Curtin Corn to Whiskey
Curtin
Woodbury County, IA
Century Farm
John and Catherine (O’Connell) Curtin came from County Cork, Ireland to Massachusetts prior to the Civil War. The Curtin family had left Ireland due to the potato famine in the 1850s. They had six children, including Jeffrey T. Curtin, born Dec. 28, 1856, in Great Barrington, MA.
The family moved from Massachusetts to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1857. Two years later they moved to Woodbury County and settled in Cork Hill, an area of early Irish settlements near the modern-day towns of Moville and Climbing Hill. The trip to Woodbury County was made in a covered wagon drawn by oxen and it required three weeks time. They returned to Dubuque because of the Spirit Lake massacre. In 1863 they returned to Woodbury County.
John and Rose (Carr) Coyne also came from Ireland to New York due to the potato famine. They moved to Ontario, Canada, where their ten children, including Catherine Coyne, were born. Catherine was born Oct. 2, 1867, in Inkerman, Ontario. In 1882 the Coyne family moved to Dunlap, Iowa and then a year later to the Oto, Iowa area.
Both the Curtin and Coyne families farmed in the Anthon-Oto areas.
Jeffrey Curtin moved from Cork Hill to the Oto area in about 1887 and homesteaded land in Grant Township, Woodbury County, about 8 miles southwest of Anthon.
In 1889, Jeffrey Curtin and Catherine Coyne were married in Danbury Iowa. They moved to “Wolf Creek” in Grant Township, Iowa, where their nine children were born: Catherine (later Sr. Mary Isabel), John, Rose, Lawrence, Raphael, Jeffrey, Anna, Daniel, and Matthew. Anna was born March 19, 1901.
Jeffrey Curtin died on February 20, 1932, and Catherine (Coyne) Curtin died on March 29, 1938.
Anna Curtin, daughter of Jeffrey and Catherine, married John Brady of Marcus Iowa on October 16, 1923. The union produced three sons: R. Lawrence, Philip J., and Eugene F. Anna died on October 7, 1984.
Interesting side note: Catherine (Coyne) Curtin’s nephew, Bernard Coyne, was the Giant of the World; he was 8 foot 2 inches in his stocking feet and weighed over 400 pounds. He was born in 1897 in Anthon, Iowa, and died at the age of 24 in 1921. At the time of his death, he was regarded to be the tallest man in the world. He was buried in a specially made casket. (He was buried in the middle of the night, and his casket was enclosed in cement. The family wanted to make sure that his body wasn’t dug up for any type of medical testing).
It is likely that following the death of her mother, Anna (Curtin) Brady inherited a portion of the farmland that her father homesteaded, purchased February 28, 1910. Even though Anna was living in Marcus, it was not uncommon for her and John to go for a drive to check on the land. Even though she had moved away, she still felt very connected to her farming roots.
After Anna’s death, the land was passed down to 2 of her 3 sons (R. Lawrence Brady and Philip J. Brady, both farmers), then to their widows Helen (List) Brady and Patricia (Krohn) Brady. The land is now jointly owned by the next generations: Lawrence and Helen’s surviving 7 children: Lois (Brady) Buck, Joan (Brady) Wright, Sandy (Brady) Pick, Tom Brady, Jerry Brady, Michael Brady, and Jan (Brady) McDaniel, (Rita Brady, deceased 1994, had no children), and Philip and Patricia’s surviving 8 children: David Brady, Katherine Brady-Schluttner, Dennis Brady, Denise Brady-Miller, Shawn Brady, Carol (Brady) Livermore, Terry Brady, Megan Brady, and Kevin Brady’s (deceased 2016) 4 daughters, Taleen Brady, Erin (Brady) Bowers, Justine (Brady) Alcaraz, and Kaitlyn (Brady) Christensen.
The Curtin family eventually stepped back from farming the land, entrusting its care to another local family who could continue nurturing its productivity and stability. Wallace Parker was the first to rent and farm the property, followed by his son, Lloyd. After the Parkers, Dennis Petersen and his son-in-law, John Maynard, took over the operation. Today, John and his sons, Tyler and Dylan, continue that work. For three generations, the Petersen–Maynard family has faithfully stewarded the land.
According to family legend, Anna’s brothers spent Prohibition running a DIY speakeasy out of their trunk—a setup that was affectionately dubbed the “bar car.”
Grateful acknowledgment to Gene and Sherry Brady for their devoted research into the Brady and Curtin family histories that brought this story to life.
Gallery
