BIO: John O'CONNOR, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 881 - 883.
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  JOHN O'CONNOR, one of the efficient and trusted employes of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad Company, with which he has been identified since he was thirteen years 
of age, for the past thirty-five years has held the responsible position of 
express messenger and baggage master.  He was born June 22, 1848, in Ireland, 
the eldest of a family of six children born to his parents, Patrick and Anna 
(Naughton) O'Connor.  Patrick O'Connor was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1816.  He 
left his native land a fugitive, having taken part in the Irish Rebellion and 
was a leader among the patriots.  With his wife and infant son, John being then 
eight months old, he took passage on a sailing vessel that required seven weeks 
to make the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.  He was not only a man of courage 
and daring but he was capable and energetic in business and had been in the 
United States but a short time before he was employed by the contracting firm of 
McAvoy & Purcell, at Pack Saddle, Cambria county, Pa., where he remained and 
assisted in the grading of the railroad until that contract was finished.  He 
moved then into Indiana county, locating five miles north of Blairsville, moving 
from there to Indiana borough and worked on Black Creek until that branch of the 
railroad to the county seat was completed.  Mr. O'Connor then went back to 
Blairsville and went into contracting on his own account and in 1857 moved to 
Retort, where he had been engaged as contractor to construct four miles of road 
from Retort to Summit.  This work being finished he then moved to Tyrone and 
completed the road from there to Vail and afterward to Powellton.  Mr. O'Connor 
was so capable and so honest that he gained the respect, confidence and esteem 
of all those who had business relations with him and there were many outside his 
immediate family, who mourned him when his death, in 1861, terminated his busy 
life.  He had many admirable qualities and among these his strong family 
affection was a leading one.  He had had his own way to make but he never forgot 
those he had left behind in the old country and as soon as fortune had favored 
him to a sufficient extent, he sent for the old father and later for his three 
brothers and three sisters, all of whom joined him in Pennsylvania.  He married 
Anna Naughton, also a native of Queens county, Ireland.  She died in 1887, at 
New Castle, Pa., where her burial took place.  They had the following children:  
John, Michael, Patrick, Lizzie, Ellen and Mary.  Michael followed railroading 
all his life.  He was accidentally killed by being blown from a bridge, in 1881, 
on the low grade division of the Allegheny Valley Railroad.  Patrick has also 
followed railroading and is now a passenger conductor on the above mentioned 
railroad.  He resides at Driftwood.  Lizzie, who is the widow of John Ryan, 
lives at New Castle, Pa.  Ellen, who also lives at New Castle, is the widow of 
William Green.  Mary married William Pitzer and they live at New Wilmington, 
Mercer county, Pa.
  John O'Connor obtained his schooling in the various places in which the family 
lived and immediately after the death of his father went to work, being employed 
on what is known as the branch road of the Pennsylvania system just before it 
was completed to Philipsburg.  He was then promoted to be track-walker, and for 
three years he walked twenty-four miles each day.  His next position was at 
Powellton where he had charge of the coal wharf until the station was completed 
at Osceola, when he was made baggage man.  About 1865 he began as a freight 
brakeman, on a freight train that had one passenger car attached and in 1875, 
when the regular passenger train was established, he was brakeman on that train 
until 1876, when he was made baggage master and express messenger.  In 1881 he 
moved to Philipsburg and from there in 1889, to Belsena, Clearfield County, and 
from there in 1892, to Osceola and three years later back to Philipsburg.  On 
October 1, 1905, he moved to Lock Haven, where he resided for two years and then 
moved to Tyrone for one year.  In the meanwhile he built his present attractive 
two-story residence at Osceola Mills, which he has occupied since January 7, 
1909.
  On April 20, 1873, Mr. O'Connor was married at the Catholic parsonage, to Miss 
Isabella J. McClellan, who was born at Unionville, Center county, Pa., the 
eldest daughter of William and Christina Jane (Myer) McClellan.  William 
McClellan was born at Ridgeway, Elk county, Pa., and his wife in Sugar Valley, 
Center county.  All their children were born at Unionville, except the youngest.  
They were:  Isabella J., who is Mrs. O'Connor; Mary, now deceased, who was the 
wife of H. P. Antis, also now deceased; George, who lives in Kentucky; Susan, 
who is the wife of Albert Lyons, of Lyonsville, Center county; Ellen, who is the 
wife of Frank Smart, of Keating Summit, Potter county, Pa.; John W., who lives 
in Jefferson county, Pa.; Harry B., who is in business at Cleveland, O.; Lydia, 
now deceased, who was the wife of Wallace Woodward, of DuBois, Pa; and 
Creighton, who died at the age of thirteen years.
  Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor have had seven children, namely:  William P., who is 
train dispatcher for the B. & O. Railroad at New Castle, Pa. (married Della 
Lewis, of Youngstown, O.); Edward, who lives at Green River, Wyo.; Frank, who 
died of diphtheria, a fine youth of sixteen years; Elsie, who is the wife of 
Donald Reading, and lives at Philadelphia; Harvey Raymond, who is a resident of 
Chicago, Ill.; Charles Sherwood, who is sergeant of marines, in the United 
States service, attached to the admiral's flag ship, the Connecticut, and has 
been in the navy for seven years; and Nell, who is the wife of Lewis Simler, of 
Johnstown, Pa.  Mr. O'Connor is a member of the Catholic church, while Mrs. 
O'Connor was reared a Presbyterian.  He is a member of the order of Railway 
Trainmen.
  The father of Mrs. O'Connor served in the Civil war and when he entered the 
army the family moved to a farm near Unionville, Pa.  He returned from his 
military service with injuries from which he never recovered and died on the 
farm eighteen months later.  Mrs. McClellan then moved with her family to 
Heckley, in Center county, and later to Osceola Mills, in Clearfield county.  
Subsequently she married Louis Walkey.  Her death was caused by a fall on the 
ice.  She lived for three weeks after the accident, passing away on March 6, 
1910, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. O'Connor.  Mrs. O'Connor's people all came 
originally from Ireland and like Mr. O'Connor's have been more or less connected 
with railroading and have filled positions of importance with the 
trustworthiness that is a characteristic of the Irish people.