. At the time of his
appointment as commissioner of street cleaning by Mayor Grace of New
York he was engaged in the construction of the Texas and Pacific
Railroad, which work was turned over to other contractors, while
deceased gave his whole time to the study of his work for the city.
He was the first commissioner to realize the many commercial uses to
which city waste might be put, and he so arranged the disposal of
garbage as to clear for the city $90,000 yearly. Mayor Grace
appointed him to a six-year term, which continued through the term
of Mayor Edson, and subsequently he was re-appointed for another
six-year term by Mayor Hewitt. In 1892 he received the contract for
the building of the new Croton Dam, and shortly before his death the
entire work was completed. Deceased was born about sixty-three years
ago. He came of a family of contractors, his father having engaged
in that business until his death. He spent his boyhood in Madison,
N. J. Deceased was prominent in charitable work of an unobtrusive
sort and was a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
American Geographical Society and the Manhattan, Catholic and
Hardware clubs, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and was a member of
the board of managers of the Catholic Orphan Asylum. Funeral
services were held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
CURRY, CAPT. PATRICK S., born in Ireland; died in Nashua, N. H., April
7, 1906. He came to this country when a young man, eventually
settling in Lynn, Mass., where he was long engaged in the granite
business. During the Civil War he rose from the ranks to command
Companies C and G of the Third Massachusetts Cavalry, under Banks
and Sheridan. He was one of the volunteers at the storming of Port
Hudson, and for his bravery there was given a medal by Congress.
During the siege of Baton Rouge he was made provost marshal at that
place. He was wounded several times. In 1883 he was elected
representative to the Massachusetts General Court from Lynn, and was
the author of the free text-book bill. He also presented the bill
abolishing contract labor in prisons. At the time of his death he
was superintending the construction of a new post-office building in
Nashua, N. H.
DAVIS, HON. ROBERT T. (M. D.), born in County Down, Ireland, 1823;
died in Fall River, Mass., October 29, 1906. He was the son of John
and Sarah (Thompson) Davis. His father was a Presbyterian and his
mother a member of the Society of Friends. They came to America in
1826 and settled in Amesbury, Mass. Doctor Davis was educated in the
Friends’ School at Providence, R. I., and at Amesbury Academy, and
began the study of medicine with Dr. Thomas Wilbur, well remembered
as a leading physician in Fall River. He passed two years at Tremont
Medical School in Boston and was graduated from the medical
department of Harvard in 1847. In 1850 he went to Fall River and
began the practice of his profession, winning a high rank as a
skillful physician. When a young man he was active in the
anti-slavery movement and in 1851 made a speech in favor of
instructing the local representatives to vote for Charles Sumner for
United States senator. He was a member of the state constitutional
convention in 1853, and in 1858 and 1861 was a state senator. He was
a member of the national Republican convention which nominated
Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and also in 1876 when Rutherford B. Hayes
was nominated. At the request of Governor Andrew of Massachusetts,
he introduced the resolution for the appointment of peace
commissioners to attend a convention in Washington in an endeavor to
preserve peace between the North and the South. During the early
days of the Civil War he assisted in the formation of the Seventh
Massachusetts Regiment, intending to accompany them to the front as
surgeon, but gave way to a relative of the colonel of the regiment,
who was desirous of securing the appointment. He was later appointed
by Governor Andrew medical examiner of recruits for his district,
and later examiner of applicants for exemption from military duty on
account of physical disability. He was one of the three local
surgeons who, in obedience to a call from Washington, after the
second battle of Bull Run, went to Alexandria and assisted in
treating the wounded. In 1863 Governor Andrew appointed him a member
of the State Board of Charities, and in 1869 he was appointed a
member of the State Board of Health by Governor Claflin, and when
the two boards were consolidated he was appointed as a member of the
new board by Governor Talbot. In 1873 he was elected mayor of Fall
River without opposition, and at the close of his term he donated
his salary to the Children’s Home. He was elected to Congress in
1882 and re-elected in 1884 and 1886 and was afterwards appointed by
Gov. Oliver Ames a member of the Metropolitan Sewerage Commission.
Doctor Davis in his long life had been prominent and successful in
so many different fields that his early life as a physician and
politician had been in a sense forgotten by the present generation.
During the Land League and other Irish movements, Doctor Davis was
always generous in support of Home Rule principles, and he had
frequently been heard making eloquent and appealing pleas for the
freedom of his native land. He was identified with the business
interests of Fall River as a large owner of real estate and as one
of the largest holders of mill stock in the city. He held large
blocks of stock in a number of the mills, preferring to invest so as
to be a dominant factor in the corporation in which he was
interested. Doctor Davis held many offices in the corporations of
the city. He was a director and also president of the Algonquin
Printing Company, the Stafford mills and the Wampanoag mills. He was
also a director in the Davis mills, the Merchants’ mills and the
Stevens Manufacturing Company. He had been president of the Fall
River board of trade, the Union Hospital Corporation and the Home
Market Club. Doctor Davis married, in 1848, Sarah Congdon Wilbur,
daughter of Dr. Thomas Wilbur of Fall River, who died in 1856, and
in 1862 he married Susan A. Haight, daughter of Moses Haight of
Westchester County, New York, who passed away a few years ago. He is
survived by one son, Robert C. Davis of the law firm of Jackson,
Slade & Borden.
