Taken from “The Pioneer History of Pocahontas County, Iowa” by Robert E. Flickinger, A. B. B. D, published by Fonda Times, Fonda Iowa, 1904

Transcribed by Mary Alice Schwanke and Cyndi Vertrees

Biography of Patrick Shea

SHEA, PATRICK (b. 1837), owner and occupant of a farm of 240 acres on sec. 5, Cedar township, is a native of Ireland. At ten he came with his parents to Canada and in 1862, located in New York. The next year he went to California and spent the next seven years mining copper at Stockton or doing other work at San Francisco. In 1869, he married there Mary Maher. In 1870, he left the Pacific coast, visited friends in New York and Canada, bought and located on 80 acres of his present farm which he has nicely improved and increased to 240 acres. He is an intelligent and highly respected citizen and has served several years as assessor, trustee and treasurer of Cedar township.

His wife died in 1879, leaving four children, Richard, Joseph, Margaret and Mary.

Patrick Shea, his father, who came to his home in 1882, died there at 74 in 1887.