DANIEL MACK

He is a son of John and Bridget (Conway) Mack, and was born in count y Clare, Ireland, in May 1849. His father died, and, early in the spring of 1853, he. with his mother and her. family, set sail for America in the sailing ship Mary Pleasant, and all safely landed in Philadelphia on May 10, 1853.

In the spring of 1855 they removed to Rock Island, Illinois, where our subject spent the next four and a half years clerldng in a hotel and working at other odd jobs from which he_ could earn an honest penny, at the same time making the best use he could of all spare time in securing an education. Though he did not have the advantage of a college course of instruc­tion, he is one of those practical, self-made men occasionally found among the emigrants to this county who were by poverty thrown upon their own resources.

After coming to Preemption township, in 1859, he engaged in breaking prairie, and became known as Dan. Mack, the prairie breaker. In August, 1862, he enlisted in Co. II, 84th Ill. Vol. Inf., and served his adopted country until the close of the war. While in the service he was wounded at Chickamauga, September 19, 1S53. January 1, 1866, he was married to Miss Catharine Oday, a daugh­ ter of John and Margaret (Burk) Oday, who is also a native of Ire­ land, and came to America in about 1860. They are the parents of seven children, living : John W., Daniel, Thomas F., Elizabeth, Will­ iam, James P., Joseph C., and three deceased. Though Mr. Mack began a poor boy, he is now the independent owner of 510 acres of land in this township, and is actively engaged in stock raising and shipping as well as farming.

 

History of Mercer and Henderson County

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Illinois Ancestors