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|---------Phenton LAWLOR (Ireland - Ireland)
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|------John LAWLOR (1803, Ireland - 1883, Iowa)
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John H. LAWLER (1840, Ireland - 1914, Iowa)
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|------Mary LALOR (1816, Ireland - 1860)
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John immigrated from Ireland to America with his parents. They landed at New Orleans and settled in Kentucky for a few years. They then moved to Clinton Co., Iowa. According to John's obituary, the Lawler family came to Crawford County in 1873 (the year varies slightly in records of different family members).
There are several anecdotes about John in a Lawler family history written
about 1944. Here are some:
One day John Lawler Jr. opened a bzge [sic --- gate?] for a southern gentleman, who
tossed him a dime. He was riding a very fancy horse, and it was Henry
Clay, of Kentucky.
The wages were low on account of the slave trade, and for the whites
that had to work, it was pretty hard going for them. They decided on
moving to a free state, which was Illinois.
They again set forth by boat for a new home. When the boat docked at
Cairo, Ill., it was raining, and it looked dark and gloomy outside.
When on the boat, John Jr., then 10 years old, was to take care of the
baby, Patrick James. He was up on the deck of the boat, and a fellow
gave John a dime if he would fight a negro boy, of about his age. He
set the baby down, and went to work. They were about even, and both
were getting badly battered, when John Sr. came on the job, and picked
up the baby, and stopped the fight. The fellow followed John Jr. up,
and gave him the dime. The negro was to get a couple of pennies.
The first money John Lawler Jr. made was $5 for hauling logs to John
Brogan, who ran a boarding house, along where they were building a
railroad. John Lawler Jr. carried the $5 bill in his hand all the way
home, for fear of losing it.
While living in Clinton County, John Jr. was bitten by a rattle snake.
The only thing they could do for him, was to cut the piece out where
the snakebite was, and poured the whiskey to him. John lived better
than 60 years after.
John went to break one of the oxen to ride, got thrown, and broke his
arm. The Dr. set it, but used card boards, which warped, and made it
crooked. John Sr., broke it over again, set it himself, using wooden
splints, which didn't warp.
John Lawler Jr. made a trip by steamboat to St. Louis, and they had on
a cargo of wheat. While sitting up on a sack of wheat, he felt some
one give his coat tail a pull. It was 2 stowaways, with a little
place built up with sacks. They passed out 50 cents to him to buy some
eats, and when he came back, they passed out a big glass of whiskey.
They were next to a whiskey barrel, and were using a gimlet.
While going by Keokuk, the boat was hung up on the rapids. The men
that wanted work were allowed 50 cents an hour for 3 hours. It was
for carrying 100 lb. sacks of wheat down the gang plank, to lighten the
boat, to get over the rapids.
While in St. Louis, John Jr. worked a few weeks in a tobacco factory
or ware house. The fumes burned his eyes, so that he had to wear
glasses from then on.
For a while he worked on a street car drawn by horses. They had 12
miles of tracks, and a barn at each end. One team would be hitched to
the car, and be trotted 12 miles. Then they would change teams, and
the next team would take cars the 12 miles back.
John Jr. and his brother, Daniel, threshed for 2 seasons in Clinton,
with an old hand feeder, that had a 16 foot straw carrier. While
threshing at old man White's place, they had a horse on a rope, and a
pole to drag the straw away. Charley White, then a lad of 6, got
buried in the straw. His father missed him, and they stopped
everything to dig him out. Charley was sort of breath, when the found
him. He made it, and was a neighbor of the Lawlers in Crawford county
later years.
John farmed about 6 miles north of West Side, Iowa (home was at Jackson Twp, Section 13, NW 1/4 of SW 1/4 in the 1885 census). He immigrated in 1848 with his parents and was a naturalized citizen. His age varies somewhat on a couple of the censuses; the youngest was when he was listed at age 35 in 1880. The May 1840 birth date is from the 1900 census which is consistent with most of the other censuses.
John Lawler owned 240 acres in Jackson Township of Crawford County. This included the SW quarter of Section 13 and the adjacent north half of the NW quarter of Section 24.
His sons Ambrose, J. Wm. and Thomas E. were farming that land and more with their mother in 1920. Bridget is a widow in the 1920 census
Sources for this individual: @S296@ @S1176@ @S542@ @S295@ @S541@
