DEATH OF A WOMAN
BORN 101 YEARS AGO.
MRS. KATHERINE QUIGLEY
NEVER NEEDED MEDICINE.
Was an Intimate Friend of Edgar
Allen Poe and the Poet's
Wife -- Was Born in
Ireland.
MRS. KATHERINE QUIGLEY.
Mrs. Katherine Quigley, 101 years old, an intimate friend of Edgar Allen Poe and his wife, died yesterday afternoon at the home of her son, John A. Quigley, 3331 Troost avenue.
Mrs. Quigley was active up until the time of her death. Possessed of a naturally strong constitution, inherited from a long line of Irish ancestors, she had never taken a doctor's prescription in her life. One of her grandfathers lived to be 108 years old, and both of her parents saw their 80th birthdays.
Her maiden name was Katherine Bradley, and she was born and reared in a small village in the North of Ireland near the River Boyne. She left there at the age of 25 because, as she told her children, there were no young men eligible for matrimony in her native place. She had wealthy relatives living in New York, and they asked her to come and live with them. She came in a ship owned by one of her uncles, and on her arrival in New York city learned to be a milliner and dressmaker. After a few years her customers included the most fashionable people of the city, and she acquired a small competence.
WHEN SHE MET THE POET.
It was at this time that she made the acquaintance of the young writer and newspaper man, Edgar Allan Poe, and his child wife, Virginia, to whom he wrote Liglia," "The Sleeper," and "Lenore," as well as many of his other great poems. Miss Bradley was a frequent visitor at the house in Fordham. Poe, she often said, was recognized by all his friends as a genius. He was not living in poverty, although he had a penchant for railing at the poor financial returns that were made for works of genius. He was a long haired, egotistical young man, liked to talk about himself and drank, but then, so did everybody else in Fordham. The wife was a lovable and beautiful young girl and when she died the heart of the poet was broken and he disappeared.
Miss Bradley married Mr. James Quigley, a drygoods merchant, in New York, in 1848. The husband died in 1861, but the widow continued to live in New York until eighteen years ago, w hen she came to this city to live with her son.
One of her sons, James A. Quigley, was the incorporator and organizer of the Clover Leaf railway lines. He died last year in New York. Another son, B. A. Quigley, formerly lived in this city and the third, John A. Quigley, is in business here. Seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren survive.
Mrs. Quigley was a Catholic. Funeral services probably will be held from St. Vincent's church, Thirty-first street and Flora avenue, tomorrow.
