USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The story of the Irish in Boston, together with biographical sketches of representative men and noted women > Part 29
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41
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for a share of the fame, and he continued in the service of the New York " Herald " until 1877, as New England correspondent. In 1878 he came to Boston and wrote for the " Globe," and finally became connected with the Boston " Herald." He wielded a most facile pen, and had wonderful descriptive powers.
MCGRATH, DAVID J., editor and publisher of " The Horse and Stable," - a trade journal, - born in East Weymouth, April 21, 1861. He graduated from the Bicknell Grammar School about 1878, and then went to work in a shoe manufactory, but found the business uncongenial and unsuited to his taste and inclination. He became connected with the Boston " Daily Globe" in the capacity of district local reporter, on July 6, 1881, and he has shown marked ability in journalism since his advent to the field. He was pro- moted to the position of night city editor after service as local reporter, court reporter, and special correspondent. He also presided over the night desk and day desk, and his ed- itorial judgment was considered excellent by his associate journalists. The monotonous life at the desk gave him no opportunity to ex- tend his efforts and display his literary gifts as a special correspondent, for which he pos- sessed positive and unusual talent, and he decided to devote his mind to special work. He has done some notable newspaper feats, among which is his capture of young McNally, the Saco, Me., bank clerk, who ab- sconded with about half a million dollars. Mr. McGrath has been the correspondent for several New York papers. As a writer of short, breezy sketches he has no superior in Boston, and his more lengthy articles on passing · events, which have appeared from time to time in the " Globe," have attracted much attention and favorable comment.
MCKAY, M. E., reporter, graduated from St. John, N.B., schools at the age of fifteen, a licensed teacher. She began writing about seven years ago for several St. John papers, came to Boston three years ago, wrote for
the "Globe " and "Herald" articles on church matters, and is now an able member of the "Globe " reportorial staff, where she is doing excellent work.
MCNALLY, HUGH P., night editor of the Boston "Herald," born in Charlestown, Mass., 1856; attended the public schools of Charles- town. In early life he worked for John C. & E. A. Loud, bakers on Prince street, and for several years for Horace P. Stevens, pro- visions and groceries, on Chelsea street, Charlestown, whose employ he left to enter the steam-engineering department at the Navy Yard, with the intention of becoming an engineer in the navy. After a competitive examination he was made a government ap- prentice; but as there were no vacancies in the machine-shop he was placed in the pat- tern-shop, and served the full term of four years in learning the pattern-maker's trade. The possession of either trade - machinist or pattern-making - would gain him the time set for practical work at the naval academy. While learning his trade he studied hard at home and at the evening high school, posting himself fully on the requirements for admis- sion to the Annapolis Academy. At the same time he began reporting for the " Daily Advertiser," then on Court street, and also for the old " Sunday Times." He became de- voted to journalism, and secured a regular place on the staff of the " Daily Advertiser," where he remained for about eight years, doing all kinds of general reporting and special work, only leaving the "old daily " to become one of the night editors of the " Herald," a position he has filled for the past four years. He has written many special articles for the " Herald."
While employed on the " Advertiser " he also did regular work for the "Sunday Courier," being for about three years city editor of the paper, and a special-article writer. The last two years of his connection with the "Courier " he had charge of the make-up and " putting to press."
Mr. McNally has contributed frequently to New York and Western papers and to the
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Irish-American press over the signatures of " Hugh X" and " Heber." He was one of the founders of the St. Mary's Young Men's Temperance Society of Charlestown, and has been secretary, and also treasurer, of that or- ganization. He is a member of the Charitable Irish Society and of the Boston Press Rifle Club, and has been the executive officer of the latter association. He is a married man, and has two children.
MCNALLY, JOHN J., author and journalist, born in the Bunker Hill district of this city, May 7, 1854. He was educated in the pub- lic schools of that district, and was graduated from the Charlestown High School in 1872, . and afterwards entered the Harvard Law School, where he prepared himself for ad- mission to the bar.
While pursuing his studies at Harvard he began his career as a journalist on the Charlestown "Chronicle," a local paper which was at one time edited by Mr. John H. Holmes, the present editor of the Boston "Herald." When Mr. Stephen O'Meara, now managing editor of the Boston "Journal," was taken off district work and made a regular city reporter on the Bos- ton "Globe," in September, 1872, Mr. McNally succeeded him as the Charlestown reporter of that paper. He retained his newspaper connection during the two terms he was at Harvard, doing at night a variety of journalistic work, and studying law dur- ing the day.
