Part 52

MCHUGH, JAMES, was born in the townland of Kelleter, Parish of Kel, County of Longfed, January 1, 1847. Got a very limited education; went to serve apprenticeship at Grog business in Longfed when thirteen years old. Later went to Liverpool, England, and served as clerk in gents’ furnishing goods. Left Liverpool the same day the Abyssinia expedition sailed, September 26, 1867; arrived in New York September 26. Left New York October 2 for New Orleans, La., where he went in the grocery business again as clerk. Opened business for himself in 1869 and married, from which union there were three children. In 1874 he moved to Pensacola. The city then had 4,000 population and now has 35,000. After vicissitudes his business was put on a foundation. He lost his first wife in 1878 and was again married in 1884, from which union there is a daughter that will be graduated from the Convent of Visitation, Mobile, Ala., in June next. His father was Patrick McHugh and his mother Anne Byrne, both of the County of Longfed. They arrived in America with six other children in 1869 and moved to St. Clair County, Mo., where the elder McHugh operated a large farm and died in 1901. A younger brother now operates the farm. The subject of this sketch has served the City of Pensacola as an Alderman for eighteen years and his last term would not expire until 1911, but having moved from his district he resigned. He served for seven years as a member of a volunteer fire company and also in the Escaubie Rifles of which company he was second sergeant. He has travelled extensively in the north and west. Mr. McHugh is Deputy Grand Knight, K. of C., Pensacola Court No. 778.

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MCKEE, EDWARD L., of Indianapolis, is the son of Robert S. McKee, son of James and Agnes McMillan McKee. Robert S. McKee was born January 8, 1823, at Tully Carey, County Down, Ireland. His mother died in 1836, and was buried at Slan in County Down. His father died in 1864 at Wheeling, West Virginia. Robert S. McKee died June 10, 1904, at Indianapolis. He was the youngest of six children, William, James, Sophie, Margaret and Eliza. Edward was born at Madison, Indiana, March 13, 1856, his mother being Celine Lodge McKee, born January 16, 1826, died April 2, 1861.

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MCNABOE, JAMES F., attorney-at-law, 68 William street, New York City; born at Manchester, Vermont, in 1866; son of Owen McNaboe and Mary (Kelly) McNaboe, both parents born in Ireland. Prepared for college in Burr and Burton Seminary; graduate of Middlebury College; studied law in New York Law School and New York University.

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MEAGHER, FREDERICK JEFFERSON—Born December 21, 1876, at Binghamton, N. Y.; educated Binghamton public schools; graduated Hamilton College, 1899, Phi Beta Kappa Key; studied law at Binghamton 1899–1901; admitted to bar November, 1901; practiced law at Binghamton 1902–1907; consolidator with State Board of Statutory Consolidation, 1905–1907, at Albany; assistant corporation counsel of Binghamton, 1908; January 1, 1909, appointed district attorney of Broome County by Governor Hughes.

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MITCHELL, RICHARD H., was born in McKeesport, Pa., in 1869. He was educated at the Morrisania public school, then known as Grammar School No. 61, at the College of the City of New York, where he graduated in 1888, and at Columbia University Law School in 1890 and 1891, and in June of the latter year was admitted to the bar. He associated himself with Morgan & Ives, a well-known law firm of New York City, and soon after became a member of the firm with Rollin M. Morgan. The firm of Morgan & Mitchell has, during the last ten years, taken charge of much important litigation, and both members of the firm have been active in public affairs.

