Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 291
JOHN LAFFERTY

John LAFFERTY, a resident of section 28, Union Township, came to Harrison County, in company with his father, John LAFFERTY, SR., and family in the spring of 1882, when they commenced to develop a tract of wild land, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres, for which $10 per acre was paid. During the first year they turned one hundred and twenty-five acres of virgin sod over, and commenced the erection of a house 18x28 feet with a wing 16x20 feet, the same being provided with a porch on the west and east. The following year an orchard of four hundred apples trees, together with numerous shade trees was planted.

Subsequently Mr. LAFFERTY purchased eighty acres more land at $16 per acre, and his estate has now bought one hundred and sixty acres more, for which they paid $14 per acre.

The subject of this sketch, John LAFFERTY, JR., was born in Philadelphia, Pa., July 29, 1855, and is the son of John and Ann LAFFERTY, natives of Ireland, by whom eleven children were born -- James, Anna, deceased; Lizzie, John Jr., William, Patrick, Kate, Daniel, Eunice, Hugh and Mary.

John LAFFERTY, the father of our subject, who possessed many excellent traits of character, died in March 1889, and his good wife in the month of June, 1888. After the death of the father, the farm, which was left to the heirs was to be equally divided, but since that time, John, Daniel and Hugh, have purchased the rights of the other heirs, and these three now hold the property.

The father and mother, together with the entire family, were members of the Roman Catholic Church, and since the death of the parents, the oldest son, James, has gone to Pittsburg, Pa., where he has joined the Order of the Holy Ghost, and his sisters, Mary and Eunice, have gone to Ottumwa, Iowa, to become Sisters of Humility. Politically, our subject believes in the general principles of the Democratic party.

Mr. LAFFERTY, together with the other members of his father's family, are intelligent, enterprising farmers, who appreciate, to a good degree, the benefits arising from our form of government, and their home farm displays many evidences of order, thrift and good management.

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