John Marley

MARLEY, MCCARVILLE

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 3/12/2007 at 23:16:33

John Marley

My father John Marley came from Ross, Skreen County: Sligo, Ireland to Monona County when he was twenty-five years old. He went to his cousin’s, Mike Marley’s family home, where he worked and lived for the next five years.
He was the son of Michael and Mary Ellen O’Connor Marley. His father died when he was 16 years old. He had four brothers, Domonic, Michael, Maurice, Patrick and a sister Mary Ellen Patrick. John’s brother had come to America five years before John. He settled in Illinois where the Bruens were living. They all worked in the coal mines there in Illinois.
Around the year 1876 Uncle Pat and the Bruens came to Monona County, Iowa. Both settled on farms at the time. Pat never married. During the years Pat made thirteen crossings to visit his relatives in the Homeland.
John married Sarah Elizabeth McCarville, daughter of Peter McCarville and Johanna McCabe McCarville, at Missouri Valley, Iowa Catholic Church on April 4, 1888.
To this union was born seven children. Michael William Marley, 1889-1968. Mary Ellen Marley, 1890-1972. James Terrance, 1894-1902. John Leo Marley, 1895-1920. Rose Johanna Marley Ryan, 1897. Maurice Edwin Marley, 1902-1974. Sarah Teresa Marley Delanty, 1905-1967.
John and Sarah lived on the same farm in South Sherman, Monona County all their lives.
John passed away on September 18, 1935. Sarah passed away on April 20, 1948. They were lovingly cared for in their old age by my sister Mary who never married. She was a mother of her cousin’s children, Jack and Maureen O’Leary, when their mother died in a tragic fire.
Four of John’s grandsons still farm in South Monona County. James, Joseph, Leo, and Robert Michael, Michael William’s sons. The fourth is my son John Leo Ryan. Two great grandsons also farm there. Thomas James Marley, James Marley, James’s son, and Michael Ryan, my grandson. My father loved the land as he loved his new country and he would be proud of these two following generations who have followed in his footsteps over a hundred years later.
He would be amazed to see me, Rose Johanna so hale and hearty today when as a child one of my mother’s friends called me, “Her Mother’s sickly child.” I am the last of my generation and happy to have this opportunity to give a little story of my beloved father, John
Source: History of Monona County, Iowa 1982
Taylor Pub. Co.