Pat Edwards

The Life and Letters of Captain John O'Brien

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In 1873 and 1874, after serving four years as a Union soldier in the Civil War, Captain John O'Brien homesteaded 160 acres of land south of Lorane, Oregon in what is now the Letz Creek Road area. The Homestead Act of 1862 provided free land to veterans who had served in the Civil War as well as others who qualified. However, Capt. O'Brien didn't live there full time until 1907, when he retired as the President of the Multnomah Typographical Union #58 and stepped down from the International Federated Trades Assembly of Portland in which he took an active role for many years. It was obvious that Capt. O'Brien loved his farm. He spent as much time there as possible, using it as a retreat from the rigors of running a trade union and a daily newspaper in the big city. His story is rich in texture. A printer by trade, he was a man who lived his life as a leader, but proved also to be a gracious and gentle man. Much of the time he spent as a Union soldier during the Civil War, first as a private and eventually being promoted through the ranks to captain by brevet, is recorded in his own hand from the almost 50 letters he wrote to a favorite cousin throughout his four years of service. After leaving the military at the end of the Civil War, he took up the cause of the men who worked in the trades-especially the printing trade-and he became deeply involved in setting up trade unions to make sure that the workers who mainly used their hands and training in helping to build America were treated fairly and provided a living wage for their families. That vocation took him far from his Connecticut upbringing, first to Helena, Montana, then to Sacramento, California and soon San Francisco where he married his wife, Julia. He then settled in Portland, Oregon where he continued to champion the cause of the working man. He was a man of substance and from the stories told about him in the Lorane area, especially, he was loved and respected by his neighbors, as well. This book is the second in a series that showcases the lives of some of the very interesting early settlers in Lane County who had direct connections to the Siuslaw Valley and Lorane, specifically.

Produktdetails

• Early Lane County, Oregon Families Nr.2
• Verlag: Groundwaters Publishing, LLC
• Early Lane County, Oregon Families With Lorane Connections
• Seitenzahl: 156
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Juni 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 9mm
• Gewicht: 237g
• ISBN-13: 9780996426138
• ISBN-10: 0996426132
• Artikelnr.: 52933252

Autorenporträt

Pat Edwards is an author of Oregon history books. She and her husband Jim have owned the Lorane Family Store in Lorane, Oregon since 1977. Their family of five children have given them grandchidren and now great-grandchildren. Pat spent 15 years at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, many of those years working as the communication coordinator for a group of scientists who were doing landmark developmental biology and genetic research using the zebrafish, a hot new research model whose popularity had caught on internationally. Since then, Pat has taken on the role of Managing Editor for a small press publishing company called Groundwaters Publishing. It's main focus for over 10 years was to publish a local literary quarterly by the same name. By 2015, when the cost of printing it became too much, Pat and her co-editors began publishing the equivalent of 4 quarterly issues into one annual book format called the Groundwaters Anthology which is now available on-line at http://groundwaterspublishing.com. She and Jennifer Chambers also prepare books for self-publishing for themselves and for others and give talks on Self-Publishing. Pat also is the community correspondent for two small Lane County weeklies, the Fern Ridge Review and the Creswell Chronicle. "I'm blessed with a large, loving family. Jim and I celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 2014 and our family and home are our highest priorities." Check out Pat's personal website at: http://allthingslorane.com