John & Justine McKenna

MCKENNA MCGEE DUCHENE JOACHIM

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 9/21/2010 at 20:56:00

History of Woodbury County, Iowa 1984

John and Justine McKenna
By Fayann Hubert

John Joseph McKenna was born May 12, 1847, at Galena, Illinois, son of George McKenna and Katheleen McGee. As a young man, John and his brothers worked on river boats traveling the Mississippi River. The family then moved to Appleton, Wisconisn, then to Fairbault, Minnesota around 1873. John married Mary Justine Duchene at Shieldsville, Minnesota, February 25, 1879. She was the daughter of Florent Duchene, from Belgium and Rosella Joachim of Fairbault. Justine was born April 12, 1863, in Fairbault, Minnesota, Rice County. She had two brothers, John and Louis, and three sisters, Salina, Mary and Emma.

John and Justine moved to Iowa around 1876, locating near Oto, Iowa. John loved to hunt and because of the abundance of wild game available, on the Missouri bottomland, the family would come by horseback from Oto and camp out on farms east of Salix to hunt. No matter what the weather, John stayed outside his tent rather than seek shelter inside. On one of these hunting trips, John’s son, Edward, met his future wife, Esther Seagren, when the family camped at the Seagren farm.

Esther, who is now over ninety, still remembers how good the bacon smelled that the McKenna’s cooked over their open fire, when her family couldn’t afford bacon.

The McKenna’s moved to Salix in 1886, and John helped to clear timber along the Missouri River. They returned to the Correctionville and Oto area for a time, returning to Salix in 1901, locating on a farm in Lakeport Township. When they retired from farming, they moved to town, purchasing a home across from the Catholic Church, now the Steve McDonald home. Mrs McKenna died there in 1924. John then rented the home and moved in with his son, Edward, living there until his death in 1937. Both are buried at St Joseph’s Cemetery in Salix.

Three children were born to this marriage: Susan, 1880, Mrs Perry Langston; Emma, 1881, Mrs Albert Langston; and Edward, 1883, who married Esther Seagren.