McGinn, Peter

MCGINN, OSHEA, BRADY, FITZGERALD, HANRAHAN, KELLY, MEARS, DUMM, OMEARA, MURRAY, COYLE, OCONNELL, HARRISON, BROGAN

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Date: 4/15/2003 at 18:47:32

Source: "The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated" published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

PETER McGINN.

The subject of this sketch, who is a well-known retired farmer living in Delmar, Iowa, was born in Canada on the 14th of March, 1831, and is a son of Peter McGinn, who was born in County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1798, and Ann McGinn, who was born July 30, 1805. The father of our subject at the age of sixteen years enlisted in the English army, in which he served four years. After the English and French war was over, on account of there being a reduction in the army, his regiment was sent to Montreal, Canada, and there discharged. Soon after receiving his discharge from the service he received one hundred acres of land from the government, and later added three hundred acres more, which he subsequently sold. There he married Ann O’Shea, a native of Canada, and continued to make his home there until 1854. In that year he came to Clinton county, Iowa, and purchased a claim of about a section of land which was partially improved; this was located in Washington and Waterford townships. As one of the pioneer settlers of that locality, he was forced to endure many hardships and privations such as one will commonly encounter on the frontier. Being possessed of considerable pluck and energy, he was enabled to make a success of life. He died on his farm on August 5, 1866. His wife passed away February 23, 1879. The remains of both are interred in St. Mary’s Catholic cemetery in Waterford township.

They were parents of eleven children, namely: James, who married Catherine Brady and died in Waterford township in 1853, while his widow, who has married again, now lives in Shelby county; to this first marriage was born one son, Peter. (2) William married Eliza Fitzgerald, who died in 1895; he resides in Bloomfield township; to this union there are five children, three living. (3) Christopher, who died in 1896, first married Ella Hanrahan, and second Ann Kelly, now a resident of Quigley, this county; to this first union there are three boys and four girls now living. (4) Peter is next in order of birth. (5) Mary Ann, who died in 1896, was the wife of John Mears, who lives near Hooker, Turner county, South Dakota; to this union there are two boys and three girls now living. (6) Elizabeth, married John Dumm and she died in Washington township, to this union there are two boys and one girl now living. (7) John, who died in Canada in 1854, was seventeen years of age. (8) Daniel is a resident of Charlotte, this county. (9) Michael is engaged in the real-estate business in Clinton. (10) Catherine is the wife of Patrick O’Meara, a farmer of Shelby county. (11) Jane died in 1880, at the age of thirty-two years.

During his boyhood and youth Peter McGinn attended the public schools of Canada until twenty years of age, and then taught in the dominion for six years. In 1857 he came to Clinton county, Iowa, and took up his residence in Washington township. After teaching in the district schools of this county for seven terms he turned his attention to farming, having received eighty acres of land from his father and purchased eighty acres more.

At St. Simon’s Catholic church, in DeWitt, May 10, 1868, Mr. McGinn was married by Rev. Father Scallan, to Miss Mary A. Murray, who was born in New York May 15, 1848. Her father, Henry Murray, was born in County Down, Ireland, and was married in England to Miss Catherine Coyle, a native of that country, who died in 1897, and was buried in Center Grove cemetery, Washington township, this county. Her father is still living, and now resides in Washington township. He has six children living, namely: Mary Ann, wife of our subject; Elizabeth, who is the widow of Joseph O’Connell and resides on a farm in Washington township with her father; Henry, who married Margaret Harrison and lives in Cedar Rapids; Margaret, who is at home with her father; Jane, wife of Martin Brogan, of Guthrie county, Iowa; and Joseph, who is also on the home farm with the father.

For six years after his marriage Mr. McGinn operated his farm, and then renting the place he removed to DeWitt, where he lived retired for four years and a half. In 1878 he bought forty acres and added to this until he now has a farm of two hundred and thirty-one acres of land in Bloomfield township, and to the cultivation and improvement of that place he devoted his time and attention until his removal to Delmar in 1898. Here he purchased property and built a handsome modern residence, where he is now living a retired life, enjoying the fruits of his early labors. He has been elected to office several times, but has refused to qualify, at one time being a successful candidate for justice of the peace, with a large Republican majority, although he is a stanch Democrat. This fact firmly indicates his personal popularity as well as the confidence and trust reposed in him by his fellow citizens. He and his wife are members of St. Patrick’s Catholic church. He is liberal almost to a fault, and there is probably no one in Clinton county to-day who has more warm friends than Peter McGinn.