Patrick came to America as a young man in 1847 and came to Clinton Co., Iowa. About 1850 he went to Tennessee and worked for a railroad, helping build a tunnel through the mountains in the vicinity of Cumberland Gap, in east Tennessee. He worked eighteen hours a day and saved up three thousand dollars which he invested in his Clinton County farm. He returned to Iowa in 1851. He kept up his hard work and became quite wealthy, leaving an estate estimated at over $100,000. A proud boast of his was that his first wheat crop paid for his first farm of 160 acres.
In 1864, Patrick Lane of Center Township (as well as a P. Lane of Lyons township) was drafted for the Civil War. I don't believe he ever enlisted, however. The rules at the time allowed you to send a substitute in your stead. (But I don't know that he did that either)
Pat Lane had 210 acres in Section 19 of Center Township, Clinton Co., in 1874.
The family moved to Pottawattamie County, Iowa in 1874 and he continued to prosper as a farmer. According to his 1882 biography, he owned 1550 acres free and clear. That's almost two and a half square miles!
Mary divorced Pat and got a division of their property a few years before their death. His attitudes about working hard (and forcing his family to do so also) and ``strict economy'' were a reason cited for his wife leaving him. Quoting Pat's obituary, Pat ``drove them beyond what ought to be required by a man in the circumstances of the husband'' His children sided with his wife and even had him declared incompetent. But when Patrick heard of this, he soon had that order reversed. After his wife left him, Patrick also moved off the farm, living in boarding houses in Harlan. Before this point, he had been a very healthy person, which he attributed to avoidance of intoxicants and narcotics, even tea and coffee. But he caught cold at his wife's funeral and died of complications from that illness. His obituary is rather unique in that it isn't shy about describing his peculiarities as well as his virtues.
Sources for this individual: @S595@ @S596@ @S597@ @S125@ @S157@ @S121@
