Adair County Iowa
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| Adair County Iowa |
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The farming interests of Adair county find a worthy representative in Daniel Breen, who is living on section 28, Eureka township, where he carefully and systematically carries on the work of the fields in the production of the crops best adapted to soil and climate. He is a native son of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Madison county on the 12th of July, 1881, his parents being Maurice and Catherine (Ryan) Breen, the father a native of Ireland and the mother of Madison county, Iowa. Maurice Breen spent the first seventeen years of his life on the Emerald Isle and then, bidding adieu to friends and native land, sailed for Canada, where he remained for a short time. He then crossed the border into the United States and made his way to Muscatine, Iowa, where he learned the bricklayer’s trade, which he followed for about ten years, being employed in that capacity in Chicago following the disastrous fire which swept over a large part of the city in the fall of 1871. On leaving Chicago he turned his attention to railroading and was thus employed in different parts of the United States, assisting in building the Union Pacific from Kansas City westward. While thus engaged he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in Madison county, Iowa, which he leased. Finally, however, he abandoned railroad work and moved onto his farm, which he has since operated, making his home there for thirty-six years. His labors have resulted in making this a well developed place, which returns to him a substantial income as a reward for the care and labor that he bestows upon the fields. He has now reached the age of seventy years, while his wife is in the sixty-first year of her age. Daniel Breen was reared in Madison county, attended the public schools there and afterward enjoyed the advantage of educational training in the State University at Iowa City and also a course in a commercial college at St. Marys, Kansas. Through the periods of vacation he assisted in the work of the home farm and he remained with his parents until he attained his majority, when he came to Adair county, Iowa, and rented a tract of land of one hundred and sixty acres which belonged to his father. This he operated for four years, at the end of which time he purchased land on section 28, Eureka township, where he still resides. He has greatly improved the place, converting it into one of the finest farms of the county. Upon the tract is a beautiful and commodious residence and substantial barns and outbuildings, furnishing ample shelter for grain and stock. He raises high grades of cattle and hogs and carries on his farm work according to practical and scientific methods. He makes stock-raising an important feature of the business and now feeds a carload of cattle and three carloads of hogs annually. In April, 1908, Mr. Breen was united in marriage to Miss Alice Waldron, a daughter of Martin and Margaret Waldron, who were natives of Ireland. They came to America at an early day and settled at Cincinnati, Ohio, where they were living at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. Mr. Waldron there enlisted in response to the country’s call for troops and served for four years in defense of the Union, thus proving his loyalty to his adopted country. He was wounded during an engagement, which crippled him for life. After the war he took up his abode in Madison county, Iowa, where he secured one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he continued to cultivate and improve throughout his remaining days, becoming one of the representative farmers of that locality. He died in 1906, while his wife passed away in 1903. To Mr. and Mrs. Breen have been born five children: Catherine, Francis, Raymond and Marie, aged, respectively, six, four, three and two years, and a babe, Maurice, only a few weeks old. The religious faith of the family is that of the Catholic church. Mr. Breen holds membership with the Modern Woodmen of American and he gives his political support to the democratic party. He has served as assessor of his township for two terms, but has never been active as a politician or as an office seeker, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business affairs, which are capably managed and are bringing to him a good financial return, so that he is now numbered among the well-to-do agriculturists of Adair county.
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