Lee County >> 1887 Index

Portrait and Biographical Album of Lee County, Iowa
Chicago:  Chapman Brothers, 1887

C - D

Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Linda Brandt.

JOHN K. COONEY, an honored pioneer of the Hawkeye State , crossed the Father of Waters with his parents when he was but a small boy. They located about two miles east of Franklin Center , where his father, Dr. Mathew Cooney, purchased a tract of land, and engaged alternately in agricultural pursuits and the practice of his profession until his death. Our subject was born in Ross County, Ohio, Feb. 25, 1830 . The maiden name of his mother was Miss Nancy L., Lewis; she was a Virginia lady, born in 1798. She shared with her husband all the vicissitudes and changes of their married life, and preceded him to the better land two weeks, departing this life in 1859.

Dr. Mathew Cooney, father of our subject, was a native of Virginia , of Irish ancestry, and was born in 1796. He received a good education, was an intelligent man and an extensive reader, and eminently successful in his profession. The parental household consisted of ten children, four of whom died in infancy. James T. was the eldest son; Harriet A. became the wife of George Stout; Mathew L. married Miss Christine Judy; Rebecca married H. Judy; Asa died at the age of twenty-six years.

The subject of our sketch has been three times married. In early manhood, Feb. 24, 1853 , he was united with Miss Abigail Judy. The date of her birth was June 2, 1834 . She became the mother of three sons, and departed this life May 20, 1861 . Her children were Mathew T., who died at the age of seven years; John A., born April 2, 1858 , and Wilson M., June 9, 1860 . Mr. Cooney, for his second wife, married Miss Mary J. Simmons, who only lived six months after their wedding. His third marriage was celebrated Feb. 11, 1868 , at which time Miss Ellen Livers became his wife. She was born in Van Buren County, Iowa, May 25, 1843 , and is the daughter of Benedict I. and Elizabeth (Shelman) Livers, both natives of Kentucky . Benedict Livers was born July 15, 1815 , and is still living in Van Buren County, Iowa, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Mrs. Elizabeth Livers was born March 25, 1813, and departed this life in May, 1864, having become the mother of ten children, the record of whom is as follows: Mary, born Dec. 29, 1837, died in 1839; Adam was born May 16, 1839; Guy D., Feb. 27, 1811; Ellen, May 25, 1843; Catharine, June 4, 1846; Maria, Oct. 5, 1848; Sylvester, June 13, 1850; Nancy J., April 29, 1852; James H., July 1, 1854; Sarah A., May 18, 1856; Adam, Sylvester and Sarah are deceased.

After his marriage Mr. Cooney located upon Devil Creek, this county, where he resided five years. He then sold out, and purchased 192 acres, which constitute the present fine homestead. His children by the last marriage have been five in number, two of whom are deceased, and the record is as follows: James G., born Dec. 23, 1868; Ida J., March 6, 1871; Henry C., June 1, 1872; Charles B., born Aug. 3, 1875, died Feb. 13, 1880; George W., born June 8, 1880, died July 16 of the same year.

In addition to general husbandry, Mr. Cooney is giving considerable attention to the breeding of fine stock, making a specialty of Poland-China swine. The homestead is finely located and the land under a good state of cultivation. Mr. C. has been a thorough-going business man and has been prosperous in his undertakings. He and his family are members in good standing of the Baptist Church , and his son Wilson is completing a course of ministerial study at the Baptist Theological Seminary in Morgan Park, Ill.

Mr. Cooney is greatly interested in the success of various societies and orders. He belongs to the A. F. & A. M., Blue Lodge, which is Joppa Lodge No. 136 at Montrose, and his Chapter Lodge, Potowonock No. 28, at Ft. Madison , Iowa . Mr. C. has been a Mason since 1860, having filled all the offices of the Blue Lodge in the town of West Point , where he was W. M. in that year 1861. He enlisted as a soldier at the outbreak of the Rebellion, and was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the State Militia, Iowa Regulars of Lee County, holding his commission until the close of the war. He was called to the field on the southern borders of this State and Northern Missouri , and participated in the engagement at Athens , under command of Col. Moore. He participated, with his regiment, in all their various other skirmishes and engagements, and remained in the militia service for three years. He is a member of Tip Best Post No. 75, G.A.R., of which he was Commander one year and is still Adjutant. In polities Mr. Cooney affiliates with the Democratic party. A view of homestead is shown on another page of this work.

