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Annals of
Polk County, Iowa, and City of Des Moines M Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. This well known citizen of Polk County was born in Highland County , Ohio , November 28, 1845 , and was brought by his parents to this county in 1849. His father was Alexander McGarraugh, and his mother was Hannah C., a sister of Dr. A. Y. Hull. They all came to Polk County together, settling in Camp township, and they with Freel and others laid out Lafayette , which became a thriving town of several hundred inhabitants, but is now a thing of the past. Young Joseph went first to a subscription school, taught by his mother in their own log cabin, and subsequently during the winter months to district school, working during most of the year at farm work. When the war broke out, though under sixteen years of age, in 1861 he enlisted in Co. E, Fourteenth Iowa, Captain Horine. He was with his regiment at Fort Donelson , and also at Shiloh , where the young soldier was captured with more than two thousand of his comrades. They were, however, paroled in about sixty days and some nine months after capture they were exchanged and McGarraugh returned to his regiment and active service. Having served several months over his three years young McGarraugh returned to his home in Camp Township and again took up his labors as a farmer. In 1868 he married Clara E. Young, daughter of Valerius W. Young, an early pioneer, who at an early day ran the ferry at Fort Des Moines . He farmed on his own account until 1881 when he came to Des Moines and took the position as watchman in the old State House. Subsequently he held the same position at the new capitol, until made mail carrier for the State officers in 1885. An ardent Republican, he had taken an active part in political contests, and in 1889 was made the nominee of his party for sheriff of the county. Owing to complications and divisions growing out of attempts to enforce the prohibitory law he was defeated by seventy-three votes. In 1891 he was again a candidate and was elected by a handsome majority and two years later was re-elected by a largely increased vote. As sheriff he was prompt in the discharge of his official duties and won commendation from men of all parties. In January, 1896, Mr. McGarraugh retired from office and has since devoted his time to settling up accounts growing out of his official sev-vices. He has proven himself a good soldier, honest and efficient public officer, and one of the best of citizens. And his good wife was been a blessing and helpmeet to him. They are the parents of five children - two boys and three girls - Aleck, Minnie, Hannah E., Herbert B., and Helen - Minnie and Hannah being married. Having been appointed Custodian of Public Buildings and Property by Governor Shaw, April 1, 1898 , he entered upon the discharge of the duties of this responsible office and is discharging them with the promptness and ability which has characterized all his official work.
Chapter LVI One Manufacturing Company There are in the city of Des Moines at this
time over one hundred and fifty companies, incorporated under the laws of the
state. Some of these are large and wealthy institutions and the majority of them
are actively engaged in mining, manufacturing or other branches of business. N. S. McDonnell, now president and manager of
the Des Moines Manufacturing and Supply Company, was born in Ireland in 1842. At
the age of fifteen he came to the United States, and remaining a time in
Pennsylvania, he went to Memphis, Tennessee, where he learned the trade of
machinist and boiler maker. The war breaking out he came north in 1861, and for
a time finding no work at his trade hunted for any honest employment, and
temporarily worked at harvesting and other farm labor in Walnut township for
sixty-five cents per day. He afterwards secured the job of running the engine
for the foundry of Tidrick & Hemenway for $1.00 per day. During these years
he put in his spare time in study, and later on took a course in Capt. Muffley's
first business college. In 1863 he managed to get together a few tools and started in
business for himself near the east end of the old Market street bridge. In 1864
he located on the corner of East First and Court avenue, where the large works
of his company are now located. In 1866 he took his old shopmate, James Meara,
in partnership, and they continued in business together until the death of Mr.
Meara, in 1879. Then Mr. McDonnell purchased this interest and continued the
business, which has been continuously increased and extended. In 1880-'2 he
built the brick portion of the works and in 1889 organized the Des Moines
Manufacturing and Supply Company, of which N. S. McDonnell is president and
manager, and his son, John e. McDonnell, is secretary and treasurer. The works embrace a number of departments:
Boiler shops, foundry, machine shops, wood ship, pipe fitting, and therein are
manufactured all kinds of engines, boilers, mill, electric, clay and coal mining
machinery, and have in use all the later improved modern machinery. The output
each year of the company is very large, and orders are filled from all over
Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas and northern Missouri, and they have sent
much machinery to Colorado and to New and Old Mexico. From
small beginnings Mr. McDonnell has built up these large and flourishing works.
