Maurice E. Maher (1869–1964)

Maurice Edward "Ed" Maher was born on April 24, 1869, in Eagle Township, LaSalle County, Illinois, the son of Bartholomew “Batt” Maher and Margaret Wolfe Maher, both Irish immigrants. His siblings included Catherine "Kate" (b. 1852), John Wallace (b. 1856), Johanna (b. 1857), Jerry (b. 1862), Jeremiah Leonard (b. 1867), Bartholomew "Bartie" (b. 1868), Maurice Edward (b. 1869), and James Francis (b. 1870). Jerry Maher died in 1862.

Little is known of Maher's early years. He married Julie L. Casey, a native of Streator, Illinois, on May 10, 1892, in LaSalle County. The couple had three children: Edward N. (b. ca. 1893), Jeremiah Leonard (ca. 1896), and Julia (b. ca. 1899).

By 1892, Maher and his wife were living in Superior, Wisconsin, where he operated Wolfe & Maher Grocers with his maternal uncle Edmund Dean Wolfe. When Wolfe set out for Montana, Maher returned to Streator. By 1910, he had relocated again, this time to Chicago, where he worked as a real estate broker. In 1930, he was living in Bruce, LaSalle County.

Maher's wife, Julia, died on July 7, 1936, in Chicago. Ed Maher died on November 20, 1964. He and his wife are buried together at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Streator, Illinois.