DOOGUE, WILLIAM, born in Queen’s County, Ireland, 1828; died in
Dorchester (Boston), Mass., November 2, 1906; superintendent of
public grounds, Boston, Mass. When a lad his family emigrated,
settling in Middletown, Conn. Here Mr. Doogue was educated in the
local schools, having in his native country received primary
instruction at a private school. At the age of seventeen he was
apprenticed to Affleck, Whitmore & Co., of Hartford, Conn., who
operated one of the most extensive nursery and greenhouse plants in
New England at the time. Here he learned the science of
floriculture, horticulture and landscape gardening. He served five
years with this firm, and during the last three years of his
apprenticeship studied botany under the tuition of Professor
Comstock of Trinity College, a well-known writer on that subject.
After the death of Mr. Affleck, Mr. Doogue became a partner in the
firm, the style of which was changed to that of Whitmore & Co. In
1865 Mr. Doogue dissolved his connection with the firm and came to
Boston. He assumed the entire management of the floricultural and
horticultural business of Charles Copeland in Boston and Melrose,
Mass. Later he established himself in business as a florist and was
most successful. In 1871 Mr. Doogue’s skill was fittingly recognized
when he was chosen to lay out the grounds of the Centennial
Exposition held in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and make a tropical
and sub-tropical display. He did splendid work and was highly
complimented, and as a reward was presented with two gold and two
silver medals and diplomas. Mr. Doogue transformed the Boston Public
Garden from a place of a few monotonous floral displays during the
summer season, to one of a succession of brilliant, attractive and
artistic flowering and rare plants and exotics, which have been the
delight of visitors. He propagated many of the most rare and costly
plants and bulbs, and accumulated stocks of these and other products
of the greenhouse and nursery, which are today worth in money much
more than the whole plant has cost the city. It may be said he
created the department of public grounds, for when he took charge of
it it was only a name, a title; now it is a substantial and
creditable asset of the city, as well as a fitting monument to the
genius and memory of William Doogue. Mr. Doogue was liberal, but
unostentatious in his contributions to works of religion and
charity. His aid to the Home for Destitute Catholic Children and St.
Mary’s Infant Asylum, Dorchester, is remembered with gratitude by
the Sisters having charge of those institutions. He leaves five
children, Mrs. Timothy McCarthy, Mrs. D. H. Sullivan, Mrs. John
O’Connell and Luke J. and William J. Doogue. The funeral of Mr.
Doogue took place from the Church of the Immaculate Conception,
Boston, in which for years he had been a faithful worshipper. In the
congregation were Mayor Fitzgerald, ex-Mayor T. N. Hart, city
officials and representatives of organizations of which Mr. Doogue
was a member. Interment was at Middletown, Conn.
KENEDY, P. J., born in New York City, 1843; died there January 4,
1906. He was educated at the Christian Brothers’ School in Canal
Street, New York. Being brought up in the book business, he assisted
his father in his stores in Centre Street and in Mott Street and
Barclay Street. On his father’s death, Mr. Kenedy succeeded to the
business, and so well did it develop that he soon took over the
entire building at No. 5 Barclay Street, which in time became the
most extensive Catholic publishing house in the country. A few years
ago he took two of his sons into the firm with him, and they will
continue the business, the foundation of which their grandfather,
John Kenedy, laid eighty years ago. In the fall of 1895, Pope Leo
XIII made Mr. Kenedy a publisher to the Holy See, in New York. He
leaves a widow, three sons and four daughters.
MOORE, COL. O’BRIEN, born in Ireland; died in Tucson, Ariz., August
26, 1906. A life member of the Society. At the time of his death he
was general manager of the Citizen Printing and Publishing Co.,
Tucson, controlling a valuable newspaper plant and issuing a daily
and weekly. He was a man of great brilliancy. On the breaking out of
the war with Spain, he entered the service as lieutenant-colonel of
the Second West Virginia Infantry. After a year’s service, and peace
being declared with Spain, he became lieutenant-colonel of United
States Volunteers for the operations in the Philippines, where he
served for eighteen months, until his regiment was mustered out. He
then settled in Tucson. He was a newspaper man of much ability and
experience. Some of his early newspaper career was spent in Houston,
Tex., on the _Post_, of which journal he became managing editor. He
was later managing editor of the St. Louis _Republic_, and was also
Washington correspondent for that paper at Washington, D. C.
MCCALL, JOHN A., born in Albany, N. Y., 1849; died at Lakewood, N. J.,
February 18, 1906. He became clerk in the Albany State Currency
Assorting House; was later in the service of the Connecticut Mutual
Life Insurance Co. until 1869; served in the New York state
insurance department as clerk, 1869–’76; was deputy superintendent,
1876–’83; superintendent of insurance of New York, 1883–’86;
comptroller Equitable Life Assurance Society, 1887–’92, and was
later president of the New York Life Insurance Co. He was a life
member of the Society.
