PATRICK R. WOLFE (1861–1939)

Patrick Richard Wolfe was born in August 1861 at the Glen, the family farm near Cratloe, Parish of Athea, County Limerick. He was the son of Richard E. Wolfe, a Catholic farmer, and Catherine White Wolfe. Wolfe's siblings included Maurice Richard (b. 1853), Ellen “Nellie” (b. 1858), John W. (b. 1864), Richard White (b. 1866), Catherine (b. 1868), Mary A. (b. 1870), Michael (b. 1870), Johanna (b. 1873), and Nano.

Patrick Wolfe immigrated to the United States in 1885. Records indicate that his brother Richard left Queenstown, County Cork, on May 7, 1885, on a ship owned by the Cunard Steamship Company. The American destination is unclear. It appears that joining Richard were his siblings Patrick, Ellen, John, Mary, and Nano. By 1900, Patrick Wolfe had settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, while the other family members lived in Chicago, Illinois.

Wolfe’s father, Richard E. Wolfe, was the eldest of four or five siblings and the only one who did not immigrate to the United States. Patrick Wolfe’s uncle, John E. Wolfe, immigrated sometime around 1850, traveling first to LaSalle County, Illinois, and then to Clinton County, Iowa.

The federal census of 1900 identifies Patrick Wolfe as a book agent living in a boarding house in Philadelphia’s third ward. In 1901 or 1902, he married a woman named Julia E.; her maiden name is unknown. She was a native of Listowel, County Kerry. They had three children: Catherine (b. ca. 1903), Eileen (b. ca. 1906), and Richard (b. ca. 1908).

By 1910 the family was living in the Bronx, New York, where Wolfe worked for a publishing company. For the next decade he remained in the book business while his wife opened a dress shop. Their daughter Catherine taught school. The 1930 census indicates Wolfe worked as a salesman for a coal company, his daughter Catherine as an officer clerk in a public school, his daughter Eileen and son Richard as school teachers.

Wolfe appears to have moved to Chicago, where he died on June 5, 1939. His wife died there on November 15, 1953, and they are buried together in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.