Thomas CLAREY is living on a farm on section 26, Platte township [Taylor Co. IA], and is numbered among the active and enterprising farmers and stock raisers of the community. His landed possessions include three hundred and sixty acres, constituting a well-improved and valuable farm, on which are two sets of buildings. He has been continuously a representative of agricultural interests in this county since 1874, when he arrived within its borders -- a lad of five years. His birth occurred in Barton county, Missouri, August 23, 1869, his father being John CLAREY, a native of England, in which country he was reared. He came to the new world as a young man in 1854 and first settled in Delaware, where he resided for two years, after which he removed to Illinois, whence he later made his way to Barton county, Missouri. He was married there to Miss Jane ADAMS, a native of Ohio, and for seven years engaged in general agricultural pursuits in Barton county, opening up a new farm and making substantial progress in his agricultural activities there. Two sons were born unto the family during their residence in Missouri. In 1874 they removed to Taylor county, Iowa, and Mr. CLAREY purchased raw land in Platte township. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made upon it, but he opened up a farm of eighty acres, transforming the wild prairie into productive fields. He has reared his family upon this place and still makes it his home, being numbered among the representative agriculturists of the community.

Thomas CLAREY came to Platte township when a lad of five years and spent his youthful days on the old homestead, assisting in the work of the fields and the performance of other duties incident to the development and the conduct of the farm. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges. He remained with his father until twenty-one years of age, when in the fall of 1889 he was married to Miss Ida WOOD, who was born in Pennsylvania but largely spent her girlhood near Creston, in Union county, Iowa. She is a daughter of L. D. WOOD, one of the pioneers of Union county.

After his marriage Thomas CLAREY rented land, where he engaged in farming for seven years, during which time through his unfaltering industry and careful expenditure he accumulated sufficient capital to enable him to purchase one hundred and sixty acres, where he now resides. He at once began to cultivate and further improve this place, has rebuilt and remodeled the house, has put up a good barn and the necessary outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock, has fenced the fields and has tiled one hundred acres of his land. He also bought an improved place of eighty acres across the road and another eighty-acre tract to the north and now owns three hundred and sixty acres of rich and productive land, all well improved. He has set out much fruit, has a good grove upon his place and the farm presents every feature of a model property. Annually he gathers good crops and he also raises and feeds stock, being well known as a breeder of and dealer in Chester White hogs. He holds a general stock sale each year, at which he reaps the profits of his labors.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. CLAREY have been born four sons and two daughters: Elsie B., the wife of J. L. JOHNSON of Kellerton, Iowa; George E., Leta Dell, Joseph E., Frank H. and Cecil H., all at home. In his political views, Mr. CLAREY has always been a democrat where national issues are involved, but at local elections votes independently. He has been identified with the schools as a director for seven years and the cause of education finds in him a stalwart champion. He belongs to the Odd Fellows society, which he joined in Clearfield, and he has since passed through all of the chairs and has been a representative in the grand lodge. His life has been one of earnest, honest labor, his success being due to his capable management, his reliability and his unfaltering perseverance. He has been a witness of the growth and development of the county for thirty-five years and is, therefore, numbered among its pioneer settlers for the work of cultivating the soil and improving the natural resources of the land had hardly been begun when the CLAREY family took up their abode in Platte township.

SOURCE:  CROSSON, Frank E. History of Taylor County, Iowa: From the Earliest Times to 1910
p. 451. S.J. Clarke Pub. Co. Chicago. 1910

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, 2008