naming_of_county.htm

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History and Genealogy of
O'Brien County Iowa

Naming Of O'Brien County
The Iowa state Legislature, at its session of 1850, in one law, in a sort of husking bee as it were, named fifty of the ninety-nine counties in one enactment. O'Brien county was christened with good Irish water from the River Boyne itself. At least that was the sentiment. It was the argument in the Legislature to have represented in these names as many different ideas and nationalities as possible, from the Indian names of Winneshiek. Poweshiek and Sac, to the patriotic names of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Webster and Polk, to the final awarding of three names of the sons of Erin, to that prince of Irish orators, Robert Emmett. to John Mitchell and then to our own Irishman. William Smith O'Brien, after whom the county was named.
William Smith O'Brien was born in 1803 and died in 1864, and was an educated man as well as a man of ability. He was an Irish politician. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, in England. He entered the English Parliament in 1828. In 1835 he was returned from the county of Limerick and for several years strongly advocated the claims of Ireland to a strictly equal justice with England, in legislative as well as in executive measures. Professing his inability to effect this in the United Legislature, and having been committed to prison for refusing to serve on committees by the speaker's orders, he withdrew from attendance in Parliament in 1841, and joined that great Irish patriot, Daniel O'Connell, in the agitation for the repeal of the legislative union between England and Ireland. In the progress of that agitation our William Smith O'Brien sided with the party known as ''Young Ireland." In other words, he was one of the "Young Turks," or incorrigible, or unconquered. In 1848, when that excitement resulted in a call to arms, he took part in an attempted rebellion in the south of Ireland. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. The sentence, however, was commuted to transportation for life. He, with other political offenders, was exiled to Tasmania, an obscure English colony, but years later was allowed to return.
It can thus be seen that Irishman William Smith O'Brien was no small man, a man worthy of a cause championed by the great Daniel O'Connell and found fighting side by side with such men as Robert Emmett and John Mitchell. The citizens of the county have no reason to be ashamed of William Smith O'Brien or of the name. He was considered by the editors of the "International Cyclopaedia" of sufficient world-wide celebrity to entitle him to a half column write-up in that great compendium of the world's great men and events.
[Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Volume 1, 1914]
Submitted by Cathy Danielson

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All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.

		History and Genealogy of O'Brien County Iowa

Naming Of O'Brien County The Iowa state Legislature, at its session of 1850, in one law, in a sort of husking bee as it were, named fifty of the ninety-nine counties in one enactment. O'Brien county was christened with good Irish water from the River Boyne itself. At least that was the sentiment. It was the argument in the Legislature to have represented in these names as many different ideas and nationalities as possible, from the Indian names of Winneshiek. Poweshiek and Sac, to the patriotic names of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Clay, Webster and Polk, to the final awarding of three names of the sons of Erin, to that prince of Irish orators, Robert Emmett. to John Mitchell and then to our own Irishman. William Smith O'Brien, after whom the county was named. William Smith O'Brien was born in 1803 and died in 1864, and was an educated man as well as a man of ability. He was an Irish politician. He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge, in England. He entered the English Parliament in 1828. In 1835 he was returned from the county of Limerick and for several years strongly advocated the claims of Ireland to a strictly equal justice with England, in legislative as well as in executive measures. Professing his inability to effect this in the United Legislature, and having been committed to prison for refusing to serve on committees by the speaker's orders, he withdrew from attendance in Parliament in 1841, and joined that great Irish patriot, Daniel O'Connell, in the agitation for the repeal of the legislative union between England and Ireland. In the progress of that agitation our William Smith O'Brien sided with the party known as ''Young Ireland." In other words, he was one of the "Young Turks," or incorrigible, or unconquered. In 1848, when that excitement resulted in a call to arms, he took part in an attempted rebellion in the south of Ireland. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. The sentence, however, was commuted to transportation for life. He, with other political offenders, was exiled to Tasmania, an obscure English colony, but years later was allowed to return. It can thus be seen that Irishman William Smith O'Brien was no small man, a man worthy of a cause championed by the great Daniel O'Connell and found fighting side by side with such men as Robert Emmett and John Mitchell. The citizens of the county have no reason to be ashamed of William Smith O'Brien or of the name. He was considered by the editors of the "International Cyclopaedia" of sufficient world-wide celebrity to entitle him to a half column write-up in that great compendium of the world's great men and events. [Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Volume 1, 1914] Submitted by Cathy Danielson

BACK Copyright © Genealogy Trails All data on this website is Copyright by Genealogy Trails with full rights reserved for original submitters.