USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States > Part 76
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Of his early life it may be said that he was born in Ireland, in the County of Davey, October 30, 1827. He can trace his ancestors only to his grandfather, James Dougherty, who married Nancy Fisher, and they had three children, one of whom was our subject's father, James Dougherty, born in Ireland. He married Miss Jane Nelson, a daughter of Jolın and Jane (Watson) Nelson, who reared seven children, two of whom are in the United States. The children were John, Thomas, James, William, Mar- garet, Jane and Nancy.
Our subject's early life was spent in the Emerald Isle, where he received a com- mon-school education. He remained at home on his father's farm until he was seventeen years of age, when his father gave him money to pay his passage to America .. He sailed for this country in March, 1848, and landed in New York City, and went to Roundout, on North River, where he visited relatives for a time. One of his cousins was a railroad contractor, and he worked for him several years. August 10, 1854, he married Mary Snyder, a daughter of Patrick and Cath- erine (Flaherty) Snyder, natives of Ire- land, who came to this country in 1851.
Mr. and Mrs. Dougherty are the par- ents of twelve children, six sons and six daughters, seven of whom are living-
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Mary, deceased; Catherine, (Mrs. Prater) of Missouri Valley ; John and Thomas, de- ceased; Jane, (Mrs. Ward), living near Logan; James, a resident of Harrison County; Rosella, (Mrs. Hilliard), a resi- dent of this county; Lydia, at home; Teresa, Robert, now in Colorado; Will- iam and Charles are deceased.
Politically, our subject affiliates with the Democratic party, and in religious matters, he and his family are members of the Roman Catholic Church.
To have been a pioneer of Harrison County as early as 1858, was to encounter many hardships, to undergo many. pleas- ures. Money was scarce and the settlers were far from market, and far from each other. Verily, the present and future generation will never know, save by his- tory all that the vanguard to settlement went through in developing Western Iowa. All praise to those who came and remained through those perilous years.
AMES S. DEWELL, an attorney at law at Missouri Valley, has been identified with the interests of Har- rison County since the month of September, 1883. He is a native of the Hawkeye State, and was born at Tipton, Cedar County, Iowa, June 16, 1857. He is the son of Nathaniel and Winnie (McComb) Dewell.
John Dewell came to America from France in 1766, having been born in 1743. He was engaged in the Revolutionary struggle, and after its close settled near Annapolis, Md. This person was our sub- ject's great-great-grandfather, who laid down the burden of life about 1803. His son Benjamin was a farmer in Maryland,
and in stature was six feet and a half high. Solomon Dewell, the son of Ben- jamin, was a carpenter by trade, and moved to Ohio in the early part of the present century, settling in Jefferson County, and was among the early pio- neers of that region. Our subject's father, Nathaniel Dewell, was born in Wayne County, Ohio, January 13, 1830, and fol- lowed farming for a livelihood. He died at Clarence, Cedar County, Iowa, March 13, 1890; having moved to Indiana in 1833, and to Iowa in 1855.
Winnie McComb, the mother of our subject, the daughter of John McComb, was born in Kosiusko County, Ind. The mother died March 21, 1865. Their family consisted of six children, of whom our subject was the fourth in number, five living. William Dewell, brother of our subject, was drowned July 4, 1868, at 110- gan, Iowa; Hiram lives in Cedar County, Iowa, cn a farm; a sister, the wife of Silas Silsby, lives in Cedar County, Iowa; Frank is a farmer in Ida County, Iowa, and George lives in Woodbury County.
Our subject received his education in the common-schools of Cedar County; at at the High Schools at Clarence, Iowa, and later took a regular course at the Iowa Agricultural College, graduating with the Class of '81. In 1882 he began the study of law at the State University at :Iowa City, completing his course in June, 1883, shortly after which he canie to Missouri Valley, where he has since practiced his chosen profession.
Politically, Mr. Dewell is an ardent sup- porter of the Republican party, believing its fundamental principles to be just and true. Since living in Missouri Valley he has been Secretary of the School Board for seven years; was Mayor of the city in 1885; City Clerk in 1884; City Attorney
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four years, and County Attorney for the years 1889 and 1890. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity, and in con- clusion it may be added no man stands higher in the community than the man for whom this notice has been written.
