The founder of the town of Kemmerer, Wyoming, as well as one of its most prominent citizens and men of affairs, is a native of Ireland, himself and his ancestors for over 200 years back being native on County Clare of that emerald Isle. Patrick J. Quealy was born on March 17, 1857, the youngest of the eight children of John and Margaret (Fennell) Quealy. John Quealy was born in 1808. He learned the trade of carpenter but shortly after his marriage, he turned to farming in his native land purchasing the land adjoining the old homestead, then occupied by his eldest and only brother Michael. The old homestead was not only the most valuable, but also the most beautiful property in the village of Kiltrelig. This was the ancient home of the Quealys and all of Patrick J. Quealy’s ancestors on that side of the house. Its occupants have been the agents and representatives of the Peckington estate as far back as the family can be traced this estate being the largest and most valuable on in the west of Clare. The family was therefore the most prominent and influential family residing in that section. Being over generous during the famine of 1848 the pestilence and the hard times that followed, his estate became so reduced that he emigrated to America in 1863 and settled in Newtown, Conn., where he turned to the lines of his early trade for an occupation and was employed in the car building in various places in the Eastern States. In 1876 he came to Wyoming to join his three sons, Michael, Lawrence and Thomas, All of whom had emigrated to Wyoming in 1868 and who had become leading and influential citizens. He spent the remainder of his days in retirement at Carbon, where he died on June 3, 1883, his interment occurring at Laramie, Wyoming. He was an honest, loyal man and followed the faith of his ancestors, he was a devoted member of the Catholic Church. His parents were Michael and Margaret (Gorman) Quealy. Margaret (Fennell) Quealy the wife of John and the mother of Patrick J. Quealy was born in 1812. She was married in her native county of Clare and she died in Carbon, Wyoming in 1891, having survived her husband about eight years. She was also buried at Laramie, beside her husband and her son, Thomas, who was accidentally killed at Como, Colorado on June 11, 1866. She was a member of the Catholic Church to which and to her family she was most devoted. She was the daughter of Thomas and Nora (Keane) Fennell, of Fodera, Ireland, and where the old homestead of the Fennells and her father is still maintained and the home of her eldest brother John. This homestead had seceded to the eldest son of the family for over 300 years. She was herself the mother of eight children all of whom lived to do her homage, and to become themselves respected and some of them distinguished citizens. Michael Quealy, the eldest son, is a most progressive man and a distinguished citizen of Carbon County, Wyoming. He led the way for the younger boys who followed his example and his business inclinations by taking up coal mining in Missouri, thence came to Wyoming in 1868 and took charge of the Wardell mines at Almy, Wyoming near Evanston, then supplying the union Pacific Railroad. He remained with the Union Pacific Coal Co., which absorbed the Wardell properties, until he took up ranching and stock raising in Carbon County, where he now makes his home, having accumulated an ample fortune. Lawrence Quealy, the second son followed in the footsteps of Michael in the coal mines of Missouri and Wyoming, took to ranching and stock raising, distinguished himself as a member of the legislature of 1884, having therein championed several important measures which are now upon the statutes as laws. Thomas Quealy, the third son, followed Michael’s footsteps in coal mining. He was a natural engineer and was considered one of the ablest men in his line in the state. Before he was twenty-years old he was given charge of mines in Missouri and continued to rapidly advance in his profession until his accidental death at Como, Colorado, which occurred while he was in charge as superintendent of the Union pacific Coal Co’s interest in that state. His death took place on June 11, 1886, by falling accidentally from the roof of a boxcar, which he was dropping over the grade from his office in the mine dump. Thomas was the most talented and promising young man in the family as well as the most beloved and exemplary. Of the four daughters of the families two were married in Connecticut in good families. Margaret to Thomas Lynch, Catherine to Daniel Lynch. The Lynches were first cousins, and both of them died in Danbury, Connecticut, in 1903. Margaret (Quealy) Lynch died in 1873, leaving four children two boys and two girls. Catherine (Quealy) Lynch survives her husband, has five children, one of whom was recently ordained a priest of the Jesuit order. All of the other Lynch sons and daughters are good citizens of Connecticut and New York City; showing by their progress themselves to be worthy of their good old ancestral stock. The remaining two daughters of Mary (Quealy) Pyle, were married in the West. Mary in Missouri and Mrs. Pyle in this state. Mrs. Pyle now a widow resides very comfortably situated on her homestead near Silver Creek, Nebraska together with her only daughter, Margaret. Mrs. Sullivan is the mother of four children, three boys and one girl, all natives of Wyoming and living comfortably with their parents on their homestead in Carbon County, where the family is quire a prosperous one. Their only daughter, Margaret, was educated at St. Mary’s Academy, Salt Lake City, Utah and became the principal of the schools at Rawlins, Wyoming, but yielding to the wishes of her parents, she now enjoys life at the parental home. Patrick J. Quealy received the first schooling in the national schools of Ireland, later he attended the public schools at Hannibal and Bevier, Missouri, and still later Johnson College, of Quincy, Illinois and finally in 1874, he was graduated from Gem City College of the same city. Immediately after his graduation he came to Evanston, Wyoming but to stop only a few months. Going from there to Carbon, he remained at that place until September 1875 when he went to Renton, Washington, where he spent two years in coal mining. Thereafter he went to British Columbia and passed one year, most of the time in the coal mines at Wellington and Nanaimo on Vancouver’s Island from there going to