Mr. Mitchell is the younger son of Dr. James B. Mitchell and Emma Henry Mitchell. He is a descendant of Irish and German ancestors, his grandfather, James Henry, having been a native of the town of Coleraine, County of Londonderry, Ireland, and he is also related to the Eckfeldt family, of whom Adam Eckfeldt was an appointee of President Washington in the United States Mint. He has lived for the last thirty-four years in the Borough of the Bronx, in the part formerly known as Morrisania, and since 1890 has been well-known as a Democrat and a strong adherent of Tammany Hall. In 1897 he was elected Member of Assembly for the Thirty-Fifth Assembly District by a majority of 1,462 and the following year, 1898, he was elected Senator by a majority of 6,606. He remained in the Senate during the years 1899 and 1900, serving on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Privileges and Elections. In February, 1904, Corporation Counsel Delaney selected Senator Mitchell as one of his assistants, and placed him in charge of the Corporation Counsel’s Office in the Borough of the Bronx. He was continued in that office by Corporation Counsel Ellison and Pendleton. Mr. Mitchell is now a member of the Bar Association of the City of New York, Democratic Club, New York Yacht Club, Larchmont Yacht Club, Fordham Club, Jackson Democratic Club, Schnorer Club, Jefferson Tammany Club, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Kane Lodge, No. 454, F. and A. M., Jerusalem Chapter, Cœur de Lion Commandery, Pennsylvania Society, Pawnee Club League of American Wheelmen, Bar Association of the Borough of the Bronx, Alumni Association of College of City of New York, and Bronx West Side Association. Mr. Mitchell resides at 1362 Franklin avenue, Borough of the Bronx, New York City.

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MORAN, JAMES T., lawyer and business man; born North Haven, Conn., September 19, 1864; son of Thomas and Maria (Cullom) Moran; grad. Hillhouse High School, New Haven, 1883; LL. B. Yale Law School, 1884; M. L., 1885; married, New Haven, April 27, 1898, Mary E. McKenzie. Has practised in New Haven since 1884; vice-president, director and general attorney, the Southern New England Telephone Co.; president New Haven Union Co. (newspaper); director Merchants’ National Bank, National Folding Box and Paper Co., Acme Wire Co.; trustee Conn. Savings Bank; member New Haven Board of Education, 1893–1909. Roman Catholic. Clubs, Graduates’, Knights of St. Patrick (New Haven); Yale (New York). Residence, 221 Sherman Avenue. Office, Southern New England Telephone Co., New Haven, Conn.

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MULHERN, JOHN, 140 Second Street, San Francisco, Cal., is a dealer in soda water machinery and supplies; was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, in 1848; came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1853, where he attended the old Mather School on Meeting House Hill; arrived in San Francisco in 1874. Member of Knights of St. Patrick, Celtic Union and Celtic Union Hall Association. Life member of the Society.

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O’BRIEN, JAMES, LL. D., was born at Castle Tymon, parish of Barn Dearig, in the County of Wicklow, Ireland, on Whit Monday, 1836. Left there with parents in May, 1849. Settled in Clark County, Ohio. Father was a carpenter. He attended school in Springfield, Ohio, till 1851, then went to Catholic colleges, winding up with Notre Dame University, where he was graduated as A. B. in 1859. He was then employed there as teacher till 1862, and thereafter studied law, and was admitted to practice in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1866. Practiced there and in Lansing, same state, till 1870, when he settled in Minnesota at Caledonia, the county seat of Houston County. Was soon after elected District Attorney, and re-elected successively for about twelve years. Was elected State Senator thereafter serving in that capacity in the years 1883 and 1885. Was chosen delegate to the National Republican Convention which nominated General Harrison for president, acting as chairman of the delegation. Was afterwards appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, by President Harrison, which position he held till October, 1893. He then returned to Caledonia, where he has since resided. The University of Notre Dame, Ind., conferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1908. Was married to Catherine Lyons, daughter of Michael and Mary Lyons, in 1864, at Galena, Ill. Ten children were the fruit of the union, five of whom survive. His life has been wholly uneventful, devoting himself exclusively to the study of law, and to the history of the Middle Ages. He has made a specialty of the Inquisition,

## particularly that of Spain.

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O’BRIEN, THOMAS J., diplomat and lawyer, born at Jackson, Michigan, July 30, 1842; son of Timothy O’Brien and Elizabeth (Lauder) O’Brien. His early education was procured in the public schools of Michigan, and he then entered the law department of the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated as LL. B. in 1865. He then engaged in the practice of law with success, becoming assistant general counsel for the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railway in 1871 and its general counsel in 1883, and continuing in that capacity until 1905 when he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to Denmark, in which position he continued until May 18, 1907, when he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Japan. Mr. O’Brien is a Republican; in 1883 he was the candidate of his party for Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Michigan. He was a delegate-at-large to the National Convention at St. Louis in 1896 which nominated McKinley, and was again a delegate-at-large and chairman of his delegation to the Chicago Convention of 1904 which nominated Roosevelt. Mr. O’Brien married September 4, 1873, Delia Howard, and they have their home at Grand Rapids, Michigan. Address: American Embassy, Tokyo, Japan.

