Carney, Jane McCormick Graham

CARNEY

Posted By: Robert M. Parker (email)
Date: 6/4/2006 at 12:20:27

OBITUARY

Jane Graham McCormick Carney

b. April 9th, 1811, County Armaugh, Ireland
d. Jan. 13, 1897, Stuart, Guthrie County, Iowa.

From the Grinnell Herald, Jan. 15, 1897:

“Another of the pioneer residents of Poweshiek County and of Grinnell was laid to rest in Hazlewood Cemetery on Thursday morning. Mrs. Jane M. Carney – who came to Iowa in the spring of 1854, and commenced life in the new country in a log cabin on the unbroken prairie, in Madison Township, with her husband and three children, and on the death of her husband moved to Grinnell in the fall of 1863 – is the subject of this sketch. She was born in the county of Armagh, Ireland, in 1808, being at the time date of her decease eighty-eight years and ten months old. Her sturdy Scotch-Irish blood led her to brave the perils of the ocean voyage, so that on her marriage at the age of sixteen to John McCormack, a young Methodist minister, the young couple embarked for America. After two years of active ministerial work Mr. McCormack died and left his young widow among a strange by kindly people, and after eight years of widowhood she was married to B. Carney, at Andover, Massachusetts. Engaged in railroad building, Mr. Carney came with his family to Ohio in 1851, and after three years spend in the construction of the then Pittsburg, Ft. Wayne and Chicago Railroad, came to Iowa. The life on the farm was a new experience, but duties and difficulties were bravely met, and her unyielding energy and invincible cheerfulness were strikingly displayed in the struggle as the head of the family after the death of her husband and removal to Grinnell. About eight years ago Mrs. Carney suffered a paralytic stroke and in succeeding years others came, which enfeebled her in mind and body, so that for years she has been an invalid. For several years past she has resided with her daughter, Mrs. Martha Peck, at Stuart and Council Bluffs, and there has received the most devoted attention in her long illness. Besides the daughter referred to, she leaves two sons, State Senator J. L. Carney of Marshalltown and J. M. Carney, late mayor of Gilman, and many other friends to mourn her loss. Funeral Services were held at the home at Council Bluffs, and the exercises at the grave were very appropriately conducted by Prof. L. F. Parker, a valued friend of the family for many years.”

Errata, provided by Robert M. Parker, Great, Great Grandson of Jane Carney:
1. Hazlewood Cemetery s/b Hazelwood.
2. Jane Carney was born in 1811, not 1808.
3. Jane Carney married John McCormick in 1827, at age 16.
4. John’s name was spelled McCormick, not McCormack.
5. John was a Presbyterian minister, not a Methodist.