Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 5 May 2005

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862

CAPT. JAMES A. KEARNEY. druggist and Postmaster, Waynesville; born in county of Kerry, Ireland, Jan. 24, 1846; is a son of Patrick and Sophia (Apjohn) Kearney, natives of Ireland. Mr. Kearney was a civil Engineer in his native country, which business he followed till 1849, when he with his family emigrated to America, and soon after located in Cincinnati. In the building of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, Mr. Kearney entered into contract and built several miles of the road, and like hundreds of other contractors and stockholders, sank thousands of dollars, as the company broke up and paid but little of its indebtedness. In 1865, Mr. Kearney came to this county and located on a farm near Waynesville, for the improvement of his health, which seemed to be in a decline; here he died Jan. 10, 1874, aged 74 years; his widow is still living, now residing with our subject in Waynesville. Their children numbered seven, of whom six now survive—Dr. Thomas H., Anna O., Sophia; Mary, now Mrs. Sweet; Kate, now Mrs. Egan; and James A. Our subject was 3 years of age when brought to this country, and here was raised and brought up under American institutions, and in this noble "Buckeye" State, and it seems imbibed the true spirit of our free institutions, for at the trial of our Government's strength in the war of the rebellion he came forward to her support by enlisting Aug. 8, 1861, in the naval service, being at the time in his 16th year of age. He served about two and one-half years and resigned, returning to Cincinnati; after which he was engaged in various capacities in the employ of the Government, till the close of the war, after which Mr. Kearney engaged in mercantile trade at sundry places in the States of Alabama and Arkansas; thence for a time engaged in the employ of railroad companies in the South. In the fall of 1877, Mr. Kearney returned to Waynesville and engaged as a clerk in the drug business; and in the spring of 1880, he purchased a new stock of drugs and entered upon trade on his own account; and April 22,1881, received the apppintment as Postmaster of Waynesville.