DENIS MC CARTHY

 

Denis McCarthy was a young man when he came from Massachusetts to San Francisco, California, and his sterling character and distinctive ability ultimately gained to him a place of prominence in connection with business enterprise in this city.  Mr. McCarthy was in the very prime of his strong and useful manhood at the time of his death, which occurred in December, 1884.

 

     Denis McCarthy was born in County Cork, Ireland, September 26, 1844, and thus was forty years of age at the time of his death.  He was an infant at the time of his parents' immigration to the United States and was reared and educated at Milford, Massachusetts, where also he learned the trade of shoe making.  In the early '60s he came to San Francisco and here found employment in his trade in the establishment of Buckingham & Heck.  Eventually he became the organizer of the United Working Men's Boot and Shoe Company, of which he continued the treasurer and general manager until his death.  The manufacturing enterprise of this company was initiated in a small store building on Golden Gate Avenue, the company having been incorporated in the year 1867.  With increasing business a factory was erected on Sansom Street, and later was erected the present large and well equipped factory at the corner of Twenty-fifth and Bartlett streets, where the business is successfully continued, the only surviving son of Mr. McCarthy being now the principal owner of the business.

 

     Mrs. McCarthy long survived her husband and was venerable in years at the time of her death, in 1918.  Her maiden name was Catharine C. Daly, she having been born in Ireland, but having been reared and educated in the City of Boston, Massachusetts.  She was a young woman at the time of the family removal to San Francisco, where her father, Daniel Daly, engaged in the work of his trade, that of carpenter.  Here the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy was solemnized and here Mrs. McCarthy continued to maintain her home until her death, both she and her husband having been devout communicants of the Catholic Church.  Of the children, the eldest, Daniel, died in the year 1900; William H. is manager and chief owner of the business of the United Working Men's Boot and Shoe Company, of which his father was the founder; Mary is the wife of John F. Cunningham of San Francisco and Robert S. died in 1902.