John Wolfe (1845–1919)

John Wolfe was born in 1845 in County Kerry, the son of Richard Wolfe, a distiller, and Mary Carney Wolfe. His siblings included Margaret (b. 1841), Richard (b. 1847), Michael (b. ca. 1848), Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1854), Ellen V. “Nellie” (b. ca. 1856), James (b. ca. 1858), and James R. (b. 1863). The first James died sometime before 1862.

Wolfe, his parents, and his siblings immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City aboard the Liverpool on November 10, 1849. They settled in LaSalle County, Illinois, joining other Wolfe relatives there. Richard Wolfe Sr.’s brother John R. Wolfe and his first cousin Maurice Wolfe both immigrated in 1847. (Brothers Richard and John Wolfe shared a grandfather with Maurice Wolfe: James M. “The Barrister” Woulfe.) Wolfe’s brother, Thomas R. Wolfe, arrived from Ireland in 1848, while another brother, Maurice R. Wolfe, sailed in 1849, arriving in September. While brother John Wolfe and cousin Maurice Wolfe moved on to Clinton County, Iowa, Richard Wolfe Sr. and his brothers Thomas and Maurice Wolfe remained in Illinois.

John Wolfe married Johanna Dillon, a native of LaSalle County, on June 6, 1876. The couple had three children: Johanna “Jennie” (b. 1880), John (b. 1884), and Richard William (b. 1887).

The federal census of 1880 identifies John Wolfe as a farmer in LaSalle, but by 1900 he worked as the foreman of the buffing department at the Western Clock Company plant in LaSalle. He worked there for twenty-eight years.

Johanna Dillon Wolfe died of a stroke at her home in LaSalle on November 15, 1918, and John Wolfe of pneumonia at Saint Mary’s Hospital, LaSalle, on March 27, 1919. On the day John Wolfe Sr. died, John Wolfe Jr. landed in New York from having served overseas during World War I (1914–1918).

John and Johanna Wolfe are buried together at Saint Vincent Cemetery in LaSalle, Illinois.