CORNELIUS PATRICK O'CALLAGHAN, Sanders Volume III, Jefferson Co., MT USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. "List transcribed and organized by Ellen Rae Thiel, thieljl@aol.com All rights reserved." Copyright, 1998 by Ellen Rae Thiel. This file may be freely copied for non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved. CORNELIUS PATRICK O'CALLAGHAN: - pg 1556 From Sanders Volume III History of Montana published 1913 SURNAMES FOUND IN THIS BIOGRARPHY: CORETTE; TAAFFE; DRISCOLL; LICALZI; CAGE; HERRMAN; KEARNEY Foremost among the business men and citizens of Basin, Jefferson county, is Cornelius Patrick O'Callaghan, proprietor of a large merchandise establishment of that place. Mr. O'Callaghan has won his advancement in life through merit and by a steady industry, and is one of the representative men of affairs in the county. He was born in the city of Chicago, Illinois, on the 14th of February, 1870, a son of Marcus and Hannah (Kearney) O'Callaghan, both of whom were natives of Ireland, the mother of Cork. The father was a boy when he came to the United States and a few years later enlisted in the federal army at Chattanooga, being assigned to the commissary department, and went through the entire war. He carried a musket at the battle of Lookout Mountain, and saw much arduous service. After the war he was for twenty years chief clerk in the general offices of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Chicago, and was also employed in the treasury department during the administration of Benjamin Harrison. In 1894, owing to poor health, he came out to Montana, leaving his family in Chicago, and was employed in the traffic department of the A. C. M. Company at Anaconda as agent for the B. A. & P. Railroad. IN 1902 he returned to Chicago, and is now one of the officials of the Michigan Central Railroad in that city. The mother died at Chicago in December, 1909. There were five children, one of whom is now deceased, and Cornelius P. Is the oldest of those sibling, the others being: Lillian, wife of Joseph Herrmann, of Chicago; Cora, wife of W. E. Cage, a prominent real estate man in Texas; Fannie, the wife of Mitchell Licalzi, formerly of New Orleans and now of Chicago. Cornelius P. O'Callaghan was reared in Chicago, where he attended the public schools, and lived there until 1896. He then came west and began work in the general manager's office of the B. A. & P. Railroad at Anaconda. This road, as is well known, is controlled by the A. C. M. Company, and after a time he was transferred to the traffic department of the company. He was then made assistant paymaster of the mines office, and remained in that capacity at Anaconda for five years, when he resigned to take the management of the P. J. Brophy store in Butte. After three years as manage, he left Butte to go into business with Mr. D. Driscoll at Basin. Mr. Driscoll was then known as the oldest merchant of Montana, and his very successful career is briefly sketched below. In 1909 Mr. O'Callaghan bought out the Driscoll interest in the store, and has since conducted a flourishing mercantile business in Basin, where he has his pleasant home and is a man of influence in all that community. Mr. O'Callaghan was married on April 2, 1902, to Miss Ann Marie, the daughter of the pioneer merchant, Dennis Driscoll. Mrs. O'Callaghan has the distinction of having been the first white girl born in the town of Walkerville. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. O'Callaghan, namely: Madeline Corita; Joseph; Marguerite, deceased; and Anna Marion. The family ware members of the Catholic church, and Mr. O'Callaghan is a Democrat. Dennis Driscoll, the father of Mrs. O'Callaghan, is one of the oldest living pioneer of Montana. Bornin Ireland, he came by the united States in 1854, at the age of fifteen, and began work in a malleable iron foundry at Newark, New Jersey. Mr. Driscoll went to California in 1861, and remained there two years, when he went to Boise City, Idaho and was engaged there at mining until 1866, when he came to Silver Bow county, Montana, being among the very early prospectors of this region. After mining for a time at Silver Bow, Glendive, and Alder Gulch, he returned to Newark, and engaged in grocery business, there remaining until after his marriage, when he returned to Montana and established a grocery and general mercantile store at Walkerville, where for twenty years or more he did a very large business, later removing to Basin, where he also conducted a mercantile business. He retired with a generous competence, and is now a resident of Butte. He is owner of valuable business and residence property in Walkerville, Butte, Basin and Lewistown in Montana, and Seattle, Washington. He was married at Newark, New Jersey in 1877, to Miss Mary Taaffe, who had come as a child with her parents from Ireland to America. Of the eight children in his family two are deceased and the others are Anna, wife of Mr. O'Callaghn; Ella, living with her parents in Butte; Mary, wife of John Earl Corette, of Butte; Margaret, Dennis and John, all living at home in Butte.