My Genealogy Hound

T. J. MALOY, surveyor and farmer of Sappa township, Harlan county, Nebr., was born in Washington county, Pa., April 19, 1846, and is of Irish and English descent. He was reared on a farm, but received a good education, and at the age of seventeen began teaching school, following the vocation in Washington county, Pa., and also at Lacona and Palmyra, Warren county, Iowa, having left his native county in 1868. While thus engaged, he mastered Davis’ System of Surveying, and later bought an instrument. In 1870, he engaged with John Hoyt, county surveyor of Warren county, Iowa, and surveyed one half the county, while Mr. Hoyt surveyed the other half. In 1871, Mr. Hoyt’s official term expired, when our subject went to Chicago to study further the science of surveying under Avandernailen (Room 41 Reynolds Block), a graduate from a French institution. The tuition fee was $20 per month, and at the end of two months Mr. Maloy had completed his course. He then returned to Warren county, Iowa, was elected county surveyor and filled the office until March 4, 1873, when he resigned and came to Harlan county, Nebr., at the inducement of his former employer, Mr. Hoyt. He located on sections 11 and 12, township 2, range 20, and engaged himself in surveying for settlers. In 1877, he returned to Iowa and employed himself in teaching and farming at Indianola. In 1881 he went into the grocery business, in which he continued until 1883, when he came again to Nebraska and settled on section 13, township 2, range 20, and engaged in farming. He was then worth $3,000; at the present he owns four hundred and eighty-six acres of good land, well stocked and improved, and is engaged in breeding thorough-bred Poland-China hogs.

Mr. Maloy was married, October 22, 1879, to Miss Nancy Shrewsbury, a native of Indiana, of Irish and English descent, born September 27, 1855, and to this union have been born four children, namely — Walter C., February 10, 1881; Jeff. L., August 19, 1882; John W., March 21, 1884, and Mary M., May 22, 1886. Mr. and Mrs. Maloy are members of the Presbyterian church. In politics he is a prohibitionist, and for four years after his arrival in Nebraska served as county surveyor, declining further election. On his first coming to the state buffalo were quite common and were frequently in close view of his cabin. During the memorable Easter storm of 1873, Mr. Maloy was attending to his official duties, seventy-five miles west of his home, when, with nine others, he was compelled to seek refuge in a log cabin, twelve by fourteen feet, where three days were passed in telling stories, singing songs and discussing different topics to while away the monotonous hours, and in devouring dried buffalo meat and molasses to retain the life within them.

Thomas Maloy, the father of the subject of this sketch, was of Irish descent and was born in Frederick, Va., October 10, 1806. He was a farmer by vocation, and from his native state moved to Pennsylvania. In 1834, he married Miss Margaret Gregg, who was born in 1818, in Washington county, Pa., was of English descent and died in 1850. After marriage, Thomas Maloy moved to Warren county, Iowa, and there died, September 2, 1872, lamented by all who knew him and honored for the life of integrity that he had lived. The children born to Thomas and Margaret Maloy were seven in number, and were named as follows — Sarah (Mrs. Bundy), of Ackworth, a miller by occupation, Warren county, Iowa, now deceased; James H., of Washington county, Pa., a farmer and teacher; Elizabeth (Mrs. Essick), wife of a farmer in Harlan county Nebr.; John, who enlisted in Company K, One Hundred and Fortieth Pennsylvania volunteers and fell in the battle of the Wilderness, in 1864; Margaret, in Des Moines, Iowa; T. J., the subject of this sketch, and William, who died December 10, 1868. His ancestors were, as far as known, strong republicans, as well as himself. But, seeing the enormous political and moral evil growing out of the liquor traffic, he has become an uncompromising foe to the present liquor law, and it is his earnest desire to see the prohibition amendment engrafted in every state in the Union.