John (Jack) Carran 1853-1929

CARRAN, BROWN, BARNES, HAYSLETT, MORRISON, EASTMAN, KING

Posted By: Sharon Elijah (email)
Date: 1/17/2019 at 09:06:24

28 November 1929 - West Branch Times

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Following an illness of several months, during which time an operation failed to give permanently helpful results, John K. (Jack) Carran passed away at the family home on Orange street, Saturday evening, Nov. 23, at five o'clock.

Mr. Carran had been able to sit up for a time every day, and was able to enjoy the visits of his many friends, a pleasure which was never denied him, and which, with the receipt of messages from absent friends, gave him much happiness during the months of his illness. He was in his chair for a short time Saturday morning, but becoming worse he was returned to his bed and died in the early evening.

President Herbert Hoover, who was a pupil of Mrs. Carran in the West Branch schools long ago, sent a lengthy telegram of sympathy in which Mrs. Hoover joined him, from the White House, Sunday afternoon. Mr. and Mrs. Carran were visitors at the inauguration of President Hoover and were the first luncheon guests of the president and his wife in the executive mansion.

Mr. Carran was born in the Isle of Man seventy-six years ago, but America has been his home more than a half century. His marriage to Miss Mollie Brown occurred forty-five years ago and they have made several journeys to his native isle and have resided there for brief periods. Four children were born to them and survive: Mrs. Marian Barnes of Pasadena, Calif.; Mrs. Ed. Hayslett and Chas. Carran of West Branch, and Miss Eleanor Carran of Cedar Rapids, who gave up her position and spent the past few weeks with her parents.

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The Great Master Workman has called John Kaighen Carran to the end of his earthly labours, and has kindly given him rest and sleep for the pain and sickness of the past year. A vigorous and strong body has finally given way to the infirmaties of age and to the inroads of disease.

Living for 76 years, Mr. Carran has spent a varied life. He has seen much of the history of our town in the making, coming here at the age of 21 in 1874.

He was a native of Peel, Ise of Man, that quaint Old World settlement in the Irish Sea, and born into a community which has given the name Manxman, a place of honor in the world. His natal day was July 31, 1853, and he was the eldest of three children in the home of John and Margaret Carran. The two sisters survive their brother and still live in Peel, they are Mrs. Ella Morrison and Miss Minnie Carran. There is another relative, Mr. J. G. Eastman, of Sioux City, Iowa, a cousin. Mr. Carran came directly to Iowa when he had chosen the New World as his home, and resided first with an aunt, Mrs. Rodger King, who lived on the farm, (now owned by Harley Anderson) one mile east and two and one-half miles north of West Branch.

Excepting two years spent in Plymouth county, Iowa, Mr. Carran has spent all his life in this country at West Branch. He became a farmer and for 38 years struggled with conditions as he found them, and made them yield him and his family a living and more, so that in 1913 he was able to retire, and take up his home in West Branch at the present location. 55 years a resident of this community is the record of this life.

On March 25, 1885, Mr. Carran married Miss Mollie Brown, who had taught school for various terms, and who now has the distinction of being the teacher of our president, Herbert Hoover. Mr. Hoover has remembered his old teacher so well as to send her a telegram of sympathy in this sad hour in her life; and there has also come from him a beautiful wreath, as a mark of his love and esteem, for one who became very dear to him as she directed his life in that early school room.

Four children were born to bring joy and sunshine into the home, all of whom are living, and who, with their dear mother, are deeply mourning the loss of a kind and loving father and husband. Mrs. Marian Barnes lives at Pasadena, Calif., but Alice, (Mrs. E. R. Hayslett), John Charles and Eleanore have their home here at West Branch.

In the early part of his life, Mr. Carran was a member of the Episcopal church, but he joined the Presbyterian church in 1892, and has kept his membership with this church ever since.

It has been our privilege to know Mr. Carran for over two years and we have known him always as a man possessing a rigid standard of honesty which dominated his life, and which standard he expected to dominate the lives of those who became intimate with him. He appreciated to the full the affection of his family, being always of a bright and genial disposition, and even in the latter part of his life, when pain became his hourly companion he was always remarkably patient and cheerful. He passed away on Saturday evening, last, Nov. 23, at 5 p.m., possessing his faculties until the very last, and departing this life, in the consciousness that he had been accepted as a child of God, and that he was but journeying to the Eternal Home, there to await but a short time for his loved ones and friends to join him.

Funeral services were held at the Methodist church of West Branch on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1929, at 2:00 p.m. The Rev. W. A. Montgomery, a former pastor of the Presbyterian church in this city and a friend of the family for 23 years and the Rev. Harry D. Green, pastor of the church conducted the services. Interment was made in the local cemetery.