Irvin N. Cooley, proprietor of restaurant and boarding-house at Dedham, is a native of Vermont, born in Pittsford, Rutland County, October 26, 1852, a son of George and Eunice (Jenkins) Cooley, his father being a native of Vermont and his mother of New York. They were the parents of eight children, our subject being the second child. He was reared on the home farm with his parents till seventeen years of age, and December 31, 1869, was united in marriage to Miss Sarah R. Davis, a daughter of William and Adaline Davis. Her father was frozen to death in the pioneer days of Iowa while hauling provisions to the settlers in Cherokee County, who were snowed in at the time. To Mr. and Mrs. Cooley have been born six children—Ida M., born December 22, 1871; Jesse E., born November 29, 1873; Mary F., born October 15, 1877; Hattie E., born August 28, 1880, died May 20, 1881; Lilian F., born April 26, 1882, died April 20, 1883; Bertha B., born November 18, 1886. Mr. Cooley farmed the old homestead in Carroll County for two years after his marriage, when he purchased his present farm, which he has since improved, living on it till 1880. He then removed to Audubon and formed a partnership with his father in the coal and grain business, remaining there two years. He then settled in Dedham, where he has since made his home, and by his strict attention to the wants of his customers, and genial and obliging manners he has succeeded well in his present business. He still owns his farm in Newton Township, and two good houses, his farm being on section 16, and containing sixty acres of choice land, a part of the old homestead entered by his parents. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cooley are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Politically he affiliates with the Republican party. He is a member of the Odd Fellows order, belonging to Dedham Lodge, No. 296.

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