O’FLYNN, REV. DENIS P., born in County Cork, Ireland, 1847; died in
New York City, August 22, 1906. He was educated at St. Colman’s
College, Fermoy, and then spent two years in study in Paris. He
entered Louvain University, Belgium, and obtained the degree of
doctor of theology. Returning to Paris, he was ordained to the
priesthood and then came to America. He was eventually made vicar
apostolic to the Bahamas. He became rector of St. Mary’s Church,
Saugerties, N. Y., and for fifteen years, up to the time of his
death, was rector of St. Joseph’s Church, New York City.
QUINLAN, COL. JAMES, born in Ireland, 1843; died in New York City,
August 29, 1906. He came to this country when he was but seventeen
years of age. He became a first lieutenant in the Sixty-ninth New
York Regiment, and, in 1861, went with it to Washington, D. C. He
was mustered out the following year, and joined the Eighty-eighth
New York Volunteers, which was part of Meagher’s famous Irish
Brigade. For conspicuous bravery at Savage Station, in June, 1862,
Colonel Quinlan subsequently received the United States medal of
honor.
SULLIVAN, PATRICK F., born in County Kerry, Ireland; died in Boston,
Mass., July 18, 1906. He came to Boston, Mass., when he was about
sixteen years of age. Obtaining employment in a clothing store at
the North End, his first venture in life’s struggle was made. Later
he took a position with the house of Leonard & Co., brokers in
furniture and auctioneers. Succeeding years found him connected with
Libbie, dealer in rare books, and he continued in this business
under the title of Sullivan Bros. & Libbie until the early eighties,
when he took premises in School Street, Boston, under the name
Sullivan & McDonald, and later Sullivan Brothers, auctioneers. As
one of the principal assessors of the City of Boston, he established
a reputation for skill and judgment which caused his opinion to be
sought and followed without hesitation. His generous, charitable
nature and his devotion to religion, as well as his broad, practical
mind, is shown in the following disposition of his fortune in public
benefactions. By the first clause of the will, the testator gives to
his sister, Catherine A. Sullivan, $30,000 as a preferred legacy,
and then the following bequests are made: To the Catholic University
of America, $5,000; to the trustees of Boston College in Boston,
$5,000; to St. John’s Ecclesiastical Seminary, Brighton, $5,000; to
the trustees of the Boston Public Library, to be expended for the
purchase of Catholic standard books, approved by the archbishop of
Boston, or by the president of Boston College, $5,000; to the Little
Sisters of the Poor on Dudley Street, Roxbury, Mass., $5,000; to the
House of the Good Shepherd, Boston, $5,000; Carney Hospital, in
memory of Thomas F. Sullivan, deceased brother of the testator,
$5,000; to St. Mary’s Infant Asylum and lying-in hospital,
Dorchester, $5,000; to the Free Home for Consumptives, Quincy
Street, Dorchester, $5,000; Society for Propagation of the Faith,
$3,500; to particular council of St. Vincent de Paul Society, to be
distributed among the various conferences of the archdiocese of
Boston, $2,500; to Home for Destitute Catholic Children, Boston,
$2,500; Holy Ghost Hospital for Incurables, Cambridge, $2,500; to
the reverend superior of the Paulist Fathers of the City of New
York, for missions to non-Catholics, $1,500; to superior of Rocky
Mountain Mission of Society of Jesus, to aid in carrying on
religious missions among the Indians, $1,500; to Cardinal Gibbons,
to aid in carrying on religious missions among colored people of
this country, $1,500; to the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul
connected with Church of All Saints, Center Street, Boston, $500; to
the pastor of All Saints’ Church of Center Street, to aid in paying
off the debt on said church, $1,500; to Conference of St. Vincent de
Paul connected with Cathedral of Holy Cross in Boston, $500; to the
St. Vincent Orphan Asylum, Camden Street, Boston, $2,000; to the
Working Boys’ Home, Boston, $2,000; to House of Angel Guardian on
Vernon Street, Boston, $2,000; to Trinity College, Washington, D.
C., $1,500; to Church of the Immaculate Conception, on Harrison
Avenue, $500; to Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Boston, $500;
to Cathedral of Holy Cross, Boston, $500; to Church of St. Mary of
the Sacred Heart on Endicott Street, Boston, $500. Five thousand
dollars is distributed among certain nieces of the deceased, and the
rest and residue of the property is given to the sister of the
testator, Catherine A. Sullivan.
TRAVERS, AMBROSE F., born in New York City, September 8, 1851; died in
New York, January 29, 1906. He was of the firm Travers Brothers
Company, cordage manufacturers, and was a brother of the late
Francis C. Travers of New York. The latter was also a member of the
Society and very active in advancing its interests. Vincent P.
Travers, another brother, is likewise a member of the organization.