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O’MEARA, JOHN B., was born in 1850 in St. Louis, was graduated A. B. in the Jesuit College (St. Louis University); worked as bank clerk, stock and bond broker and finally contractor. He married in 1874 Sallie Helm Ford (now deceased), granddaughter of Governor Helm of Kentucky, and grandniece of Brigadier-General Hardin Helm, late C. S. A., the latter being married to a Miss Todd, sister of the wife of the ever lamented Abraham Lincoln. He is secretary of the Hill-O’Meara Construction Company, and although offered minor political offices many times he declined to serve until 1894, when he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri on the Democratic ticket. He takes a very great interest in the National Guard, having been connected with it since 1872 and is now Paymaster General of the Missouri troops. Among the soldiers who surrendered at Limerick with Sarsfield, was an ancestor, Patrick O’Meara, who became a colonel of the Irish Brigade or more correctly speaking the “Legion Irlandais de France.” He afterward married a lady of a distinguished house of France, and reared a family, two sons of which, Jean Baptiste and Daniel, followed the footsteps of their father. When they became able to bear arms they also entered the “Legion,” one of them becoming “Lieutenant en premier” in Walsh’s Regiment, the other “Lieutenant en second” in Dillon’s Regiment of that corps. When Washington made his earnest and final appeal to Louis for more troops, the French king sent some twenty thousand picked men, with a splendid fleet under Count d’Estaing, and among these troops came Dillon’s and Walsh’s Regiments, bringing Jean Baptiste and Daniel O’Meara, John B’s grandfather and granduncle. The French ships engaged the British fleet off Savannah, Georgia, and although it was a drawn battle, owing to a severe storm, they bottled up the British fleet in Savannah, and prevented them from carrying out their plan to come to the assistance of Cornwallis. Meantime d’Estaing moved some of his ships lower down the coast, disembarked several regiments including Dillon’s and Walsh’s, which marched overland and happily met the retreating forces of Lafayette who were being pursued by a portion of the British force from Yorktown. Lafayette now being reinforced turned on his enemies, and drove them back to Yorktown where coöperating with Washington soon forced Cornwallis to surrender. When d’Estaing and his fleet, shortly after, sailed back to France, his grandfather and uncle being Frenchmen, went back with them. The revolution soon broke out, and his folks being Royalists and hating the sans culottes and proletariats, stood with the Legion which suffered terribly defending the King, until overpowered by numbers. His grandfather, disgusted with affairs in France, went back to the land of his forbears and settled in a little town called Athey, County of Kildare, the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington. There his grandfather married and there his father, Patrick, was born. He came to this country in 1832 and after living in New Orleans and in Boston settled and brought up his family, one of whom, a sister, Madame O’Meara, was superior of the Sacred Heart Order in New York City and is now superior of that order in New Orleans, Louisiana. The facts of the revolutionary story as above are in “United States Senate Document No. 77” entitled “Combattants Francais es dans Le Guerre Americain—1777–83.”

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O’SHAUGHNESSY, JAMES, 2252 Giddings street, Chicago, son of James O’Shaughnessy of Gort and Catherine, née Mulholland; was born in St. Catherine, Mo., and educated in the parochial schools; took up the profession of teaching and then the study of law, which he abandoned to enter newspaper work. He was editor and publisher of the Catholic Tribune, St. Joseph, Mo., and afterwards engaged as reporter, correspondent and editor of daily papers in St. Joseph, Mo., Chicago and New York, and as syndicate correspondent in Europe in 1894 when he was a member of the International Jury of Awards of the Antwerp Exposition. Served as correspondent in Cuba for the Chicago Chronicle during the Spanish-American war and in the later Indian troubles in the Northwest. Political editor of the Chicago American until he abandoned editorial work to enter the field of advertising as writer and counsellor. Former president of Western Catholic Writers’ Guild, and Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago. He married Miss Mary Hynes, of the Hynes family of Galway.

