James W. McKinney

MCKINNEY, BEEDLE, AUSTEN

Posted By: Diane (email)
Date: 3/24/2002 at 23:18:19

James W. McKinney is one of the pioneers of Pittsford township, where he has lived since May 7th, 1854. He was born in Ohio, in 1823, and remained there until fourteen years of age, when his parents emigrated to Indiana. He returned to Ohio after several years, and coming back to Indiana was married to Emma Beedle, a native of that State, and they came to Butler county in May, 1854, as above stated, and entered the farm on which he has since lived on the 11th of that month. He was accompanied to this county by an older brother, Ephram, with his family, who located upon a farm adjoining, where he lived until the spring of 1882, when he sold to Lewis Austen, and removed to Nebraska.
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Mr. and Mrs. James McKinney have been blessed with eleven children, six sons and five daughters. They lost their oldest child – Mary E. – by death. The two oldest children were born in Indiana and the balance are native born of Butler county. Mr. McKinney is of Irish descent, his great grandfather having come from the “land of the Shamrock.” His grandfather, Ephram, assisted in the building of the first house where Cincinnati now stands, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. His father, John S. McKinney, died in Indiana where he had lived many years.
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Source: History of Butler and Bremer Counties, Iowa
Union Publishing Co., Springfield, IL, 1883
Page 673