Biography of Thomas J. Corolan

THOMAS J. COROLAN is a successful agriculturist residing on section 5, Vernon Springs township, Howard County, where he has owned and operated a farm of 160 acres for the past twenty-one years and also cultivates a rental tract of similar size adjoining. His birth occurred in Winneshiek county, Iowa on the 26th of June, 1867, his parents being John and Johanna (Casey) Corolan, natives of Ireland, who emigrated to the United States in young manhood and young womanhood. Both were in straitened financial circumstances and after coming to America began working by the month, being employed in New York and Ohio and journeying westward until the reached Winneshiek county, Iowa, where they were married. They had become acquainted while working in Ohio. After his marriage Mr. Corolan rented a farm in Winneshiek county and so successfully operated the place that prosperity attended his efforts and he was enabled to purchase property on his own, acquiring 200 acres of land which he cultivated throughout the remainder of his business career. Since his retirement he has made his home with a daughter.

Thomas J. Corolan obtained his education in the district schools and early became familiar withthe duties and labors that fall to the lot of the agriculturist as he assisted his father in the work of the fields. In 1898 he came to Howard County, here purchasing his present home place of 160 acres in Vernon Springs township, where he has since remained and has won well merited success in his farming operations.

In 1893, Mr. Corolan, was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Drew, of Winnshiek county, by whom he had eleven children, nine of whom still survive, namely; Annes; Charles; who is in France with the Iowa infantry of the Eighty-eighth Division; Mary; Francis; Thomas; Effie; Rosetta; Louis; and Margaret. All are still under the parental roof.

In politics Mr. Corolan is a democrat, while his religious belief is that of the Catholic church, to which his wife and children also belong.

History of Chickasaw and Howard Counties,
By Robert Herd Fairbairn (Published 1919 - Volume II)
S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois
Transcribed by Leonard Granger