John Cheney

JOHN CHANEY, judge of the Circuit Court of the Third Judicial District, comprising Clarke, Decatur, Union, Ringgold, Adams, Taylor, Montgomery and Page counties, is a native of Monroe County, Indiana, born near Bloomington, July 4, 1832. His father, Frank Chaney, was a native of North Carolina, and his mother, Rachel (Elborn) Chaney, of Indiana. His father died in 1876, and his mother is now a resident of Vernon County, Missouri. The family consisted of thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters, of whom our subject is the eldest. Six are now living.  John Chaney lived in his native State until nineteen years of age, and in 1851 came to Iowa and lived in Lucas County until 1867, when he moved to Clarke County. After coming to Iowa he attended the Albion school a short time, and then entered the Iowa Wesleyan University at Mt. Pleasant, where he pursued his studies two and a half years. After leaving school he taught several terms and in the mean-time began the study of law with Colonel Dungan, and in 1866 was admitted to the bar.  In 1862 he enlisted in the defense of the Union, and was assigned to Company K, Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, and commissioned its Second Lieutenant. He was afterward promoted to First Lieutenant and later to Captain of Company E, commanding the company nine months, when it was consolidated with Company A, and he was made Adjutant of the battalion. A division of the officers was afterward made, and Mr. Chaney was commissioned First Lieutenant of Company A, Thirty-fourth Infantry, and served as such until the close of the war, being discharged August 16, 1865. He participated in the siege of Vicksburg, the battle at Arkansas Post, and assisted in the capture of several of the strongholds of the Confederacy.  After his return from the war he lived in Lucas County nearly two years, and in June, 1867, located in Osceola, where he was actively engaged in the practice of his profession until the fall of 1884, when he was elected to his present position.  Mr. Chaney is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders, and is a comrade in the Osceola Post, Grand Army of the Republic. He was married in July, 1861, to Miss Sarah C. Fuel, daughter of John Fuel, of Lucas County, Iowa. They have four children – Mary L., wife of L. D. Burnett, of Omaha, Nebraska; Frank, John and C. L. Mr. and Mrs. Chaney are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 248