Lewis Publishing Company, 1904

Transcribed from the original book by Kristin J. Vaughn © 2008

John W. Carmony Page 567 John W. Carmony, who has been a dealer in grain and a popular and well known business man of Endicott, Jefferson county, Nebraska, for a number of years, has made an honorable record as a man, citizen and soldier. His sixty odd years of life have been busy ones, and he has been constantly engaged in some honorable activity, in the prosecution of his private enterprises, in discharging the duties of public office or following the flag of the Union on the battlefields of the south. Mr. Carmony was born near Shelbyville, Shelby county, Indiana, June 29, 1841. His grandfather, John Carmony, was a native of Pennsylvania. His father, Peter Carmony, was born in Ohio, and his wife was Anna Myers, a daughter of William and Mrs. (McKenzie) Myers, the latter the daughter of a Revolutionary soldier. Peter and Anna Carmony were parents of the following children: John W.; Dan, a soldier in the Twenty-sixth Illinois during the Civil war; James, a soldier in the Eighth Illinois Infantry; Eva; Mollie; Isaiah; Rebecca; Cynthia; and Lulu. Peter Carmony removed to LaSalle county, Illinois, in 1849, and died in Hollenburg, Kansas, at the age of sixty-five. He followed the occupation of farming, and was a good and respected citizen wherever he lived. He was a Republican in politics, and as a stanch abolitionist helped free the slaves and was a friend of the abolition martyr Lovejoy. His wife died at the age of sixty-three. John W. Carmony was reared in Illinois, where he received a common school education. In August, 1862, he responded to the president's call for sixty-thousand men and enlisted at Ottawa, Illinois, in Company D, One Hundred and Fourth Illinois Infantry, Captain Collins commanding the company and Colonel A.B. Moore the regiment. He was ordered to Jeffersonville, Indiana, and thence went to Kentucky, where he was with General Bragg at Shelbyville, and in the engagement at Hartsville, Tennessee, was wounded in the shoulder and neck by a ball, and also had three ribs broken. He was sent to the field hospital, and then to the hospital at Gallatin, Tennessee, whence he was removed to the hospital in Chicago, where he remained three months. In August, 1863, he received his honorable discharge on account of disability, and then returned home. In 1869 Mr. Carmony went to Hamilton, Iowa, where he remained for eighteen months, and for the following five years was in Allerton, Wayne county, Iowa. He then went to Russell county, Kansas, and took up some school land. He lived there for four years, and was kept in some public office all the time, being county trustee, bridge inspector, etc. He came to Endicott, Jefferson county, Nebraska, in 1890, and from that date to the present has been successfully engaged in the grain business, buying and shipping in large quantities. Mr. Carmony was married in Morris, Grundy county, Illinois in 1864, to Miss Mary J. Batten, who was born in Pennsylvania and was reared and educated in Illinois, and was a daughter of Thomas A. and Alice (Atkins) Batten, both deceased. Mrs. Carmony has a brother in Endicott, Joseph P. Batten. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Carmony: Sherman, of Shawnee, Oklahoma; Thomas A., a railroad man of Oklahoma; Frank, who has been county superintendent of schools of Jefferson county for three terms, elected by a handsome majority; and Lou, the wife of O.E. Biggle, of Jefferson county. Mr. Carmony is independent in political affiliations, and has voted the Populist ticket. He is a member of the Methodist church, and of the Grand Army of the Republic.