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Kinyon Digital Library

History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

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James W. McCoy.

James M. McCoy owns and operates one of the well improved farms of Grove township, comprising one hundred and sixty acres on section 21.  His birth occurred in Knox county, Illinois, on the 16th of January, 1867, his parents being James M. and Margaret (Wise) McCoy, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Ohio.  Their marriage was celebrated in the Buckeye state, to which James M. McCoy had removed with his parents when but four years of age.  In 1851 the parents of our subject took up their abode in Knox county, Illinois, where they spent the remainder of their lives, the father devoting his attention to general agricultural pursuits.  Both passed away in April, 1895, dying within about two weeks of each other.

James W. McCoy was reared under the parental roof and in the acquirement of an education attended the district schools and also pursued a commercial course in the Western Business College at Galesburg.  For seven or eight years following the completion of his studies he was employed as a clerk in grocery stores at Abingdon and Galesburg and then turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, cultivating rented land in Knox county, Illinois, for about five years.  In the spring of 1902 he came to Adair county, Iowa, and here cultivated rented land for about eight years or until 1910, when he purchased a tract of one hundred and twenty acres in Lincoln township.  In the spring of 1914 he disposed of the property and purchased his present home farm of one hundred and sixty acres on section 21, Grove township.  He is a hard-working man, as is substantially evidenced by the general appearance of his place, and highly merits the success which has come to him.

In 1893 Mr. McCoy was united in marriage to Miss Emma Sipe, of Abingdon, Illinois, by whom he has four children, namely:  Percy, Lewis, Helen and Wayne, all still at home.  He has always given his political allegiance to the democracy and served for nine years as a member of the school board in Lincoln township.  Fraternally he is identified with the Knights of Pythias, holding membership in the lodge at Abingdon, Illinois, while in religious faith both he and his wife are Congregationalists.  He is an enterprising and industrious citizen, a man of scrupulous integrity in all matters of business and interested in the general welfare and advancement of the community.

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