Inclination, taste, temperament, and habit induced him to desert the law and give his whole allegiance to journalism, where the immediate rewards for labor were greater.
He was employed as a reporter and special writer by the "Globe," " Advertiser," and "Sunday Courier " at various times, and somewhere about 1877 he succeeded Mr. Henry A. Clapp as dramatic critic of the " Sunday Times," which was then, as now, an excellent authority on dramatic matters.
His work for the "Times" proving satis- factory, he was rapidly given charge of several departments, and finally was placed in full
editorial control of the paper, which he con- ducted with success.
It was as the dramatic critic of the " Times " that Mr. McNally attracted the attention of Mr. Willie Edouin and Manager E. E. Rice, and was engaged by the former to write, in conjunction with Mr. Dexter Smith, a bur- lesque for the newly organized Rice's Surprise Party. Messrs. McNally and Smith then wrote " Revels; or, Bon Ton George, Jr.," which was one of the most successful bur- lesques ever presented in this country. The piece was originally produced in San Fran- cisco, and when it was proposed to open with it in Philadelphia, Mr. McNally went on to that city, and rewrote the piece, adapting it to the members of the organization, which included Mr. Edouin, Mr. W. A. Mestayer, Mr. Henry E. Dixey, Mr. George Howard, Mr. Louis Harrison, and Misses Alice Ather- ton, Lena Merville, Marion Singer, Marion Elmore, Jennie Calef, and many others who have since appeared as stars.
In Philadelphia Mr. Rice offered Mr. Mc- Nally a good salary to travel with the company as librettist and press agent, and he entered the dramatic profession and remained in it for three seasons, acting as press agent, treasurer, and business manager.
For a few months Mr. McNally was en- gaged as assistant business manager for Miss Annie Pixley, and when he left her service he returned to Boston and again entered jour- nalism as an editorial writer on the Boston " Daily Star," and a few weeks later was ap- pointed managing editor of that paper, leav- ing it to join the special editorial staff of writers on the Boston "Herald." He also assisted Mr. E. A. Perry in the writing of dramatic criticismns, and when that gentleman was sent to England as the resident corre- spondent of the " Herald " in London, the management of that journal showed its ap- preciation of Mr. McNally's work by placing him in full control of its dramatic depart- ment.
While he was with Mr. Rice, Mr. McNally rewrote " Horrors," "The Babes in the Wood," and other pieces in the Rice reper-
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toire, and gave to all of them new leases of life and prosperity. In "The New Evan- geline," which was also the work of this author, Mr. Henry E. Dixey made one of his greatest early successes as a clerk to LeBlanc, a part especially written for him. This version of the old extravaganza was singularly popular, and was first produced in Boston, at Forest Garden.
Mr. McNally is also the author of a num- ber of short sketches and farces which were successful, but which were not billed under his name. He has written many topical, character, and sentimental songs, and he is responsible for a great many of the local verses which have been sung in this city by comedians of visiting combinations.
His latest successes are " Home Rule," a pleasing sketch which was played with good results by the Irwin Sisters in the Howard Athenæum Star Specialty Company, who sung a topical duet by the same author, " Upside Down," which he wrote in collaboration with Mr. Thomas A. Daly; " Army Tactics, or Love and Strategy; " "Irish Heads and German Hearts; " and " Little Lord Mc- Elroy."
Mr. McNally has been singularly fortunate as an author, as his name has never been associated with a failure.
MCNALLY, PETER S., journalist, born in Charlestown, July 7, 1865. He attended the public schools, and also took a three-years course at Boston College. He began news- paper work on the "Evening Star," July 7, 1887, as Charlestown reporter. In Septem- ber of the same year he became a member of the " Post " staff. He subsequently joined the staff of the " Daily Advertiser " and " Evening Record," and occasionally contributed to the "Journal." In February, 1886, he became attached to the " Sunday Budget" and " Manufacturers' Gazette." In January, 1888, he returned to the "Advertiser " and " Record " as sporting editor and night local reporter, his present position. He is profi- cient as an athlete and swimmer, particularly in the latter, having won many long-distance
races. He has a record of swimming from Bath, Me., to Fort Popham, on the Kenne- bec river, a distance of sixteen nautical miles. As a life-saver he holds a silver medal from the Massachusetts Humane Society, presented to him in April, 1886, with the inscription, "To P. S. McNally, - For repeated acts of humanity and bravery, by which many per- sons have been saved from drowning, Boston, 1872-1886." He is reported to have rescued about forty persons.
