McMullen, James 1843 – 1930
MCMULLEN, TWYNEN, CLARK, PEROSE, HEADINGTON, WILSON, GILLMAN, CHRISTIAN, BRADRICH, SCHANCK
Posted By: Joy Moore (email)
Date: 4/12/2015 at 11:38:53
JAMES McMULLEN.
Almost sixty years have come and gone since James McMullen took up his abode in Canoe township, and throughout the greater part of the period he has been closely associated with agricultural interests, now owning and cultivating eighty acres on section 18. He was a youth of but ten years when he arrived in Canoe township, his birth having occurred in McHenry county, Illinois, December 21, 1843, his parents being Robert and Martha (Twynen) McMullen, both of whom were natives of County Armagh, Ireland, where they were married. In 1840 they started for the United States, settling in McHenry county, Illinois, where they resided until 1854, when they came with their family to Winneshiek county, Iowa, taking up their abode in Canoe township on the 28th of May of that year. Both spent their last days on the farm on which they settled in pioneer times. The father died January 10, 1878, at the age of sixty-five years, his birth having occurred in 1813, and the mother passed away February 14, 1895, when more than seventy years of age. He had been a lifelong farmer and was the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of rich and productive land on section 19, Canoe township. He had been reared in the Presbyterian church and was always recognized as a man of moral worth. In the family were eight children who reached adult age, while several died in infancy. The record includes: John, deceased; James; William, who has passed away; Samuel, of Canoe township; Lizzie, who died at the age of twenty-one years; Sarah, the wife of John Clark, of Colorado; Emma, the wife of H. A. Perose, of Wyoming; and Tillie, the wife of George Headington, of Colorado.
Since accompanying his parents to Iowa when a lad of ten years, James McMullen has continuously resided in Canoe township and has been an interested witness of the changes which have occurred throughout all that period to the present time. He was trained to the occupation of farming, early becoming familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and cultivating the crops. He was married in 1866 to Miss Clara Wilson, who was born in Winnebago county, Illinois, November 1, 1846, and came with her parents to Iowa in 1850, since which time she has lived in Canoe township. She is a daughter of Justice and Lucinda Wilson, the former a native of Canada and of Welsh descent. He passed away in 1857 at the age of forty-one years, while his wife, who was born in County Donegal, Ireland, December 18, 1825, is now a resident of Everly, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. McMullen are the parents of six children: Robert, who is living in Alberta, Canada; Lucy, the wife of Thomas Gillman, of Decorah; Letitia, the wife of Albert Christian, of Decorah; Roy, of Decorah; Bessie, the wife of Pearle Bradrich, of Decorah; and Mattie, the wife of B. Schanck, of Wenatchee, Washington. The family still occupy the farm on section 18, Canoe township, which was once a part of his father-in-law's property and was secured as a claim from the government. Mr. McMullen has always made farming his life work and his carefully directed labors have been the basis of his growing and substantial success, He is well known in the county in which the greater part of his life has been passed and is classed among its worthy and representative pioneers, for he has not only witnessed the changes which have occurred, but has also taken part in the work of public progress and improvement.
Source: History of Winneshiek County, Iowa Vol. II Chicago the S. J. Clark Publishing Company 1913
Phelps Cemetery gravestone
Winneshiek Biographies maintained by Bruce Kuennen.
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