BIOGRAPHY: H. W. S. O’BRIEN, Cambria County, PA 

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From Wiley, Samuel T., ed. Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Cambria 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: Union Publishing Co., 1896, p. 369-70
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H. W. S. 0'BRIEN.--The city clerk of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, H. W. S. O'Brien, 
son of Morgan and Catharine (Tooney) O'Brien, was born April 7, 1857, at 
Frankstown, Blair county, Pennsylvania. He is an Irishman, possessed of the 
proverbially affable disposition of that most lovable people. He is a competent 
business man whose success has come by hard work and a thorough understanding of 
whatever he undertook. His father emigrated from the Emerald Isle to America in 
1856, and located at Bell's Mills, near Altoona, where he lived until 1859. He 
then moved to Johnstown, Cambria county, living there until his death in 1867.
     The public schools of Johnstown and Duff's Business college, of Pittsburg, 
furnished Mr. H.W.S. O'Brien an education. At eleven years of age he entered the 
mines, where he worked with characteristic conscientiousness for four years. At 
eighteen he opened a grocery store in Johnstown, and was engaged in this 
business until the time of the great flood, which destroyed his store and goods, 
making it necessary for him to begin life anew, as it were. His new venture was 
in the hotel business, which he followed for about two years, and for which he 
was, because of his genial nature and gentlemanly bearing, particularly well-
fitted. Two years after the organization of the city government, Mr. O'Brien was 
elected city clerk by the council of the city, and has held the position ever 
since. He is a strong, energetic democrat, who has always taken an active part 
in the affairs and councils of his party. In 1895 the Democratic party testified 
to their appreciation of his worth and services by nominating him for the office 
of prothonotary of Cambria county.
     The successes of Mr. O'Brien's life have not happened through good luck. He 
has the faculty of his race in adapting himself to the notch which he is called 
upon to fill.