BLESSINGTON, John

BLESSINGTON, COTTON, HOWLEY, STUART

Posted By: Administrator
Date: 10/3/2001 at 17:05:19

Biographical Sketches Of Washington Twp. beginning on pg 814
From the book "The History of Clinton County Iowa" by L. P. Allen (1879)

JOHN BLESSINTON, Superintendent of Clinton County Poor Farm; P.O. Charlotte; born in County Longford, Ireland, in October, 1825. His parents, John and Margaret Blessington, emigrated to Vermont in June, 1839; they removed to Wisconsin in the spring of 1847; in the fall of that year, he went to Lowell, Mass., where he worked in a woolen factory for eight years; he came to Clinton Co. in 1855, and located in what was then Lyons Township, now Hampshire Township, where he lived till 1863; he then removed to Welton Township and engaged in farming; in 1866, he went to Lyons and engaged in the mercantile business. He was City Marshal of that town for two years; was appointed to present position in February, 1876, succeeding Mr. William Cotton, now deceased. His parents, now dead, came to Clinton Co. in 1851. Mr. Blessington married Mary A. Howley, of Massachusetts, native of Ireland; they have six children -- Mary Ann, now Mrs. Robert Stuart, John Margaret L., Edward J., William H. and Herbert L.; have lost four sons -- Charles F., died in May, 1878, aged 22 years; the others died in infancy.