USA > Massachusetts > Hampshire County > Northampton > Representative families of Northampton; a demonstration of what high character, good ancestry and heredity have accomplished in a New England town . > Part 11
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After young O'Donnell left the cotton mill at the age of fifteen he worked making guns and bayonets for the soldiers fighting on Southern battlefields. Later he was employed by
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the Florence Sewing Machine Company, and when he was nineteen became a sub-contractor in this business. During the fall, winter, and spring, he gave all his spare time to his studies under private tutors, with a longing for the profession of law. He established and conducted a grocery and boot and shoe store for two years. Then he saw his way clear to spend a year specially preparing for the study of law. The following year he read law in the office of his brother T. B. O'Donnell in Holyoke, and a year later entered the Boston University Law School. He graduated from this school in the class of 1877 and received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. But with the purpose of mastering his profession as fully as possible he took a post-graduate course and remained an- other year at the University. He was admitted to the Hampshire County bar in June, 1878. On the first day of July he opened a law office in Northampton, where he soon had a lucrative law practice. He became one of the ac- knowledged leaders of the bar. He brought to the practice of his profession not only a good foundation in study, but a large store of common sense, and a varied business expe- rience, which he used to advantage in assisting his clients.
Mr. O'Donnell is a Democrat and a close student of politics. But he has not always been a Democrat. When he attained his majority he identified himself with the Re- publican party, principally for two reasons - because it was in favor of prohibition, and because it advocated a tariff for protection - both of which Mr. O'Donnell then believed in. He did what he could to elect as Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Talbot against William Gaston. But Gaston won on the issue of license. The following year, the Republican party was in favor of license, and has been ever since. Mr. O'Donnell, in giving his reasons for his change of parties, said, "I have no sympathy with a party whose principle was
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knocked out of it by a licking .. The Republicans appeared to be sham prohibitionists. I believe in honesty and I joined the Democrats because they voted as they drank."
About this time, he says, the sewing machine companies sold their machines in this country for forty-five dollars, and they sold the same machines in England for thirty dollars. He believed the tariff enabled the companies to make such a difference, and he became a believer in Tariff Reform. About that time, too, the Credit Mobilier scandal was uncov- ered. Mr. O'Donnell has since generally acted with the Democratic party, though he bolted the nomination of Grover Cleveland the first time Mr. Cleveland ran for president.
Before Northampton became a city, Mr. O'Donnell took an active part in town affairs. He was then considered one of the rising young men. He was made a member of an important com- mittee to draft and report on a sewer system for the town. A majority of the committee agreed on the combined system. Mr. O'Donnell believed with Colonel John L. Otis and Benjamin E. Cook that the separate or double system - one for sewage proper, and one for storm water - which was by far the less expensive, was much the better for the town to adopt. Mr. O'Donnell wrote the minority report clearly and comprehen- sively, and it is printed in the town reports of 1883. He has the satisfaction of knowing that the city is now adopting the separate system as much as the old system will allow.
Mr. O'Donnell was placed on another important com- mittee, to draft a city charter for the town. As in everything he undertook, he studied the subject well. About ten years ago a committee was appointed by the city council to draft a new city charter. They were three years at the work. It was published, and the editor of the Daily Gazette requested Mr. O'Donnell to write an article showing the difference between the old and new charters. He did this fully and so
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clearly that no question was raised as to the correctness of the analysis. The new charter was rejected.
Mr. O'Donnell has been honored by his party, but those who know him best know that he never sought political office. Practically all the offices he has held were thrust on him. He was bent on attending to his business, and taking part in politics only for recreation, but it was argued that he owed a duty to his party. He was long secretary and treasurer of the Democratic Town Committee; later, chair- man of the Democratic City Committee; chairman of the Hampshire County Democratic Committee; a member of the first City Council as councilman; chairman of the Board of Assessors for two years, from which Board he resigned in 1889 to take a trip to Europe. He there visited Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Holland. That year his party wanted to nominate him for mayor, but he refused. The following year he reluc- tantly consented at the "eleventh hour," and he was badly defeated, even one of the two Democratic wards going against him. There was one consolation - his own Florence ward, though strongly Republican, gave him a handsome majority.
One of the characteristics of the man now manifested itself - perseverance, never-give-up. While he had been virtually drafted into the running, he now resolved that he would be mayor of Northampton. He ran the following year and won by three votes only, carrying only the same two wards, though with increased majorities and reducing the majorities in the other wards. He was happy, not be- cause he was the mayor-elect, but because he won. He gave a banquet to about seventy-five of his supporters and friends, and they had a jolly good time. But his happiness was not of long duration. He soon found himself at odds with some of his warmest friends and supporters. Hardly had the echoes
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of his inaugural died away before he had trouble with a fac- tion of his own party. The members of this faction re- quested him not to reappoint a certain prominent Republican official, but to place a Democrat in the office. The official was considered by some to be able and indispensable, and a large majority of the people wished him retained. In spite of the protest of a faction of his party friends, the mayor re- appointed the Republican for the good of the service. This act so angered a large section of his party that they declared they would defeat him for reelection. He said the respon- sibility for appointments was on him and not on his friends. He then wrote to the author of this sketch that,"If I had supposed I was expected to abdicate in favor of any party or faction during my term I would not have accepted the nomi- nation, and I myself propose to be mayor for one year any- way."
