BIO: William E. O'Brien; Buffalo, Erie, Co., NY

transcribed by W. David Samuelsen for USGenWeb Archives

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History of Northwestern New York: Erie, Niagara, Wyoming, Genesee and
Orleans Counties.
Lewis Historical Pub. Company, pub. about 1947 (?)
Vol. 3 Biographies

WILLIAM E. O'BRIEN

In the business circles of Buffalo, William E. O'Brien has figured prominently
since the conclusion of his military service during the First World War. He
came to this city several years prior to his enlistment in the United States
Army, then and later .being connected with automobile sales. A decade and more
ago he was appointed assessor for the municipality of Buffalo, a post he has
since filled with exceptional abilities and devotion to the duties entailed.

Mr. O'Brien was born in Elmira, New York, on January 18, 1890, son of Peter J.
and Anna (Fitzpatrick) O'Brien, both of whom are now deceased. They came from
their native Ireland to Elmira where they met and married and settled down to
become substantial citizens of the community. William B. O'Brien, with whom
this record is primarily concerned, was educated in the parochial schools of
his birth city and the Elmira Free Academy. He was very young, seventeen, when
he started on a career which followed in the footsteps of his father, becoming
a machinist apprentice in the local shops of the Delaware & Lackawanna
Railroad. He rounded out four years of experience and training, before leaving
Elmira to go with the Winchester Repeating Rifle Company, at New Haven,
Connecticut. A year here was enough, and he left to be a salesman for the
American Tobacco Company. Two years later he removed to Buffalo, a man of
twenty-three years with an ambition to engage in something mechanical that
also called for abilities in the field of salesmanship. He found what he
sought in the Ford Motor Company, of Buffalo, and was doing very well when the
United States became involved in World War I, and he enlisted in the
Engineering Corps of the United States Army, in 1917. He served overseas with
the American Expeditionary Forces, woti the rank of top sergeant, and received
his honorable discharge from the armed forces in 1919.

Upon his return to civilian life and Buffalo, Mr. O'Brien resumed connections
with the Ford Motor company, establishing his own agency in 1919, under the
trade title of the O’Brien Motor Company, which he operated to 1931. In 1933
he entered into a partnership, since known as Taylor & O'Brien, Inc., which
has been the Buffalo headquarters for the Ford Automobile Company, of Detroit,
Michigan. As already indicated, he was named city assessor of Buffalo, in
1934, and has handled the business of this department since that time.
Fraternally he is affiliated with the Knights of Columbus, in which he holds
the fourth degree; the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the
Blackthorn Club, of the city. He is a member and a trustee of St. Aloysius
Catholic Church, and contributes generously of his time and means to
charitable and religious projects.

On February 14, 1920, at Buffalo, New York, William E. O’Brien married Eva
Ludwig, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Ludwig, of Buffalo. Mr. and
Mrs. O'Brien are the parents of one son, William E., Jr., born in Buffalo, in
April, 1934.