Thomas Corley's obituary

Thomas Corley was great great grandfather of Thomas Earl Crider and grandfather of Clarence Tom Crider (son of Mary Corley Crider). Photos are of Thomas Corley and Eliza Smith Corley.

Thomas Corley was married to Eliza Smith. They had 4 children: Catherine who died as a child; Mary, b. 1840, d. 1884; John H., b. 1844, d. 1913, and Kate, b. 1851, d. 1885.

The following obituary appeared in the Skaneateles (New York) Press, March 19, 1897.

Thomas Corley was born at Castle Blaney, Ireland, February 12, 1812, and died in this village (Skaneateles) March 8, 1897, after an illness of three days duration. He came to this country at the age of 19 years, making the journey from New York to Albany by Hudson River steamer, from Albany to Schnectady by railroad, from there toJordan by canal, thence to Skaneateles by private conveyance. He first entered into employmenet with Deacon David Hall, working for him one year, after which he learned the trade of a wood workman with George Gray. He afterwards worked for Hanum & Arnold, Fuller & Frances, James Drake and others at the manufacture of horsepowers, threshing machines, plows, etc. With the exception of a few years spent in the West he resided in Skaneateles from 1831 to the time of his death.

Sometime about 1835 he married Eliza, daughter of Jared Smith. Four children were born to them, only one of whom, John H. Corley of Terrell, Texas, is now living. Mr. Corley was a very industrious man, a good mechanic in his day, always commanding the respect and confidence of his employers and of the people generally in the community where he lived. He was frugal and economical and achieved financial success in a marked degree for a man whose life had been spent wholly as a wage earner. Some five years ago he suffered the loss of his sight, but this affliction was mitigated in some degree by a retentive memory and a mind well stored with a fund of information upon general topics. His knowledge of history, ancient and modern, and geography was little short of marvelous. The locations of the several states of the United States of America and their boundaries were almost as familiar to him as the fingers on his hands, and the geography of foreign lands was almost equally as familiar to him.

The closing years of his life was spent in peace and quietness, and he came down to his death full of years, with little to regret in the way of wasted opportunities.

His only son, John H. Corley, was present and saw his father’s remains laid quietly at rest in Lake View Cemetery, by the side of his mother who died in 1869