W ILLIAM A. GRAYBILL, a farmer on section 32, of Washington Town- ship, has been a resident of Harri- son County since 1864, settling on his present farm in the month of March in that year. He, in company with A. J. Graybill, William Spears and O. A. Sto- ker purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land in 1862, which was divided in 1865, Mr. Graybill getting eighty-five acres, upon which he built a log house in 1864, and moved his family there in the spring. They have occupied the same building ever since. When he came to the township there were but two farms opened up, and all looked new and wild. One log school-house on section 32 graced the fair domain now so thickly settled, and religious meetings were held at Union Grove usually in private houses. Mr. Graybill's present farm comprises two hundred and twenty-five acres of choice land, the most of which is situated in the Mosquito Valley.
To learn something of his early career the reader will be informed that he was born July 28, 1840, in Adams County, Ill., and accompanied his parents, who were among the early pioneers, to locate in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, coming, as they did, before Council Bluffs had an ex- istence, that location then being known as Miller's Hollow. Our subject remained with his parents until 1864. For nine
years prior his father, himself and broth- ers, A. J. & L., kept bachelor's hall in Pottawattamie County.
Simeon P. Graybill was born March 26, 1816, in Jackson County, Ohio, and was the son of Mr. Graybill, a native of New York and of German ancestry. The father, Michael Graybill, was the son of Peter Graybill, who was born in Pennsylvania, and married Christena Wampler, who had been taken prisoner by the Delaware Indians when a child and kept with the tribe for seven years and then returned to her parents. Peter Graybill was a son of John Graybill who came from Germany in the days of the Revolutionary War. Simeon Graybill's father, Michael, was married to Polly Stoker, in Ashe County, N. C., May 1811, removed to Jackson County, Ohio, and reared a family of children : David, Catharine, Simeon, Levi, George, Lenore, Julian, Michael, Mary Ann, Elizabeth and Sidney.
Simeon was married to Amanda Hill, in Jackson County, Ohio, March 16, 1837 and the same year moved to Caldwell County, Mo., and in 1838 to Davis County, of that State. They removed back to Caldwell County, remained until 1839 and went to Adams County, Illinois, where they re- inained until 1848. February 14 of that year, his wife Amanda, was taken sick and died February 21. The same week, her eldest daughter, Rachel, sickened and died March 22. In the autumn of 1848, the family started West and arrived in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, December 5.
The mother of our subject was born in 1817 in Jackson County, Ohio, her maiden name being Amanda Hill. They were the parents of four children, three sons and one daughter. One son, Aaron A., was killed in the time of the Civil War.
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He was killed at Camp Creek, Ga. August 31, 1864.
Our subject was united in marriage, January 8, 1861, in Pottawattamie County, to Miss Agnes J. Spears, by whom eight children have been born- Lovinia J., born November 9, 1862, Louisa A., February 19, 1864; Margaret M., July 14, 1865; George A., August 10, 1867; Simeon P., January 14, 1870; William A., September 17, 1872; Clarence E., July 28, 1880; Maude A., October 27, 1881. George A., died September 10, 1884, and his sister, Maude A., died March 11, 1882.
Agnes J. (Spears) Graybill, the wife of our subject, was born September 29, 1841, in Illinois, and came with her parents to Pottawattamie County, and remained with them until the date of her marriage.
Politically, our subject is an independ- ent, and is a member of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, believing as he does, that the farmer is not as well protected by the present laws of our government, as is the monopolist.
In his religious convictions, he believes in the faith that all people will be re- warded for all good deeds done in the body and punished for the bad deeds.
HEODORE MAHONEY, a repre- sentative farmer of Taylor Town- ship, residing on section 8, came to Harrison County in company with his father in the spring of 1852. They settled in Magnolia Township. His father and Judge Jonas Chatburn operated a mill in company, near the village of Magnolia. Our subject remained at home with his father until the spring of 1855, working in the mill and on the farm. We next find |
him at work in a sawmill in Pottawatta- mie County for a man named Garner, with whom he remained two years, at the end of which time he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Raglan Town- ship. After two years he disposed of this place and bought a water-power gristmill on the Soldier River in Taylor Township, which he operated until the spring of 1887, when the mill was burned. The farın he now lives upon he bought in Jan- mary, 1871, at first buying forty acres of improved land, for which he paid $50 per acre. When he bought the place there was a one-story and a half house and a small barn upon it. In 1882 he built a two- story frame house 28x30 feet. This build- ing was destroyed by fire June 20, 1890, and in the autumn of that year built his present residence, which is a two-story frame structure, with an ell and various additions, the whole affording ample room. In 1885 he built a barn 30x42 feet, with sixteen-foot posts, besides numerous other outbuildings. His landed estate amounts to four hundred acres, the same being considered one of the best farms in Harrison County.
