Daniel O'Connell Biography


	This biography appears on pages 577-578 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				DANIEL O'CONNELL. 

	Daniel O'Connell is a resident farmer of Orland township, his 
home being on section 17. He was born in Wisconsin on the 8th of 
February, 1861, and is a son of Thomas and Anna (Fox) O'Connell. The 
father was a farmer by occupation and became a pioneer resident of 
Wisconsin, where be engaged in the work of tilling the soil. He has now 
passed away, but the mother is still living. 

	At the usual age Daniel O'Connell became a district school pupil 
and when he ceased to attend school began aiding his father, with whom 
he worked until he reached the age of seventeen years. He then came to 
Dakota territory in the year 1879 and, making his way to Lake county, 
settled in Orland township, where he joined his brother James, who had 
arrived in 1878. He filed on a tree claim on section 17 and afterward 
relinquished it to his brother Daniel, who then broke the sod and began 
farming the place. However, he lived with his mother, who owned a 
homestead claim, the mother arriving in this county in the fall of 
1881. Most of the children came with her and Daniel O'Connell has three 
brothers in Orland township. As the years have gone by he has carried 
on general agricultural pursuits and is now the owner of four hundred 
acres of excellent land, on which he resides, and also cultivates 
another tract of one hundred and sixty acres belonging to his brother. 
He devotes considerable attention to stock-raising and has forty head 
of cattle and sixty head of hogs upon his place. None of the equipments 
of a model farm of the twentieth century are lacking for he has added 
many excellent improvements and has good buildings upon his land, well 
kept fences and all the latest improved farm machinery to facilitate 
the work of the fields. 

	On the 29th of December, 1892, Mr. O'Connell was united in 
marriage to Miss Ann McDonnell, a daughter of Michael McDonnell, and a 
representative of another old pioneer family. To Mr. and Mrs. O'Connell 
have been born the following named: Mary, now the wife of Frank O'Neil 
living in Utah; Loraine, who teaches in the county schools and is at 
home; Anna, who is also a school teacher; and Leona, Joseph, Margaret, 
Daniel, Leonard and John, all at home. The religious faith of the 
family is that of the Catholic church, to which they loyally adhere. 

	In his political views Mr. O'Connell is a democrat and does all 
in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. 
On several occasions he has been called to public office, serving as 
chairman of the town board for several years and as school clerk for 
twelve years. He endorses the good roads movement, for, driving an 
automobile, he has learned the value of excellent public highways. He 
is a stockholder in the Midway Farmers Elevator Company at Junius and 
also in the telephone company. There are indeed few residents of Lake 
county who have resided within its borders so long as Mr. O'Connell, 
who has here remained for thirty-six years. There is no phase of the 
county's development with which he is not familiar and its history to 
him is as an open book.