Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 809
JAMES MCCAULEY

James McCAULEY, a respected citizen residing on section 21, of Raglan Township, came to Harrison County in October, 1856, first locating in Little Sioux Township. Je wroked by the month for three years on a farm. Upon arriving in the county Mr. McCAULY only had $9.75 in his pocket, and being sick he parted with twenty-five cents of this for a bottle of Pain Killer, which at that time was considered a cure-all for almost very ailment.

He bought twenty acres of land, the contract price of which was $85. It was wild land, upon which he built a small frame house, and afterward bought a swamp land claim of one hundred and sixty acres. This land he commenced to improve, and lived there for fifteen years. He then built a small house, in which he lived a short time, and then erected the house he now occupies, which is a first-class farm house. He also has a good barn, granery, and three hundred feet of cribbing. He provides his place with well water forced from the ground with wind power. He has an orchard of three hundred trees, besides a goodly number of shade and ornamental trees. As the years have glided by our subject has added to his landed estate until now he has eleven hundred acres, three hundred of which is under the plow, and the balance in meadow and pasture land. Many are the hardships endured by this man in order that he might possess this handsome property. There was a time since he came to Harrison County when he had barely enough clothing to keep from freezing his flesh. He had to go about twenty miles to mill, and nine miles to the postoffice, while Council Bluffs was the nearest market. He also passed through the great snow winters, and the grasshopper years, which were seasons that tried men's souls in all parts of Western Iowa.

Mr. McCAULEY was born in the month of April, 1828, in Ireland. He is a son of Patrick and Bridget McCAULEY, whose children were: John (deceased), Ann, Cornelius, Mary, Catharine (deceased), and James.

Our subject remained in Ireland until 13 years of age, and then sailed for America, landing in New York, where he remained seven weeks, after which he went to work in a brickyard in Westchester, NY. After four months he went to Long Island and worked in a gravel bank, which job was more honorable than easy or lucrative, and whether his introduction to labor in this country was not what he looked for or not, the biographical write can only conjecture, but at any rate he returned to Ireland and remined there three years and a half, working hard all the time to get money with which to pay his $15 passage back to America. Upon his return to this country he worked on a farm for a time, also in a paper mill, and then he went to Marble Head, where he worked at shoemaking four months. We next find him in Albany with just money enough to pay his passage to Sioux City, Iowa, where he worked for a time on a farm, and then drifted to Harrison County.

Mr. McCAULEY was married September 11, 1859, to Elizabeth MORROW, daughter of Patrick and Elizabeth MORROW, natives of Ireland, who were the parents of ten children -- Jane, William, Elizabeth, Anna, Hugh, David (deceased), David, Jospeh (deceased), Salathiel and Matilda.

Our subject and his wife are the parents of twelve children, born and named in the following order: Elizabeth, born October 6, 1862; Anna, February 11, 1864; Mary (deceased), May 7, 1865; William (deceased), September 20, 1866; John (deceased), August 29, 1868; Mary, April 20, 1870; David, August 13, 1871; Joseph (deceased), March 15, 1873; Thomas, July 13, 1874; William J., March 14, 1876; Alice, May 3, 1878; Paul B., April 10, 1886.

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