It is a fact widely recognized that many of the most brilliant lawyers and orators that the world has known are of Irish birth or lineage. Characteristically quick witted they readily grasp the points of an argument and are ever ready to defend their position with an eloquence that is largely irresistible. As his surname indicates John Henry Sheehan comes of Irish ancestry. His father, Thomas F. Sheehan, was born in County Clare, Ireland, and on crossing the Atlantic in 1876 made his way direct to New Haven, where for the past quarter of a century he has been connected with the fire department. He married Margaret McNamara, a native of Collinsville, Connecticut, and a daughter of John McNamara, representing one of the old families of this state.
     Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Sheehan became parents of three sons and three daughters, the eldest of whom is John Henry Sheehan, born in New Haven, December 15, 1890. He was educated in the public and Booth's Preparatory schools and later entered the Yale Law School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1911. He then entered the office of Harriman & Kelsey, attorneys of New Haven, with whom he was associated for two years, on the expiration of which period he began the private practice of law and has since been continuously and successfully active in the field of legal practice. He is well qualified in all departments of jurisprudence, prepares his cases with great thoroughness, is strong in argument, logical in debate and both forceful and resourceful in presenting the various salient points in his case. His preparation for the bar, however, did not constitute his initial step in the business world, for he started out to earn his own living when a youth of thirteen, being first employed by the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company at a salary of seven dollars per week. Later he worked in dry goods houses at various points in the state, was a trolley car conductor for the Connecticut Company of New Haven, and was likewise in the employ of the Adams Express Company in charge of their accounting department, in this way earning the money that enabled him to meet the expenses of his university course. The elemental strength of his character which he thus displayed has come to fulfillment in a notably brilliant career at the New Haven bar, where he is recognized as one of the leading young attorneys of the state.
     Mr. Sheehan has membership in the Knights of St. Patrick and with the Young Men's Republican Club, the latter organization indicating his political views and attitude. He belongs to the New Haven County and the Connecticut State Bar Associations and gives the major part of his time to his law practice, although he has some financial interests in various local corporations for which he is attorney. Most creditable and inspiring is his life record, proving as it does that it is under the pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opposition that the strongest and best of man is brought out and developed. Deprived of many of the advantages that most boys enjoy he has worked his way steadily upward and his persistency of purpose and laudable ambition have constituted steps by which he has climbed to success.