PEYTON DAWSON, one of the honored pioneers of Lee County , is a resident of Cedar Township , and as a fine representative of that brave and courageous band who first ventured into the country beyond the Mississippi with the determination to establish a home, is held in deep veneration and respect. Not alone for this, however, is Mr. Dawson thus esteemed, but for his excellent personal traits of character which have gained for him the reputation of an honest man and good citizen.

Mr. Dawson is a native of Shelby County, Ky., born on the 5 th of March, 1819 . His father, Elijah Dawson, and his grandfather, John B. Dawson, were both natives of Virginia , and the latter, a boy with George Washington. He also served as a soldier under the Father of his Country, and during the last years of his life enjoyed the benefits of a pension from his Government. John B. Dawson removed from his native State to Kentucky in about 1816, and settled in Shelby County , where he lived for sixteen years. Then, in 1832, he removed to Illinois and located near Jacksonville, where he passed the last years of his life, and was buried with military honors, the troops of that military post being then under the command of Gen. J. J. Harding.

Elijah Dawson, the father of our subject, was reared in his native State of Virginia , and when a young man went to Prince William County as overseer on a plantation belonging to a Mr. George, whose grand-daughter, Miss Anna Colvin, he afterward married. In 1815 he removed to Kentucky with his wife and two children, and leased land in Shelby County . The whole distance, 700 miles through the wilderness, was made with teams, and after a residence of about seventeen years in Kentucky , Elijah Dawson once more pulled up stakes, and repeating his former experiment set out overland for Illinois . They cooked and camped by the wayside as before, and settled upon Morgan County as their first location, Mr. D. purchasing land about five miles from Jacksonville. His purchase was unimproved, and he at once set about establishing his family comfortably in a by no means modern dwelling, and then began to prepare the soil for the first crop. Here they lived until the farm was brought to a good condition and saleable, and then Elijah Dawson sold his second homestead, and probably with the desire of Daniel Boone for �more room� determined to cross the Father of Waters and establish himself beyond the Mississippi. This journey, like the others, was made overland with teams, accompanied by his family and household possessions. They stopped for one year in West Point , and afterward removed to the present site of Summitville, being the first to make a settlement in that region. Their cabin stood on the prairie a quarter of a mile north of where the town now stands. Mr. D. purchased a claim of 300 acres on the �half-breed� tract, built a double log house, and remained there until his death, which occurred in September, 1845.

The mother of our subject, before her marriage, was Miss Anna Colvin, of Prince William County, Va. She remained the faithful companion of her husband in all his wanderings and removals, and fulfilled the duties of a pioneer's wife with courage and patience. She crossed the Mississippi with her husband and children, and passed her last days on the old homestead near Summitville, She and her husband were separated by death for only the short space of twenty-four hours, after which she followed him to the better land. The day following the death of the mother, the devoted household experienced a third affliction in the death of a sister, Eliza E., an interesting little girl of eleven years old. The three were buried in one grave.

Peyton Dawson of our sketch was the fourth child of his parents, and was twelve years old when the family removed from Kentucky to Illinois . He remembers all the interesting incidents connected with the overland journey, and entered into the spirit of the adventure with boyish enthusiasm. He assisted his father in the duties around the homestead, and as his mother was in ill-health for nearly three years, he was largely occupied in household duties. He came to Iowa with his parents, and after they had been here one year he was married and commenced life on his own account. He purchased a claim of 200 acres of land which is now included in the County Farm in Jackson Township . There was a great deal of uncertainty in connection with these claims in the half-breed tract, and Mr. D. had purchased his claim of a Mormon from Nauvoo, by whom he was assured that the title was perfect. He learned, however, before he moved upon it that it was to be �jumped.� He called his neighbors to his assistance, and put up a log cabin in a hurry and moved into it. After living there two weeks two men called upon him and ordered him to leave, but he took down his gun and made the same suggestion to them, which they followed unconditionally. The following week a company of eighty men came to his place, and, halting a short distance away, sent a delegation of twelve to parley with the occupant of the new cabin. When they found that he would not be bullied but would fight to the death, they retreated, and he afterward �held the fort� unmolested.

