JOHN JOSEPH KILCOYNE, The genial proprietor of the Closson House at Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, was born at Holmesburg, Philadelphia. September 30, 1864, and is a son of Michael and Margaret (McGINNIS) KILCOYNE, the former of whom was a well-known contractor and builder of Holmesburg.

John J. KILCOYNE was educated at the Holmesburg Academy, and at the close of his school days learned the trade of a mason with his father and worked at the same for about twelve years. In the spring of 1897 he came to Bristol and assumed the management of the old and popular hostelry, known as the Closson House, and on April 3, 1900, became its proprietor and has since conducted it in an efficient manner, maintaining its old-time reputation as one of the leading hostelries of lower Bucks. Mr. KILCOYNE is the Exalted Ruler of the Elks Lodge of Bristol.

Mr. KILCOYNE married, September 20, 1894, Theresa Marie Antoinette FARLEY, daughter of James and Elizabeth Jane (LESLIE) FARLEY, of Bristol and granddaughter of Thomas and Ann (BRADY) FARLEY, and two children were the issue of this union: John Leslie, born July 30,1895, now a student at St. Dominic’s Holmesburg, and Anita, born July 26, 1897, now attending the Sacred Heart Academy at Torresdale. James LESLIE, maternal grandfather of Mrs. KILCOYNE, who was a well-known resident of Bristol, Pennsylvania, for many years, was a native of Ireland, from whence he came to America and settled at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, later locating in Bristol, and becoming the owner of boats on the Lehigh Valley canal. He was also the owner of the "Exchange Hotel," in Bristol. James LESLIE married Mary BOYLE, who bore him a family of six children, four of whom attained years of maturity, as follows: Elizabeth J., Henry, a physician and druggist; James, an attorney; and Mary A., who became the wife of John W. CLOSSON. John W. CLOSSON, now deceased, was born near Point Pleasant, Tinicum township, June 16, 1839, a son of George W. and Charlotte (WYKER) CLOSSON, natives of Bucks county, and a grandson of William and Sarah CLOSSON and Henry and Mary WYKER. John W. CLOSSON was educated at Point Pleasant, and clerked in stores for his father and brother until the outbreaking of the civil war, when he joined the Doylestown Guards, April, 1861. Upon his return home he engaged in mercantile business for himself at Point Pleasant, continuing the same until his marriage to Mary A. LESLIE, above mentioned, after which he moved to the "Exchange Hotel, in Bristol, which he purchased in 1872 of his father-in-law, James LESLIE, and in 1875 remodeled, and which has since been known as the Closson House. In 1872 Mr. CLOSSON was elected coroner, and by a special act of the legislature he was empowered to appoint deputies throughout the county of Bucks, and served six years, when his health failing him, he gave up political life and turned his attention to his hotel, where he died November 8, 1882. Mrs. CLOSSON took charge of the hotel at once, and being a lady of excellent mind and business talent, she made the house one of the most popular in the state. Owing to the increase in trade, she erected a fine three-story brick building with pressed brick front and all the most modern improvements; the chambers of the house are spacious, handsomely furnished, well ventilated and comfortable, and the parlors and reception rooms are attractive and elegant. Mrs. CLOSSON, who was an aunt of Mrs. John J. KILCOYNE, reared Mrs. KILCOYNE to womanhood and the death of the former she left the Hotel Closson to her, which is now being managed by her husband, John J. KILCOYNE.

Text taken from page 242 of:

Davis, William W. H., A.M., History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania [New York-Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1905] Volume III

Transcribed August 2001 by Joan Lollis of IN. as part of the Bucks Co., Pa., Early Family Project, www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/bucksindex.html

Published August 2001 on the Bucks County, Pa., USGenWeb pages at www.rootsweb.com/~pabucks/