WARREN CONAWAY, an enterprising citizen of Knox Township,
where he resides on section 5, was born in McLean County, Illinois, September
28, 1839. His parents, Aquilla and Rachel (Barnett) Conaway, were natives of
Maryland and Kentucky respectively. Our subject was the youngest in a family of
nine children, whose names are as follows – Catharine, Milton, James H.,
William, Providence, Aquilla, Margaret A., Nancy Jane and Warren. Warren
Conaway remained on the home farm in McLean County till eighteen years of age,
his education being received in the common schools of his native county. At the age of eighteen years he removed with
his parents to Daviess County, Missouri, living there till the breaking out of
the war of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the Forty-eighth Missouri State
Militia. He served four years, engaged in fighting the bushwhackers and
guerrillas, and in guarding the rights of loyal citizens. He left Daviess
County in 1870, when he came to Clarke County, Iowa, and located on his present
farm, in Knox Township, which contains 160 acres of highly cultivated land, and
has since been engaged in farming and stock-raising. He has a good, comfortable
residence, commodious barn and out-buildings for his stock. Mr. Conaway was married to Elizabeth Ann Day,
December 29, 1864, and to this union have been born seven children – Irwin
Edgar, Armilda E., Emma L., Elmer Herman, Nova C., Roscoe and Marcella. Mr.
Conaway started in life without means, but by his untiring industry and
persevering energy he has made his present fine property, and is to-day classed
among the representative men of Knox Township.
SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Record of Clarke
County, Iowa, Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1886 p. 232-3
