| Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
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Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Page 332-333
J. P. McLoney, a successful agriculturist of Cream Ridge township, has been cultivating the soil in this section since 1857. His residence here has, therefore, covered an important period in the county's growth and development, with which he has been to a large extent identified, and in the course of years he has become well known by reason of his many sterling traits of character. He was born in Harrison county, Kentucky, October 18, 1829, and is a son of John and Hanna McLoney, the former a prominent farmer in Harrison county. He died in Lexington county, Kentucky, and his wife has also passed away. She died in Chillicothe while on a visit and is buried in the Jones cemetery.
J. P. McLoney attended public school in Kentucky but his advantages along this line were very meager. He laid aside his books to follow farming, an occupation with which he has been connected ever since, working some times for himself and some times in the interests of others. He has reached a creditable position in agricultural circles, owning at the present time a fine farm of one hundred and twenty-one acres on sections 14 and 16, Cream Ridge township, the attractive and excellent condition of which gives evidence of the many years of care and labor he has bestowed upon his fields. In addition to general farming Mr. McLoney has made a specialty of tobacco raising, which branch of his work he has made extremely profitable. He also raises live stock.
Mr. McLoney has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Anna Eliza Holden. whom he married in Kentucky and who has passed away. Mr. McLoney's second union occurred on January 27, 1859, when he wedded Miss America Lilly, a daughter William and Barbara A. (Moor) Lilly, the former a successful trader, who died in Kentucky and is buried in Georgetown. After his death his widow sold her holdings and came to Missouri, settling upon the farm where Mr. McLoney resides today. She died in 1892, at the age of seventy-three, and is buried in the May cemetery. Mr. and Mrs. McLoney became the parents of five children: John W., who is assisting with the work of the farm; Mrs. Mary Lee Melton, who died in 1902 and is buried in the Jones cemetery; Amanda, who passed away in 1904 and who is also buried in the Jones cemetery; Lilly A., who died at the age of three and is buried in Chillicothe; and one who died in infancy.
Mr. McLoney is a democrat in his political beliefs and religiously is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. The divisions and dissensions which the Civil war caused touched his life very closely, for he and his brother were divided in their allegiance, one supporting the Confederacy and the other the Union. The brother joined the army but Mr. McLoney bought a substitute for he refused to fight against a member of his own family. He was, however, stanch in his support of the cause to which he adhered, placing all of his money at the disposal of the leaders. He is one of the most highly honored and respected citizens of Livingston county, where he has made his home for well over a half century and where his upright and worthy qualities of character have gained him many friends. At the age of eighty-four he is still an active factor in the world's work - a man whose labor through the years has resulted in substantial and well merited success.