John Small 1825-1907

SMALL, CRAIG, ATKINSON, HEALY, ALLEN

Posted By: Cheryl Locher Moonen (email)
Date: 1/23/2019 at 07:24:38

The History of Farley, Iowa

JOHN SMALL
“John Small is dead are the words that passed from lip to lip Saturday evening,” reported the Farley Advertiser on Oct. 3, 1907. John served as Marshall in Farley from 1879-1880 and again in 1882-1883. The job was part time since the town also employed a street commissioner, so John worked as a dray-man during the day.

John was born in County Down, Ireland, in 1825 and came to America at the age of twenty-one. He settled in Farley when the town was first laid out. He married Catherine Craig in Dubuque in 1860 and ten children were born to them. He and his family lived in the house that is on the corner of 7th & 2nd Street N. E,

John died on Sept. 18, 1907 in Duluth, MN. when he had been visiting his sons, John and Frank. The Farley Advertiser reported: “Mr. Small was conscientious and carried out his work and esteemed as a good citizen, a worthy man and an indulgent father.”

Two of John’s children, Mary and Elizabeth Frances (Fannie), were life-long residents of Farley. Mary married Robert Allen and in 1890 Fannie married William H. Atkinson. Fannie and William built the house at 107 6th Ave, N. E., where one of their grandsons, Mike Healy resides today.