IA-IRISH-L Archives

From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: Bio of J.F. Kirby
Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:08:07 -0500

History of Iowa County, Iowa...by James G. Dinwiddie. Volume 2. Chicago: S. J.
Clarke Pub. Co., 1915

J.F. Kirby was born in Iowa county, Iowa, October 22, 1872. His father was
Patrick Kirby of County Kerry, and his mother Bridget Kirby, nee Power, of
County Kilkenny, Ireland. The father came to America in 1849, and the mother in
1851. They were married in Brooklyn, New York, in 1860, and immediately went to
live in Lyons, Wayne county, New York. They continued to reside in Wayne county
until 1866, when they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. In 1867 they came to Iowa in
search of good, cheap land. The family took up temporary residence in Davenport
in order to give the father an opportunity to look about the state for a
satisfactory location. The same year Patrick Kirby came to Iowa county and
purchased a farm in Sumner township which is still owned by J.F. Kirby and his
sister, Mary T. Moynihan. Two years later the family moved to this farm and made
it their home until Mr. Kirby's death in 1894. Later Mrs. Kirby removed to
Marengo, Iowa, where she resided until her death in 1906.
When Patrick Kirby bought his Iowa farm there was but one house between it
and the then village of Marengo, a distance of eight and a quarter miles. It was
among scenes like this that J.F. Kirby spent his early years. He says he can
still remember sitting on the doorstep of the little prairie home in the early
summer evenings listening to the dismal howling of the wolves among the
hazelbrush on the prairie hills. He says his mother, to her dying day, delighted
to tell of spring in early Iowa, with its green rolling prairies, its hillsides
banked deep with wild flowers, and the air heavy with their stimulating
fragrance.
J.F. Kirby received his early training in the public schools, supplemented
by such studies as he was able to pursue between days of farm work. In the fall
of 1898, after a year's preparation in the Iowa City Academy, he entered the
State University of Iowa, from which he received three degrees, Ph. B., in 1902,
LL. B 1904, and A.M. 1906. In 1906 he opened a law office in Williamsburg, Iowa,
where he is still engaged in the practice of law. He served four years as county
attorney for Iowa county, after which he decided to quit politics, except so far
as a private citizen should take an active interest in the affairs of his state
and country. He has a wide acquaintance over the state, and it is said of him
that once he makes a friend he keeps him. Fortune has been kind to him, both
financially and in his law practice. He says he appreciates most, however, the
fact that he has retained, through his years of practice, his old neighbors in
Iowa county as his friends and clients.
While attending the State University of Iowa, Mr. Kirby met Miss Elizabeth
Schichtl of Algona, Iowa, who was also a student of the university, to whom he
was married in 1910 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Mrs. Kirby is of German extraction.
Her father, Joseph Schichtl, was a native of the kingdom of Bavaria, and her
mother, whose maiden name was Mary Fuhrmann, was born in the state of Wisconsin,
but her parents came from the province of Treves (Trier) on the Moselle.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kirby are members of the Catholic church. Mr. Kirby is a
member of the Knights of Columbus, and of the Benevolent Protective Order of
Elks.

Cathy Joynt Labath
Irish in Iowa
http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/index.htm

This thread:

• Bio of J.F. Kirby by "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>