William P. Kaleher, who engages in farming in Brushy Mound township,
was born in Greene county, Illinois, on the 18th of May, 1862. His
parents, Patrick and Margaret (Dolan) Kaleher, were born, reared and
married in County Clare, Ireland. In the paternal line, however, the
family is of German extraction, Greatgreat-grandfather Kaleher having
emigrated from that country to Ireland, where his children were born.
Patrick Kaleher emigrated to the United States in 1840, being followed
five years later by his wife. He located in Greene county, Illinois,
upon his arrival in this country, renting what was known as the Judge
Woodson farm, three miles west of Carrollton. This farm contained two
hundred acres of land in the cultivation of which he engaged for ten
years. At the expiration of that period he removed to the Bowman farm,
where the son William P. was born, and there he resided for seventeen
years. He removed to Carrollton for two years, after which he came to
Macoupin county. Here he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land in
Polk township that he was cultivating when he passed away in 1891. His
wife left the farm and went to Kansas City, Missouri, to live with her
daughter, Mrs. Mary McNerney, and there she passed away in 1905. The
family of Mr. and Mrs. Kaleher numbered ten: Bridgett, the wife of John
Conole, a farmer of Douglas county, Kansas; Michael, who is engaged in
the hotel business in Chicago; Patrick, who is farming in Shaws Point
township, this county; Mary, the widow of the late Thomas McNerney, a
real estate dealer of Kansas City, Missouri; Margaret, the wife of M.
Vaughn, a retired real estate man of Kansas City, Missouri; James, a
farmer of Shaws Point township; Daniel, who is also engaged in farming
in Shaws Point township; William P., our subject; Annie, the widow of P.
J. Carmody, a farmer of Carrollton, Illinois; and Emma, the wife of
George Cunningham, also a farmer of Carrollton, Illinois.
William P. Kaleher was reared in Greene county, whose public and
district schools equipped him educationally for the responsibilities of
life. He remained on the farm with his parents until he was twenty-five
years of age, the supervision and cultivation of the land entirely
devolving upon him after the retirement of his father. After his
marriage in 1888 he went to Kansas, where he farmed for four years.
Returning to Illinois he rented a farm three miles east of Plainview
that he cultivated until 1894 when he came to Brushy Mound township and
rented the J. C. Anderson farm, where he lived for ten years. In March,
1905, he came to the Frank McClure place, containing one hundred and
sixty acres, and here he has ever since resided.
Mr. Kaleher’s
plans for a home of his own had their culmination in his marriage on the
18th of August, 1888, to Miss Etta Ambrose, a daughter of W. E. and
Parmelia (Pruitt) Ambrose, the father a native of Macoupin county and
the mother of Jersey county, this state. Mr. Ambrose is of Dutch and
Irish descent but his wife was an American. They resided on a farm in
this county until her death in December, 1910, since which time he has
been living retired in Plainview. To Mr. and Mrs. Kaleher have been born
five children: William Edward, who is living at home; Lillian B., the
wife of M. Neylor, clerk of the Board of Review of Sawyersville,
Illinois and the mother of one son, John M., Jr.; and May, Edna and John
J., all of whom are still at home.
The family are all
communicants of the Roman Catholic church of Carlinville, and
politically Mr. Kaleher is a democrat. He has always taken an active
interest in all township affairs and acted as assessor in Brushy Mound
for two terms and is now serving his second term as township supervisor;
who living in Polk township he held the office of collector for one
term. Mr. Kaleher is a pleasant man, his genial manner and cordiality
winning him many friends, whose loyalty he has the faculty of retaining.
Extracted 18 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 689-690.
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