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Subject: [IOWA] 1903 Bio of Maurice D. O'Connell
Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2003 11:20:07 EDT

MAURICE D. O'CONNELL has, for more than than thirty years, been one of the
foremost lawyers in northern Iowa. He was born in Franklin County, New York,
on
the 23d of April, 1839. His education was acquired at the public schools and
Franklin Academy, Malone. For several years he taught school in the counties
of Franklin, St. Lawrence and Clinton. He entered upon the study of law in
the office of George E. Clark of Plattsburg and took the law course in
Columbian University at Washington, D. C., graduating in the class of 1866.
He
received the appointment of chief of a division in the department of the
Comptroller
of the Currency, serving two years. In September, 1869, he went west,
locating at Fort Dodge, Iowa, then a village of a few hundred inhabitants.
He was
young, full of courage and enthusiasm and from the start won his way to a
good
practice. He was an active Republican in those exciting years of
reconstruction and one of the most eloquent public speakers in northwest
Iowa. In 1871 he
was nominated by the Republicans for a seat in the Legislature; the county
was very close politically and John F. Duncombe was the Democratic candidate.

He was one of the earliest settlers of Fort Dodge, knew every voter in the
district personally, was an able man and lawyer and received enough
Republican
votes to give him a small majority. In 1874 Mr. O'Connell was chosen
District
Attorney for the Eleventh Judicial District, serving four years. In 1881 he
was
appointed United States District Attorney for Iowa, holding the position
until Cleveland became President, when he resigned. After the election of
President Harrison, Mr. O'Connell was again appointed to his former position.
On the
6th of July, 1897, he received the appointment by President McKinley of
Solicitor of the Treasury Department of the United States. Twenty-eight
years
before, the unknown young lawyer left the Capital, having little besides his
profession to rely upon; now he returned at the call of the President to
assume one
of the most responsible places in the Treasury Department, in the direct line
of the profession to which he had closely adhered through all of the
intervening years.



Debbie Clough Gerischer
Iowa Gen Web, Assistant CC, Scott County
http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/
IAGENWEB: Special History Project:
http://iagenweb.org/history/index.htm
Gerischer Family Web Site:
http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/

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