Having served his country faithfully in the Civil war, and borne since the memorable contest the marks of its burdens, and having devoted to the pursuits of peace the same spirit of courage and determination he showed in the presence of the enemy and the presence of death in war. Albert D. Mahany, one of the prominent and successful ranchmen and stockgrowers of Mesa county, living half a mile north of Fruita, has won a substantial estate out of hard conditions and is comfortably fixed in a worldly way as well as firmly established in the regard and good will of his fellow men. He was born at Buffalo, New York, near the site of the present post-office of the city, on December 5. 1844, and is the son of John and Mary Mahany, natives of Ireland, who came to the United States many years ago and located at Buffalo, where they both died. The father served in a New York regiment three years during the Civil war, and took part in many noted engagements. He was wounded at the battle of Antietam on September 16, 1862, and was then transferred to the reserve corps. There were three sons and two daughters in the family, and he also had a daughter by a former marriage. The oldest son, Henry Mahany, went south in his young manhood, and was employed on Mississippi river steamboats a number of years. He was on board the “Natchez” under Captain Leathers during the time of the midnight race. As captain of the New Orleans Cadets he rendered valiant service to the Confederacy in the war between the states, and was killed at the first battle of Fredericksburg. Albert D. Mahany lived in Buffalo until he was ten years old, then went to Alton, Illinois, and during two or three years made his home with his half sister, his mother having died when he was two years old. From Alton he went to Bloomington, Illinois, and lived two years, then moved to Twinsburg, Ohio. He attended the public schools when he had opportunity, and in August, 1861, at the age of sixteen and in obedience to the call of the President for volunteers to defend the Union, enlisted in Company K, Nineteenth Ohio Veteran Volunteer Infantry, under General O. M. Mitchell. His command was ordered to Louisville, then under General Crittenden, but in the latter part of the war it was in the Fourth Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland. He served to the close of the war, nearly four years, re-enlisting in the same company and regiment at the end of his term, and was discharged on June 25, 1865. He saw a great deal of active field service, participating in the engagements at Perryville, Shiloh, Corinth, Stone River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge, Picket’s Mills, Kenesaw Mountain, Pine Top, Peach Tree Creek, Atlanta, Jonesboro and Lovejoy Station, besides skirmishes too numerous to mention. At Lovejoy Station he was shot in the right arm and the wound required that two inches of the bone should be taken out. This so incapacitated him that he was in a hospital at the time of his discharge, and was unable to do labor of any kind for some time after his return home. He therefore went to school two years, and in 1867 came to Colorado, and locating at Georgetown, worked a year in the Ten Mile district. He then opened a bakery and grocery store at Georgetown called the Ohio Bakery, the building he put up for the purpose being occupied as a courthouse. Two years later he sold his interest to his partner and went to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he lived eight years conducting a grocery. At the end of that period he returned to Colorado, and after passing a year and a half at Denver, engaged in the cattle industry near Estabrook five years. In 1883 he moved to Grand valley and took up one hundred and sixty acres of land on which he now lives and carries on an extensive farming and stock industry half a mile north of Fruita, having about four hundred cattle on the range. He is also interested in mining in Sinbad valley where he has promising copper claims. In politics Mr. Mahany is an unwavering Republican, and is always earnest and effective in the service of his party. He was married on November 9, 1869, to Miss Marena E. Post, a native of Hudson, Ohio, and daughter of Bradford and Eliza (Williams) Post, also natives of that state, their people being its pioneers and coming from Connecticut. Mrs. Mahany’s mother has been dead a number of years and her father died in 1904 at St. Elmo, Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs. Mahany have nine children: Effie A., wife of J. S. O’Neill, Charles H. , Anna S., wife of E. E. Adams, Albert B., Mary E., wife of J. W. Robinson, Jennie A., wife of Frank M. Downer, and Lena S., Ira Z. and Ellen L., living at home. The head of the house is a member of the order of Odd Fellows and the Grand Army of the Republic. He and his family belong to the Congregational church.
Source: Bowen, A. W. Progressive Men of Western Colorado. Chicago: A. W. Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1905.