John T. Feighny has spent all his life in Northern Kansas and from a farm in Jackson County he went to Emmett some years ago and engaged in the grain and elevator business, which he successfully continues to the present time.
Mr. Feighny was born in Jackson County, Kansas, September 2, 1873. His parents, John and Mary (Lyons) Feighny, were both natives of County Limerick, Ireland, but were married in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was born in 1830 and the mother in 1842. John Feighny was sixteen years of age when he came to the United States, landing in New York, and after a time started westward and arrived with the body of real pioneer white settlers of Kansas in 1856. His first location was in Nemaha County. There he acquired land and began farming. Six years later he removed to Jackson County, and was a prosperous agriculturist in that locality until he retired and spent his last days at St. Marys, where his death, occurred in 1907. Early in the Civil war, in 1861, he enlisted in the Eighth Kansas Infantry. With this regiment he saw a great deal of hard fighting and some of the biggest campaigns and battles of the war. The regiment was attached to General Thomas’ division in Sherman’s army. He was at Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga, Stone Mountain, many other battles of the Atlanta campaign and was with the regiment practically throughout its period of service. He always intelligently voted the republican ticket and was a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church, in which he and his wife reared their family. His wife died at St. Marys in November, 1903. Their children were seven in number: Kate, who died in Holy Cross Parish, where the Town of Emmett is now located, married Daniel Murphy, a farmer, also deceased. Ellen died in young womanhood in Holy Cross Parish. The third is John T. James P. is a farmer in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. David was with the Nineteenth Regiment of United States Infantry in the Spanish-American war and is now living at St. Marys. Mary is a Sister of Charity in the Lorentine Order and is a teacher of the Indians in the Government schools at Pawhuska, Oklahoma. Thomas is a farmer at Delia, Kansas.
John T. Feighny acquired his education in district school No. 50 of Jackson County. He also had the advantages of St. Marys College for two years, but left college in 1889 to apply himself to the main business of life. He had land and operated a good farm in Jackson County and his home was in the country until 1906, when he moved to the new Village of Emmett and in partnership with Thomas T. Byrnes, of St. Marys, erected a corncrib, elevator and offices alongside the tracks of the Union Pacific Railway, not far from the depot. This had been one of the chief commercial points of the village, and the firm of Byrnes & Feighny, for which Mr. Feighny is manager, handles grain, flour, mill feeds and all kinds of seeds.
Mr. Feighny while living in Jackson County was township clerk two years and for a similar time was township trustee. He is a republican, a member of the Catholic Church, and belongs to St. Marys Council No. 657 of the Knights of Columbus. Besides his business interests at Emmett he had a home on Walker Street, a modern residence erected in 1907. Here he and his wife and four children live in comfort and in the esteem of a large circle of friends.
He married at St. Marys in 1900 Miss Mary Stanley, daughter of John P. and Mary Catherine (O’Rourke) Stanley. Her parents are both deceased. Her father was a stone mason, following his trade for many years at St. Marys, and was also state vice president of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Feighny are: John P., born February 21, 1902; Francis Sylvester, born August 21, 1904; William C., born July 20, 1909; and Geraldine, born April 28, 1917.