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Permanent LinkSenator John Downey View All Years
JOHN DOWNEY was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1834; he died in Charleston township, Lee county, Iowa, Oct. 29, 1906. He migrated to this country at the age of twenty, settling at first in the city of New York. After two years he went to Ohio, and soon after came to Iowa settling in Lee county in the spring of 1857, where he spent the remainder of his life. He held many local positions of honor and trust, but his principal public service was as State senator, to which position he was elected in 1893, serving in the 25th and 26th General Assemblies. He was for twenty years justice of the peace of his township. He was all his life a democrat and his party honored him with several local distinctions.