The Kiley's in Charleston S.C.

The Kiley Family in Charleston, South Carolina

By Diana Ballew

Our Kiley line has been a difficult one to trace. Over the years, in various counties and states, I have found many missing or incomplete records. All gathered sources document that Jeremiah Kiley was born in Ireland and that around 1850 he married Margaret Mahoney who was also born in Ireland. To view the Kiley Descendant chart click here.

Jeremiah and Margaret, as well as other Kiley's, began to appear in Charleston, South Carolina around 1851, a time when many of the Irish fled Ireland to escape the great famine. Just why the Kiley's chose Charleston as their new home is still uncertain, but it's quite possible the Mahoney family, through Margaret's line, had a lot to do with that decision.

The Kiley's chose St. Patricks Catholic Church as their parish. There were many fellow Irishmen, including the Priest, Father Patrick O'Neill who baptised all the Kiley children, connected with that church.

The Kiley name begins to appear in 1851 in the church baptismal ledgers. One
entry lists the name as "Kily" while all other entries reflect the "Kiley" spelling.

The Mahoney surname was associated with the church much earlier. There appears to have
been an epidemic in the 1830's in Charleston and several Mahoney's are buried there in the small
churchyard at St. Patricks. Many of these Mahoney's died within a few weeks of each
other and the cause of death registered as "Fever Strangers" which today is known as
Yellow Fever.

One of the first Kiley baptisms at the church was for a Thomas Kily. This child
was baptised on October 11, 1851 at the age of 5 days. His parents were Jeremiah Kiley
and Margaret Mahoney. This can be found on page 158 in the original church ledgers.
Sadly, this Thomas had a very short life as was discovered while walking through the small churchyard at St.Patricks. A small weathered headstone reads:

Erected by Jeremiah Kily for his dearly departed son
THOMAS KILY Died February 12, 1855.

During that early time period, St. Patricks didn't keep any formal funeral records and
none were found in city records for Thomas' death in 1855 so the cause of his death is
unknown. One thing is certain, however, back then many children died young due to the
warm, muggy climate that harbored rampant diseases.

There were more children born to Jeremiah and Margaret. In July of 1853, Eleanor Kiley was born. She lived at least until 1870 in Charleston where she is located in the 1870 census at the age of 17 under the name of "Ella". Likely, she married and moved on but no marriage record has been found for her as yet.

The third child discovered to be born to Jeremiah and Margaret was another girl,
Julia A. Kiley, born July 6, 1856. In the 1870 census, Julia was living with her mother
and siblings in Charleston, residing with Kate Mahoney and her family. Kate Mahoney
was listed as a music teacher on that census. I suspect, that Kate Mahoney was either
Margaret's sister or sister in law.

Julia A. Kiley appeared to stay in Charleston her entire life. In 1881 she is listed in the city directory as a millner for H.M. Hamblin and Co. and living with William Kiley, his wife Bridget ( Magrath) Kiley and their sons, John L. Kiley, James E. Kiley and Michael C. Kiley at 35 Washington Street. Julia married by 1887 a man named Henry W. Duffie, a bookkeeper in Charleston.

In the 1900 census, Julia listed that she was the mother of three children but that none of them were alive by 1900. Death records in Charleston confirm that there were three infant children born to them; Julia Duffie died April 1894, Julia Duffie died June 1895 and an unnamed infant who died August 4, 1891. Her husband, Henry, died on May 6, 1907 of Bright's Disease.

Julia followed her husband in death several years later. She died June 20, 1928 at St. Francis
Infirmary in Charleston. Her death certificate states she died of arteriosclerosis and nephritis and her parents are listed as Jeremiah Kiley and Margaret Mahoney, both born in Ireland. She and her infant children have no headstone but are buried next to Henry Duffie at St. Lawrence Cemetery in Charleston.

Jeremiah and Margaret again show up in the baptismal records with the birth of their son Daniel Kiley, born June 12, 1858, baptised June 20, 1858. The sponsors for his baptism were William Kiley and Bridget Magrath, listed above. ( I am convinced from all records, that Jeremiah and William were very close relatives, probably brothers.) Daniel lived a very short life. He died October 29, 1865 of Ptyalism at the age of seven.

While the death of Jeremiah and Margaret's two sons must have been very sad, happily, a son was born to them again. A son who lived to adulthood and fathered his own children. His name was Thomas Kiley. It is through this second Thomas Kiley born to Jeremiah and Margaret that our line continues.