After a third of a century of steady, continuous and intelligent work, he has
not only won success - he has earned and deserved it. Mr. McDonnell has three sons and one daughter.
John E., as previously stated, was bred to the business and is his father's
right hand man as secretary and treasurer of the company. Frank is also
prominent in the management of the works, while William S. is a trusted employee
of the People's Savings Bank. The only daughter, Alice an accomplished young
lady, was recently married to Louis C., the son of L. H. Kurtz, the long-time
hardware dealer on Walnut street. Among the leading
attorneys of Des Moines is Alfred Henry McVey. He
has made for himself a high reputation, not only locally but also in and beyond
the state as a man "learned in the law," an able and untiring attorney
and safe and honest counselor. Mr. McVey is a
native of the State of Ohio, having been born in Fayette County, and on the
paternal side is descended frm an old Scotch family, which emigrated to America
as early as 1654. The name was
originally spelled MacVeagh. His
grandfather removed from Pennsylvanie to Southern Ohio about the beginning of
the present century. On the
maternal side he is descended from an old English family, his grandfather,
Marmaduke Eastlack, an Englishman, locating in New Jersey nearly 100 years ago. Mr. McVey's
preliminary education was acquired in the common schools of Ohio, and he
prepared for college at the Southwestern Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio.
These studies were interrupted during the civil war, when though a mere
boy, he enlisted and served as a volunteer in the 79th Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
After the war he entered the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, from
which he graduated in 1868 with high honors.
He was immediately elected a teacher in that institution, but this
position he soon resigned, and entered upon the further study of the law in the
law department of the Cincinnati College, the oldest law school west of the
Alleghenies, again graduating with high honors. Mr. McVey first
opened a law office at Wilmington, Ohio, and there entered a successful
practice; but later on was induced to go to the City of Toledo, where in
addition to local practice, he devoted his attention more especially to business
in the United States courts, and also was for several years general counsel for
the Toledo, Cincinnati and St. Louis Railroad Company.
But the west, and especially Iowa, had a great attraction for Mr. McVey,
and in 1883 he came to Des Moines with the intent to make it his permanent home,
and his success here has made this intent a certainty.
Not only as a general practitioner does he stand high, but as a
corporation and insurance lawyer he has a practice which extends over Iowa and
into Minnesota, Missouri, Illinois and Nebraska, and other straits, where his
reputation in this branch of the profession is of the highest.
He now represents, perhaps, three-fourths of the insurance companies
doing business in Iowa and many in other states.
Their law office in the Good Block is commodious and furnished with an
extensive law library. In January, 1869,
he was married to Miss Anna Holmes, a lady of rare character and scholarship.
She is the daughter of Rev. William Holmes, and a direct descendant of
Rev. Obadiah Holmes, who came from England in 1639, settling at Salem,
Massachusetts. He was with Roger
Williams, the founder of the Baptist Church in America, and one of the original
proprietors of New Jersey, where he secured very extensive grants from the
English crown. Mr. and Mrs. McVey
have five children. Frank L.
graduated at the Ohio Wesleyan University in 1893, and Yale University in 1896,
with the degree of Ph. D., and is now a professor of political economy in the
University of Minnesota. Edmund is
also a graduate of Yale, where he earned high honors, and is now a member of his
father's law firm. William P. is a
graduate of Des Moines College and of Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, New
Jersey, where he took first honors, and afterwards was a student at the
University of Leipsic, Germany, and is now pastor of Fowler church, Minneapolis,
Minnesota. The daughter, Kate, is a
member of the junior class in The Woman's College, Baltimore, and Charles, the
youngest, is a student in the Des Moines College.
The McVey home in Des Moines is a beautiful one situated on north Fourth
street, where he has a well selected and extensive library abounding in rare and
excellent works. The family is
regarded as one of the best in the city.
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