John W. Mahoney

MAHONEY, BARMORE, WATERS, BAKER

Posted By: Peter Gausmann (email)
Date: 1/7/2010 at 05:47:40

JOHN W. MAHONEY

No history of Winnebago county would be complete without extended mention of J. W. Mahoney, who is now deceased but who for many years was one of the foremost merchants of Forest City, locating there in pioneer times and taking active part in its development along many lines. He served for many years as postmaster, was also a member of the city council and was connected with various business interests. His birth occurred in Laporte county, Indiana, April 24, 1841, and there he remained until his seventeenth or eighteenth year, when he removed with his parents to Floyd county, Iowa. He was educated in the common schools and in 1861, upon the outbreak of the Civil war, he enlisted as a member of the Third Iowa Battery, with which he served until the close of hostilities, participating in the engagements at Pea Ridge, at Helena and at Little Rock, Arkansas, and also in. the Yazoo expedition. He proved a loyal and faithful soldier, manifesting his loyalty by the prompt performance of every duty that devolved upon him.

At the close of the war Mr. Mahoney returned to Floyd county, where he resided until 1869, when he came to Forest City and engaged in merchandising, erecting the first good store building in the town. Therein he conducted the first mercantile establishment of importance in Forest City, being associated with B. A. Plummer for a year and a half. On the expiration of that period he took over Mr. Plummer's interests and conducted the business independently for a number of years. Later his son, Irving W., became his partner and the energy and enterprise of the young man, and the sagacity and experience of the father, made a strong business combination. Mr. Mahoney was also financially interested in Forest City's first sawmill, which was subsequently converted into a grist mill. He was that type of man who, when anything needed to be done in the town, did not stand back and wait for someone else to do it but took his place in the vanguard and led the movement.

Mr. Mahoney was connected with many interests of public importance. In 1870 he was appointed deputy postmaster of Forest City and in 1873 was made postmaster, which office he filled for about fourteen years. He was also a member of the first board of councilmen of Forest City, being called to that office in 1878 and serving for two years, and for a similar period held the office of mayor. He served on the school board for many years and did everything in his power to advance the cause of education. In 1888 he was elected to represent his district in the state legislature for a two years' term and was a candidate for renomination, but the nomination was declared a tie and in order to keep harmony he resigned in favor of his opponent. He worked for the betterment of public conditions and the development of the resources of Winnebago county and co-operated in every plan and measure for the general good.

On March 20, 1868, Mr. Mahoney was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary E. Barmore, of Kockford, Iowa, a daughter of John and Julette (Waters) Barmore, natives of New York state, who removed to Wisconsin in 1845 by wagon and in the early '60s came to Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney became the parents of three children: Irving W., an abstractor and prominent citizen of Jackson, Minnesota; Edna M., who is the wife of N. L. Baker, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the patentee of the Baker change-making machine, and who has a daughter, Beth; and Hugh J., a resident of Forest City.

Mr. Mahoney was a stanch republican in politics and he was for forty years a member of the Masonic lodge of Forest City, of which he was ever a most loyal adherent, exemplifying in his life the beneficent spirit of the craft. He passed away February 9, 1909, while he and his wife were spending the winter with their daughter in Oklahoma City. In his passing Winnebago county lost one of its most prominent and most beloved citizens. During the funeral all the business houses were closed, the flag in the courthouse yard was suspended at half mast and the old soldier comrades of Mr. Mahoney attended the services in a body. He and his wife attended the Congregational church. He was generous to a fault, giving freely in aid of those who needed assistance. He was prominent in social circles of the city and is everywhere spoken of as one of Nature's noblemen. His life was ever upright and honorable, actuated by high purposes and fraught with splendid results. Of him it might well be said:
" He was a man; take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again."

Source: History of Winnebago County and Hancock County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, Vol. II. Pioneer Publishing Company (Chicago), 1917. pp. 312-315.

Winnebago Biographies maintained by Cheryl Siebrass.
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