Thomas Kiley was born January 6, 1861 in Charleston. He was baptised one
week later by Father O' Neill. His sponsers were Pat. O' Sullivan and Mrs. O' Sullivan.
In 1870, young Thomas, age 9, is living in a household full of women. It had been difficult locating the family on this census until I placed myself in the census takers shoes, realizing they could have been listed incorrectly--maybe as Mahoney's. As it turned out, that is exactly what happened, the family was living with the Mahoney family, and listed incorrectly as"Mahoney's" rather than "Kiley's". The 1870 census reads:

Kate Mahoney age 48, female, white, music teacher
K.O.                   age 27, female,white, seamstress
P.                        age 21, female, white, housekeeper
Mar.                   age 35, female, white, at home
Ella                     age 17, female, white,
Julia                    age 14, female, white,
Tom                     age 9, male, white,
   R. Jenkins           age 22, female, black.

The original census is hard to read. I do believe the above listing for Mar. is Margaret (Mahoney) Kiley. The age may be incorrect but it's possible she was young when she married and had her first child. Jeremiah could have been dead by 1870 but that is still unproven as no death records have been found for him.
Jeremiah seems to fall off the face of the earth after the baptism of his son Thomas Kiley #2 in 1861. Is it a coincidence that this corresponds to the exact time fraim of the beginning of the Civil War? Could Jeremiah have gone off to war? Possibly, but no documentation of any kind has been found suggesting he participated as a soldier in that war. No war records were ever uncovered for a soldier named Jeremiah Kiley. So, if he isn't dead in 1870.....where is he?

According to St. Patricks church, there are no complete records for their churchyard cemetery so it's possible that Jeremiah is buried next to his young son, Thomas #1, who he lovingly erected the small headstone for.

Jeremiah and Margaret were clearly not the only Kiley's in Charleston. As
proven through church baptismal records, city directories, and various other sources
including probates and wills, there were other Kiley's in Charleston related to each other.

William Kiley, born 1821, in Ireland, married Bridget Magrath about 1856. They had
five children, all born in Charleston.

John L. Kiley, born January 1857 married Julia A. Corcoran in 1888. They had no children.
John L. was a publisher and owned and operated Kiley and Carey Publishing, part of the
Charleston Review and printer of The Sunday Times. He died September 23, 1926 of an
intestinal obstruction and is buried at St. Lawrence Cemetery in Charleston in the
Corcoran plot.

Willie Kiley, born and died in 1858.

James E. Kiley, born May 1860. He stayed single his whole life and at the time of his
death was a mail carrier. He died July 2, 1893 of consumption, known today as
tuberculosis. He had a sizable estate when he died which he left to his brothers , John
L. Kiley and Michael C. Kiley. He is buried at St. Lawrence cemetery in Charleston in
the Kiley plot.

Willie J. Kiley, born in 1865 and died of convulsions the same year.

Michael C. Kiley, born February 11, 1868. He married Corrine Gertrude McSherry,
the daughter of James McSherry and Catherine Rowland, on December 1, 1892.
Michael lived to the ripe old age of 89 and died in 1957 in Charleston. According to his
obituary he attended church at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Parish. For a time he was a
policeman in Jacksonville, Florida.

Michael saw his share of sadness like many of the Kiley's. There were two children born to Michael and Corrine: James F. Kiley and Lawrence A. Kiley.
James F. Kiley was born in 1894 in Jacksonville, Florida. He died of inflammation of the brain at the age of 6 months. The family sent the baby boy's dead body on the train back to Charleston to be buried at St. Lawrence Cemetery in Charleston. Several years later, while living once again in Charleston, Michael and Corrine had another son, Lawrence A. Kiley born in August of 1912. On September 3, 1915. He died at the age of 3 after being struck by an ice cream truck outside of his home at 52 Hanover Street in Charleston. Both of the children are buried in the McSherry plot along with Michael and Corrine and Corrine's parents.

It is interesting to note that Thomas Kiley #2 was in Jacksonville Florida early in his life, and as proven through various records, Michael also lived in Jacksonville. I have long suspected that Jeremiah Kiley and William (above )were brothers.I think it's possible that their sons Thomas and Michael, both being born within a few years of each other, were together in Jacksonville, Florida. They both were there about the same time and Thomas' first two children were born there in Jacksonville. How interesting it is that Thomas named one of his children Corrine. Could that have been after Michael's wife, Corrine Gertrude (McSherry) Kiley?