Our subject was born in Cecil County, Md., February 29, 1836. He is the son of Stephen and Margaret Mahoney, both na- tives of Maryland. The mother died in February, 1850, and the same year the father with the family came to Pottawatt- amie County, Iowa, remaining until the spring of 1852, and then came to Harri- son County. The father had been here in 1851 and entered land. Our subject was married in Harrison County, Iowa, March 28, 1864, to Miss Emily Wakefield, the daughter of William and Sarah (Garner) Wakefield. By this union seven children were born-Theodore E., James W., de- ceased, M. Herbert, Jesse W., Stephen
57
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HARRISON COUNTY.
G., William, deceased, and Walter died in infancy.
Emily (Wakefield) Mahoney, was born in Illinois in 1853, and when five years of age accompanied her parents to Potta- wattamie County, Iowa, and one year later to Harrison County.
When Mr. Mahoney first came to the county, his nearest trading point and post- office was Council Bluffs, and nearly all of the teams in the county consisted of oxen. Politically our subject is identified with the Republican party and has held numerous local offices. He is now one of the successful farmers of his township, usually keeping one hundred head of cat- tle, and from fifty to sixty head of horses and mules.
E DWARD B. MEAD, one of the representative farmers of Harrison Township, who owns a hundred and twenty acre farm on sections 22 and 23, is a native of Dutchess County, N. Y. He was born July 6, 1835. He is the son of John B. and Ann E. (Marshall) Mead, who were natives of the Empire State, and of English-German extraction. Our subject was reared in the city of Pough- keepsie, and educated in the public schools, until he was sixteen years of age, at which time he began to learn the cooper's trade; his father was also a cooper as was as his grandfather. After he had learned his trade and when he was nineteen years of age, his parents left their native state, and came west to Illinois, locating in Ken- dall County, where the father of our sub- ject engaged in farming, and died there in 1864, at the age of fifty years. His good wife and the mother of our subject, sur-
vived until 1882, and died at the age of seventy-four years. This worthy couple reared a family of eleven children-Ed- ward, our subject; Angeline, wife of M. J. Hoag, of Illinois; Caroline, wife of William Durell, a resident of Illinois; Phebe Ann, wife of John Stewart, both deceased; William D., a resident of Illi- nois; James H., a resident of Illinois; Charles, a resident of Illinois; Elizabeth, deceased; Sarah Catherine, deceased; Susan, deceased; and Jane deceased. Our subject remained in New York State, a few months after his parents came West, and when he came he went to work at Aurora, Ill .. where he followed his trade a year and a half, and then went to Chicago, where he worked at his trade six years, and the next two years he spent on a farm in De Kalb County, and then removed to Kane County, where he farmed for three years, spent a year near Little Rock, Ill., and then removed to La Salle County, of the same State, pur- chased a farm and lived nine years, and in 1880, located on his present farm, where he has made many valuable improve- ments. To-day his farm is numbered among the many excellent ones found in Northeastern Harrison County. He de- votes his entire attention to farming and stock-raising. He is an intelligent as well as industrious man, by reason of which his labors have been crowned with more than ordinary success.
Our subject was united in marriage, September 3, 1856, to Adah Dean, daugh- ter of Smith A. and Delilah (Wright) Dean. She was born in Westchester County, N. Y., October 24, 1837. They reared a family of four children-Eliza- beth A., deceased, at the age of eight months; Anna D., wife of M. B. Ewer, a resident of Lyons County; Jennie M.,
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wife of T. J. Young, residing in Harrison Township, and Ida A., at home.
Politically, Mr. Mead is a stanch sup- porter of the Republican party, and has held numerous local offices and is one of the present Township Trustees. He has made a large circle of friends, and is counted among the most highly repected citizens of his township.
Mrs. Mead, is an acceptable member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a member of the F. W. S. Botn Mr. and Mrs. Mead belong to the Farmer's Club.
