Sacramento County
Biographies
EDWARD J. O’DONNELL, SR.
EDWARD
J. O'DONNELL, SR.--A well-improved and valuable farm in the San Juan belt
pays tribute to the care and labor bestowed upon it by its owner, Edward J.
O'Donnell, Sr., who has resided within the borders of the Golden State for a quarter of a
century. He is a representative of one
of the old and prominent families of Ireland and traces his ancestry in
a direct line to the owners of Castle Donegal.
There the family have lived for generations,
and it was at Ardara that Mr. O’Donnell was born, on
June 9, 1855. He is the youngest son and only surviving member of the family of
James and Ellen (Carbarin) O’Donnell, and was reared
and educated at Ardara.
Mr.
O’Donnell remained on the Emerald Isle until he reached the age of twenty-two
years, and then sought the opportunities of the New World, taking out his first
citizenship papers at Rochester, Minn., in 1877. On leaving that state he went to the Puget
Sound country, locating in Seattle, Wash.; and in 1895, while a
resident of that city, he became a naturalized American citizen. For three years Mr. O’Donnell was employed at
the Lake Stevens lumber mill on Lake Stevens, in the capacity of steam
engineer. Thereafter he purchased a farm, which he continued to operate until
1898. He then came with his family to
California, and is now the owner of a productive farm of 160 acres, situated
eleven miles northeast of Sacramento, in the San Juan belt. He has made a close study of soil and
climatic conditions here, and specializes in the growing of grain, in which he
has been very successful, his methods being both practical and
progressive. Mr. O’Donnell was the only
member of his family to come to the West, but he has never had occasion to
regret his choice of this location. His
brother, Patrick O’Donnell, preceded him to America, settling in Hartford, Conn., where he conducted a
blacksmith shop until his death, which occurred about twenty years ago.
In
1879 E. J. O’Donnell married Miss Lucy I. Morris, who was born in Indiana and was but five years of
age at the time her parents made the journey to Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. O’Donnell have five children:
Edna D., who married George G. Strickland, of Santa Cruz, Cal.; Edward J., Jr.,
who assists in operating the home ranch; Roselle Ellen, the wife of John F.
Barrett; Alice, who married J. E. Stanley, of Lake County, Cal.; and Della I.,
who is the wife of E. M. Tucker and resides in North Sacramento. There are now fourteen grandchildren in the
family circle.
Mr. O’Donnell is a progressive Republican of
the Roosevelt type, and has always taken
a deep and helpful interest in community affairs. He is a strong advocate of the cause of
education and served for four years as a trustee of the San Juan school. He is a lover of good literature and keeps
abreast of the times in every way. He
has worked diligently and persistently as the years have passed, and his
present success is well merited, for it has been won through methods that
neither seek nor require disguise.
Transcribed by Suzanne Wood.
Source: Reed, G. Walter, History of Sacramento County, California With
Biographical Sketches, Page 578. Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, CA.
1923.
© 2007 Suzanne Wood.