But this was not all. There was more trouble in store for him. His party was in the majority in the Board of Aldermen. The city voted for license. Among the licenses which the Board of Aldermen advocated granting were two against which a strong public protest had been made. An intimate friend of the mayor was the leader of the aldermen. The mayor's sympathy was with the objectors. He refused to sign the two licenses, and his reasons, given in writing, were that both of them were to be exercised in new places and in residential localities, and in a ward which had voted against license. The aldermen then, for the purpose of co- ercing the mayor, refused to grant any license; and the city actually "went dry" for several days. This created a great commotion. The mayor, who was a teetotaler and had never used intoxicating liquors or tobacco in any form, said to the aldermen privately, "Gentlemen, I can get along without my whiskey as long as you can!"
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They soon learned that they did not know the mayor. One of them asked him to call a special meeting of the Board as he thought they would grant the other licenses.
"No, sir," the mayor said, "not until I am assured by themselves that they will vote to grant the licenses."
The assurance was given, the meeting was called, and the licenses granted, except the two. It was simply a matter of judgment between the mayor and aldermen. But the mayor carried his sovereignty under his own hat, so the aldermen learned.
The sewer problem that had been before the City Coun- cil for two years was awaiting solution. The three western wards - Bay State, Florence, and Leeds - were asking for sewers. The city had neither money nor power to borrow, and the four aldermen from the center wards refused to burden the city further with debt. The mayor sided with the western wards, claiming that sewers were an indispensa- ble necessity in thickly settled communities, that they were a good asset, and were always worth what they cost. He prepared the votes submitted to the aldermen, asking the Legislature for leave to borrow one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. There was an acrimonious debate - in which the mayor, of course, did not take part - and in which the alder- men of the four Center wards were reminded that more than a half million of dollars had been expended by the city in providing sewers for the four Center wards and not a dollar for the outside wards. But the measure was defeated four to three. A motion for one hundred thousand dollars met a like fate. However, a motion for fifty thousand dollars, as a beginning, was carried unanimously, the four Center aldermen yielding. The mayor appeared before the Legis- lative Committee at Boston and made full explanation. The committee asked him for his opinion as a taxpayer. He
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gave it, and the committee recommended and the Legislature voted that Northampton might borrow one hundred thousand dollars to construct sewers. The people of the western wards were happy.
But the job for which Mr. O'Donnell deserves the most credit as mayor and with which his name will always be as- sociated, is the separation of grades of the highways and rail- roads. Grade crossings at best are dangerous, but that on Main Street, the track approaches to which were hidden by buildings, was characterized as a "death trap." The City Council petitioned the Court for the appointment of a com- mission for the separation of grades. The petition was granted. Trial was held for many weeks before this com- mission. Mr. O'Donnell had no part in it. The city gov- ernment had voted to ask that the railways be elevated, while the railroad companies insisted that the highways should be elevated. The report of the commission was filed a few months before Mr. O'Donnell took his seat as mayor, finding against the city in every particular and ordering the highways in the center elevated over the rail- roads. All that was necessary now was to have a Judge of the Superior Court ratify and approve to make it binding forever.
The mayor took his seat on the fourth of January, and by the middle of the following month a judge would be asked to approve the report of the commission. The approval had heretofore never been known to fail. In his inaugural address the mayor said on this subject:
"The decision of the special commission on the grade crossing matter came upon some of our people like a thun- derbolt from a clear summer sky. It is a fearful reflection upon humanity when we say, as thousands of us have recently said, that the people cannot obtain justice when they come
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in conflict with these powerful corporations. And no wonder. When men living in luxury, flying from one part of the Com- monwealth to the other, will admit before a committee of the Legislature, in effect, that they have no business but "fixing caucuses," working elections, and lobbying with legislatures, in the interest of railroads, it is enough to cause us to think that their wicked hands are in everything. Add to this the fact that a railroad president living in another county must admit that he is doing all he can to defeat, with the aid of railroad hirelings, a nominee for office in this county, and all in the interest of railroad corporations, and it increases suspicion. When the legislators will pass a law giving the railroad directors the right to 'veto' any decree of the com- mission, and at the same time compel the people to abide by the decree, it is unfair, one-sided, and an outrage.
