Revision as of 04:11, 6 January 2022

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" O'Brien (b. [[Illinois|IL). By 1900, they resided at Kansas City, Missouri, 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.

Ancestry

• Rupert George O'Brien (b. 1824 Noel, Hants, N.S. - d. 1912 Vinland, Douglas, KS) 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 Life and Ministry

In 1904, Alex resided on St. Marie Street in Oakland Park, part of Duluth, Minnesota, and self-identified as a missionary. As early as 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.

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" O'Brien (b. 1865 [[Illinois|IL].

Children

• Rupert O'Brien (b. 1894 MO)
• Ruth O'Brien (b. 1896 MO)
• Grace Emily O'Brien (b. 1902 Kansas City, MO)

Around 1913 or 1914, the family adopted a teenage orphan named Anna Banks (b. 1901), who inherited a home from her late parents in 1915 when it was built, her parents were Charles and Sarah Banks, immigrants from Finland.

Sources

• Newspapers.com
  • Rupert O'Brien's obit - The Baldwin Ledger, Baldwin City, KS. Jan. 31, 1913, p. 6.
• Ancestry.com
  • Sir A.G. Archibald's Ancestry page