Michael H. SHEIL and Margaret McFARLAND SHEIL and their family lived west of "the river" in Section 3 from 1895 until 1935.

The river in the early days was a force to be reckoned with. Each spring the question was not "Will it back upto the bayou?" It would. The question was "Will it come up to the barn, or will it completely surround us?" On one occasion when Mike was exploring the flooded bayou in a canoe, he narrowly escaped being swept down the river. He managed to grab a tree branch and hang on while the canoe sailed on down the Platte. He was eventually rescued.

Mike, the son of Irish immigrants James and Elizabeth CUNNINGHAM SHEIL, was born in New Lexington, Ohio. At the age of 17, he came to Rice Township in 1879 to look after a section of land which had been purchased by his father. For two years he lived alone and herded cattle while he awaited the arrival of his parents, brothers and sisters.

Mag was the daughter of John and Rebecca McFARLAND, who settled north of Maloy in 1864. She was the youngest of 12 children. When she was four-years-old, her mother died and she then made her home with Luke and Julia SHAY. Mag and Mike were married at Immaculate Conception Church in Maloy in 1892.

They were the parents of four children: Leonard (1894-1967); Charles Henry "Harry" (1896-1967); John Clement (1899-1964); and Agnes Hazel, born 1901.

The children attended school at Shiloh School. Some of the boys attended high school at the Benedictine Abbey at Conception, Missouri, and Hazel went three years to the newly organized Maloy High School. For her senior year, she transferred to Mount Ayr where she enrolled in the Normal Training curriculum. She later attended Des Moines university and University of Northern Iowa.

Hazel taught intermediate grades in Maloy for seven years. There were always from 30 to 40 pupils in her room. She also taught in various other schools and finished her career at St. Malachy School in Creston. Her husband was Leonard EGAN.

Leonard was a farmer and a carpenter. He never married. He was inducted into service in 1918 and served in the Army of Occupation until late in 1919.

  Harry served in France with the American Expenditionary Force in 1918 and 1919. He married Myrtle JOHNSON in 1924, and they established their home in Des Moines. Their two sons, Donald and Eugene, live in Des Moines.

  Clem married Bernice MOORE, and they lived on a farm near Mount Ayr until their retirement. They had one daughter, Joan, born in 1934. She joined the Congregation of the Humility Sisters and is still [1987] active in that order. She is at Marycrest College in Davenport.

NOTES: James SHEIL was born in Ireland in 1815, and arrived in New York in 1826. He married Elizabeth CUNNINGHAM. Elizabeth was born in New York April 13, 1835, and died at the age of 69 years on November 12, 1904. James died at the age of 88 years on June 16, 1904. They were interred at St. Mary's Cemetery near Maloy.

Michael "Mike" SHEIL was born in 1862, and died in 1949. Margaret "Mag" (McFARLAND) SHEIL was born in 1869, and died in 1942. They were interred in St. Mary's Cemetery near Maloy.

Leonard A. SHEIL was born August 12, 1894, and died May 6, 1973. He was interred at St. Mary's Cemetery near Maloy.

John Clement "Clem" SHEIL was born in 1899, and died in 1969. He married Bernice Marguerite MOORE on November 10, 1928. Bernice, the daughter of Wellington & Ada (POWELL) MOORE, was born in Ringgold County, Iowa, August26, 1898, and died at the age of 81 years on September 22, 1979. They were interred at St. Mary's Cemetery near Maloy.

SOURCE: Maloy, Iowa Centennial History: 1887 - 1987 p. 185.

Courtesy of Mount Ayr Public Library

Transcription and Notes by Sharon R. Becker, August of 2011