Two years later Mr. Dawson sold his eighty acres and build a double log house on the spot now occupied by the county house. This he occupied one year, then sold out and removed to Jefferson County , and after a year spent at the latter place came into Lee County . Then, after the death of his parents, he purchased the old homestead and occupied it until 1851, when he sold this also, and two years later purchased the farm which he now owns and occupies. Mr. Dawson possessed considerable of the adventurous spirit of his father, and seemed to delight in taking up a piece of wild land and opening up a farm out of the wilderness. His last purchase was also wild prairie, upon which he erected a small frame house, which has since given place to a commodious farm residence. The homestead is now supplied with good barns and outhouses, amply suitable for the storing of grain and the shelter of stock. He is the possessor of 176 acres of finely improved land and pasture, and besides this owns forty acres of valuable timber in Van Buren County.

Mr. Dawson was married in 1842, to Miss Ellen A. Stoddard, a native of New Hampshire . Mrs. Ellen Dawson only lived fiive years after her marriage, and became the mother of three children, one son and two daughters: Eliza E. became the wife of James Kennedy, the present Assessor of Cedar Township; Martha A. and E. P. are deceased. The second wife of Mr. Dawson, to whom he was married in 1848, was Miss Sarah Sartore, of New York . She was born in Allegany County , N. Y., Jan. 26, 1826 , and is the daughter of Zebulon and Nancy A. (Hoglan) Sartore, both natives of New Jersey . They emigrated from their native Sate to Iowa in 1845, and located in Summitville, where Mr. S. purchased a tract of land and improved a farm, upon which he lived until 1851, and then sold out and removed to Clarke County , where both parents passed the remainder of their lives.

By the second marriage of our subject have been born the following: Wesley lives in Henry County, Iowa; Linsey M., in Cedar Township ; the next was a daughter, Lucinda J.; Commodore and Isadore were twins, and the two youngest are William Sherman and Minnie Bee. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson are prominently connected with the Christian Church, and Mr. D., who cast his first vote for Gen. Harrison for President, is a stanch supporter of the Republican party.

B. F. DURFEE has been a resident of the city of Keokuk for nearly forty years, his first arrival here being in 1850. During this time he has been thoroughly identified with the interests of the Gate City, has watched its growth with pleasure and satisfaction, and has contributed materially to its business and industrial interests. He is now engaged as an undertaker at No. 717 Johnson street, and carries a fine and tasteful stock of his line of goods. He understands thoroughly all the details of the business, and is employed by the best class of citizens.
Mr. Durfee is a native of Wayne County, Ohio, and was born Oct. 20, 1835. His parents were James and Cynthia E. (Soules) Durfee, natives of New York State. His father followed the milling business until the latter part of his life, when he located upon a farm in Ohio; thence went to Illinois in 1837, and purchased a large farm in Adams County, being one of the most extensive agriculturists in that section of the country. He departed this life in 1844, and his wife, who had been the lifelong partner of his joys and sorrows, followed him to the better world two years later, in 1846. Their family consisted of nineteen children, eleven of whom are still living.

The subject of our sketch was the fifteenth child of his parents’ family, and until twelve years of age remained at home and attended the common schools. He then went to Quincy, and attended school there for four years. From there he came to Keokuk in 1850, and served an apprenticeship at gunsmithing, which he followed for three years. He then became engaged as a contractor and builder, and was thus occupied until 1871, employing sometimes as many as forty men. After abandoning this he engaged in mercantile business for four years,after which he resumed his former business until 1886, and then established the business in which he is now engaged.

Mr. Durfee was married in 1856 to Miss Margaret J. Beeby, a native of Indiana, and of their union have been born eight children, two of whom are still living—Marion F. and Maggie C. Mr. D. and his wife are connected with the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, of which he is an Elder. In politics he is independent, and belongs to the Legion of Honor of Iowa and the Triple Alliance of Missouri. He is one of the representative men of the city and highly respected for his qualities as a business man, citizen, neighbor and friend.