Press Republican
A Look Backward
At Old Plattsburgh
Monday, June 14, 1965
John F. O’Brien, who became a prominent Republican
leader in Clinton County as well as a banker, was a native of
Fort Edward, Washington County. He was born on Sept. 29. 1859.
His parents, Mr. and Mrs. James O’Brien, natives of County
Cork. Ireland, had come to America in 1848. The father was a
farmer in the Fort Edward area.
John F. O’Brien was the second of six children. A brother.
Gen. Edward C. O’Brien, also became a prominent resident of
Clinton County.
John received his elementary education in the district
schools at Fort Edward and entered the For: Edward Institute
to study civil engineering. After graduation he entered the service
of the U.S. Government in an extensive land survey in northern
Minnesota and later wroked for the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad.
Returning to New York State he became chief engineer of
the windmill section of the Groton aquaduct, which supplied water
for New York City.
His health failing, he came to Plattsburgh and engaged hi
the commission business and. with his brother, Edward C. O’Brien,
conducted successful enterprises for many years.
The brother, Edward, was a graduate of North Bend. lnd.
Military Academy and was for some time an ofiicer on Gov.
Morton’s staff. He was appointed commissioner of navigation under
the Harrison administration.
Gen. O’Brien, with the support of his brother, jyas * e original
developer of Long Point at Point au Roche. This was in ihe
early twenties, when a ‘Junior Plattsburgh Military Camp”
thrived there for a time. Subsequently the point” was taken
over by the Macdonough School of Maryland for the establishment
of Camps Red Cloud and Red Wing.
MARTIN H. O’BRIEN
Martin Hewey O’Brien, who became a Plat*sburgh lawyer,
was a native of Beekmantown and was born on May 18. 1850, a
son of Patrick and Ellen (Brown* O’Brien.
O’Brien’s grandfather, native of Ireland, had come to
America as a young man and was a teacher in New York before
settling in Clinton County. He first established in the Irish Settlement
of Schuyler Falls and settled in Beekmantown in 1840. He
married Bridget Ray of Queens County, Ireland. Patrick O’Brein,
father of today’s subject, was the eldest of five-children and also
came from Dublin.
Martin Hewey O’Brien was the first of nine children. He
acquired his elementary education at Waterford, spent two
years at Ottawa University and later graduated from Notre
Dame University.
In Plattsburgh he began the practice of law in the offices
of Palmer, Weed, Gay and Holcomb and was admitted to the Bar
in 1874.
On Sept. 4, 1877, Martin H. O’Brien was united in marriage
to Mary Isabella Harrison of Alexandria. Ontario. They had four
sons, George H., Martin H., Jr., Patrick R. and Edward M.
O’Brien
