Sutter-Yuba County Biographies

NEAL O�CONNOR

Transcribed by: Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


 
Well known among the most expert members of that body of trained workmen for 
which Yuba County has long been famous, Neal O�Connor enjoys an enviable 
position in the industrial circles of Marysville, in which city he was born in 
the year 1884.  His parents were Richard and Margaret (Ryan) O�Connor, both 
natives of Ireland, the father having been born in County Kerry.  He went out to 
Australia at the age of fourteen, and later, while still a young man, migrated 
to California in the early gold days.  Here he ran a dairy for a while, and 
after that he was engaged in business in Marysville.  He worked as a dairy 
rancher in Sutter County, and during the high waters and floods, he milked cows 
in the dairies, while wearing high rubber boots and wading in the water.  He 
also ran the cleaner in the Sperry Four Mills at Marysville.  During one of the 
floods the flour in the steam room was flooded and after the flood subsided, it 
was scooped up and made into bread.  During the later years of his life he had 
charge of the tool room for the Yuba Construction Company.  He was a charter 
member of the Young Men�s Institute of Marysville.  He was married in Marysville 
and there their four children were born, three of whom are still living.  These 
are Thomas J., John Patrick and Neal.
Neal�s first work for pay, after he had finished his schooling, was in the local 
cannery, receiving $1.50 per day of ten hours; but after a while he learned the 
trade of moulder in the Empire Foundry Company�s plant at Marysville, and was 
also moulder with the Yuba Construction Company, Marysville, and he is now back 
with the Empire Foundry Company, where he started as a young man.  In his 
younger days he worked on the Littlejohn ranch near O�Banion Corners.
On August 31, 1918, at Sacramento, Neal O�Connor and Miss Daisy Ellen Jones, of 
Yuba City, were married, the bride being the daughter of James Franklin and 
Cynthia P. (Davis) Jones, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of 
Louisiana.  Her father was a carpenter and builder, and he followed his trade in 
Sutter County with such success that he was always in demand.  At one time he 
ran a cigar store in Yuba City, and then he was constable in that place.  Five 
children made up the Jones family circle.  Margaret became Mrs. McMurray, and is 
now deceased; Daisy Ellen is Mrs. O�Connor; Leona is Mrs. Scott, of Paradise, 
Butte County; Luella is the wife of Fred Kennison and lives at Marysville; and 
Lewis resides in Yuba City.  Daisy Ellen Jones was educated in the public 
schools of Yuba City.  She is a member and Past Grand of Sunflower Rebekah Lodge 
No. 297, Yuba City.  Neal O�Connor is a charter member of Marysville Council No. 
1869, Knights of Columbus; and he is a member of Marysville Parlor, N.S.G.W.
 
History of Yuba and Sutter Counties, Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, 1924
p 1237