Peile, Robert Moore

PEILE, LANDERS, BANNING, SUTLIFF, HUBBELL

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/25/2006 at 11:13:13

PEILE, ROBERT MOORE

Robert Moore, Peile, now one of the venerable residents of Rock Rapids, where his years and character command popular respect and esteem was born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, March 7, 1832, and lost his parents while still very young, from cholera.

The young orphan was liberally educated, and attended college in County Waterford for seven years, quitting school when he had reached the age of nineteen years. On the first of November 1850 he left his native land and sailed for Boston. His first home was near Mendota, Illinois, where he taught school for two years. He was among the first to herd cattle in this country, beginning with nine hundred head, and at one time had as many as twenty-seven hundred under his care. In June 1861 he was out riding on the prairies and was struck by the great tornado of that year, which swept across a wide area and wrought vast destruction. In Illinois he held several township offices, and bought and sold many thousand acres of land, improving many farms, and bringing them up to a high state of cultivation. During the Civil War he was influential in recruiting men for the service at the front.

In 1886 Mr. Peile sold out in Illinois, and moving to Lyon County became the agent for Close Brothers, and sold many hundred acres of their Lyon County lands for them. He also bought land here on his own behalf, which he held until it doubled in price and would then sell it. He still owns a fine farm near Rock Rapids, which he works himself. About nine years ago he bought a fine residence in Rock Rapids, into which he moved his family, and which he still occupies. Mr. Peile stands high among his neighbors.

Mr. Peile was married May 31, 1853 to Miss Mary Landers. She died February 14, 1872, and he contracted a second marriage June 17, 1874, when Miss Lydia J. Banning became his wife. He had four children by his first wife, and four by his second: Maria married Arthur Sanborn, of Concordia, Kansas; Ellen, who married William B. Sutliff, and lives at Burr Oak, Kansas; Katie, the wife of Ivan Hubbell, of Madison, South Dakota; John J., a traveling salesman; Minnie E., a teacher in Rock Rapids; Lydia J., a teacher in Madison-both are graduates of the South Dakota State Normal school at Madison; Robert M., a clerk in Norfolk, Nebraska; Myrtle, the youngest, is at home.

Mr. Peile is a member of the Church of England, to which his parents belonged, and is a nephew of the late Robert Moore Peile, after whom he was named, who changed the order of the letters to designate the different families. Mr. Peile still has the seal ring made of heavy gold and carnelian with the cut of the arms of the family. He also had a solid silver heavy drinking cup. He also has a solid gold cane with an address from the people of Reynold Township when he left to come to Lyon County, showing how much they esteemed him as a good citizen and neighbor.

Dr. Robert Moore Peile, of Ireland, died at the advanced age of ninety-three in 1858. He was educated as a physician, and became inspector general of hospitals for the forces in Ireland, and senior surgeon to the Richmond Hospital and the House of Industry, a position he held for fifty years. He was also consulting surgeon for Dr. Stephens' Hospital, and was regarded as the father of modern surgery in Ireland. Dr. Peile retired from service in 1847 with the rank of inspector general with a reputation as a most skillful surgeon and successful operator, especially in cases of lithotomy, for which he had devised instruments of his own, now well known to the profession, such as Peile's lithotomy and staff. He was good to the poor, affectionate to his family, and courteous to all. The family belonged originally to the same line from which Sir Robert Peil, of England, sprang, and Robert Moore Peile of Rock Rapids, traces his line through the Irish branch.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson