Alexander Neil O'Brien

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Alexander Neil "A.N." O'Brien served as an itinerant preacher among open brethren (OB) in the U.S., as well as the first editor of Walterick Publishers. He was born June 15, 1864 at Burntcoat, Noel, Hants, Nova Scotia. His parents were Rupert George O'Brien (1824-1912) & Sarah Anne Archibald O' Brien.

In 1893, he married Hattie E. Dyer (b. IL at the home of Caleb J. Baker, 115 Garfield Ave., Kansas City, Missouri, of the Troost Avenue Gospel Hall, and E.A. Boyd of Oskaloosa, KS officiated. At the time, Hattie was living at Fort Scott, Kansas and A.N. at Vinland, Kansas.

By 1894, they were residing at Kansas City, MO, which in 1900 at 2533 Jefferson St. By 1904, they had relocated to Duluth, St. Louis, Minnesota where they would call home for the duration of their ministry. They had three children, and Alex died on Dec. 27, 1942 in Duluth, and Hattie remained in the family home until at least 1948.

Ancestry

  • Rupert George O'Brien (b. 1824 Noel, Hants, N.S. - d. 1912 Vinland, Douglas, KS)
    • He was the son of William O'Brien & Annie Putnam O'Brien. He was the seventh child in a family of thirteen, and was raised on the farm where he was born. 1849-1850 were spent in the U.S. working at saw mills in several Massachusetts towns, as well as in New York City and Albany, N.Y..
    • He returned to Nova Scotia and was married on Sept. 11, 1855, returning then to Noel until 1869 when he and his wife and seven children moved to the U.S., first to Munice, Kansas which may refer to Muncie, a neighborhood in Kansas City, Kansas. A few days later, they moved again to Lawrence, Kansas where his sister Mrs. John Archibald lived. From Lawrence, by 1870 he had settled on a farm near Reno, Leavenworth, KS, which is four miles northeast of Baldwin City, and presently part of the Kansas City metropolitan area.
    • In 1879, he moved to the Vinland neighborhood, and in 1877 to the farm where he later died. He was Presbyterian at Noel, Lawrence, and Vinland, however the PB evangelist John Carnie of New York City had his funeral.
  • Sarah Anne Archibald O'Brien (b. 1829 Truro, N.S. - d. 1905 Vinland, Douglas, KS)
    • She was a sister to Sir Adams George "A.G." Archibald (1814-1892), who was one of the 36 fathers of the Canadian Confederation which 1864-1866, in which the province of Canada (Ontario & Quebec) was intertwined with Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He served as the first Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba (1870-1872), sent by the Canadian government to organize the province. He then served as the fourth Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (1873-1883). He was born and died at Bible Hill in Truro, N.S. See A.G.'s wiki.
    • Sarah and A.G. were children of Samuel Archibald (1784-1864), and grandchildren of James Archibald (1754-1828), judge of the court of common pleas of Nova Scotia. They were also related to Samuel George Washington Archibald (1777-1846) who served as the Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island 1824-1828, and Attorney General of Nova Scotia 1830-1841. An early ancestor was David Archibald (1717-1795), an immigrant of Ulster, and a co-founder of Truro, N.S.
    • The Archibald family arrived in North America 1719-1722, settling initially at Londonderry, Rockingham, New Hampshire, which was incorporated the latter year.

Early Adult Life and Ministry

In 1892, A.N. officiated at the Presbyterian church in Oskaloosa, Kansas. 1904-1907, Alex resided on St. Marie Street in Oakland Park, near Duluth, MN. By 1908, and as late as 1942, he was residing at 227 Victoria Street (later known as Arrowhead Road) at Hunters Park near Duluth which served as a preaching point in 1927, prior to an assembly being planted. In 1948, six years after A.N. died, Hattie still resided there.

He was the first editor of Walterick Publishers (1931-2008), founded in Fort Dodge, Iowa which published books, hymnals, tracts, and several assembly magazines, including Light and Liberty, a monthly news periodical that was a continuation of Armour of Light.

He was among the keynote speakers at the 1935 Chicago Thanksgiving Conference, their 52nd conference, which was regarded as one of the largest held, with over 1,200 in attendance. He's noted as one of the regular itinerant speakers at Centerville Gospel Chapel in Iowa, as was John Carnie who preached at Alex's father's funeral in 1912. Centerville was the result of a merger of two of the earliest OB assemblies, both mining towns, in Iowa.