It's sad to think that the Kiley's truly died out in Charleston, but that could just be what
happened. So many of the children died young, and many of the families moved away
after the Civil War. Yet, Michael C. Kiley came back after being in Florida for a few
years. He lived in Charleston until 1957 until his death at age 89. He was a member of the Hibernian Society and Knights of Columbus and clearly held all the knowledge in his head of his
Irish ancestry, a missing link we yearn to find.

William Kiley and Bridget ( Magrath) Kiley lived full lives. They begin to appear around the same time in Charleston as Jeremiah Kiley and Margaret (Mahoney) Kiley and are even sponsers for their child Daniel. William Kiley died July 25, 1884 and Bridget died February 17, 1882. There is a large Kiley plot at St. Lawrence cemetery and a big monument within the plot. On one side of the monument, Bridget, William, their two young sons William and Willie J. and also James E. Kiley are listed with them. Other people within the Kiley plot are:

William Collins d- 7-10-1854
Cornelius Collins d- 10-1852
Marry Collins d- 10-1852
Ellen Magrath d- 5-10-1859
Edward Purtell b- 1817 d- 1-1-1882
John J. Purtell d- 2-19 1882 .

Just where the people listed above fit into the Kiley family line is still uncertain. It could be part of Bridget (MaGrath) Kiley's maternal line

The place name Neinagh, Co. Tipperary graces the large monument. Whether the Kiley's came from that town in Co. Tipperary, Ireland or if it's where the Collins' or Purtell's
came from is not known for sure but rumor has always been that the Kiley's came from
Co. Tipperary.

There were more Kiley's in Charleston too. There was yet another
William Kiley married to Margaret Devane and a Thomas Kiley who was married to
Nora _____ , and had many children. There was also another James Kiley who married
Margaret Magrath ( a relative of the Bridget Magrath married to William Kiley
perhaps?) Also another John Kiley married to a Catherine Mahoney.
Two of the Kiley men, William and James, married two women with the last
names Magrath, and two other Kiley men, Jeremiah and John, married women with
the last name Mahoney. Add the fact that they were all having children around the same
time and you had a very interesting situation going on, to say the least!
Of particular interest is the Thomas and Nora (____) Kiley family mentioned
above. He was located in only one record--the 1860 census for Charleston. All the other
Kiley's were in Charleston then, too, but were not on the census for some reason. This
census for Thomas and his family reads:

Thomas Kiley age 36 born Ireland--Laborer
Nora age 32 born Ireland
Andrew age 17 born Ireland--Drayman
Ellen age 14 born Ireland
Patrick age 9 born Ireland
Mary age 6 born South Carolina
Catherine age 3 born South Carolina
Barnabe age1 born South Carolina

Note that Thomas and Nora had children while in Ireland and also in Charleston. Their last
child to be born in Ireland was 1850-1851 and their next child born in South Carolina in
1854, which fits the pattern for when the other Kiley's seemed to come too. Also, the
name "Thomas" must have been important enough that Jeremiah and Margaret named
two of their sons that name. Could this Thomas have been another brother to Jeremiah?
It's quite possible.

The above Andrew, fought in the Civil War for South Carolina and the Confederacy. He was a Private in Captain Gilcrest's Company, Heavy Artillary. There are several Kiley listings for men who fought for South Carolina during the CivilWar.

The Kiley family left Ireland, like many of the Irish of that time, apparently for a
better life. But those in Charleston during that turbulent year of 1861, soon found themselves in the hot seat of the Confederacy. Thomas Kiley #2 , (1861), was born only days after South Carolina's secession from the Union and the family was living in the city during the the bombardment of Ft. Sumter on April 12, 1861. What a frightening time this must have been for the family. To leave the famine and poverty of your home in Ireland to begin a new life in the United States only to find yourself embedded in a bloody Civil War which literally began right outside their windows!

During the War, city directories were not made in Charleston and any records that
did manage to be kept are far from complete or accurate. Many of the Kiley's just
disappear. In fact, our Thomas Kiley's baptismal entry, which coincides, with the
beginning of the War, is the last Kiley entries for St. Patricks church. For whatever
reason, the family must have changed parishes during the War. Also, Father O' Neill died
in 1865 the year the war ended. Some of the Kiley's moved to a different church in
another part of town while others just seem to have left the area completely.

Since many of the Kiley children died young, and many of the ones that managed to make it to adulthood had no children, there were few to carry on the name. Thomas#2 (1861) did his part.

