Edward William Quinlan
Edward William Quinlan, son of William Quinlan and Margaret Isabelle (Belle/Bell) Guyette, was born on 11 May 1885 in St Marys, Kansas and died on 17 Jun 1951 in San Francisco, CA at age 66.
General Notes
From the Quinlan Reunion album:
Edward William Quinlan, fifth child of William Edward and Isabelle was born on May 11, 1886 in Saint Marys, Kansas. He had some grammar school education at Saint Mary’s School. He left his family’s farm and went to work for the Santa Fe Railroad in Topeka, Kansas. He met Anna Monroe (cute, with red hair) and married her on February 12, 1907 in Topeka. Ed and Annie moved during the early years of their marriage. They once worked together at Saint Francis refectory in Bakersfield, California. Annie worked as a cook and Ed as a maintenance man. They finally settled in San Francisco, California where Ed helped in the building of the Oakland Bay Bridge in the 1930’s. Ed was a true Irishman with a gift of gab and loved and recited poetry. He also enjoyed a pint or two! Ed looks very dapper in the photo above, in suit and tie and fancy watch fob. Could this be a wedding picture? Annie was rather quiet and was always very lady-like in her appearance and never went out without a hat even to grocery shop! Edward died in San Francisco on June 16, 1951. Annie died in Livermore, California on February 1, 1967. They are both buried at Greenlawn Cemetery in Bakersfield.
Edward Quinlan: So attested in the 1910 Federal Census entry.
Edward William Quinlan
His birth, c. 1885: The birth-date but not the year given here was written in his own hand on his Social Security application, a copy of which is in my possession. The same date but 1886 as the year is given in "A Journey Westward," a book on the Guyette family. The same book is the source for his death date, yet includes his death-age as 66, suggesting 1885 as a birth year. The 1900 and 1910 census entries would suggest something later, 1886 or 1887. His baptismal certificate, issued in 1949, indicates that he was born on May 24, 1885, in St. Marys and baptised on June 21 of the same year, with Edward Guyott and Catherine Clarkin as his sponsors.
His parents’ family: The 1930 census entry states Edward William’s mother’s birth-place as "Canada French," which is only partly accurate, and his father’s birth place as "Northern Ireland."
Oral tradition via Leona Jane remembered that Harold Edward had French Canadian ancestry on one side. She remembered Harold Edward’s parents at their wedding, as well as an elderly French woman, presumably his grandmother. Charlotte Quinlan remembers having dinner at Harold Edward’s parents’ home in San Francisco when she was a child. Peggy remembers going to Edward Quinlan's home near California or Sacramento street.
His Family in Kansas
1895: Edward’s father dies when he is roughly 9 or 10 years old.
1900: Edward is listed as a 14 year old farm laborer in St Marys, in a federal census entry with his mother, Margaret, as head of household.
Edward married Anna Monroe circa 1912 in Kansas. 1910s, c. 1912: The 1930 federal census entry gives their marriage ages as 27 and 21 respectively, which means that the first children must have come before their marriage, if this is correct.
Children from this marriage were:
George Quinlan was born on 2 Nov 1907 in Kansas.
Raymond Francis Quinlan was born on 15 Nov 1911 in Kansas and died on 25 Jan 1983 in Alameda at age 71.
John Eugene Quinlan was born 1929 in California (San Francisco).
William "Billy" Quinlan II was born circa 1916 in Kansas and died before 1925.
1910: Edward’s family appears in the federal census in Rossville, Shawnee, Kansas, including Anna, George E., Harold, Thomas J. (Edward’s brother), and Belle. His occupation is given as farmer. This entry gives his father’s birth-place as English Canada.
1915: The 1915 Kansas state census lists Edward and Anna’s son George living in Shawnee, Topeka with Anna’s parents, George and Ellen. Why was he not with his parents? Where were Edward and Anna?
c. 1916: William Quinlan is born.
1920: Edward’s name is partially illegible in his federal census entry from Rossville. His occupation is given as a farmer. The entry lists Edward, Anna, George E., Harold E., Raymond and William.
And in California
1920s: Judging from the family census entries, he and his family moved from Kansas to Bakersfield between 1925 and 1929. The 1925 Kansas state census places the Quinlan family in Shawnee County, Rossville, and lists Edward as a farmer. The entry lists only George, Harold and Raymond as children, leaving out William. If John’s age in the 1930 census entry is correctly read as 1, then they moved before c. 1929, as he is born in California. This conflicts with Edward's wife’s death certificate, which suggests 1918 based on the stated length of residency in California.
The 1930 federal census entry is proof of Edward’s paternity over Harold Edward. It lists in District 27 of Bakersfield, Kern County, a 45 year old Edward Quinlan, a 39 year old Anna (or perhaps Anne) as wife, and four sons, in order: George, Robert, Raymond, and what is very faded, but perhaps John. (So I gather from Charlotte’s recollection of the names of her uncles. George and Raymond are a match here. The online index reads "Jamie" for John.) Their ages are 22, 21, 19, and perhaps 10 respectively. All of these except the last are listed as born in Kansas. The last was born in California.
Edward’s occupation is listed in this entry, but hard to read from the overexposure: Station Engineer? This suggests a connection to his father-in-law, George Monroe, who was in similar line of work.
Edward’s age in this entry if accurate can only mean that Edward got his own birth-year wrong when filling out his Social Security application, on which he wrote 1887.
1930s? 1940s? Edward William Quinlan later moved to San Francisco, where, according to his Social Security Registration form, he lived at 3099 Washington Street, and worked at the Hotel Henry at 106 Sixth Street (1 July 1937).
Charlotte Quinlan vaguely remembers that after he retired, he and Anna went to work for a Catholic church, where he took care of the place, and she cooked. Charlotte reports from Georgia and Colette that Edward worked on the San Francisco / Oakland Bay Bridge, which was constructed in 1936, and that he "could recite long passages of Irish poetry."
1950: According to Belle Guyette’s obituary, she died in San Francisco visiting her son Edward in 1950.
Edward William Quinlan’s SSN was 572-07-9010.
His death: Colette Quinlan reports it to be June 16, 1951, but a copy of an obituary in our possession gives June 17. His death certificate states his time of death as 12:05 AM on June 17, which early hour presumably explains the discrepancy in the sources. His wife Anna, the informant on the death certificate, gives his length of stay in San Francisco as 20 years and his occupation as janitor. His cause of death was bronchogenic carcinoma in the right lung. His memorial mass was held at the Lady Chapel, St. Dominic’s, on June 20, at Steiner and Bush, in San Francisco, with the rosary the prior evening at Gray’s, on Divisadero at Post, also in San Francisco. He is buried in Bakersfield’s Greenlawn Cemetery.
The copies of Anna Monroe’s baptismal certificate and her marriage license to Edward were issued on June 18, 1951, which indicated that she had to gather this paperwork after his death, presumably to prepare for his interment.
