Library Archival Corner

The Moroney’s and O’Loughlins Part I

By Sue Sylvester

It has been awhile since I have done any researching for the Maple Lake Library Archives.  My husband had a stroke and eventually died of complications.  I have spent a half of year just trying to keep going and discovering all the things my husband did to maintain our home.  Just in the last month, I have finally decided to go back to my hobby of research.  I got way behind with so many things I had planned to do.  First, I am starting with some small projects.  I picked up a fairly thick folder of the Moroney and O’Loughlin family history and planned to scan it into our library archives.  However, I decided to see what I already had in our library archives on these families.  I discovered this very shocking story in the Buffalo Journal from August 30, 1893. It just occurred to me that with all the gun violence we currently are seeing in our society today, I guess history just repeats itself.

Shooting in Maple Lake

“Last evening, James A. O’Loughlin shot and dangerously wounded John Marooney (Moroney).  It seems that Marooney went to O’Loughlin’s place to ask O’Loughlin and his brother to help him thresh and while there they got into an altercation about a horse and that the two O’Loughlins pitched into Marooney and undertook to lick him but Marooney proved to be more than a match for both the brothers and James A. O’Loughlin ran into his house, armed himself with a 38 caliber revolver and came out and fired three shots at Marooney who had started to go away.  One of the bullets struck Marooney in the back and on the right side making a fearful wound.  The bullet passed through the right lung and lodged somewhere in the cavity of the chest.  It is thought that the wound will prove fatal.  O’Loughlin has been arrested and the County Attorney has just gone up to Maple Lake.”

We have a lot of Moroneys and O’Loughlins in Maple Lake. Which Moroney and O’Loughlin family was involved in this incident?   I wondered did the victim, John Moroney die?  What happened to the perpetrator?  Did he get sentenced to prison?  How did it affect his life?  I immediately started my researching and will answer those questions in this two part series on the Moroneys and O’Loughlins.

First we will take a look at the Moroneys.    John Jr. was born in Derrynaheilla, near Corofin, County Clare, Ireland on June 22, 1858.  His parents were John Moroney Sr. and Hanora McNamara Moroney.  The Moroneys can first be found in the territorial census record of 1865 in Maple Lake. Their farm was located just south of Maple Lake.  They owned 120 acres.  They were in Township 120 section 7.  Today, their land has pretty much been taken over by the town of Maple Lake.  Plat map shown at left is from 1931.

John’s sisters were Bridget, Ellen, Margaret, Susan, Mary, Catherine, and Annie.  Before this incident, the territorial census of 1885 showed that John Jr. was living with his parents and three sisters Mary, Kate, and Annie.   The census had John Jr. at the age of 27. He wasn’t married.  His father John Sr. was 65 and mother Hanora was 57.  He was the only son in the family.

A news article written in the Buffalo Journal on December 21, 1892, stated John, Sr. when getting off the passenger train, slipped and fell on the platform breaking three of his ribs. It said he was very low and wondered about his recovery.  He will live until 1901 but one wonders how much help he could be on the farm.  No wonder in 1893. John Jr. went over to the O’Loughlins and asked for help with the threshing.  What makes this story even more interesting is that the O’Loughlin brothers were actually his cousins.

I looked into Barbara Maroney’s family history.  This is the story Barbara told about the shooting.  “John Moroney Jr. lived with his father and mother and helped with the farming.  James and Michael O’Loughlin were the sons of Michael and Margaret Moroney O’Loughlin who was the sister of John Moroney Sr.  Michael O’Loughlin and John Maroney Jr. were like brothers, but no one got along with Jim O’Loughlin.

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