BIO: John A. DALEY, Centre County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by JRB

Copyright 2009.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/centre/1picts/commbios/comm-bios.htm
_____________________________________________________________________ 

Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including 
the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing 
Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
_____________________________________________________________________ 

  JOHN A. DALEY, an enterprising and progressive agriculturist of 
Centre county, now living in Curtin township, was born in Spring 
township, April 19, 1842. His father, Jeremiah Daley, was a native of 
County Donegal, Ireland, whence he came to Centre county, in the summer 
of 1830. His parents, John and Bridget (Mennan) Daley, also natives of 
County Donegal, crossed the Atlantic in 1834, and the grandfather and 
father were employed in an iron industry near Bellefonte. John A. 
Daley's grand-uncle,, Jerry Mennan, was a member of the town council of 
Bellefonte that extended to Gen. LaFayette an invitation to visit that 
town on his second trip to America as he passed through to Lake Erie 
from Philadelphia.
The father of our subject was engaged in iron working, for Valentine & 
Thomas, until 1852, when he located on the farm where John A. Daley now 
resides. It was then an unbroken wilderness, but he continued to 
improve it until his death in 1866, when he was sixty-six years

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.  301

old.  He married Isabella Mungen, also a native of County Donegal, 
Ireland, as were her parents, Patrick and Isabella Mungen, who spent 
their entire lives there, the father following the occupation of 
shoemaking.  Jeremiah Daley, after two years spent in America, sent for 
Miss Mungen, to whom he was betrothed in his native land, and who came 
to Centre county with his friend, John Love.  They were married in 
Bellefonte, and Mrs. Daley died in 1844, at the age of twenty-eight 
years.  They had two children - Bridget M., deceased wife of William 
Lunnen; and John A.
  Mr. Daley, the subject proper of this review, lost his mother when he 
was only two years of age, but remained at home with his father until 
the latter's death, and assisted in the cultivation of the old 
homestead; also attended school.  He continued on the farm until 1861, 
when, the Civil war having broken out, he enlisted in Company A, 45th 
P. V. I., under Capt. John I. Curtin, who afterward became a general.  
On January 1, 1863, he re-enlisted, and remained at the front until 
July 18, 1865, when the war having ended, he was mustered out.  Three 
times he was wounded, receiving a flesh wound in the nose at the battle 
of South Mountain; on June 3, at Cold Harbor, he was wounded in the 
left side, and was obliged to remain in the hospital until September 
28, when he rejoined his regiment; two days later he was shot in the 
right hip, where the ounce ball still remains.  At the time of his 
discharge he was serving with the rank of sergeant.  He participated in 
twenty-eight battles, including the engagements at South Mountain, 
Antietam, Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Crab Orchard, the siege of 
Knoxville, Blue Springs, the battle of the Wilderness and others.  On 
his return from the war Mr. Daley resumed farming, and has cleared one 
hundred acres of his land, transforming it into rich and fertile 
fields, which yield to him a handsome income.  His methods are 
progressive, his labors conducted with system, and his careful 
management and enterprise have brought to him success.
  On Christmas Day of 1867 Mr. Daley was married to Miss Mary J. 
Haines, who was born in Liberty township, Centre county, February 18, 
1849, a daughter of John and Rachel (Baker) Haines, the former a native 
of New York, and the latter of Centre county.  The father came to 
Centre county at an early day, and made it his home until his 
enlistment in the Union army.  He died in Andersonville prison in 1864, 
at the age of forty-six years, thus giving his life in defense of his 
country.  His widow, who was born June 12, 1826, is still living in 
Liberty township.  Their children are: Mrs. Daley; Emeline, wife of 
Joseph Bechdel, of Liberty township; Kline S., who is living with his 
mother on the old homestead; Annie M., who died in 1895; William, who 
served as deputy sheriff in Kansas, and is now a school teacher of 
Liberty township, Centre county; Lea M., a school teacher and 
seamstress; and Fannie, wife of John Boone, a lumberman of Howard, 
Penn.  The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Daley were John and Jane 
(Packer) Haines, natives of Centre county, where they spent their 
entire lives.  The maternal grandparents, Jacob and Mary (Boon) Baker, 
were also natives of the same county, and the former was a carpenter by 
trade.
  The children of Mr. and Mrs. Daley were: Jeremiah, who was employed 
as clerk in the Record and Pension division of the War Department, was 
killed in the Ford Theatre disaster in Washington, D.C., June 9, 1893, 
at the age of twenty-four years and ten months; Charles C. is at home; 
Robert C. is now auditor of Curtin township; William H. died of typhoid 
fever in Washington, D.C., in 1889; Mary B. is the wife of William 
Everley, a lumberman of Curtin township; James died in his parents' 
home; Franklin, Anna L. and Sarah M. are still under the parental roof; 
and Nellie died in, infancy.
  Mr. Daley has been honored with a number of local offices, and in 
1889 received an appointment to a clerical position in the office of 
the Secretary of the Interior Department, where he remained four years, 
four months and four days.  He then returned to his farm, which, he is 
now successfully operating.  He is a valued member of the Odd Fellows 
Society of Howard, also of the Grand Army Post at Milesburg, Penn., and 
belonged to the Union Veterans Union in Washington.  In religious faith 
he is a member of the River Brethren Church.  He takes quite an active 
interest in political affairs, giving his support to the Republican 
party, and is a man whom to know is to esteem and honor.