Wapello County IA Archives Biographies.....Feehen, John 1844 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 7, 2013, 12:55 am

Source: See Below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

COLONEL JOHN FEEHEN.

Ottumwa has a number of retired citizens—men who have been active and
enterprising in business and have thereby acquired a measure of success that now
enables them to live retired. Such a one is John Feehen, who has passed the
psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten. He was born in Kilkenny,
Ireland, on the 12th of May, 1844, and is a son Thomas and Bridget (Welch)
Feehen. In the year 1851 the family crossed the Atlantic to Qucbec and in 1853
made their way to Hamilton, Ontario. In 1855 they crossed the border into the
United States, settling at Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the mother passed away
about 1856. The following year the father came with his children to Iowa,
establishing his home in Keokuk. His death occurred in 1875. Unto him and his
wife were born two children, the elder being Mrs. Anna Chambers, who died in
Ottumwa.

The younger, John Feehen, while residing in Keokuk, went to Quincy, Illinois,
and there enlisted for service in the Civil war, joining Company E of the
Fiftieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry on the 12th of September, 1861. He served
until honorably discharged on the 22d of September, 1864, and during the three
years spent at the front he participated in the battles of Fort Henry, Fort
Donelson, Shiloh, the advance on Corinth, the second battle of Corinth on the 3d
of October, 1862, the engagement at Town Creek, Alabama, Chattanooga, Resaca,
Buzzard's Roost and Altoona Pass.

After the war Mr. Feehen went to New Mexico with the Third United States Cavalry
in the capacity of teamster, spending the year 1866 there. In 1867-68 he rode
the pony express from Fort Hays to Fort Dodge on the Indian reservation. In 1869
he came to Ottumwa, but afterward returned again to the plains and was employed
on the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. Later he again came to
Ottumwa and was in the employ of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad in
1872. The following year was spent in the service of the Iron Mountain Railroad
Company, and in 1878-79 he was with the Texas Pacific.

In 1880 Mr. Feehen returned to Ottumwa and in 1882 was united in marriage to
Miss Mary McCormick of Farmington, Iowa, who was born in Clark county, Missouri,
in 1859. After his marriage Mr. Feehen conducted a restaurant and boarding house
in Ottumwa and subsequently engaged in the saloon business, in which he
continued until 1910, when he retired.

To Mr. and Mrs. Feehen have been born the following children: Anastasia, who is
a graduate of the Ottumwa high school and is now teaching in the public schools
in this city; Mary, the wife of William Sweeney of Red Lodge, Montana; Agnes, of
Denver, Colorado; Margaret, who is engaged in clerking in Ottumwa; Kate, who is
a graduate of the Ottumwa high school and a teacher in this city, and John, who
for three and a half years was a high school pupil, but is now attending the
Iowa Success Business College. The daughter Mary was a teacher of music prior to
her marriage and is also a high school graduate.

Mr. Feehen belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic and is now senior vice
commander of Cloutman Post, No. 69. He was also elected lieutenant colonel of
the survivors of the Fiftieth Illinois Infantry of Quincy, Illinois. He served
for three years, yet was never wounded nor ill and says that he never missed a
fight or a foot-race among the boys. He was also for three years with the
regular army in different capacities, but not as an enlisted soldier. He belongs
to the Sacred Heart Catholic church and is a republican in politics where
national issues are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
HISTORY OF WAPELLO COUNTY IOWA
ILLUSTRATED
VOLUME II
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1914


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