HOMAS J. BERKLEY, who is now living at Woodbine, has for years been an active business man of Har- rison County, and his two sons are thus engaged at this time. Mr. Berkley was born in Frederick County, Va., June 10,
1826. Heis the son of Samuel and Tacy (Furr) Berkley, natives of Kentucky and Virginia, respectively, and of English ori- gin. The first fifteen or sixteen years of our subject's life was spent in Virginia, when the father moved to Beverly, Ohio, and there purchased a mill and a farm. He was one of the leading millers of Mus- kingum Valley. After the death of his parents our subject, Thomas Berkley, while yet a young man learned the milling business, which he followed most of the time since, with the exception of two years he was in trade at Lowell, Ohio, and about one year in Magnolia, Iowa. He rebuilt a saw and grist mill at Max- burg, Ohio, and in 1870, they moved to Virginia lived four years and then emi- grated to Iowa, in 1875, and located at Magnolia. After one year's residence there he erected a flouring-mill in com-
pany with his brother, S. L. Berkley, which they subsequently removed to Mis- souri Valley. The same was destroyed by fire in October, 1879, and rebuilt and operated until July, 1882, when our sub- ject removed to Woodbine and is still en- gaged at his trade.
He was married December, 26, 1851, to Nancy De Long, daughter of Isaac and Nancy (Lancaster) De Long, who were natives of France and Pennsylvania, re- spectively, both of whom are deceased and buried in the Maxburg Cemetery. The father was an extensive tanner. Mrs. Berkley was born in Maxburg, Ohio, May 29, 1832, where she was reared and edu - cated, as well as married, the ceremony being performed in the same house in which she was born.
Mr. and Mrs. Berkley were the parents of ten children-Isaac N., born Septem- ber 5, 1853; Charles L., born March 22, 1855, died December 22, 1877; Tracy V., born January 7, 1857, wife of F. M. Miles, who is general foreman of the machine shops at Missouri Valley ; Mary Ella, born September 29, 1858, the wife of C. L. Roberts, a jeweler of Tacoma, Wash .; Martha L., born February 24, 1860, wife of J. M. Cheever, a hardware merchant, of Sheldon, Iowa: Sallie T., born Septem- ber 8, 1862, the wife of J. S. Cook, a rail- road man, of Tacoma, Wash. ; Samuel L., born March 30, 1864, a druggist, of Wood- bine, Iowa; Lottie E. born December 29, 1867, the wife of W. F. Shuler, a clerk at Woodbine; Emma M., born August 19, 1869, wife of M. H. Pelton, a carpenter at Woodbine; Grace E., born January 22, 1872, still at home. The children were ail born in Ohio, except the youngest.
Mr. Berkley was an old-line Whig, and when the Republican party was formed, identified himself with that and was a firm
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believer in its principles. He died De- cember 29, 1891, and was buried at Mis- souri Valley.
Our subject and his estimable wife were members of the Baptist Church, and had always been active in every good moral and christian work in the various commu- nities in which they lived.
C LAUDIUS TOWNSEND Mc- KENNEY, son of Michael I. Mc- Kenney, who was of Scotch descent and was born in Cayuga County, N. Y., March 13, 1808, and was the son of Thomas McKenney, who followed farming for a living in New York. When a boy, in 1818, the family removed to Ohio and la- ter to Indiana, and from there to Cass County, Mich., where he lived until 1851. In his early life he (Michael) was crippled by having a knife stuck into his spine, which happened in this way: He shot a deer, when his companion hunter undertook to cut its throat, while he held the animal, which, in its struggle for life, struck his arm, cansing the knife to glance and strike our subject's father, inflicting a wound which crippled him for life. In his early life he followed shoemaking, and later followed farming, but was unable to do heavy manual labor. In November, 1851, he came from Michigan to Harrison County, Iowa, and settled on the site of the present home of J. D. McKenney, where he took a claim of five hundred acres, about forty acres of which had been plowed. There was a double log house upon this place in which they lived until the death of the father, July 18, 1858. The mother still lives and makes her
home with her daughter, Mrs. A. E. Parker, of Jefferson Township.
When our subject came to Harrison County, he was but five years of age, hence his history is identical with that of the county, and great has been the change since he can reollect. Here he has re- ceived his education, and while he has never gone hungry, yet he knows some- thing of the days when cornbread was the chief article of diet. He remained at the old homestead with his mother until twenty-one years of age, having worked out prior to that time, however, by the month. After he became of age he farmed part of the old place, and a few years later pur- chased the interest of the other heirs on two hundred acres of land, and to this he has added until he has three hundred and ten acres, of which about eighty acres is plow land and eighty acres in timber, the balance in pasture and meadow land.
Our subject was born in Cass County, Mich., August 23, 1846. He is the son of Michael and Anna Eliza (Townsend) Mc- Kenney, and is the seventh child of a fam- ily of eight children. He was married De- cember 19, 1875, to Alice Culton, a native .of Illinois, born December 12, 1358, and the second child of Thomas and Jane Cul- ton, who had a family of seven children. They moved to Harrison County, in Feb- ruary, 1871, and settled in Jefferson Town- ship, and later moved to Logan, but are now living in Nebraska.
