McCONNELL, Charles R. - 1914

MCCONNELL, LYTLE, HEATH, CUNNINGHAM

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/9/2009 at 01:09:09

HISTORY OF
Cherokee County
IOWA
VOLUME II
ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1914
by Thomas McCulla

CHARLES R. McCONNELL.

Charles R. McConnell, the owner of Fair View stock farm, a four hundred and eighty acre tract in Marcus township, upon which he has resided since 1897, was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, on the 24th of August, 1862. He is a son of James and Margaret (Lytle) McConnell, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Pennsylvania. The father was born in 1814 and when he was a young man came to America on a sailing vessel, locating near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked on a farm for a time for his board. He afterward, for six years and a half, received six dollars per month during the summer and worked in the mill in the winter at ten dollars per month. In 1854 he came by boat to Rock Island and bought land in Rock Island county at twelve dollars per acre. This farm he improved and operated for the remainder of his life, dying May 23, 1894, at the age of eighty. He had survived his wife several years, her death having occurred in 1885, when she was sixty-two years of age.

Charles R. McConnell was reared and educated in Rock Island county, Illinois, and remained on the home farm until he was about thirty years of age. In 1897 he came to Cherokee county and bought a half section of land in Marcus township. Upon this property he has steadily carried forward the work of improvement, adding more land to his holdings from time to time until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres. This is known as the Fair View stock farm and is a well improved and well managed property, equipped with substantial buildings and everything necessary for carrying on agricultural pursuits according to the most modern and practical methods. Mr. McConnell is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Marcus and in the Farmers Cooperative Company and is known as a farsighted, resourceful and discriminating business man.

In February, 1886, Mr. McConnell married Miss Elizabeth Heath, a daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Cunningham) Heath, natives of Pennsylvania. The parents came to Iowa and settled in Scott county at a very early date, the father afterward engaging in farming in that locality for a number of years. He finally moved to Rock Island county, Illinois, and after farming there for a long period retired from active life and removed to Milan, where he died in September, 1910. He is survived by his wife, who makes her home in Milan. Mr. and Mrs. McConnell became the parents of four children: Roy, who died April 18, 1890; Russell, whose birth occurred July 5, 1891; Ralph, born November 10, 1895; and Lotus, who was born in April, 1901, and died in November, 1911.

Mr. McConnell is a member of the Methodist church and is independent in his political beliefs. He is interested in all that pertains to general progress and cooperates heartily in many movements for the good of the community, being at all times a publicspirited and progressive citizen as well as a successful agriculturist.