Background
Catherine Shelley was born in Loughaun, Moneygall, County Offaly, Ireland. Transcriptions of Irish records show her parents, Michael Shelley and Margaret Dwan, to have been married on February 24, 1863. and Catherine to have been baptized on December 12, 1863. However, United States 1880 census records indicate she may have been born in 1865. Her grave site indicates that she was born September 25, 1865 and died January 21, 1912. The family name was originally spelled Shelly, which is how Kate often wrote her name, but the spelling Shelley was later adopted.
Her father was a tenant farmer in Ireland, living on 3 acres (12,000 m2) and farming 15 more. The family emigrated to the United States when Catherine was still a baby. They at first lived with relatives in Freeport, Illinois, then built a home on 160 acres (0.65 km2) at Honey Creek, near Moingona, Boone County, Iowa and Michael became foreman of a section crew, building track for the Chicago and North Western Railway.
Michael Shelley fell ill and died in 1878. Margaret was in poor health, so Catherine – by now called Kate – helped support the family by plowing, planting and harvesting crops, and hunting. The 1880 federal census for Worth County, Iowa showed 35-year old Margaret, 15-year-old Kate, both born in Ireland, and Mary (8), Margaret (6) and John (4), all born in Iowa. Michael and Margaret Shelley had another child, James (also born in Iowa), but he drowned while swimming in the Des Moines River when he was only ten years old.
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