Builders of the Hawkeye State >From "The Palimpsest; The Irish in Iowa", State Historical Society of Iowa, February 1964 ...J.M. MULRONEY was born in Ireland on November 11, 1832. He came to Williamsburg, New York, when he was thirteen. He was a student and an employee in a blacksmith shop while there. Then he went to Connecticut to work at farming, railroading and in the woods. In 1849 he migrated to Mineral Point, Wisconsin. For years he operated a flatboat on the Mississippi, selling cedar posts and pickets. The gold rush attracted him in 1851. He mined for gold and ran a mercantile business in California until 1857 when he returned to Iowa and settled in Palo Alto County. During the election in 1858, MULRONEY was elected county treasurer and recorder. Later he served as justice of the peace and was named the first postmaster at Soda Bar in Palo Alto County on July 22, 1865. That same year John MULRONEY traded the cattle ranch he had operated for eight years for a mercantile business in Fort Dodge. There he became interested in building the Minnesota and St. Louis Railroad and in the construction of the Mason City and Fort Dodge Railroad. He contracted to do some of the work on the latter line. For more on Mulroneys my Palo Alto Co, Iowa page has 42 matches for the Mulroney surname. Cathy Joynt Labath Palo Alto Co, Iowa USGenWeb Project http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapaloal/paloalto.htm The Irish in Iowa http://www.rootsweb.com/~iarecrds/