Man of Iron: William Kehoe

Kehoe Iron Works Building

​It might come as a surprise to some but Savannah has a metal making history. Chatham Steel has a long history in steel and was/is the mainstay of one of Savannah’s celebrated families: the Tennabaums (not related to the Royal Tennabaums). But it is the Irish iron maker William Kehoe I want to talk about today.

Kehoe was born and raised in Wexford Ireland on Aug. 21, 1842, Ireland. Wexford was known for its part in the United Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was home to Esmonde Kyan a famed leader of this rebellion. He was baptized in a Catholic church where Father John Murphy worked a key martyr of the 1798 rebellion. The stories and the hopes of that rebellion were surely taught to young William.

At the age of ten he immigrated to America. It was 1842 when his family settled in the Old Fort District of Savannah an Irish district. William became an apprentice in an iron foundry. He would eventually buy the foundry, which was at that time, located east of Broughton Street. He became one of Savannah’s great business man. It was said of the Kehoe Iron Foundry it was “the largest and best equipped plant south of Newport News [Virginia]……”

His business interest and leadership in Savannah were enormous. He was one of the organizers and founders of the Chatham Savings and Loan Company and its president at the time of his death. You could say he put Tybee Island on the map. He was an originator of the Tybee Railroad, in fact he held the first bond of the Tybee railroad. He served as president of the Tybee Beach Company and the famous resort ‘Hotel Tybee’ Company. He also serve as a member of the town council of Tybee for 25 years. In Savannah he served as the director of the National Bank of Savannah and as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Chatham County from 1893-1898.

Yet he never forgot where he came from in Ireland. He was a supporter of the Irish cause from afar. In 1916, he helped established the Catholic Laymen’s Association of Georgia. The group produced propaganda to counter the call, by the Ku Klux Klan and others, for a boycott of Catholic businesses when an anti-Irish sentiment had crept into Savannah’s body politic. Kehoe also was responsible for what had become known as the Irish Green on Bay Street in honor of a United Irish hero: the Protestant Robert Emmet. Today it still is known as Emmet Park.

On Independence Day of 1881 he organized an event in honor of John Howard Parnell brother of the man leading the pro-tenant Irish National Land League, which had several Savannah branches. Kehoe gave the name Francis Parnell Kehoe to one of his sons. He also served on the Irish committee to establish the Sgt. Jasper Monument in 1888 here in Savannah. It is believed the Irish of Savannah were keen to have a monument here in Savannah celebrating an Irish revolutionary hero to encourage folks back home to continue to fight for their freedom.

His empire left two important architectural monuments in Savannah. The first was his home completed in 1892. It was designed by  Andrew Dewitt Bruyn one of Savannah’s greatest architects. It is called the Kehoe house today. It was built for his wife and ten children.  It is one of Savannah’s mansions on Columbia Square. Alabama and New York Jets football star, Joe Namath owned the property for a brief time before selling it in 1990. The property now is a historic bed and breakfast inn named The William Kehoe House. It is considered one of Savannah’s best bed and breakfast inns.

The other architectural gem is found in the Trustees Garden area. It is the Kehoe Iron Works Building. Savannah entrepreneur Charles Morris is restoring the large comples of Kehoe’s Iron Works complex, repurposing it to be used for arts-and-culture happenings, conventions, and more.  
 
Kehoe would die on Dec. 29, 1929. He was one of many Irish who came to Savannah and helped build this city. 

 

 
 

 
 

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William Kehoe House

Tybee Hotel (demolished)