Although now retired from business life, James Donaly has borne an
important part in the development of the resources of Southern Illinois,
and his name is well known in the mining world of this section. He spent
nearly forty years as an operator and miner at Carterville, where he
retired to private life in August, 1911. Mr. Donaly's childhood was
spent in Carterville, he having been eight years of age when his father
brought the family from Murphysboro to Carterville. He was born in
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, September 27, 1865, where his father was a
miner, and four years later the latter came to Illinois and established
himself temporarily at the county seat of Jackson county. He is of
Scotch-Irish blood, his father being a native of Beath, Scotland, and
his mother of county Roscommon, Ireland.
William Donaly, the
father of James of this review, was born January 3, 1839, and gave his
whole active life to the occupation of a miner. He is now living a
retired life, having witnessed an advance in the business of coal
mining, the history of which, were it written, would furnish an
interesting chapter among the great industries of the country. Mr.
Donaly married Mary Ganley, who was born March 17, 1836, and they have
had the following children: Ellen, the wife of Henry Phillips, of
Carterville; Mary, the wife of Fred H. Koennecke, of this city; Kate,
now Mrs. George Phillips, of Carterville; Mrs. Edward Myers, wife of a
well-known merchant, of St. Louis; and James.
Beginning work as a
child of seven years, James Donaly could not have profited much as a
pupil in school. He got merely the rudiments of a few common branches
and acquired the remainder of his education from actual experience. He
began as a” trapper,’’ in the Bryden mine, the first one opened at
Carterville. After nearly ten years of application to his vocation, and
having acquired complete knowledge of it, he relaxed his efforts and
spent several -months touring the West and South, working in mines at
Trinidad, Colorado; Cothridge, New Mexico; Gordon, Texas; and Atoka,
Oklahoma. He went on a prospecting tour of New Mexico for the Santa Fe
Coal Company, extending his trip to points in California and returning
home after an absence of nearly two years. Soon after resuming work in
the coal field Mr. Donaly entered the service of Sam. T. Brush to do
some development work, completed that and was made a mine manager by Mr.
Brush. He became superintendent of the Brush property later on and in
1898 he began the coal business independently. He joined Mr. Fred H.
Koennecke under the firm name of the Donaly -Koennecke Company, opened a
property near the Brush mine and subsequently sold it. He then
transferred his interests in mining to a lease some two and one-half
miles north of Carterville, where the Donaly Koennecke Company opened
another mine, and after nine years with it Mr. Donaly sold out to Mr.
Koennecke and withdrew from the field. He has farming and financial
interests, owning a number of business houses in Carterville and being a
stockholder in the Carterville State and Savings Bank. His modern home
on Main street was erected by Mr. Donaly and there he and his family
maintain their residence.
On October 1, 1896, Mr. Donaly was
married to Miss Dell Kirk, who died in 1900, leaving one daughter, Ruby.
Mr. Donaly’s second marriage was to Miss Margaret Jeffrey, a daughter of
Peter Jeffrey, a coal man of Murphysboro and a native of Ayrshire,
Scotland. Mrs. Donaly was born in 1871, in Murphysboro, and grew up
there. In 1908 Mr. Donaly and the members of his family took a trip to
the old Jeffrey home in Scotland, and there the death of his
mother-in-law occurred. Mr. Donaly has studied Free Masonry deeply, and
has taken the thirty-second degree along the Scottish route. He is a
member of Oriental Consistory and of Medina Temple. His political
inclinations lead him to support the principles of the Democratic party.
Extracted from 1912 A History of Southern Illinois, by George W. Smith, volume 2, page 1002.