Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 423
DENNIS MAHANNA, among the residents of Wilton whose coming dates back to the early history of the town, is the subject of this sketch, who arrived about the 10th of May, 1856. The town then contained only a population of about 150 inhabitants, while but a few business houses had been erected. There, Mr. Mahanna has lived for the long period of thirty-three years, during which time he has witnessed the remarkable development of the entire community. He is a native of the Emerald Isle, born in Cork in 1830, and when but six years of age came to America with his father's family, which then consisted of the parents and eight children, four sons and four daughters. They located first in Oneida County, N. Y., where they resided from 1836 to 1849, when they removed to the township of Alexandria, Jefferson Co., N. Y., where the mother died Nov. 2, 1852. After the death of his wife Mr. Mahanna returned to Oneida Co., where he lived with his children, who had located there, until his death, which occurred on the 17th of October, 1869, at the age of eighty-seven years. Of the eight children of the family William, the eldest, is a resident of Clayton, Oneida Co., N. Y.; Ellen, widow of Daniel Sullivan, is living in Constantia, N. Y.; Catherine, widow of David Fish, makes her home in Vernon, Oneida Co.; Marty is the wife of John Weatherhead, of Washington Mills, Oneida County; Eliza, Widow of Dennis McCarty, is living in Utica, N. Y.; James C., is in Oneida Co.; Dennis is the next in age ; and the youngest is Timothy, who lives in Rome, N. Y. It is a remarkable fact that in this numerous family no death has occurred, although all have passed beyond middle life, Their ages ranging between fifty-four and seventy-five years.

Dennis Mahanna, our subject, was reared to farm life, and from the age of twenty-two to twenty-five years traveled with a team through various States selling goods, his field of operations extending over parts of New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and New Jersey, also through portions of Canada. In 1852 he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Hart, a native of Booneville, Oneida Co., N. Y., and by their union four children have been born : Iola Jane, wife of Charles C. McIntire, a merchant of Rock Island, Ill.; Mary E., who is engaged in reaching ; Nellie Maud, cashier in the store of her brother-in-law, at Rock Island, and Elizabeth Alice.

In 1856 our subject sold his farm in Oneida County, and, determining to seek a home in the West, emigrated to Iowa. settling permanently in Wilton on the 10th of May. For a year or two he engaged in keeping a hotel, after which he engaged in merchandising, but fot many years past has been engaged in various pursuits, though a greater part of the time has been spent as a real estate dealer. He is the owner of a fine farm of eighty acres northwest of the town, and a pleasant home in Wilton, where he resides, together with other valuable town property. In politics he is a Democrat, and is numbered among the substantial and respected citizens of Wilton.

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