Seattle, Washington, where he engaged in real-estate operations and in produce shipping. Here his attention again reverted to coal mining and he served two years from 1878 to 1880 as the general foreman of the Seattle Coal and Transportation Co’s mines at New Castle after which he returned to Wyoming and accepted the position of superintendent of mines of the Union Pacific Railroad Co. at Grass Creek, Utah, Rock Springs and Carbon Wyoming. From December 1880 to May 1884, he was employed by the Union Pacific Coal Co. at intervals in examination of the coal measurers of Montana, Idaho, Utah and Dakotas. In 1884 he resigned this position to engage in coal mining on his own account, making his headquarters at Bozeman, Montana. After successful operations at Bozeman, Montana. After successful operations at Timberline, for a period of two years, he sold his interest to his partner, Hon. C. W. Hoffman of Bozeman having in previous years and while he was operating in Montana, became heavily interested in cattle and in ranching with his brothers in Carbon County, Wyoming. His brother Thomas, dying in 1886 the administration of his estate devoted on Patrick, who meanwhile had been appointed state inspector of coal mines, in which office he served one year, resigning after settling up the estate of his brother Thomas. In 1887, immediately after resigning as state inspector and upon the passage of the act of Congress creating the Interstate Commerce Commission and upon the assurance of Mr. Tom Potter, then the general manager of the Union pacific Railroad, that he would receive fair treatment he organized the Rock Springs Coal Co., but, unfortunately for him, Mr. Potter soon died and it was only by the exercise of the most heroic effort that he was able to continue with any fair degree of success, but he kept the mines in operation until the close of the year 1894, when he disposed of this valuable property for a satisfactory consideration. Upon the consummation of this deal Mr. Quealy immediately began to invest his capital in Uinta County, Wyoming coal lands and finding that more capital then he could personally control was necessary to develop the Uinta Enterprises, He went east and meeting Mr. M. S. Kemmerer in New York he induced him to join him in forming the co-partnership, this being the most important step of his life from a financial standpoint. Returning to Wyoming with ample financial backing he continued to acquire territory and upon the segregation of the Oregon Short Line from the Union Pacific, in the spring of 1897 he proceeded to Boston, and arranged with President Samuel Carr, of the Oregon Short Line to build the necessary tracks and upon his return to Wyoming, the development of the Kemmerer properties began. Ground was broken in grading for tracks in the latter part of June and on October 5, of the same year, the first coal was shipped to the extent of 4,000 tons for that month. The output was increased at the rare of 4,000 tons per month from No 1 mine, until an output of 57,000 tons for one month was reached, with a total for the year ending April 30, 1901, of 513,329 tons, which is the largest output ever produced in any one year from any one mine in either Wyoming or Utah. In the organization of the Uinta County enterprise it became necessary to organize The Kemmerer Coal Co. The Uinta Improvement Co., and The Frontier Supply Co., ad the town of Kemmerer, together with the co-partnership of Quealy & Kemmerer, while the combined assets of these corporations aggregate over $1,000.000. Mr. Quealy, as is shown in this sketch is essentially a man of affairs, possessed of boundless activity; but his grasp seems equal to his ambition broad as this is. In 1900 he saw the necessity of a bank in Kemmerer to accommodate the rapid growth in population and expanding commerce which was then attracting the trade of the territory covering 200 miles north to the National Park. With Mr. Kemmerer he constructed a beautiful two-story stone structure to accommodate this institution and invited the businessmen of the town and surrounding country to join them in subscribing to the capital stock of the First Nation Bank of Kemmerer. Upon its reorganization he was made its president, which position he still occupies, while the bank is one of the most prosperous financial institutions of the state. Mr. Quealy is also President and manager of the Frontier Supply Co., the Vice-president and manager of the Kemmerer Coal Co. the vice-president and manager of the Uinta Improvement Co., the vice-president and secretary of the Short Line Land and Improvement Co. But these positions do not measure all of Mr. Quealy’s interests. He owns one of the largest ranches in Carbon County, having over 34,000acres all well stocked with cattle and horses. He is interested in the Uinta County oil fields, being president of two of the important companies. He is the president of the Oregon King Mining Co. one of the best mining properties in the state of Oregon. Politically Mr. Quealy is a Democrat. His name was on the electoral ticket in both the Cleveland and Bryan campaigns and he was president of the Electoral College at Cheyenne. He has many times been offered nominations for high political office but has steadfastly refused to accept, his business affairs requiring his entire time and attention. Mr. Quealy was married in 1900 with Miss Susie Quealy, a daughter of P. J. and Delia (O’Connor) Quealy, of Omaha, Nebraska where Susie was born on January 17, 1870 of parents who were natives of Ireland, and her father was for ten years a soldier in the English Army, serving with such efficiency as to be many times rewarded and decorated with medals for his bravery and being also wounded in the service. He was the son of John Quealy, of County Clare, Ireland and came to the United States after his army service. He located first in Boston, thence traveled west until he finally settled in Omaha, Nebraska where he has now retired with an ample supply of this world’s means to provide for himself and family. He is a prominent church man a Republican in politics and he is actively interested in school affairs. Mr. & Mrs. Patrick J. Quealy have been blessed with four children, all sons, only two of whom survive. Jay Ambrose and Mahlon Kemmerer, Thomas Adilis died at the age of five years in November 1898 and John Handy, in May 1895, aged only thirty days. They passed away from earth in their early innocence.