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OLCOTT, CHAUNCEY, has never appeared in a play that was not clean and wholesome, or that contained a line, or an episode that was vulgar or even suggestive. Mr. Olcott is of Irish descent, and was born in the city of Buffalo. He was educated at the Brothers schools, from which he graduated with high honors. He was gifted by nature with an unusually sweet tenor voice, and at an early age started his professional career as a ballad singer in traveling minstrel days. During these years he won his first public recognition by his wonderful singing of favorite ballads. He then went to England for a short time, where his voice won praise for its sweetness and purity. During his sojourn in England he devoted his spare time to study. On his return he went to San Francisco and in connection with his appearances on the stage assumed the management of the Standard Theatre in that city. His next step was to desert minstrelsy and join Denman Thompson in “The Old Homestead.” After this he became the tenor of the Duff Opera Company and the McCaull Opera Company. At this period he determined to go to London, secure an engagement if possible and thoroughly cultivate his voice under the tuition of some good master. During Mr. Olcott’s stay in London he played for one year at the Lyric Theatre and one year at the Prince of Wales Theatre. He returned to America under engagement to his present manager, Mr. Augustus Pitou, to star in Irish singing light comedy rôles, making his first appearance in Mavourneen in November, 1893, at Yonkers, New York. That was sixteen years ago. During these years Mr. Olcott has produced eleven plays and written more popular songs than any other song writer of the day. On September 28, 1897, Mr. Olcott was married to Margaret O’Donovan, of San Francisco. The union has been a most happy and ideal one. Mr. Olcott has won for himself both fame and wealth, and what is better still, the admiration and respect of thousands of personal friends.

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PHELAN, JAMES DUVAL, ex-mayor of San Francisco; born San Francisco April, 1861; sire James Phelan, a California Pioneer; A. B., St. Ignatius College; Ph. N., Santa Clara College; studied law at the University of California; unmarried; was lieutenant-colonel of the California National Guard; Commissioner and Vice-President of the World’s Columbian Commission; after the San Francisco disaster was President of the Relief and Red Cross Funds (a corporation); was designated by President Roosevelt’s proclamation to receive funds and use the U. S. Mint as depository; was a member of the committee of fifty and forty for relief and reconstruction; Chairman of the Charter Association which gave the new Charter to San Francisco; President of the Adornment Association, which procured the Burnham plans for the city; President of the Art Association; President of the California Branch of the American National Red Cross; President of the Native Sons’ Hall Association and Boys’ Club; member of the Society of California Pioneers. Clubs: Metropolitan, Washington; Metropolitan, New York; Pacific Union, Bohemian, University, Olympic. Director of the First National Bank; Mayor of San Francisco from 1896 to 1902; received complimentary vote for U. S. Senator in the California legislature in 1900; President of the Mutual Savings Bank. Office in the Phelan Building, San Francisco.

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QUINN, PATRICK HENRY, born December 16, 1869, at Phenix Village, town of Warwick, Rhode Island, son of Peter and Margaret (Callaghan) Quinn. Father born in Armagh and mother in County Monaghan, Ireland. Was educated in public schools of Warwick, admitted to practice at Rhode Island bar in August, 1895, and in United States courts in January, 1897. Has practiced in Providence ever since; was Probate Judge and Town Solicitor of native town in 1899–1900, and again in 1905–1906. Was senior aide on personal staff of Governor L. F. C. Garvin.

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HON. ELMER J. RATHBUN, A. B., LL. B., Justice of the Superior Court of the State of Rhode Island, was born in Coventry, R. I., April 16, 1870. He graduated from the East Greenwich Academy in the class of 1892, from Brown University in the class of 1896, and from the Boston University School of Law in the class of 1898, from the last institution with the highest honors. He was elected Justice of the Fourth Judicial District Court on November 8, 1900, and served until January 22, 1909, when he was elected Justice of the Superior Court of the State of Rhode Island. He was elected a member of the General Assembly of the State of Rhode Island from the town of West Greenwich May, 1897, and at the time of his election to the position of Justice of the Superior Court was the senior member of the lower branch in continuous service, having been elected representative twelve consecutive times, and was, for several years, chairman of the House Committee on Corporations. Judge Rathbun is the son of James and Melissa Rathbun.