McNARY, WILLIAM S., managing editor, born in North Abington, Mass., March 29, 1863. He is of Irish-Scotch descent. He attended the public schools of his native town until twelve years of age, when he re- moved to South Boston, where he has since resided. He was a graduate of the Lawrence Grammar School in 1877, and the English High School in 1880. In the latter year he became employed as reporter on the " Com- mercial Bulletin," and was recently appointed managing editor. He has been identified in amateur theatricals, as a public reader, and was at one time president of the South Bos- ton Union, also of the St. Augustine's Ly- ceum, and is a member of the South Boston Citizens' Association. He represented Ward 15 as a Democrat in the Common Council of 1886-87, and was elected to the Demo- cratic Ward and City Committee in 1888. He is a member of the Legislature of 1889, and is recognized as one of the prominent Democrats of that body. He is a lieutenant of Company B, Ninth Regiment, a member of the Boston Press Club and of the Massa- chusetts Young Men's Democratic Club.
MERRIGAN, JOHN J., editor, born in Bos- ton in 1855. He became a resident of South Boston at an early age, where he graduated from the Lawrence Grammar School. When a boy he sold newspapers in the peninsular district, and the juvenile training which he acquired at the time doubtless prompted his subsequent desire to be a proprietor of a successful newspaper. In a measure he has accomplished this result, and is now
JOHN J. MERRIGAN.
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editor and proprietor of the South Boston " News," a weekly publication of considerable local prominence. At the age of fourteen years be became employed at the book- binder's trade, subsequently accepted a position as clerk in a wall-paper establish- ment, and later was engaged for over three years with a building firm. His next busi- ness experiment was as an advertising solicitor. He assumed charge of the adver- tising department of a district paper, and through his efforts a very satisfactory financial showing was the result. Eventually he extended his work, and served as resident correspondent for New England newspapers. Finally, in 1885, he became connected with the South Boston "News," which has since been elevated to an influential position as a Democratic newspaper.
MURNANE, TIMOTHY HAYES, journalist, born in Naugatuck, Conn., June 4, 1850. He received a common-school education, and began playing base-ball at an early age. From 1870 until 1885 he was engaged as player and manager for a number of base- ball clubs. During his experience on the " diamond " he was connected with the follow- ing clubs : The Savannah (Ga.), Middletown (Conn.) Athletics, Philadelphia, Boston, and Providence. In 1874 he went to England and Ireland with the American ball-players, as a member of the Athletics of Philadelphia. He has been instrumental in bringing before the public many great ball-players, notably Messrs. Crane and Slattery, of New York; Sullivan, Farrell, and Duffy, of Chicago; Farrer, of Philadelphia; McCarthy, of St. Louis ; Nash and Johnston, of Boston; Hughes, of Brooklyn; Hackett, Shaw, Mor- gan, Murphy, and others. In 1884 he organ- ized the Boston Unions, and in 1886 the Boston Blues. In the spring of 1886 he started the Boston " Referee," a sporting paper, which he still continues to publish. He is also a member of the staff of the Bos- ton "Globe," and is at present the special writer for that paper of the games played by the Boston nine. In addition to his regular
newspaper work he is special correspondent for the " Sporting Life," New York " Even- ing Telegram," St. Louis "Sporting News," and the "Press Association."
MURRAY, WILLIAM F., journalist, born in Cardiff, Wales, Aug. 18, 1859, of Irish parents, with whom he came to the United States when only eleven months old. He lived in New York a few years, and then the family moved to the Provinces, where he was edu- cated in the public schools under the charge of the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers, and in St. Mary's College and the Commercial College there. He studied law one year and a half in the office of Hon. John S. D. Thompson, the present minister of Justice of the Dominion. He learned Pit- man's system of phonography about this time, and abandoned the study of law to engage in journalistic work, toward which he had a strong inclination. He served two sessions as assistant reporter of the Legislature, and after joined the staff of one of the local news- papers.
