Santa
Clara County
Biographies
HON.
MICHAEL PATRICK O’CONNOR
Occupying a position of prominence among
the most influential citizens of San Jose is Hon. M. P. O’Connor, familiarly
known as Judge O’Connor. During the
twenty years that have elapsed since he became resident of this city he has
taken an active interest in developing and advancing its highest interests,
devoting his energies to this purpose and giving of his means in a generous
measure. As an attorney he is well
versed in legal lore, attaining success at the bar, and as a representative of
the people he served his constituents in both houses of the California
legislature with recognized ability and fidelity. He was born in Ireland May 8, 1823, and was
taken to England in August, 1825.
At the age of fifteen years Judge O’Connor
came with his parents to the United States, and remained two years in the city
of New York. In December, 1840, he
removed to St. Louis, Mo. Entering the
law office of Major U. Wright, in 1842, he studied law with that eminent
jurist, and after being graduated from the law department of the Jesuit
College, St. Louis, was admitted to the bar there in 1846. Beginning the practice of his profession in
St. Louis, the judge remained there three years, and then, in 1849, crossed the
plains with mule teams, arriving in California by the Carson route August 17,
1849. He intended to at once open a law
office, but there being little legal business of any kind, he turned his
attention instead to mining, which he followed for a time. Locating in Nevada county
he subsequently engaged in the practice of law, but at the same time continued
his mining operations. A man of strong
mental caliber and of much force of character, Judge O’Connor soon acquired a
place of influence in the community and in the session of 1859 and 1860 he
served in the state assembly, being elected as a Douglas Democrat. From 1860 to 1869 he practiced law in Nevada county. In a
Republican county he was elected a state senator on the Democratic ticket, and
served most satisfactorily to all concerned from 1869 until 1877. His mining operations added materially to his
bank account, his name becoming familiar to all the people of that section of
the state in which he resided. On his
election to the senate he gave up his law practice. In 1874, accompanied by his wife, he began
traveling throughout this and foreign countries, returning from each trip in
time to attend the sessions of legislature.
Locating in San Jose in 1884, Judge
O’Connor erected a beautiful residence at the corner of Second and Reed
streets, and has since built his present attractive home, adjoining the
O’Connor Sanitarium.
In 1862, in Grass Valley, Nevada county,
Cal., Hon. M. P. O’Connor married Mrs. Amanda (Butler) Young, who was born in
Carrollton, Ohio, and came to California in 1854 with her brother, J. Butler, of Grass
Valley. A large-hearted, broad-minded
woman, Mrs. O’Connor has a warm, sympathetic nature, and in the alleviation of
the sufferings of others finds her greatest pleasure. She was always interested in young girls, and
those left without father or mother appealed especially to her tender heart and
she longed to do something for them. The
large house that she and her husband built at Second and Reed streets seemed to
her well adapted for a home for a large number of people, and she and her
husband, being devoted Catholics, determined to make it in reality a home for
Catholic orphan girls. With this purpose
in view the generous couple donated their beautiful residence to the sisters of
Notre Dame for an orphanage, and it is now known as Notre Dame Institute. It has accommodations for fifty orphans and
in one of the most noted institutions of the kind on the Pacific coast. Mr. and Mrs. O’Connor have also liberally
endowed this institution with a sum sufficient for its perpetual
maintenance. In 1889, prior to the establishment
of the Notre Dame Institute by Mrs. O’Connor, the O’Connor Sanitarium, on the
corner of Race and San Carlos streets was erected by them. This is a large and beautiful brick
structure, modern in its furnishings, and, equipment’s, and with its attractive
grounds, occupies fifteen acres, the grounds extending from Race to Meridian street on the one side and from San Carlos to Sansevain street on the other.
During the past thirty years Mr. And Mrs.
O’Connor have made many trips abroad, and of the fourteen winters spent in
Europe ten have been passed in Rome. In
their travels on the continent they have gathered a rare collection of art
treasures and these they have donated to Trinity College in Washington,
D.C. They also endowed the chair of canon
law in the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.S., which has proved
of immense benefit to this well-known institution. The benefactions of Judge and Mrs. O’Connor
have reached many sections of Californian, and have –proved a boon to numerous
Catholic institutions. They contributed
liberally towards the upbuilding and perpetual
maintenance of St. Patrick’s Seminary, at Menlo Park, and also assisted in the
building of the Young Men’s Institute building on Market street,
near San Fernando. Both judge and Mrs.
O’Connor are active members of St. Joseph’s Church, and Judge O’Connor is a
member of the California Pioneers’ Society of San Francisco.
It would be only just for the historian to
pay a tribute to Mrs. O’Connor, who has been the most faithful and cheerful of
wives and helpmates. The abnegation of
all social functions and demands of society in general in order that she can be
a constant companion to her husband will be a living example for future
generations. She has gone hand in hand
with her husband in their princely generosity and the harmony of their natures
and loving regard one for the other is a beautiful as it is rare. Thus, in the twilight of their lives, while
the shadows are lengthening, these two, side by side and hand in hand, are
listening for the call, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”
Transcribed by Louise E
Shoemaker., February 10th, 2015.
Source: History
of the State of California & Biographical Record of Coast Counties,
California by Prof. J. M. Guinn, A. M., Pages: 351-352. The Chapman
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.
©
2015 Louise E.
Shoemaker.