JEREMIAH MAHONEY was born in County Cork, Ireland, about 1845, and is a son of Daniel
and Catherine (Lane) Mahoney, both natives of the same county. They came to America in 1853 and settled in New Orleans, where Mrs. Mahoney died, about six
months after arrival. Mr. Mahoney came to Iowa in about 1864, and settled in Dubuque county,
about twelve miles from the city of Dubuque, where he spent the remainder of his
life. He was a working man and a devoted member of the Catholic church, of which his wife had also been a member. They had
seven children born to them, viz.—Daniel, who was a large farmer in Dubuque
county, Iowa, died about 1889; Catherine, the wife of Patrick Burns, of New
Orleans; Hannah, who died single, in 1853; Jeremiah, the subject of this
sketch; Margaret, John and Patrick, the last-named having passed from the land of
the living.
Jeremiah
Mahoney, our subject, was but seven years of age when his parents came to America. He lived two years and a half in
New Orleans, and received his education there and in Nora, Jo Daviess county,
Ill., where he went when ten years of age, and from that on made his own
living, working for several years for his board and clothes.
Eventually
reaching Pennsylvania, he joined the army as a private, April
1,1865, from "Wayne township, Erie county, Pa., in Company D, One Hundred and
Fifty-third Pennsylvania volunteer infantry, and served until close of the war.
After his discharge from the army he sought a home in Illinois, and worked on a farm for wages for
two years, and then came to Dubuque county, Iowa, and broke prairie one season. He
next drove a team in Dubuque the following winter, and the next summer
worked for the monks,at
their monastery ; then he went to New Orleans and worked on the levees one
winter. Becoming sick, he sought his way to the North, and was in hospital
three months at St. Louis, Mo. On recovering from his illness he went back South
and worked again on the levees, loading and unloading vessels in New Orleans another
winter, and in the following spring came to Iowa, and worked out the following
summer in Dubuque county. In 1872 he came to Delaware county,
and worked on the farm where he now lives, which he had bought while working
for wages as a hired man to his brothers. He now owns two hundred and
forty-five acres in section 27, of Hazel Green. He has made every dollar he has
by his own exertions, and has done all the improving on his farm, which is now
one of the finest in the township, and all well stocked. He is raising considerable
stock, consisting of thorough-bred horses and cattle, and milks about twenty-five
cows.
February 22, 1873, Mr. Mahoney married Miss Mary.
Delay, of Hazel Green. This lady was born in Dubuque county, Iowa, in 1856, a daughter of Dennis and Mary
(McLaughlin) Delay, natives of Ireland. To Mr. Mahoney have been born nine
children, viz.—Dennis, Katie, Maggie,' Lizzie, Bridget, Katie, Julia, Daniel
and Jeremiah. Of the above-named children, Dennis and Katie have died.
The members
of this family are faithful members of the Catholic church,
Cassel Grove, Linn county.
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