Marriage

  • Hattie E. Dyer O'Brien (b. 1865 [[Illinois|IL]), daughter of Lewis Dyer (b. 1827 VA) & Susan E. Lynn Dyer (b. 1829 IL - d. 1881 Bronaugh, Vernon, MO), married on Dec. 27, 1849 at Sangamon, Illinois. Her parents lived in the 1880's at Baker, Crawford, KS. Lewis' parents were born in Virginia, and Susan's in North Carolina.

In 1900, when A.N. and Hattie were residing in Kansas City, Missouri, they had hired a widowed servant named Caroline R. Holmes (b. 1829 PA), and boarders of a seamstress named Dara Wooden (b. 1869 MI) and her son Clarence R. Wooden (b. 1898 KS). In 1920, while in Duluth, they had a boarder named Mildred J. Wildgrube (b. 1900 DE), employed as bookkeeper for a bank. In 1930, Ingrid Elisabet Peterson Widmark (b. 1904 Sweden) boarded there with her daughter Herta Marian Widmark (b. 1928 MN), Ingrid was employed as a servant, and had emigrated to the U.S. in 1928, later living in Canyon Country, CA.

Children

  • Rupert Dyer O'Brien (b. 1894 Kansas City, MO - d. 1987 Oak Park, IL). Wife: Gladys O'Brien. In 1917, Rupert was living at 2622 8th St. in Minneapolis, MN, and employed as Industrial Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. By 1942, he had relocated to Oak Park, IL where in latter years, he was in fellowship with the First Baptist Church. Rupert was living in Oak Park as early as 1942.
  • Ruth P. O'Brien McCarn (b. 1896 Kansas City, MO - d. 1981 Chicago, IL). Husband: Davis Glessner McCarn (b. 1890 Anamosa, IA - d. 1983 Chicago, IL), son of Burtis Davis McCarn (b. 1859 Anamosa, Jones, IA - d. 1939 Chicago, Cook, IL) & Sarah Augusta Barton McCarn (b. 1864 Ft. Wayne, IN - d. 1954 Glen Gardner, Hunterdon, N.J.).
  • Grace Emily O'Brien O'Neill (b. 1902 Kansas City, MO - d. 1990 Herndon, Fairfax, VA). Husband: Hugh O'Neill (b. 1901 St. Paul, MN - d. 1953 Englewood, Bergen, N.J.)
  • Around 1913 or 1914, the family adopted a teenage orphan named Annie Banks (b. 1901 Minneapolis, MN - d. 1983 West Palm Beach, FL), who inherited a home from her late parents in 1915 when it was built, her parents were Charles Augustus Banks (b. 1845 Hamburg, Germany or Finland) and Sarah Helena Siekkinen Banks (b. 1851 Liminka, Oulu, Finland - d. 1913 Duluth, MN), who were married in Duluth in 1875. In 1880, Charles was employed as a night watchman, and died prior to 1909.
    • In 1910, Annie was living at 1113 E. 4th St., in Duluth, with her mother who was working as a midwife for a private hospital. A cousin Helmi Oliva Mattson Johnson (b. 1888 Bessemer, MI - d. 1942 Oulu, Bayfield, WI) was also living with them. Her uncle was Eugene R. Dibble.
    • In 1926, Anna married Wilson Joseph Kerr (b. 1898 Fairfield, Swift, MN - d. 1959 Minneapolis, MN) in Minneapolis, later divorcing. Then in 1954 while living in Minneapolis, and working as an antique dealer, she married Dr. Arthur Reinhold Upgren (b. 1897 River Falls, WI - d. 1986 Boca Raton, FL) of Hanover, Grafton, N.H., then the Dean of the Amos Tuck school of business administration at Dartmouth College (1952-1957), formerly a vice-president of the Ninth District Federal Reserve Bank (1942-1945), and a professor of economics at the Univ. of Alabama (1921), Univ. of Minnesota (1937-1952).
    • Anna was a nationally known antique dealer and collector 1939-1976 in Minneapolis, until she moved to West Palm Beach, Florida.

Sources

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