Keefe, John M. 1838 – 1917

KEEFE, O’NEIL

Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 5/28/2024 at 10:05:17

Source: Cresco Plain Dealer Sept. 21, 1917, P4 C3
OBITUARY
KEEFE

John M. Keefe died Monday, Sept. 10, 1817, after an illness of several months from cancer of the lip and a general breakdown. He faced the Great Adventure bravely and the end came peacefully.
Mr. Keefe was born in county Meade, Ireland, May 16, 1838. In 1858 he came to America and located in Illinois. At this time the country was in the throes of a political struggle that eventually led to civil war and on May 30, 1861, Mr. Keefe volunteered his services to his adopted country and was enlisted in Company G. 90th Ill. Infantry and served with distinction during the intervening four years. He was honorably discharged on the 6th day of June 1865.
On May 23, 1869, Mr. Keefe was united in marriage to Miss Annie O’Neil, the ceremony being performed at Cresco. They settled on a farm in Mitchell county where they lived three years, then moved to Lodi, Ill., where they lived five years after which they removed to Howard county and settled on a farm near Lourdes which was their home until 1899 when they moved to Elma.
Mr. Keefe was the father of eleven children, ten of whom survive him.
The funeral was held Thursday from the Immaculate Conception Church and was attended by a large congregation of neighbors who thus paid their last respects to a departed friend. Father Bowen preached an eloquent sermon in which he dwelt on the man’s rugged character, his patriotism, his love of home and his devotion to his church.
John M. Keefe never enjoyed the advantages of much schooling but he possessed an alert mind and was a great reader and unusually well informed on history and current events. He was a man of intense patriotism and we like to think that now he is enjoying the reward of his life’s service along with the heroes of Malvern Hill, of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, the men whose wasted figures will the patriotic graves of the nation.—Elma New Era.

Transcriber’s Note: Find a Grave shows he is buried in Calvary Elma Cemetery.

Calvary Elma Cemetery
 

Howard Obituaries maintained by Constance McDaniel Hall.
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