Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 359
PETER KIRLEY

Peter KIRLEY, a resident of St. John's Township, residing on section 36, came to the county in 1871, having lived in Pottawattamie County, from one year previous to that date. He purchased from James SEATON eighty acres of his present farm, which he at once commenced to improve. The farm house he moved from its old location to where it now stands. A few years ago he planted out a fine orchard.

To inform the reader of more of the details of this man's life, we will ask him to let his thoughts wander across the Atlantic Ocean to the County of Monaghan, in the north of Ireland, where our subject was born March 4, 1840. His grandfather, Bernard KIRLEY, was a farmer of that county, who had four children, the father of our subject, Peter KIRLEY, being the eldest. His mother was Ann CARR of the County of Monaghan, Ireland. In our subject's father's family there were six children -- Owen, now deceased; Mary, Mrs. MCBRIDE, of Missouri Valley; Bernard, a resident of Duke Centre, Pa.; Patrick, now of Louisville, Ky.; Peter, our subject; Michael, now of Taylorstown, Pa.

Our subject's early life spent in Ireland, and in 1855, with his father and younger brother he sailed for America. From New York harbor they went to Rochester, N. Y. The father and older sons were mechanics and worked in a factory while the younger sons went to school. In 1858 the father rented a farm near Rochester, where our subject remained until 1863, which was the middle of the Civil War period in this country. March 13, of that year, he enlisted in Company D, Eighty-ninth Volunteer Infantry, as a private, and was assigned to the Army of the Potomac under Gens. PERRY and ORD. He participated in the following battles: Siege of Petersburg, and battle of Petersburg, and battle of the Wilderness, where the transport containing the regiment sunk in the James River; they were at Fair Oaks, where our subject was wounded in the right shoulder by the explosion of a shell, which laid him up for some time, but he again joined his regiment and was in the engagement at Hatchie's Run; and at Appomattox at the time of Lee's surrender. He marched back to Richmond, was taken sick and laid in the hospital for three weeks, and was discharged in August, 1865, and mustered out at Elmira, N. Y. He was sick for over a year after his return, and as the father had rented a large farm he assisted him until 1871, when the father and himself came to Harrison County.

Our subject was married April 29, 1874, in Council Bluffs, to Miss Nora MANLY, who was the daughter of Patrick and Bridget (NOONAN) MANLY, natives of Ireland, who came to the United States in 1855. Her father died in Ireland and her mother in Nebraska in 1870. Our subject and his wife have been blessed by one child -- Annie, born August 25, 1877. They belong to the Roman Catholic Church at Missouri Valley.

Mr. KIRLEY is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and in his political choice affiliates with the Democratic party.

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