San
Joaquin County
Biographies
JOHN OWEN McKEANY
Concentrating his activities upon
his business affairs, John Owen McKeany has carried forward to successful
completion whatever he has undertaken, and today his influence for good is felt
in his locality. He was born at
Morristown, New Jersey, on November 5, 1871, a son of Edward McKeany, a native
of Ireland who came to America in 1862.
In 1882, the family migrated to California, settling in Livermore,
Alameda County, where the father founded and conducted the McKeany nurseries
and engaged in landscape gardening, which he followed for many years. Disposing of his nursery business, Mr.
McKeany removed to Oakland, California, living in retirement fifteen years
prior to his death in 1917.
Coming to California when only nine
years old, the greater part of John Owen McKeany’s
education was obtained in the Livermore school; then for a year and a half he
was occupied in learning the blacksmith’s trade; later he learned the butchers
trade and for ten years followed that occupation, his retail shop being
operated along successful and progressive lines. During the year of 1895, removing to Tracy,
he entered the employ of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and was soon
promoted to the position of engine foreman of the yards.
The marriage of Mr. McKeany occurred
in Stockton, California, on February 16, 1896, and united him with Miss Mary
Passler Knollenburg, a daughter of Mrs. Mary P. Knollenburg, and a step-daughter
of the late Peter Knollenburg, a sturdy pioneer of San Joaquin County. Mrs. Knollenburg is now eighty-two years old and
resides with her daughter in Tracy. Mr.
and Mrs. McKeany are the parents of three children: Lysle married Miss Mary Golden of Mississippi
and they have two children, Jacqueline and Lysle, Jr. He enlisted in the United States Navy on June
20, 1917, serving as clerk in the department of pharmacy, his service covering
a period of twenty-two months. Suffering
a severe breakdown he is being cared for in the U. S. Hospital at San Diego,
where he is gradually regaining his health.
Francis, the second son, married Miss Gladys Quinlin,
and they reside in Tracy; Roy attends the University of California where he is
a student in the law department; he was the first president of the high school
student body at the West Side Union High School from which institution he was
graduated with the class of 1921; he was popular in all affairs of the school, especially in athletics, and is a member of the
Del Rey fraternity house. For the past
twenty-two years, Mr. McKeany has been a member of the Woodmen of the World,
and the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen; the family reside
at their home at No. 224 West Tenth Street, Tracy.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
958. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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