Thomas B. Mahoney

THOMAS B. MAHONEY has long been regarded as one of the permanent factors in business and civic affairs at Dorrance and has spent most of his life in Russell County, though he is a native of Chicago. He is a farmer by training and early experience and still is a farm owner, though most of his time is devoted to the real estate and automobile business at Dorrance and to his public duties as mayor of that town.

Mr. Mahoney was born in Chicago January 9, 1874. His father, Jeremiah Mahoney, who was born in County Limerick, Ireland, in 1832, left that country at the age of eighteen and came to the United States, spending a short time in New York City before going to Chicago. He followed the bakery business in Chicago, and on March 7, 1877, arrived in Russell County, Kansas, where he bought a farm of 160 acres and thenceforward demonstrated what a man of energy and capacity could do as a Western Kansas farmer and stock man. In course of time he accumulated about 4,000 acres and lived on his farm until his death in 1900. He was a Catholic and in politics voted independently.

Jeremiah Mahoney married Margaret Howard, who was born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1846 and died on the farm in Russell County April 18, 1908. Thomas was the youngest of their four children. John M., the oldest, a farmer in Russell County, is now a member of the board of county commissioners. Edward J. is a stock raiser in Russell County, and Martin J. is now living in Russell a retired farmer.

Thomas B. Mahoney attended the rural schools of Russell County, and lived on his father's ranch to the age of twenty-five. Since then he has been an active participant in the business life of Dorrance as an automobile dealer and real estate man. As a farm owner he has 720 acres in Russell County and 640 acres in Trego County. He is a member of the Catholic Church, of Hays Council No. 1325, Knights of Columbus, and in politics maintains an independent attitude.

November 22, 1908, at Dorrance, he married Miss Anna Thielen, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Thielen, who still live on their farm near Dorrance. Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney have four children: Elmo, born in 1909; Edmond, born in 1910; Dorothy, born in 1911, and Edith, born in 1912.

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