Fegan, Joseph

FEGAN, POTTS, WILKENS, WESTON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcribers
Date: 1/27/2003 at 18:45:52

CAPTAIN JOSEPH D. FEGAN. 

Among the leading citizens of Clinton is numbered Captain Joseph D. Fegan, who has for several years been successfully engaged in the abstract and real-estate business in this city. He was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1831, and at the age of eighteen years learned the tailor's trade, at which he worked very successfully for several years, but in 1849 he, like many others, decided that the "wild and wooly west" was the place for prosperity, and accordingly came to Iowa, spending a short time in Scott and Jefferson counties, but on the 7th of June, 1850, took up his residence in Clinton county, where for some time he was engaged in clerking in a store and working at his trade in Elk River township.

On the 26th of August, 1851, Captain Fegan led to the marriage altar Miss Ann M. Potts, who is a native of Wisconsin, having come to this state with her parents in 1839. By this union were born three children: Charles P., who is assistant general passenger and ticket agent of the Texas & Pacific Railway Company, with headquarters at Dallas, Texas; Bessie, who became the wife of Ben C. Wilkens, died in March, 1894, leaving three little girls; and Maggie, who married Eugene Weston, now resides in Los Angeles, California. They have four children, three boys and one girl.

For two years after his marriage our subject was engaged in agricultural pursuits in this county, but at the end of that time he was appointed deputy sheriff and county assessor. In the spring of 1858 he took up his residence in Wheatland, where he successfully engaged in the lumber business, buying and shipping quite extensively, which he continued until the breaking out of the Civil war. Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, in 1861 he enlisted in Company I, Twenty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and was appointed sergeant-major. Later he served as adjutant, and was then commissioned captain of Company B. On the recommendation of General Charles R. Wood, of the regular army, he was promoted to assistant adjutant general of the First Brigade, First Division, Fifteenth Army Corps, and was commissioned by President Lincoln. After four years of faithful service he was mustered out September 19, 1865, as hostilities had ceased.

Upon returning to his home in Clinton, the Captain was elected county recorder, which position he acceptably filled for four years. Since his retirement from that office he very actively engaged in the abstract business, and owing to his wonderful memory he became known all over Clinton county as the walking encyclopedia. But this same year he sold his books, and now engages in it only at the request of his most intimate friends.

The Captain was appointed and made chairman of the commissions by Governor Jackson to locate the lines of battle on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. These lines were located for the purpose of erecting monuments to the memory of the different commands that participated in these important engagements. He was also commissioned by Governor Shaw to determine the location of the Twenty-sixth Iowa Volunteer Infantry at Vicksburg. The subject of this review has in his possession his commission which promoted him from a line captain to a position on the staff as assistant adjutant general of volunteers, which is signed by President Lincoln and Secretary of War E. M. Stanton. At the battle of Arkansas Post Captain Fegan was promoted to first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment.

Our subject is very prominent in social circles, being a member of General N. B. Baker Post, No. 88, G. A. R., of Clinton; the military order of the Loyal Legion of the United States; the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, and for fifty years he has been an honorary member of the I. O. O. F.

On coming to this state he had only a five-franc piece, and the prosperity that has come to him has been due entirely to his own unaided efforts.
Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.