Thomas Kiley( 1861) married about 1886 to Mary Ellen McDonald. Likely in either Ohio
or Florida. Their children were:
Edward Kiley born abt 1888 in Florida
Catherine Kiley born abt 1889 in Florida
Margaret Kiley born abt 1891 in Chicago
James Cletus Kiley born Dec 22, 1892 in Chicago
Charles Edmund Kiley born March 22, 1894 in Chicago
Corrine Kiley born abt 1897 in Chicago
Alice Kiley born and died abt 1898 in Chicago.

Thomas' death certificate states he died July 14, 1915 of Cardia Asthma. It lists he lived in the city for 25 years. He was a shop foreman for the Chicago Service
Line from 1905-1915 and a hog speculator from 1899-1905. It also lists his parents as
Jeremiah Kiley and Margaret Mahoney, both born in Ireland. The informant was his
son, James Kiley.

Thomas' obituary in the Chicago Daily News for Thursday July 15, 1915 reads:

KILEY- Thomas. 422 w. 63rd st. July 14, 1915. Beloved husband of
Della and fond father of Edward, Mrs. George Stephens, Mrs. Daniel O'Brien, James,
Charles and Corrine Kiley and brother of Mrs. H.W. Duffie of Charleston. S.C.
Funeral Friday, July 16, from Chapel 316 W.63rd, by large funeral limousine to St.
Bernard's church where requiem mass will be celebrated at 9am. interment at Mount
Olivet.

Mary Ellen ( McDonald) Kiley, his wife, also known as "Dilly", was located in the 1920
census, listed as a widow at age 49. She listed her birthplace as Ohio and the birthplace
for both her parents as Ohio. Her daughter Corrine Kiley was living with her at age 23. They
both were residing with Thomas and Dilly's son, Charles Kiley, a printer, and his wife
Agnes ( Cuff ) Kiley. For the more recent family line see the Descendant Chart below. To read the poem "On Kiley's Run" written by Banjo Paterson in 1890 click the poem's title.

Descendants of Jeremiah Kiley and Margaret Mahoney

1   Jeremiah Kiley Unknown -
. +Margaret Mahoney Abt. 1835 -
........ 2   Thomas Kiley 1851 - 1855
........ 2   Elenor Kiley Abt. 1853 -
........ 2   Julia A. Kiley 1856 - 1928
............ +Henry W Duffie 1859 - 1907
........ 2   Daniel Kiley 1858 - 1865
........ 2   Thomas Kiley 1861 - 1915
............ +Mary Ellen McDonald Abt. 1869 -
................... 3   Edward Kiley Abt. 1888 -
....................... +Elizabeth
.............................. 4   Margaret Kiley
.............................. 4   Edward Kiley
................... 3   Catherine Kiley Abt. 1889 -
....................... +George Stevens
.............................. 4   Jane Stevens
.............................. 4   Dorothy Stevens
................... 3   Margaret Kiley Abt. 1891 -
....................... +Daniel O'Brien
.............................. 4   Gertrude O'Brien
.............................. 4   Corrine O'Brien
................... 3   James Cletus Kiley 1892 - 1944
....................... +Anna Mae Nolan 1896 - 1982
.............................. 4   Audrey Jean Kiley 1930 -
.................................. +Joseph Wayne Ballew 1929 -
......................................... 5   James Cletus Ballew 1954 -
............................................. +Mary Ann Westover 1954 -
.................................................... 6   Benjamin Ryan Ballew 1984 -
.................................................... 6   Jeffrey Westover Ballew 1985 -
.................................................... 6   Brady James Ballew 1992 -
......................................... 5   Thomas Damian Ballew 1956 -
............................................. +Catherine Rose Petersen 1959 -
......................................... 5   David William Ballew 1959 -
............................................. +Diana Lynn Tracey Schindler 1960 -
.................................................... 6   Jason Craig Ballew 1986 -
.................................................... 6   Sean Joseph Ballew 1989 -
.................................................... 6   Conner Kiley Ballew 1993 -
......................................... 5   Jenny Cathlin Ballew 1967 -
............................................. +Ross Wiltse 1964 -
.................................................... 6   Joseph Lee Wiltse 1993 -
................... 3   Charles Edmund Kiley 1894 - 1968
....................... +Catharine Agnes Cuffe Abt. 1893 - 1967
.............................. 4   Jeanne Agnes Kiley 1924 -
................... 3   Corrine Kiley Abt. 1897 -
................... 3   Girl Kiley Abt. 1898 - Abt. 1898

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