Daniel W. Cahill was born in Watertown, January 15, 1864, the son of Daniel and Eliza Nelson Cahill. He graduated from Watertown High School in 1880 and spent two years in the drug store of J.W. Nott. In 1884, he was employed by Drs. H.G.P. Spencer & Sons, remaining there until he entered the College of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, graduating in 1886.
In 1892, he organized a drug store located at 2 Washington Street, in the Arcade, of which he was sole proprietor. He had been president of Watertown Druggists Association and was a member and promoter of the Lincoln League.
Mr. Cahill was elected Mayor in the fall of 1905, resigning on May 26, 1906 to take the office of the New York State Superintendent of Public Buildings.
He married Katherine Florence Storer in 1896 and had a son, Daniel Robert Winslow Cahill. His son died in a drowning incident while learning to swim in the Black River on July 28, 1913 at the age of 15.
On May 18, 1942, Mr. Cahill died in the City of Watertown at the age of 78 of an embolism while under indictment for the so-called “mercy killing” of his wife, Katherine. Mr. Cahill admitted to strangling his wife with a bathrobe cord while she was sleeping in their home at 110 West Lynde Street, and then attempting to take his own life by ingesting an overdose of sleeping pills. Mrs. Cahill had been ill with a nervous disorder for more than eight years.
Mr. Cahill’s brother, Robert E., was the first Mayor in Watertown to serve under the City Manager form of government. They are the only brothers to serve as Mayors.
Both Mr. Cahills are buried in Brookside Cemetery.
