Home < 1907 Bios

Greene County IAGenWeb

1907 Past and Present Biographies

Patrick Minnehan

Patrick Minnehan, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser of Bristol township; was born in the County Limerick, Ireland, in 1834. He was a son of Lewis and Bridget (Vardan) Minnehan. His mother was married a second time, her second husband being Michael Foley, who is now deceased. She was the mother of seven children but all died in infancy excepting William, who is now in Australia, and Patrick, the subject of this review.

Ireland offered but few educational advantages when Mr. Minnehan was a child but he succeeded in getting a practical training as a farmer in his early life. Agricultural pursuits in Ireland have always meant hard work with small returns - a fact which Mr. Minnehan realized. It was on this account that he decided, at the age of twenty-nine, to set out for America, where his labor would bring larger reward. He went first to Alton, Illinois, where he remained for seven years and removed at the end of that period to Greene county, where he has lived for thirty-six years. He has been able to add from time to time to his original purchase until he is now the owner of eight hundred and forty acres of well improved land - land which has the reputation of being the very best in Greene county. His sons are now with him and assist him in conducting this large farm, as well as their own pieces of land which their father has given them. In addition to general farming Mr. Minnehan has made a specialty of raising blooded stock and his Hereford cattle, his Poland China hogs and his four registered Percheron mares have proved a profitable business.

In 1859, Mr. Minnehan was married to Johanna Scully, in Ireland, where her father was a farmer. This union has been blessed with nine children: Bridget, who married James Pugh, an agriculturist living just south of Cooper; Margaret, who married Patrick Gormaly, an agriculturist of Carroll county; William, who married Lizzie Hardy and lives in Greene county; John, who died December 14, 1906, and whose widow bore the maiden name of Mary Ellen Ragan; Anne, who died in California and was the wife of James Gormaly, now living in Calhoun county, Iowa; Mary, who married Joseph Cary, a farmer of Cedar township, Greene county; James, an agriculturist in Bristol township; Simon, who married Minnie Buchmiller and lives in Bristol township; and Lewis, who is at home.

Patrick Minnehan has always been counted on by the republican party as one of its staunchest workers. Having missed the advantages of an early education, he has always felt intensely interested in the free public schools of America. For three years he furnished a schoolroom in his own home for the children of the neighborhood and was active during this time in erecting a public school building. He is a communicant of the Catholic church at Jefferson. Being left an orphan at an early age, he has had to shift for himself. He came to this country with but a small capital and has been able to lay up an accumulation which is more than satisfactory. It has been said that our foreign born citizens will amass a fortune on what the American born young man will starve on, and Mr. Minnehan is a living illustration of the truth of this statement. It is no wonder that America values the foreign blood which has come to her through such citizens as Mr. Minnehan.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

Site Terms, Conditions & Disclaimer