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From: "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>
Subject: [IA-IRISH] Bio of Rev. P.J. Carroll
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 16:26:46 -0600

Surnames: Carroll, Tucker

A History of Tama County, Iowa Vol II; Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1910.

Rev. P.J. Carroll has been pastor of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic church at
Tama since the fall of 1887, when he was transferred from Fonda, Iowa, to
take charge of what was a weak but struggling parish. Under his inspiration
and downright hard work, the spiritual and material conditions of the charge
assigned to him have completely changed. The Catholic families which he
found in the parish were inspired with hope and faith in the work of the
church, new households were brought into the fold, and in 1893 educational
affairs had become so prosperous that the erection of a school was
commenced. It was opened in the fall of the succeeding year; later, the fine
parochial residence was completed, and May 28, 1901, the handsome brick
church now occupied was thrown open to worshipers. The church property is
valued at $30,000, the school property at $10,000 and the parsonage at
$5,500, while the charitable and spiritual labors are performed by Father
Carroll, and under his counsel and supervision, are invaluable according to
earthly standard. The parochial pupils, numbering about one hundred and
twenty, are directly taught by the Franciscan Sisters of Mount St. Clair,
Clinton, Iowa. They are divided into twelve grades, as to their regular
studies, and are also taught music and other special branches.

Father Carroll is a native of Macon, Georgia, born November 29, 1857, and is
a son of Patrick Henry Carroll. In 1847 his father emigrated from Tipperary,
Ireland, where he was born, and spent the first few years in this country as
a railroad foreman, engaged in the handling of large construction gangs.
While thus employed he married Miss Frances Tucker, a native of Frankfort,
Kentucky, and of an old southern family, who some years afterward became a
convert to Catholicism. Mrs. Carroll owned a plantation in her own name,
upon which the couple lived for a number of years, when the family settled
in Macon, Georgia, where the husband engaged in the wholesale grocery
business. In the fall of 1868 the family homestead was transferred to
Jackson county, Iowa, where Mr. Carroll purchased the Wright and Sullivan
farms. In that locality, just south of Dubuque, the parents spent some of
the later years of their lives. When the father retired from active work the
family home was fixed in Dubuque, where he died in the summer of 1878, at
the age of sixty-eight years. The mother survived him, spending several
years with her son after his ordination to the priesthood and finally
passing away at Fonda, Iowa, in 1885.
Rev. Father Carroll was primarily educated in the south; completed his
theological course at St. Joseph's College, Dubuque, and was ordained May
28, 1882. His first charge was at Fonda, Iowa, where he built up a strong
church through the arduous and trying labors of a missionary priest. It was
the nature of his work in that field which caused his transfer to the more
metropolitan field at Tama. In addition to his labors there in direct
connection with the church and school of his parish, Father Carroll has been
foremost in the establishment of such societies approved by the Catholic
authorities as the Foresters and other church societies, and irrespective
of religious faith, he is held in the highest respect by the people of the
community.

The Irish in Iowa
http://www.celticcousins.net/irishiniowa/

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• [IA-IRISH] Bio of Rev. P.J. Carroll by "Cathy Joynt Labath" <>