"Against the individuals composing the special commis- sion we have nothing to say. Their reputation for honesty and honor is above reproach. While this is all true, some of us cannot help but feel that the city did not obtain its rights during the conduct of the hearing. Decisions were made upon the strict rules of law, yet the act creating the com- mission does not provide for any appeal or exception to certain rulings of the Board. If I am right, the commission should have given the widest latitude in the matter of evidence. The commission was asked to permit the city to introduce an additional plan, and give them a chance to explain it, but this was refused. In a question involving from a quarter to half a million of dollars, plenty of time ought to have been given in its investigation and hearing, and the widest range in testimony.
"The law under which the commission was created was passed in 1890, and as yet has had no judicial interpretation. One thing is clear, however, that the judge of the Superior
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Court need not affirm the decree. Until he does affirm it it does not become a law. In my opinion this statute pro- vides a proceeding in the nature of an appeal from the de- cree of the commission to a single justice of the superior court. He can rehear the case himself or recommit it to the same commission, or he can appoint one or more persons to hear the case, and afterwards affirm or disaffirm the decree. Of course it would be of no use to recommit it to the same commission. Engineer Strong and the two attorneys for the city are as strongly as ever of the opinion that the plan of the city was the most fair and equitable one to adopt.
"Think of King Street and lower Pleasant Street dug up under the ground twelve and one-half feet each, for people to go down and up so as to give the railroads the right of way; and Edwards, Main, and upper Pleasant streets sus- pended in the air twenty feet above the earth, to 'go up into Goshen and down into Cummington,' as long as the earth revolves on its axis, and thereby to shorten the lives of men, women, and beasts, that the iron horse may have a level road. This is sad and almost unbearable. Petitions are frequently presented to open new streets for the accommodation of the public, but here the commission hesitate not to shut up Holyoke Street forever. So insignificant has the commis- sion considered the people that it has provided but one side- walk on any of the crossings or bridges except Main Street.
"Three of the best railroad engineers in the state were appointed by the Legislature to investigate the grade cross- ings of the Commonwealth. They did so, and in 1889 they reported to the Legislature relative to Northampton as follows: 'Owing to the very uncertain element of damages to estates, and the difficulty of building a satisfactory over- head crossing for Main Street, we are inclined to favor the plan which required the railroad to be raised.'
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"Everything seems to be in our favor but the decree of the commission. I consider the execution of that decree as an everlasting injury to the city. Individually I would oppose it with all the honorable weapons at my command. I would not permit it to become a law without contesting every inch of ground in the hope that before the last mo- ment I would get the decree reversed and prove to the court what an eye-sore, injury, and everlasting damage it would be to the living and to the hundreds of generations yet unborn. Aye, more, before the city should be thus divided, and the beauty and usefulness of the streets forever ruined, I would take the risk, as hazardous as it appears, to have the decree annulled, the petition dismissed, and everything continue in its original condition. And if the result should be in the near or distant future to compel us to adopt the same plan, and we to pay even one-half the costs, I would console myself in this way: 'Under similar circumstances and the light that I had I would do the same thing over again.' "
The mayor also recommended the calling of a mass meeting to give the people an opportunity to voice their feel- ings and wishes. The meeting was held, and the city hall was packed to the doors. Resolutions were unanimously passed requesting the city government to defend against the report to the last. The City Council had full confidence in the legal and business ability of the mayor, and it passed the following vote:
"Ordered, If the Common Council concurs, that the mayor be and is hereby authorized to use every honorable means within his power, as chief magistrate of the city, to prevent the execution and confirmation of the decree of the special commission on a change of grade in the railroad crossings of the center of Northampton. While the city is in favor of a change of grade at said crossings we are not in
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favor of such a change as will ruin a large portion of our city for all time. And we hereby authorize him to pledge the city's credit, in his sound discretion, to carry out this power and authority."
The rules were suspended, the proposal passed through sev- eral readings and was adopted in concurrence by unanimous vote.
The mayor entered on a vigorous defence of the city. He prepared a paper asking the Legislature for an act to, in effect, prohibit the Court from approving the report of the commission. The mayor headed a large delegation that went to Boston to appear before the Legislative Committee on the subject. The big railroad committee afterward vis- ited Northampton. The committee recommended, and the Legislature passed, the act prohibiting ratification or ap- proval. The railroads claimed that this act was unconstitu- tional and void, and Judge Aldrich of the Superior Court so decided. The city appealed to the highest court in the state, which ruled by a majority of one that the act was constitu- tional and valid, thus favoring the city, to the great joy of its people. The result was the elevation of the railroad tracks over the highways as we have them to-day.