Our subject and his wife have been blessed with four children-George T., Jessie R., Michael Ira, Claude T. all at home.
Politically our subject is a Republican, and owing to the uprightness of his char- acter, stands high in the community in which he lives.
Concerning the ancestry of this family
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it may be said that. John McKinney, the father of Thomas Mckinney, came from Edinburgh, Scotland, with a brother named Amos. His wife was Lydia (Sher- wood) McKenney. Thomas McKenney's wife was Dorcas (Inman) McKenney. Thomas was born January 3, 1781, and died June 12, 1852. Dorcas, his wife, was born February 24, 1779, and died June 4, 1845. Thomas and his family removed from York State to Ohio in 1817, and to Indiana two years later. In 1828 he went to Michigan and built the first house on what is called McKenney's Prairie, La- Grange Township. There was a family of three sons and five daughters. Michael, the eldest son, and our subject's father, married Anna Eliza Townsend, November 1, 1832, who was born in Canada, July 6, 1814. She aud her mother were the first white women to set foot in La Grange Township, Cass County, Mich. Her father built the first house there in 1828. Michael, with his six children, and his father, Thomas McKenney, started for Iowa, October 7, 1851, and arrived at Kanesville (Council Bluffs), November 3. They rented a log cabin at $4 per month. The 19th of November they removed to Harris Grove, Harrison County, the site of the present homestead of J. D. Mc- Kenney.
RTHUR J. GILMORE, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors and a farmer of section 28, LaGrange Township, came to Harrison County in the spring of 1869, and bought one hundred and sixty acres of wild land on section 32, LaGrange Township, and then returned to Dubuque, to his family,
and there remained until June, 1870, when he moved to his farm and com- menced to improve it. He built a frame house 14x16 feet, one story and a half high, and remained there until March 1871, when he sold out and rented a farm in Pottawattamie County, and the follow- ing fall bought the farm he now lives upon. He purchased one hundred and twenty acres, eighty acres of which was on section 28, and the remainder in 33. He built a frame house one story and a half high, 14x22 feet, in which he lived until 1866, and then built his present residence. He now has another farm of one hundred and twenty acres, in sections 20 and 29. This farm is fenced in three forty-acre lots. Forty acres of bottom land are under the plow, and the re- mainder in pasture land and meadow.
He was born in the County of Tyrone, Ireland, November 12, 1834, and in the spring of 1836, he came with his parents to America. They located in Lancaster City, Pa .. but in 1849 came to Dubuque, Iowa, and moved over the line into Jackson County. Arthur being the only son, he remained at home after he had grown to be a man, he and his father working together. They sold their farm and in the autumn of 1863, bought a farm in Dubuque County, consisting of two hundred and eighteen acres. The mother died in 1867, and they sold out and moved into Dubuque, where they en- gaged in the grain business for two years, during which time the father again married and he and our subject divided their property.
Mr. Gilmore was united in marriage in Jackson County, Iowa, July 15, 1858, to Miss Sarah F. McKenna, by which union, nine children were born-John J., Arthur C., Thomas M., Mary P., twins, who died
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in infancy, Catharine E., Sarah L. E., and James J.
Sarah F. (McKenna) Gilmore was born in Canada in 1834, and when a girl came with her parents to Jackson County, Iowa, where she remained until the date of her marriage. She died in Harrison County, July 10, 1890. Her parents were both born in Ireland. Her father's name was Thomas McKenna, and her mother's maiden name was Catharine Kelley. Her father died in Jackson County, Iowa, in 1876, and her mother in Anamosa, Iowa, 1882.
John Gilmore, the father of our subject, was born in Ireland in 1802, and came to America in the spring of 1836, and died in Dubuque, Iowa, October 1874. The mother of our subject, Catharine (Mul- grew) Gilmore, was a native of the · Emerald Isle, born 1805 in Tyrone County, and died in Dubuque County, Iowa, September 1866. They were the parents of four children-three daughters and one son, our subject being the second child.
Politically, Mr. Gilmore is identified with the Democratic party, and has been Chairman of the Board of Supervisors for seven years. He was elected to the office of Township Clerk, also that of Assessor, for a number of years each. In the fall of 1883, was appointed to the office of County Supervisor from the third district of Harrison County, and has been elected three times, his time expiring January, 1892. Was re-elected the fall of 1891 with a majority of two hundred and four. He has ever guarded the best interests of Harrison County and its taxpayers.
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