Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-05-17
The Romance of William s. o'Brien.


Born in New York in 1886, poor as a
church mouse; living here for thirteen
years as the poorest of the poor do live;
stealing as a stowaway or shipping as
a cabin boy on board the ship Fara-
Into, and arriving in San Francisco on
Une otlI vi Juuy, io+9, a lau ms IOur-
teenth year, destitute alike of educa-
ton, of money and of friends: beginning
life as a bar-keeper in an eating-house
in the basement of one of the San Fran
cisco stock exchanges; and dying the
other day, leaving no wife or child be-
hind him, but fortune of certainly not
less than S15, 100000, and perhaps of
$40, 900, ,00O-this is the outline of the
romance of William S. O'Brien, one of
the great Bonanza kings; and a stranger
story has seldom been told. Was it
luck, or was it natural sagacity and
prudent daring that won for him and
his three millionaire associates their
immense fortunesP 1t is hard to say.
The capricious Dame Fortune had, no
doubt, much to do with it; but her ia
vors would not have yielded this boun-
tiful increase had they been bestowed
on men devoid of some excellent busi-
ness qualities. 1t appears that o. Brien
must have been thrifty and saving in
his youth; for at the time of the first
mining excitement he was keeping
saloon of his own and acting as his own
barkeeper. He was seized with the
fever. went to the mines and made some
money, with which he went into busi-
ness with the late Col. W. G. Hoff.
This connection was dissolved in two
years, and o. Brien then formed CO.
partnership with w. j. Rosner, in the
ship-chandlery business. Meanwhile,
however, he was speculating in mining
stocks, and here fortune smiled upon
him. His investments were cautious
and in small lots, but they almost al
ways turned out profitable, and he be-
gan to grow moderately well-off. He
now formed a partnership with Mr..
Flood, another successful stock opera
tor, and Messrs. Mackey and Fair sub
sequently joined the firm. And now
dazzling and unexampled piece of good
fortune awaited them. The Consoli-
dated Virginia and California mines
were opened, and their shares were in the
market. BY shrewd questioning of min
ers and others, or by other means, OBrien
and his partners satisfied themselves that
the lodes were valuable-although there
is no reason to suppose even they
dreamed how valuable they wore and
as quickly as possible they bought up
the shares until they possessed nearly
the whole of them. The Big Bonanza
was discovered; the uneXampled rich
ness of the lodes was disclosed; million
after million of the finest silver and
gold ore ever found came to the surface;
the shares went up to fabulous figures,
and O'Brien and his partners found
) themselves almost incredibly rich. They
> established the great Bank of Nevada,
: and from that time on they have been
: the money kings of the Pacific coast.
2 Neither o. Brien, Flood nor Mackey had
\ been born rich nor had received good
A education, but they conducted their
! vast business with wisdom and were
successful in all their great operations.
Y The combined capital of the California
, and Consolidated Virginia mines is
= SlOS, 900, 900, divided into 1,0S0,000
a shares. The amount paid up on these
!. is S474, 600, and the product of the gold
: and silver bullion extracted from the
o. mines has been S9l, ,721, 1856. This is
? dazzling, and it is all the more remark
v able from the fact that these immense
n profits have been realized within three
l. years. Mr.. O'Brien was personally
i very popular; he was liberal, genia
If and cheerful, and kind TO his relatives
He never married, but he is survived by
two sisters, a nephew and a niece. His
death will not interrupt in any way the
business of the firm, nor of the bank, o.
n which a branch has recently beer
Is opened in this city. Mr.. O'Brien leaves
4 a will, the contents of which are no
y vet known. His life has indeed been
4, romance; his early death is to be de
g plored
II The personal characteristics OF MIR
le O'Brien seem to have been very amia
oi BILE. His friends say of him that h
rs was remarkably liberal, and, notwith
g standing his great wealth, was plail
te and unassuming in his department. %
a don't think" says one friend of his
II "that he was ever known to drive MOI
L, than one horse at a time.h If frien
n were financially distressed, his purs
st was open to him. By his advice,
Sc gentleman, who had only $50,O00 i
US the world speculated so successful
r that in short time he found himse
le with S1,000,00O in hard cash. Nj
nj O'Brien never deceived anyone VIII
hSkeu lor MS duNlVV' Oh oio ONNo9ioi
ny when it would have been greatly to h
RS advantage to have permitted a strangt
ly who came to him to invest in Virgini
as mine stock, he toldhim to buy San Fral
ST. cisco gas stock instead. The Virgini
n. went down, the gas stock went up an
IN the man was saved from ruin. II
d. never refused assistance to those VIII
et' asked it; he was free and joyial in h
re- disposition, and after he had grow
1t wealthy he did not ignore the con
or panions of his early days.-N
or Graphic.
lid CoLoNELs are multitudinoas as Il