When Mr. O'Donnell's year expired he declined to be a candidate for a second term. But his party would not have it so. At the convention they nominated him unanimously, and sent a committee of his friends to his home to notify him. So strong was he with his party that the threatened opposition did not appear at the convention. Mr. O'Donnell accepted and he was reelected by a large majority. Of the seven wards, he carried five, three of which were Republican wards. When his second term expired the Democratic City Committee voted unanimously that he was their choice for mayor for a third term. There were thirty-five members on the committee; but he insisted on being excused.
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Mr. O'Donnell is a Roman Catholic, and is the first who ever ran for mayor. His nationality and creed were used against him when he first ran and was defeated, and when he next ran and was elected; but this wholly disappeared in the campaign for his second election. The most popular Repub- lican in the city was specially selected to be pitted against him, and accepted the nomination. After Mr. O'Donnell's first election by only three votes he had a Catholic priest officiate at his inauguration. But after his triumphant second election he had a Protestant minister officiate at the inauguration. In explaining this he said, "Never before last year has a Catholic priest been invited to officiate at a Northampton town meeting or at any inauguration of mayor. To set an example in religious tolerance I had a Protestant minister this year officiate for me. I may have set a good example for some of my Protestant successors to follow."
That was twenty-five years ago, and no Protestant mayor since has imitated the religious liberality in that respect that was shown by the Catholic mayor whom so many had tried to defeat on account of his religion.
In 1896 Mr. O'Donnell was nominated by his party for Attorney-General, and in 1900 he was nominated for Lieu- tenant-Governor of the Commonwealth. He was defeated with his party in both cases.
Mr. O'Donnell has been a member of the Order of United Workmen, and The Ancient Order of Hibernians; also of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society of Northampton, which he was largely instrumental in organ- izing more than forty-four years ago, and for which he has done much. About ten years ago the society needed funds to remodel their hall, and Mr. O'Donnell made them a dona- tion of one thousand dollars. This society has done in the years that have passed a great work in this city for sobriety
"The Lookout," Residence of Judge John B. O'Donnell View from the north
"The Lookout," Residence of Judge John B. O'Donnell View from the front
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and thrifty habits among its members, who in numbers have sometimes reached nearly two hundred. Very many men now old and gray, and young men, too, owe to it the foundation of their temperate lives.
It was as a lawyer that Mr. O'Donnell was best known. His practice was large and varied. Blessed with a splendid constitution he was able to give to his work, which included five murder cases, more time than most men would have found possible.
He was never asked to put into writing a gentleman's agreement among his professional associates. His word was as good as his bond.
He is genial, pleasant, and always courteous, and is a favorite with his professional brethren. But he is aggres- sively resentful if he considers himself unfairly dealt with.
He was the only Irishman at the Hampshire County bar when admitted to it, and Irishmen were seldom drawn then for juries. Some of the lawyers, who had not lived in the county as long as he, endeavored on a few occasions to help their cases against him by reminding the jury that he was Irish. At such tactics he was not dull, and he never failed to return sharper words than he received. There were times when he hit back with a vigor that was surpris- ingly effective. Once, in particular, his opponent, who had begun the trouble, asked the court for protection or he would retire from the case. The court asked Mr. O'Donnell to reply.
He arose and said: "If your Honor please, I have tried cases with the leading lawyers of this and neighboring coun- ties without a particle of personal friction, but my learned brother has often seemed to think he could gain some ad- vantage by reminding the jury that I am Irish. A man may call me Irish or Paddy in jest and I will pleasantly joke
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with him; but when he does it to prejudice the jury against my client and his case I will resent it here and anywhere."
In violation of the rules there was applause in the court room. The judge saw that Mr. O'Donnell had been wronged, and he simply said: "Gentlemen, don't forget that you are gentlemen. Please proceed with the case."
Mr. O'Donnell as a ball player was very popular, es- pecially with the young men of the county, thousands of whom knew him well, though he did not know them. They grew to manhood with him and were on his juries, so that such attacks on him always reacted. He won every case in which he was thus assailed.
But the finest physique may be overworked, and in 1903 Mr. O'Donnell broke down. His nerves succumbed to the great strain to which they had been put. For a year he was unable to do any work, and he made the restoration of his health his only business. The winter of 1903-4 was spent in the West Indies, whence he returned much improved, and he soon began to attend to his law business again. His connection with the first jury case after his return to practice was thus commented on by one of the local papers:
"The last jury case on the criminal list, that of Oscar Higgins for inhuman treatment of a horse, went to the jury in the superior court at eleven o'clock this forenoon after vociferous arguments by John B. O'Donnell and District Attorney Malone, who had an oratorical battle royal. Mr. O'Donnell celebrated his re-appearance in the superior court, after a long absence due to ill health, by delivering an able and rousing plea on behalf of the prisoner. He spoke at considerable length, and so well and so like himself of former days that the loungers present listened with intense interest. The popularity of Mr. O'Donnell with his fellow lawyers and with the public was well evidenced by the general expres-
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