McENROE, JAMES

MCENROE, SOLON

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 1/11/2004 at 16:08:37

Biography reproduced from page 584 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

James McEnroe, who owns five hundred and fifty acres of fertile land in Irvington township, has been identified with agricultural pursuits in Kossuth county for thirty-five years and is numbered among the capable and substantial farmers here. He is of Irish extraction, as the name would suggest, and passed the first eighteen years of his life on the Emerald isle. In 1860, he emigrated to the United States, locating in the vicinity of Elgin, Illinois, where he remained for about ten years. He continued his journey westward to Kossuth county in 1877 and filed on a homestead in Plum Creek township. He never proved up on this, and later abandoned it and went to Irvington township, purchasing a place on section 5, on which had been made a few minor improvements. Here he has ever since continued to reside and during the intervening years has extended his holdings until he now owns five hundred and fifty acres of land. All of the buildings now standing on the place have been erected by Mr. McEnroe, who has brought his fields into a high state of productivity and now owns one of the best equipped and most valuable properties in the township.

While residing in Illinois, Mr. McEnroe was married to Miss Kate Solon, also a native of Ireland, and to them have been born ten children: Mary, Anna and Cassie, who are at home; Lenora, who is living in Montana; Mike, who is at home; John, a member of the Knights of Columbus, who resides in Canada; Julia, who is residing near Dallas, Texas; and Frank, Leo and Helen, all of whom are at home. Mr. McEnroe is now living practically retired, his sons having taken over the operation of the farm. They are diligent, enterprising young men and own fifteen hundred acres of land in the Saskatchewan valley, Canada.

The family are communicants of the Roman Catholic church, and the father votes the democratic ticket. Mr. McEnroe has never had occasion to regret transferring his allegiance to the government of the United States, as he here found the opportunities he sought and through painstaking effort and diligence has achieved success.