He came to Boston early in 1880, and went to work on the daily and Sunday " Globe," and left there to edit a daily paper in one of the New England towns. During most of the winter of 1881-82 he travelled through the United States and Canada as stenographer and agent for the late Prof. O. S. Fowler. He afterward joined the Bos- ton "Herald " staff, where he remained until August, 1887, when he accepted a position as private secretary to the U.S. General Appraiser. In addition to performing the duties of his present position, he is also en- gaged to a limited extent in newspaper work, and was one of the representatives of the " Herald" at both the National Demo- cratic and Republican conventions in 1888. He is a member of the Boston Press Club, the Charitable Irish Society, and the Royal Arcanum.
O'BRIEN, CARLETON T., journalist, born in Boston, Sept. 29, 1858, and graduated from the Lewis Grammar School, and studied for
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two years in the Roxbury High and Latin Schools. He left the high school to fill a position on the " Commercial and Shipping List," - a paper then managed and owned by his father, ex-Mayor O'Brien, - and he con- tinued with that paper until its dissolution, in 1886. He acquired much knowledge of the various branches of business in Boston, which he practically applied as a writer of the market reports for the Boston "Journal," and correspondent of several other papers. His reports of the different business interests are gauged as thoroughly accurate, and the wool trade particularly mark Mr. O'Brien's reports as authoritative. He is a member of numerous societies in Boston and vicinity.
O'CALLAGHAN, JOHN J., reporter, born in West Springfield, Mass., Sept. 14, 1861, where he attended the public schools. He later removed to Boston, Charlestown Dis- trict, and he has since resided there. In 1885 he became district reporter for the Boston " Daily Advertiser " and " Evening Record," and was subsequently promoted to a position on the local staff of both papers. He is a careful and thorough news-gatherer, ener- getic, and has done creditable work as a writer of political news, of which he now makes a specialty. He is a member of the Boston Press Club, St. Francis de Sales Young Men's Catholic Total Abstinence, and the Literary Society, of Charlestown, and served a year as president and an equal term as secretary of the temperance society.
O'CONNOR, EUGENE J., journalist and telegrapher, born in Springfield, Mass., Oct. 24, 1848. His early education was received in the public schools of that city. At the age of eighteen years he was engaged in telegraphic work, and subsequently held as important a position as the comparatively primitive condition of telegraphy of that time would admit. About 1874 he came to Boston, where he has since resided. In former years the position of an operator was not much more than a mere mechanical manipulator; the press despatches, which
are now quite large, were then rather meagre, without the present regard for con- tinuity of the message. He who received the despatch mechanically transcribed letter by letter as it ticked inward. To-day Mr.O'Con- nor and others can send and receive with a precision and ease as though the wire were a living, breathing being. Previous to the telegraphers' strike in July, 1883, he had been night chief operator of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in Boston. At the Chicago convention of the Telegraphers' Brotherhood of the United States and Can- ada he was chosen chairman of the execu- tive board, under whose guidance the great strike of 1883 was conducted. For his " striking activity " in 1883 he was ostracized by the Western Union Company, but honored and revered by toiling operators throughout the country. He subsequently entered the ser- vice of the United Lines Company; later with the Baltimore & Ohio Company. When the Western Union Company assumed the man- agement of the latter Mr. O'Connor joined the staff of the Boston " Globe," where he is now employed. He is a Democrat, and has been first assistant assessor for the city of Boston; he is president of the Telegraphers' Mu- tual Aid and Literary Association, and the success of the organization, as well as much advancement in telegraphic service, is largely due to his efforts.
O'KEEFE, ARTHUR, reporter, born in Bos- ton, Sept. 19, 1843. He attended the Win- throp Grammar School of Charlestown and Boston Latin School. He was first employed as a commercial traveller, but began news- paper work in 1881. He worked about a year for the Boston " Star," and afterwards for the Boston "Sentinel." He became en- gaged by the Boston " Globe " in 1886 as a space writer, and was later employed as re- porter on the regular staff, a position which he now holds.
O'MEARA, HENRY, author, poet, and jour- nalist, born in St. John's, Newfoundland, Sept. 1, 1850. He was educated chiefly at
STEPHEN O'MEARA.
