EDWARD OULLAHAN

San Joaquin County

Biographies

EDWARD OULLAHAN

EDWARD OULLAHAN, a liquor merchant of Stockton, was born in Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1834, a son of Robert and Mary Oullahan. His father, a civil engineer, as well as architect and contractor, was identified with some of the historic engineering works of Ireland, and was recognized throughout the United Kingdom as a very able specialist in his line.

The subject of this sketch left his native city, in company with his brother, Denis J., for California in 1849, in a vessel in which they owned an interest, bringing as part of the cargo four large iron houses, which, however, proved an unprofitable venture, as they were not salable. Arriving in San Francisco, they located each 160 acres where South San Francisco now stands, and raised vegetables and stock. Edward Oullahan came to Stockton in 1853, and went to work with his brother, who had preceded him one year, in the freighting, commission and forwarding business. They did large business in that line with the southern mines for some years.

Mr. Oullahan afterwards superintended and was interested as a partner in his brother’s ranch of 1,000 acres on the Calaveras, near the Smith ranch, and about five miles from this city. About 1861 he went into the wholesale liquor business with Mr. McShane, under the firm name and style of McShane & Oullahan, and has been engaged in that line of business with little intermission ever since. Having become somewhat broken in health, chiefly through dyspepsia, he went to Ireland in 1868, arriving in Dublin the day after Christmas. He thought he was going home to die, having run down in weight to 116 pounds; but after a sojourn of eleven months he weighed 240 pounds, and returned to Stockton, by steamer to New York, and railroad to this city. His first trip out was around Cape Horn, or rather through the Straits of Magellan, and went back by the Panama route. On his return the partnership with McShane was dissolved, and his firm became Oullahan & Porter, which continued two or three years, then Oullahan & Co., in which his brother was interested. In 1884 Edward was elected City Collector and Harbor Commissioner, which he held one year, and at the expiration of his term of office he returned to his old business under the style of E. Oullahan, which continues unchanged to the present time.

Mr. Oullahan was married in Sacramento in 1870, to Miss Ada Callahan, a daughter of Daniel Callahan, proprietor of the Golden Eagle Hotel. She died in 1871, leaving an infant daughter, Kate, who was taken to Ireland at the age of three, by a sister of Mr. Oullahan, in the hope of saving her life, threatened by consumption. She died December 28, 1886.

Mr. Oullahan was again married in 1880, in Salt Lake City, to Miss Helena Gorlinski, daughter of Major Joseph Gorlinski, of that place. Mrs. Oullahan is quite prominent in social circles as a talented musician, vocal and instrumental.

Mr. Oullahan was Captain of the Emmett Guards, of this city, for a few years.

Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.

An Illustrated History of San Joaquin County, California, Pages 392-393. Lewis Pub. Co. Chicago, Illinois 1890.

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