Conaway, John

CONAWAY, CANNING, DORRANCE

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 12/11/2012 at 14:07:02

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

CONAWAY, JOHN - Bear Creek Twp - pg 826-7. Physician, Brooklyn. John Conaway, for the last four years State Senator, representing Poweshiek and Tama counties, is a native of Cadiz, Ohio. Born on the 16th of November, 1822. His parents were Charles and Frances Arnold Conaway. The Conaways were from Ireland, and among the pioneers in Maryland and Virginia. The subject of this notice spent his youth in and near his native town, tilling the soil and improving his mind as far as a common school afforded opportunities. At twenty years of age he entered the academy at Hagerstown, Carroll county, spending two years there, teaching during the winter seasons. He read medicine while continuing his teaching for four years, two with his cousin, Mr. Enoch Conaway, of Franklin, Harrison county, and two with another cousin, Doctor Henry Conaway, of Rogersville, Tuscarawas county. Practiced five years at Bakersville, Coshocton county. Attended lectures at the Eclectic Medical Institute, Cincinnati. Graduated on the 25th of February, 1854. Practiced three years more at Bakersville, and on the 1st of May, 1857, reached Brooklyn, Poweshiek county, where he settled and where he has been the leading physician for twenty-one years. He has had a very extensive ride, often reaching into Iowa county on the east and sometimes into Tama on the north. He has a good name wherever known. The winter of 1866-7 Dr. Conaway spent in New York City attending lectures in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, the Eclectic Medical Institute and the Ophthalmic Hospital, giving himself a thorough brushing up in several branches of the healing art, and increasing the confidence of the people in his skill. His medical education is thorough. During the last seven years he has been associated with Charles D. Conaway, a younger brother, and both have ordinarily all the business they could desire. For the last five years Dr. Conaway has been United States Medical Examiner for pensions. He was State Senator from January, 1874, to January, 1878. Was chairman of the Committee on Township and County Organization, and acted on four or five other committees. While he was in that body he was appointed to visit the Hospital for the Insane at Mount Pleasant. Dr. Conaway was a Democrat until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, since when he has usually acted with the Republicans. When elected to the Senate he was nominated and supported by the Patrons of Husbandry. He is a Master Mason and an Odd Fellow. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church; has been a steward nearly thirty years, and is a trustee of the Wesleyan University, a Methodist school, located at Mount Pleasant. The Doctor's wife was Miss Mary E. Canning, of Rogersville, Ohio; married the 7th of October, 1849. They have lost three children and have three still living: Francis (wife of O.F. Dorrance, a merchant of Brooklyn, Iowa), Florence Narcissia (music-teacher), and Freeman R. (student at the State Normal School at Cedar Falls).