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Wolfe's History of Clinton County, Iowa; Vol 2;
B.F. Bowen & Co; Indianapolis, Indiana: 1911
Edward M Kehoe
Individual enterprise, which is so justly the boast of the American people, is strikingly exhibited in the career of the gentleman
whose name forms the caption of this sketch, for he has fought his own way onward and upward from none too favorable environment
to a position of prominence in the business and social world of Clinton. Being a man of indomitable energy and unwilling to be
subdued by the usual reverses of life, he has removed one by one the obstacles in his pathway and is eminently deserving of the
success he has achieved and the popularity which is today his.
Mr. Kehoe is a native of the city of Clinton, having been born here on September 2, 1870, and he is the son of an excellent
family, Thomas and Margaret (Foley) Kehoe. The father was born in 1820 in Ireland and there grew to maturity and was educated.
He emigrated to America in 1855 and settled at Alexander, Virginia, where he conducted a mercantile business and became an
influential citizen. He desired to cast his lot in a new and more enterprising country, and accordingly came West in 1860 and
located at Clinton, Iowa. He worked as a foreman in a grain elevator for some time and afterwards owned and operated a stone
quarry in Lyons. He became well established here and he lived to an advanced age, dying in 1903. He was a member of the
Catholic church and very faithful in his allegiance to the same, while, politically, he was a Democrat. He was a man of
intelligence, broad-minded and of high character, and was held in high esteem for his clean principles and his generous
impulses. Before leaving Ireland he was married to Margaret Foley, who was born in 1823, and she proved to be a most
faithful helpmeet, and was a good woman, kind and gentle to all. Her death occurred in 1905. This union resulted in the
birth of seven children, three of whom are living, namely: John, of Omaha, Nebraska; Mary E., wife of E. Keating, of
Clinton; Edward M. of this review.
The subject received a good common school education and during his early life worked on the river and in a stone quarry. He was
always a hard worker, and by economy saved his money until he had a start. In 1903 he purchased the Hotel Columbia in Clinton,
a popular and well managed house, which is neatly kept and whose service is the best. It has thirty rooms, well furnished, and
guests here receive the utmost consideration, everything being done for their comfort and convenience, consequently the house
is well known and popular with the traveling public. Mr. Kehoe being a genial, obliging and generous host who understands well
every detail of managing a modern hotel. In 1905 he started the Brunswick billiard parlor and cigar store, which has proven
to be a very popular gathering place for the young men about town and is very extensively patronized, as is also the
Brunswick Mission billiard parlor and cigar store, which he opened in 1910, in Fulton, Illinois.
Mr. Kehoe is known to the local sporting world, being vice-president of the local club of the Central Base Ball Association which
he manages in a very able and worthy manner, and he assisted in the organization of the Northern Association in 1909, of which
he was elected vice-president in 1910. He is independent in politics, preferring to vote for the best man rather than the party.
He was reared in the Catholic faith, from which he has never departed. Fraternally he belongs to the Knights of Columbus and
the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Mr. Kehoe will open a new hotel in Clinton, May 1, 1911, to the known as The Kehoe, a European
hotel, with hot and cold water in fifty-one rooms, being located at Seventh avenue and Second street. it will have a
restaurant and cafe in connection, also pool and billiard room and cigar stand.
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