JOHN F. CLONEY
                       Lake Charles, LA.
                      Parish of Calcasieu


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Source: Southwest Louisiana and Biographical and Historical by
William Henry Perrin published in 1891;  page 143.

Contributed by Margaret Moore                         




John F. Cloney was born in St. John, Newfoundland, October 14, 
1836. He is the son of James and Mary (Murphy) Cloney, natives 
of Kilkenny and Wickford counties, Ireland, respectively. They 
were married in Newfoundland and resided there until 1849, when 
they removed to Prince Edward Island, where they resided until 
1870, at which time they removed to Yeolu county, California. 
Here the father died in 1874, at the age of eighty-four, and the 
mother in 1878, at the age of eighty years. James Cloney was a 
carpenter, and worked at his trade until he moved to California, 
when he gave his attention to farming. He was very successful, 
and before his death he had accumulated quite a fortune.
Our subject is the oldest of a family of five children now living.
He received his education in the schools of Newfoundland
and Prince Edward Island. At the age of fifteen he began work 
under his father, learning the carpenter trade. He subsequently 
became engaged in a shipyard on Prince Edward Island, and here 
became familiar with ship building. He was afterward engaged in 
the Boston shipyards, and later in New York City. During
the war he was at Alexandria, working in the government yards.
He was afterward engaged for a short while in Philadelphia and
New York. In 1865 he came to New Orleans, and was here
engaged working for a short period at his trade. Later on
he engaged in the government shipyards at Galveston, Texas. In
1886 he returned to New York City, and afterward to Cincinnati,
where he remained for a short while and again went to Galveston,
soon after coming to this place, where he engaged in ship 
building. He makes on an average thirty-six ships yearly, besides 
doing an immense amount of repairing, etc. Mr.Cloney has seen 
considerable of the word for one of his age. When a boy fourteen 
years of age he shipped on a fishing excursion to Labrador, going
as far north as fishermen travel.
Mr. Cloney was married, in 187I, to Miss Mary Keough, daughter
of Joseph Keough, a ship carpenter, who learned his trade with
the celebrated Webb & Bell. He was a soldier in the Florida war 
and in the struggle between Mexico and the United States. Mr. 
and Mrs. Cloney are the parents of six living children, viz: 
James, Thomas, Margaret, John, Julia and Agnes. Mr. and Mrs. 
Cloney are members of the Catholic church. Mr. Cloney
owns a thousand acres of land bordering on Lake Charles, with
four miles river front. He is extensively engaged in stock raisig,
and also has a fine orange grove of five hundred trees.