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RIGNEY, JOSEPH, was born in Dublin, Ireland, May 11, 1847, being the seventh in a family of eleven children of Hugh and Margaret Rigney. The name “Rigney” is that of a French Huguenot who came with William to Ireland and who was credited with the distinction of doing more than the average of his fellows in destroying the good Irishmen who upheld the cause of Shamus (Na Hocha) at the bloody battle of Auchram. He had the award usually given his kind—a gift of the plunder of the vanquished. Many generations of Rigneys lived more or less respected in King’s County, where all traces of the Huguenot’s religion disappeared from amongst them. The writer accompanied his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters, from Ireland to this country in October, 1868, to join four brothers who emigrated from Ireland five years before. His family settled in Bridgeport, Conn., November, 1868, where he lived until July, 1878, working part of the time as a machinist and later as mechanical engineer and superintendent of the Pacific Iron Works of that city. In 1878 he went to Havana, Cuba, where he engaged in engineering and later on in sugar manufacturing. His partners in the ownership of a sugar plantation were Franklin Farrel of Ansonia, Conn., and the late Hugh Kelly of New York. He greatly prizes his associations with these good men and mourns the loss of the best of friends in the untimely end of Hugh Kelly. At present he is associated with the engineering firms of “The Dyer Company” and Allis-Chalmers Company, with office at 71 Broadway, New York. He is a member of the Catholic Club and the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick of New York City. He married in 1878 and has been supremely happy ever since.

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RIORDAN, CHARLES F., was born in North Easton, Mass., the first day of April (Easter Sunday) in the year 1866, to John S. and Catherine M. Riordan, both of the best type of Irish people. Has been for many years the New England representative of several large distilleries. During an

## active business life in Boston has taken a prominent part in politics

but has never accepted public office. Is very popular in his native State and many large banquets attended by leading citizens have been tendered him at various times.

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ROSSITER, WILLIAM S., publisher, Concord, N. H., was born in Westfield, Mass., September 9, 1861. Educated Columbian University (now George Washington University), Washington, D. C., and Amherst College (Class 1884). Assistant to business superintendent, New York Tribune, 1884–1888; manager circulation, New York Press, 1889; treasurer New York Printing Company, The Republic Press, 1889–1899; in charge publications, U. S. Census, 1900–1903; chief clerk U. S. Census Office, 1903–1909; expert special agent, U. S. Census, for printing and publishing, 12th Census (1900) and Industrial Census, 1905; in editorial charge of all 12th Census Reports; selected by the President upon the recommendation of the Printing Commission of Congress to take charge of the Government Printing Office upon the suspension of Public Printer Stillings and prepare a complete report upon conditions in that office. Twenty-eight days later an exhaustive report was submitted to the President, and upon its findings, he at once requested the Public Printer’s resignation. Author of the Census Reports upon Printing and Publishing, 1900 and 1905, A Century of Population Growth in the United States (U. S. Census office 1909), and many statistical and historical papers in the Atlantic Monthly, North American Review, Review of Reviews, Outlook, World’s Work, the Printing Art, etc.

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SEYMOUR, JOHN F., 52 Pierce Street, San Francisco, Cal., born in New York of Irish parents and in 1863 removed to California; in 1872 he started as an apprentice in a brass foundry, learning the trade of brass finisher, and worked at this trade until 1884, when he joined the San Francisco police department as patrolman. He was successively appointed Corporal, Detective Sergeant and Captain of Police, and in April, 1900, Captain of Detectives; served in this capacity about two years, during which time he earned distinction by his strict attention to duty and ability which he displayed in handling criminal cases of national note; in January 1902, he resigned from the police force to take a responsible position with the vast Fair estate; recently he was appointed Chief Special Agent of the Pacific Department of the Wells Fargo Express Company, which position he holds at the present time.

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