A Narrative History of The People of Iowa with SPECIAL TREATMENT OF THEIR CHIEF ENTERPRISES IN EDUCATION, RELIGION, VALOR, INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, ETC. by EDGAR RUBEY HARLAN, LL. B., A. M. Curator of the Historical, Memorial and Art Department of Iowa Volume IV THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Inc. Chicago and New York 1931 ROY JOHN POOLEY is president and general manager of the Pooley Lumber Company of Greene. This is a business that has been giving service to that section of Butler County for a great many years. Under the present management the service has been greatly expanded beyond the scope indicated by its title. The company not only handles lumber and building material, but also coal, carries a line of farm equipment, and also has a department for handling live stock. The president of the company is a graduate civil engineer and practiced his profession for several years, until getting into his present business. He was born on a farm in Floyd County, Iowa, three miles north of Greene, on December 12, 1886, son of John B. and Priscilla (Fiddick) Pooley. John B. Pooley was a native of Cornwall, England, but when a young man came to America and first located at Rockford, Illinois. He was a hard working farmer, acquired 160 acres of good Iowa soil, and had gone a long way toward making ample provision for his family when an early death took him away on October 12, 1890, at the age of thirty-six. He married at Clarksville, Iowa, Miss Priscilla Fiddick. She was born in Capetown, South Africa. Her father, James Fiddick, was an Englishman, a shipyard mechanic in the Queen's navy and was sent to the shipyards at Capetown, where he died while still in the service. After his death the widowed mother and her nine children came to America, the daughter of Priscilla being then twenty years of age. Roy John Pooley was just a child when his father died. There were two other sons, Charles G., secretary and treasurer of the Pooley Lumber Company, and James Wilfred, a farmer at Saint James, Minnesota. Roy John Pooley during his boyhood had many working contracts with the farm, but was given a liberal education. After graduating from the Greene High School he attended the Iowa State College at Ames from 1906 to 1910, graduating with the Civil Engineering degree. While at Ames he paid part of his expenses working on the campus, assisting farmers in selling silos and taking other jobs. He made a good student record and was a member of the baseball and football teams. After graduating at Ames he was city engineer at Charles City from 1910 to 1912. In that capacity he had charge of the preliminary paving project at Charles City. Mr. Pooley in 1912 came to Greene to join the Gates Lumber Company. The owner of that business died during a session of the State Legislature while serving as a senator. After his death Mr. Pooley took active charge and conducted the business under his management from January, 1913, until 1919. The business was continued as the Pooley-Clark Lumber Company, and since 1928 has been the Pooley Lumber Company, with Mr. Pooley as president. Along with his business responsibilities he has kept in touch with public affairs at Greene, has served on the city council and school board, is a member of the Lions Club, an elder in the Presbyterian Church and for eighteen years has taught one class in teh Sunday School. His favorite subjects of reading and studying are science and history, and he takes his recreation at golf and other outdoor sports. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and Knights of Pythias. Mr. Pooley married, on September 6, 1911, Nellie M. Stickney, daughter of Will and Mary Stickney, of Greene. She attended high school there and afterwards took a business course at Waterloo. They have four children: S, Dwight, born May 8, 1913, and Eleanor Louise, born July 5, 1915, both in high school; Mary Virginia, born June 12, 1918, and Paul Eugene, born February 9, 1922. Debbie Clough Gerischer Iowa History Project _http://iagenweb.org/history/_ (http://iagenweb.org/history/) Scott County, Iowa _http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm_ (http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/index.htm) **************Make your life easier with all your friends, email, and favorite sites in one place. Try it now. (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp&icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000010)