HEGARTY, PETER PAUL

HEGARTY, FOUHY, DODD, FRANKLIN, MEYERS, VANTRIES, TAFT

Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 3/24/2004 at 15:07:05

Biography reproduced from page 263 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:

Peter Paul Hegarty is one of the well known and prosperous farmers of Kossuth county, where he is successfully engaged in the cultivation of three hundred and twenty-one acres of highly developed land. He was born in County Cork, Ireland, June 29, 1840, and is a son of David and Mary (Fouhy) Hegarty, both of whom were natives of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States in 1865. The father with his family settled first at Sharon, Massachusetts, and later removed to Kossuth county and there located on a farm in Plum Creek township, where he continued to live during the remaining years of his life, which closed December 22, 1891, the mother having passed to her reward on July 13, 1890. He and his wife were members of the Roman Catholic church and they were buried in the Catholic cemetery at Algona. To Mr. and Mrs. David Hegarty seven children were born: John, deceased; Peter Paul, the subject of this review; David, also deceased; Bartholomew; Mary; Johanna; and Catherine.

Peter Paul Hegarty was reared at home and received his early education in the public schools of the district in which he lived. He emigrated with his parents to America and remained with them until 1874, at which time he established his home on land which his father had preempted, located in Plum Creek township, and has there since continued to reside. He later purchased additional land to his home farm, all of which he has brought to a high state of cultivation and equipped the property with suitable buildings of every kind required in the operation of a model farm. In addition to his farm he is also the owner of four valuable lots in the city of Algona. He enlisted for service in the Civil war in 1863 and was assigned to the quartermaster’s department, in which he served for three months, during which time he suffered a severe attack of tetanus which incapacitated him for further service and he was accordingly honorably discharged and has since suffered the affliction of deafness. While in the service as a soldier, the command to which he was attached had the care and keeping of approximately five million dollars worth of live stock.

Mr. Hegarty was united in marriage on January 1, 1874, to Miss Eliza Jane Dodd, a native of Illinois, her birth having occurred ten miles north of Joliet. She is a daughter of Darwin Oscar and Harriet (Franklin) Dodd. The father was of Irish and Dutch and the mother of Welsh and German descent. They became the parents of twenty-two children, of whom three only are living: Emma; Anne; and Eliza Jane, the wife of our subject.

To Mr. and Mrs. Hegarty sixteen children have been born: David S., who served in the Philippine war and whose residence at the present time is unknown; John, who is still at home with his parents; Johanna, the wife of William Meyers of Round Lake, Minnesota; Kate, who married George Franklin, a resident of Linwood, Iowa; Mary, a resident of Algona, Iowa; Dennis, deceased; Maggie, who is the wife of Bert Vantries, of Grinnell, Iowa; Nora, the wife of Carl Taft, a resident of Algona, Iowa; Ed, deceased; William, Carrie, Martha, Grace, and James, all of whom are still under the parental roof; and two, who died in infancy.

Mr. Hegarty gives his political allegiance to the republican party and he and his family are members of the Roman Catholic church. He is one of the well known and successful farmers of Kossuth county and a man highly respected for his industrious life and integrity of character by all his friends and associates.