James McGuire
James McGuire is a well known and popular representative of one of the sterling pioneer families of Clayton county, where his parents established their home more than sixty years ago, and while he has wandered far afield from his native county in gaining certain of his experiences as one of the world’s workers, he has always looked upon Clayton county as his home and paid to it loyal allegiance. He is one of the substantial and influential citizens of the county, is now living retired in the village of Clayton, and that he has never assumed connubial responsibilities has in no degree militated against his personal popularity in the home county, where his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. James McGuire was born in the village of Clayton on the 22d of June, 1857, the third in order of birth in a family of thirteen children, all of whom are living except three. He is a son of James and Margaret (Depew) McGuire, the former of whom was born in Ireland and the latter in the state of Pennsylvania, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1855, with youthful ambition and steadfast purpose, this sterling couple became pioneer settlers of Clayton county, Iowa, and after residing for an interval in the little village of Clayton they removed to the embryonic farm which James McGuire, Sr., purchased in Clayton township. He improved one of the productive farms of the county and on his old homestead he continued to reside until his death, in 1883, his widow being still a resident of the county and being one of its venerable and revered pioneer women, her eighty-second birthday anniversary having been celebrated in 1916. Reared under the invigorating discipline of the pioneer farm, James McGuire, Jr., the immediate subject of this review, early learned the lessons and dignity of honest toil, and in the meanwhile he profited duly by the advantages afforded in the schools of the locality. In his youth he also served a virtual apprenticeship to the carpenter’s trade, and as a competent workman he followed the same at intervals for a number of years. In 1878 Mr. McGuire went to Kansas and entered claim to a homestead of government land in Ness county. He remained on the property until he had perfected his title and later passed three years in Texas, where he was actively identified with the herding of cattle on the great open ranges that then characterized the Lone Star state. In 1884 he returned to his native county and assumed the active control and management of the old homestead farm. There he continued his operations until 1910, when, with his venerable mother, he removed to the village of Clayton, where he has since lived virtually retired. Though he sold the old home farm Mr. McGuire is still to be consistently designated as a landed proprietor, for he is the owner of a well improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres in South Dakota, and a valuable tract of two hundred and forty acres in the Province of Alberta, Canada. He has ever given his allegiance to the Democratic party and is well fortified in his convictions concerning matters of public import. He served for a full quarter of a century as clerk of Clayton township, six years as clerk of the village of Clayton and five years as secretary of the school board—preferments that indicate alike his ability and the popular estimate placed upon him. Mr. McGuire was one of the organizers of the Clayton Savings Bank and is still a member of the directorate of this well ordered institution. At Garnavillo he is affiliated with Garnavillo Lodge, No. 90, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, in which he has passed various official chairs, and heis affiliated also with the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and with Oakleaf Camp, No. 2875, Modern Woodmen of America, in which latter he has served in each of the official chairs. His devoted and venerable mother, to whom he accords the deepest filial solicitude, still presides over their pleasant home in Clayton. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa; From The Earliest Historical Times Down to
the Present; by Realto E. Price, Vol. II; page
264-265 |
