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Biographies
Source:
History of Trumbull
& Mahoning Counties
with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
Vols. I & 2 -
Publ. Cleveland: H. Z. Williams & Bro.
1882
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PATRICK O'CONNOR.
The subject of this sketch was born in Clonmel, county of Tipperary,
Ireland, Mar. 9, 1840. His parents were of the common working
class of Irish people. His father mastered the trade of a
tanner and finisher of leather, at which were made remunerative
wages for those times. He saved sufficient of his earnings to
emigrate to America in the spring of 1842.
The family, on their arrival on the shores of the new
world, consisted of the parents of their two-year old son.
They came to Quebec, thence to Montreal. They finally settled
in what was then called Upper Canada, about midway between Toronto
and Lake Simcoe, in Newmarket, a small village through which now
runs the Northern railroad. Here, together with two brothers
and three sisters, the subject of this article received a common
school education; and there also, on the second of March, 1854, he
entered a printing office, worked for five years as an apprentice in
one office, and thus became a compositor.
From early youth Mr. O'Connor was a lover of
books and read with avidity whatever came within his reach.
Among other books, and the juvenile works published by Harper
Brothers, embracing history and biography, were eagerly perused.
It was while learning the art of type setting, and
toward the close of his five year apprenticeship that a change
occurred in the religious faith of Mr. O'Connor. About
that time the question of separate schools for children of Roman
Catholic parents was agitated. He took grounds against the
measure as being antagonistic to the civilization of the day.
Soon afterward the Holy Scriptures became an object of study.
The Duay Bible, including the Rheimish New Testament, compared with
King James' version. The study of the Scriptures resulted in
the rejection of papal infallibility. This occurred the latter
part of 1858, and in January, 1859, two months before Mr.
O'Connor was nineteen years of age, He united with the
Wesleyan Methodist church of Canada. He had been raised in the
bosom of the Church of Rome. His parents were Roman Catholics.
This change of religious sentiment, followed so quickly by outward
profession was sternly rebuked by his associates and by his mother,
who had been widowed three years previously. In June of this
year he left the maternal roof to roam, a journeyman printer, from
place to place.
On the 30th of June, 1862, he came to Youngstown and at
once entered the employment of Mr. John M. Webb, who was at
that time publishing the Mahoning Sentinel, a Democratic weekly
county paper strongly opposed to the war policy of President
Lincoln's administration. Deeply imbued with anti-slavery
opinions Mr. O'Connor's convictions upon the subject became
more deeply set from contact with Democrats while employed as
compositor upon the Sentinel. He knew little of American
politics at this time, but was, nevertheless, forcibly struck with
the inconsistency of Irishmen voting with the pro-slavery democratic
party while their fellow-countrymen were suffering the oppression of
tyranny on their own green isle. Such opinions made him a
Republican. Such opinions, and the record of the Democratic
party during the war of the Rebellion, led to a distrust of and
dislike to the Democratic party that will probably never be shaken
off.
In April, 1863, he returned to Canada, but again came
to the county in 1864.
On the 30th of June, 1864, he was united in
marriage to Miss Lorinda Dorothea Ewing, adopted daughter of
the late Cramer Marsteller and a resident of Youngstown.
In April, 1865, in connection with his brother, Richard
O'Connor, he commenced the publication of the Mahoning Courier in
Youngstown, which was the first independent, but afterward
Republican in politics. He was editor of the Courier until the
summer of 1872, when the paper was disposed of to other parties.
It was while editing the Courier, in the year 1868,
that his controversy occurred with Rev. E. M. O'Callaghan,
who was at the time pastor of the Catholic church in Youngstown,
upon the "Errors of Rome," which attracted considerable attention at
the time. It was conducted through the columns of the Courier.
A reprint of an English publication, upon the subject of
confessional, and entitled the "C. C. C.," was published by Mr.
O'Connor the latter part of this year.
Mr. O'Connor and his brother were the first
printers to apply steam to a printing press in Youngstown, and the
late Mahoning Courier was the first Youngstown paper printed by the
application of steam power. This occurred during the winter of
1870-71.
