McKINLEY, Harold L. 1894-1972
MCKINLEY, MYERLY, ROACH
Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 5/25/2009 at 20:49:37
HAROLD L. McKINLEY
#1: (Obit)
ST. ANSGAR, IOWA — Funeral services for Harold L. McKinley, age 77, a former St. Ansgar businessman who died Tuesday morning, July 25, 1972 at his home, will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Schroeder and Dunn Funeral Home here.
Harold was born on August 20, 1894.
Survivors include his wife, Pauline; four sons, Phil, Don and Hal, all of St; Ansgar, and. Keith of Osage; 14 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild; visitation hours at the funeral home are from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Waterloo Courier - Wednesday, July 26, 1972
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#2: (Biographical)
Harold L. McKinley, born in Newburg Township on August 20, 1894, was the only son of L.G. and Nellie McKinley. He attended Newburg schools and as a young boy, often had to arrive at school very early to build the fire in the one room school house as his oldest sister, Ethel, was the teacher. He attended high school in Osage and drove his own horse and cutter when he came home for the weekends. He graduated in 1916 from Iowa Sate College, now ISU, with a degree in Animal Husbandry. While in college he was a varsity football player and a heavy weight wrestler. He returned to farming in 1917 when he enlisted in the army at the start of WWI and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery. He was also in the National Guard during World War II and active in the American Legion.
Josephine Myerly and Harold L. McKinley were married in Spirit Lake, Iowa, in 1918. Josephine was the daughter of Joseph L. and Virginia Bryant Myerly. Born in Des Moines, she attended schools there and Iowa State College. They Myerly family had come to Pennsylvania from Germany in the early 1800s and moved west to Des Moines where Joseph I. was born in 1856. Birginia Bryant was born in Edina, Missouri, in 1859, daughter of William J. and Mary Caldwell Bryant, both of English ancestry. Joseph I. Myerly was a lawyer and postmaster of Des Moines. He owned a home on Lake Okoboji and also the old Manhattan Beach Hotel. Josephine remembered watching Fred Astair and his sister practicing their dance steps at the hotel. Both Virginia and Joseph died in Spirit Lake in 1939.
In 1927 H. L. began to raise cabbage and potatoes, and in 1938 entered the machinery business. In 1947 he added the automobile dealership and in 1953 bought the controlling interest in the Carpenter Savings Bank.
He was active in the Farm Bureau and was chosen for membership in the Champion Farmer's Association which was honored yearly by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. He was a pioneer in the use of commercial fertilizers beginning in 1921 and always interested in new and improved farming methods. In 1947 he was a member of the farm delegation which toured Europe to make a study of food and farm conditions.
As a lifelong Republican he was active locally, in the state, and nationally. In 1948 H.L. was a member of the National Farm Committee supporting the election of Thomas Dewey, Republican candidate for president. In 1952 he was chairman of the Eisenhower-Nixon Farm Council Organizing Committee and later chairman of the conventions resolutions sub-committee charged with drafting the Republican party's platform plank dealing with the farm problem. He was appointed to the Iowa Natural Resources Council by Gov. William Beardsley and served a six year term. He continued to be active in both business and politics until his retirement when he devoted his time to traveling, spending summers at the family summer home in Minnesota, and gardening.
Harold and Josephine had four sons: Philip, Donald, Hal, and Keith; fourteen grandchildren and, at present, eighteen great-grandchildren (1988). Josephine died in June of 1961. H. L. married Pauline Roach in 1962 and continued to live on the family farm until his death in 1972. Pauline died in Plainfield, Iowa, her former home, in 1982
By Marjean McKinley,
MITCHELL COUNTY HISTORY, 1989----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: His second wife, Lela Pauline Roach McKinley is buried at Willow Lawn Cemetery, Plainfield, Iowa.
Mitchell Obituaries maintained by Sharyl Ferrall.
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