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This attractive residence at 1218 5th Ave. N., was for many years the home of M. F. Healy, one of Fort Dodge’s and Iowa’s most distinguished attorneys. The home has many unique features, including a round, towerlike area at one corner that extends from the large front porch upward to a pointed cupola on the roof.

The three-story house has living room, library, dining room and kitchen on the first floor. An open stairway leads to the second floor with its five bedrooms and bath. On the third floor are three additional bedrooms.

Healy lived in the home from the time it was completed in 1903 until his death in 1929 at age 66. He and his wife, who was 65 at the time of her death in 1936, reared a family of six children in the home.

The M.F. Healy home

1218 5th Avenue North

A native of Lansing, Iowa, Healy came to Fort Dodge with his parents in 1892. He was a graduate of Notre Dame University, attended Harvard University one year and received his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1885.

He began law practice in Fort Dodge with pioneer statesman and attorney John F. Duncombe. Later he was in partnership with his brothers, Thomas D. Healy and Robert Healy and his son, Thomas M. Healy. Other well-known attorneys with whom he was associated were A. N. Botsford, D. M. Kelleher, B. B. Burnquist and Seth Thomas who later was a federal circuit court judge.

Healy gained statewide and national distinction as an attorney, orator and political leader. He was active in the Democratic party and attended nine national Democratic conventions. In 1924 he seconded the nomination of Al Smith for the presidency. He was in great demand as a speaker and gave addresses at many public functions and celebrations.

Failing eyesight afflicted Healy in the later years of his life and he was stricken with blindness in 1916. Despite the handicap he continued his law practice until his death 13 years later.

The Healy children included four daughters and two sons—Mrs. Ruth Healy Coughlin, Fort Dodge; Mrs. John (Margaret) Rourke, Providence, R.I.; Mrs. Carl (Eleanor) Mangelsdorf, Rock Island, Ill.; and Mrs. Joseph (Kathryn) Pleck, Evanston, Ill.; the Rev. Kerndt Healy, an instructor at Notre Dame University, and Thomas M. Healy, Fort Dodge, both of whom are deceased.

The Healy home is now owned by Larry D. Lee, a Fort Dodge Senior High School math instructor, who acquired it in 1964.