P. M. McNamara

BURKE, LINANE, MCNAMARA

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/15/2004 at 09:43:56

P. M. McNamara, a prosperous citizen and representative agriculturist of Madison county, operates a well improved farm of one hundred and eighty acres on section 2, Lincoln township, and also owns another place of eighty acres in the same township as well as two hundred-acre tracts in Union township. His birth occurred in Des Moines, Polk county, Iowa, on the 25th of April, 1858, his parents being Martin and Mary (Linane) McNamara, both of whom were natives of Ireland. Their marriage, however, was celebrated in Des Moines, this state. Martin McNamara emigrated to America when twenty years of age and for a year and a half was employed at railroad work in Toronto, Canada. In 1854 he came to Iowa and traveled by stage from Burlington to Des Moines. There he was employed as a teamster, hauling goods from the Mississippi river to Des Moines, until 1867, when he took up his abode on a tract of rented land in Lee township, Madison county. About 1870 he purchased a tract of brush and prairie land in Union township and began its development and improvement, there successfully carrying on agricultural pursuits until he passed away in 1908. The period of his residence in this county covered more than four decades and his demise was deeply regretted by all who knew him. His political allegiance was given to the democracy and in religious faith both he and his wife were Catholics. The latter was called -to her final- rest in 1912. Their children were five in number, namely: P. M., of this review; Mary, who resides on the old home farm in Union township; John and James, both of whom follow farming in Union township; and Margaret, who is the wife of Hugh Rogers, of Warren county.

P. M. McNamara was reared to manhood on the homestead and attended the country schools in the acquirement of an education. When twenty-one years of age he began to learn the plumber's trade but abandoned that occupation and for seven years devoted his time and energies to general agricultural pursuits. Subsequently he again turned his attention to the plumbing trade and for twenty years was. a member of the firm of Wallace & McNamara, plumbers of Des Moines, doing an extensive business in Iowa, Kansas and other states that sometimes amounted to one hundred thousand dollars in one year. Eight years ago he sold out and purchased his present farm of one hundred and eighty acres on section 2, Lincoln township, known as the Beerbower place. There was a good set of buildings on the property, but he has made extensive improvements in the way of tiling and the farm is now very valuable and productive. Mr. McNamara makes a specialty of fancy registered Polled Angus cattle and feeds from two to four carloads of cattle and hogs annually. He also owns another excellently improved farm of eighty acres in Lincoln township, as well as two one-hundred-acre tracts in Union township, and is widely recognized as a progressive and prosperous agriculturist of the community. He was made president of the Winterset Savings Bank in 1912, serving for one year, and has been a director of the institution since 1908. He is likewise interested in the Iowa Live Stock Insurance Company and in the First National Fire Insurance Company of Washington, D. C.

In April, 1896, in Des Moines, Mr. McNamara was united in marriage to Miss Ella Burke, a native of Pennsylvania, by whom he has two children, Ernest and Margaret. The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic church. Mr. McNamara is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America. He has always lived in this part of the state and has won a host of warm friends here.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”