Peter Conlin

CONLIN, GALLAGHER, HARRITY

Posted By: Emmet County IAGenWeb Coordinator (email)
Date: 2/12/2011 at 20:37:51

Peter Conlin followed agricultural pursuits throughout his active life and his well directed labors yielded him a good financial return. His last days were spent in honorable retirement from business cares in Armstrong, where he passed away September 4, 1916. He was born in Massachusetts on the 20th of March, 1845, and is a son of James and Anna (Gallagher) Conlin, who emigrated to this country from Ireland in an early day and located in Massachusetts. The father farmed there until the removal of the family to Wisconsin, where he became a landowner. He passed away in 1886 at the advanced age of eighty-four years, and the mother died in 1858.

Peter Conlin spent his boyhood and youth in Wisconsin and received his education in the public schools of that state. When not quite seventeen years of age he was employed in hauling provisions for the Union army and was at the front for about three years. He was taken captive and because of the terrible conditions of prison life became so emaciated that he was little more than a skeleton when he returned to his home in Wisconsin. As soon as he had sufficiently recovered his strength he went to work as a farm hand and so continued until 1871, when he came to Emmet county, Iowa and took up a homestead in Armstrong Grove township. He brought that place to a high state of cultivation and made many improvements thereon. For thirty-three years his time and energy were taken up with the operation of his farm, and his good management and thrift enabled him to accumulate a competence. At length he retired and took up his residence in Armstrong, where he died September 4, 1916, at the age of seventy-one years and five months.

On the 4th of December, 1869, Mr. Conlin was married to Miss Delia Harrity, a daughter of John and Bridget (Thornton) Harrity, who were natives of Ireland but emigrated to America, locating near Cleveland, Ohio. The father was for a time foreman on a large farm there, but later the family removed to Wisconsin and he purchased land, which he cultivated until his death. To Mr. and Mrs. Conlin were born five children: Anna, who died April 24, 1906; Mary and John, twins; James and Patrick, who is a resident of Emmetsburg.

Mr. Conlin was a Democrat in politics but was without ambition to hold office, being content to discharge his duties as a citizen in a private capacity. However, he was chosen by popular suffrage trustee of his township. In religious faith he was a Catholic. The patriotism which prompted him to give his services to the Union at the time of the Civil War characterized him throughout life and he always placed the general welfare above his personal interests.

Source: History of Emmet County and Dickinson County Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization, Progress and Achievement, The Pioneer Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1917.