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the Central Academy and St. Dunstan's College in Charlottetown, P.E.I. While at the latter place he was awarded the special prize for good conduct by suffrage of all the students, and he manifested a special interest in the rhetoric class, in which he was associ- ated with the present Archbishop of Halifax and with the poet-editor, Mr. James Jeffrey Roche.
At the close of his classical studies he came with other members of the family to Boston, and after a brief experience at the Merchants' Exchange News Room he was engaged in the book department of the "Pilot" publishing establishment, then con- ducted by Mr. Patrick Donahoe, in which po- sition he availed himself of its unusual oppor- tunities for an acquaintance with books and authors. He was promoted to an editorial position on "The Pilot," where for some years he was a co-worker with the chief editor, Mr. John Boyle O'Reilly. Subse- quently, during an interval of half a year, he taught classes at the House of the Angel Guardian in Boston Highlands. He after- wards accepted an engagement for special department work on the Boston " Herald." The editorial charge of the " Catholic Herald" at Lawrence, Mass., was given him during the first six months of its existence.
Mr. O'Meara has also contributed to most of the papers in Boston at various times. When the Catholic Lyceum of Boston flour- ished he prepared a pamphlet history of its work; and as one of the projectors of the Lyceum of Charlestown, he participated in a course of public lectures, and also con- ducted a journalistic organ. He is the author of various poems, some of which have ap- peared in a recent compilation, and others in the newspapers of Boston and vicinity. In dramatic matters he has long displayed a special taste, having been the dramatic critic of the Boston " Times," and having also contributed critical articles to other Boston papers. One of the projects which he has in part accomplished has been the prep- aration of short poems in tribute to the heroines of Shakspeare. He has been for
some years past employed in the office of the Boston " Journal," where he has had charge of the " Weekly Journal," and his varied work on the Daily, particularly in the line of descriptive writing, has been uniformly credited with grace of diction. He has given considerable attention to historical and controversial material, and as chairnian of the Committee of the Catholic Union of Boston on History and Statistics he has displayed marked ability. Mr. O'Meara is married and is the father of three children.
O'MEARA, MARY, journalist. She pos- sesses decided journalistic aptitude, which would bring her into prominence, if family duties did not greatly limit its exercise, and she is the wife of Henry O'Meara, of the editorial staff of the Boston " Journal." Mrs. O'Meara, whose maiden name was Lynch, is a native of Boston. Her journalistic beginnings were made in "Our Young Folks' Magazine," edited by the Rev. Thomas Scully, of Cambridge, Mass. She was mar- ried about nine years ago. For eight years past she has conducted the Women's De- partment and the Children's Corner of the Boston " Republic." Her work shows rare taste and judgment. Mrs. O'Meara is a valued member of the New England Women's Press Club. She is a woman of ex- tremely pleasing presence and generous edu- cation, diffident of her own gift, and always happy in promoting the success of others.
O'MEARA, STEPHEN, editor, born in Charlottetown, P.E.I., July 26, 1854. His father was born in Thurles, County Tip- perary, Ireland, and his mother in New- foundland, where his father immigrated about 1833. He came to the United States in 1864, and after a short residence in Braintree, Mass., and later in Boston, located in Charles- town, where he now resides. He graduated from the Harvard Grammar School in 1868, and from the Charlestown High School in 1872. The day after the latter graduation he became the Charlestown reporter of the Boston "Globe," and in October of the same
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year a reporter on the city staff, where he remained until December, 1874, tendering his resignation at that time to accept a posi- tion as shorthand reporter on the Boston " Journal." In May, 1879, he was promoted to the office of city editor. During his ex- perience as a reporter he served five years at newspaper work in the Legislature, nearly three years at City Hall, and had a wide range of business, law, and political report- ing. In 1881 he was advanced to the position of news editor of the " Journal," which post he still occupies. The duties of his office are entirely executive, includ- ing the immediate direction of reporters and correspondents, and the supervision of the work of all persons engaged in the collection and handling of news as distinguished from purely editorial matter, or that involving the expression of the paper's opinions. In 1881 he was vice-president, and afterward for two years president, of the Charlestown High School Association, and in 1885 delivered the annual oration before that organization. IIe was the first instructor in phonography at the Boston Evening High School, a posi- tion which he held for four years; was for- merly the auditor and is now the treasurer of the New England Associated Press, and was president of the Boston Press Club during 1886-'87-'88, his election each year being unanimous. In 1888 the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by Dartmouth College.
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