Kirwan

KIRWAN SPRATT

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 14:28:31

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

Kirwan Family
By Erna Kirwan

The first Kirwan in our family to come over from Ireland was Augustine J Kirwan. All indications point to his leaving Galway, Ireland around the early 1850’s. He eventually settled in the Holbrook, Iowa, area where an Irish settlement was located. He married Mary Spratt on April 11, 1858, in Holbrook. She was born in Philadelphia. Out of this union, nine children were born, one of which was Martin Joseph Kirwan, born April 5, 1875.

Because of Augustine’s ill health, the family moved to Colorado. Upon his death on April 22, 1888, the family returned to Iowa and settled in Monona County, Iowa, near Blencoe. The family then purchased a farm near Wayne, Nebraska, and lived there until Mary’s death on April 7, 1902.

Martin married Mary Jane Harper on June 18, 1902. From this union three sons were born: Martin Francis born in Mitchell, South Dakota, on August 17, 1908; Augustine J Kirwan born April 7, 1903, in Wayne, Nebraska; and Edward Arthur born on June 3, 1914, in Coleridge, Nebraska. After farming near Wayne for twenty-two years, the family came to Sioux City. Martin was in the real estate business and insurance for sixteen years. He died February 6, 1956. His wife, Mary Jane Harper Kirwan, died June 30, 1962.

Edward Arthur Kirwan, who still lives in Sioux City and has been in the accounting business for the past thirty-five years, married Edna Mabel LaBreck, February 20, 1939, in Sioux City. They have four children: Edward Paul born April 11, 1940; Mary born January 18, 1942; Karen born January 27, 1947; and Kevin born August 27, 1953.