Having sold his interest in the newspaper business in
June, 1872, he was admitted to itinerant ministry of the Methodist
Episcopal church, and given an appointment by the Erie conference,
which was held at Akron, Ohio, in September of the same year.
Failing health caused a return to the newspaper
business. He was one of the editors and proprietors of the
Youngstown Commercial during 1875, and in January, 1876, was one of
the proprietors of the Morning Star. The last named paper was
devoted to the Greenback cause, and was the second paper of like
political faith started in the United States, the Indianapolis Sun
being the first. In Morning Star lived but a short time, and
Mr. O'Connor removed with his family to Cleveland in July,
1876. Until August, 1878, he resided in Cleveland, supporting
himself and family working as a compositor upon the morning papers
and in several of the job printing offices of that city.
In March, 1879, he again embarked in the newspaper
enterprise, as the editor and publisher of The New Star, which he
still controls.
During the publication of the Mahoning Courier, Mr.
O'Connor left the Republican party, having "bolted" from the
Republican county convention held at canfield in 1869, after failing
to secure a committal of the convention or its candidates to
principles embracing the prohibition of the liquor traffic.
It was during the latter part of 1875 that he espoused
the Greenback doctrine, and in the fall of 1876 he recorded his vote
for the venerable Peter Cooper for President, as a
representative of the political doctrines he had embraced the year
before.
Source:
History of
Trumbull & Mahoning Counties with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches Vol. II - Mahoning Co., Publ. Cleveland: H. Z. Williams &
Bro. 1882 - Page 445 |
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OSBORN FAMILY.
Nicholas Osborn, when a young man, emigrated to this
country from England and settled in Virginia. He married in
that State Margaret Cunnard, and reared a family of children,
as follows: Jonathan, Sarah, Abraham,
Richard, John, Elizabeth, Anthony, Mary,
Joseph, and Aaron. His occupation was farming
and milling. In 1804 he sold out and came to Trumbull county,
Ohio, now Mahoning county, and purchased a large tract of land, one
thousand acres of which was in Youngstown township and five hundred
acres in Canfield, and he had in addition to these still other
tracts. With him came Abraham, Anthony,
Joseph, and their families, Aaron, then single, and the
family of William Nier. John and his
family came a short time before the rest. Joseph
Osborn was born in Virginia in May, 1775, and when twenty-two
years of age he married Margaret Wolfcale, daughter of
John Wolfcale, who was born Oct. 7, 1774. They
became the parents of ten children, viz: Sarah, Mary, Mahlon,
Jonathan, John W., Alfred, Abner, Thomas P., Elizabeth, and
Joseph. On the 25th day of December, 1804, Joseph
Osborn moved upon a part of the one thousand acre tract,
which contained a log house erected by a man by the name of
Parkhurst. The floor consisted of a few loose boards, and
the door and windows were simply openings cut out of the sides of
the house. There was no ceiling, and the fire-place had no
hearth. Upon that place he resided and toiled until his death,
which occurred Feb. 17, 1846. His wife died July 20, 1854.
Jonathan Osborn, a son of Joseph and
Margaret Osborn, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia,
May 28, 1804. The same year his parents removed to Ohio, and
settled on the land which had been purchased in Trumbull county, as
previously mentioned. Jonathan had but few early
advantages for the acquirement of an education, but he has become,
by reading and observation, a well in formed man. He remained
upon the farm until after he was twenty-one. When he started
for himself he had only a two-year-old colt. For the first
five years he worked for Judge Baldwin, commencing at
$2 per month. During this time he bought two hundred acres of
land, paying $2.30 per acre for it. Jan. 28, 1836, he married
Mary Ann Goff, daughter of Humphrey Goff, then of
Youngstown. She was born Feb. 15, 1818, near Lewistown,
Pennsylvania. This marriage was blessed with six children, viz:
George W., Margaret J., Albert M., William N., Mary Alice,
and Jonathan W. William and Jonathan died
in early childhood. Mr. Osborn resides on a
finely improved farm in the northwest part of Jackson township.
Source:
History of
Trumbull & Mahoning Counties with Illustrations and Biographical
Sketches Vol. II - Mahoning Co., Publ. Cleveland: H. Z. Williams &
Bro. 1882 - Page 156 |
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