O'Donovan Family
Biography
Timothy O'Donovan, originally of Walker's Mills, Allegheny County, worked as a telegraph operator, freight and ticket agent, and supervisor with the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, & St. Louis Railway Co., the New York & New England Railroad, and the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad. (25 letters on railroad letterheads, 6 telegrams, and three passes, 1879-1898, document his railroad work, including his regular attempts for promotion.) He had legal aspirations, as demonstrated by an 1880 letter from Pittsburgh attorney L. L. Davis offering advice regarding law studies. Four years later O'Donovan signed a detailed contract (present in the collection) to have a double-tenement built for himself, but not until the turn of the century did he free himself from railroad work. After 1900 O'Donovan's papers indicate he engaged in insurance work and real estate. By late life he had prospered sufficiently to be appointed trustee of the Pennsylvania Training School by Governor George Earle (signed appointment present in the collection). He and Lucy had a son, Henry B., who died at the age of 11 months. Their surviving children are Catherine (July 7, 1888-April 27, 1972), Edmund Anthony (December 12, 1891-March 23, 1954) John Anthony (February 21, 1894-September 22, 1955), and Timothy Joseph (December 24, 1899-November ?, 1969) His older brother Michael was a telegraph boy who passed the bar, became President of the McKees Rocks Trust Company, and ran as the Democrats' 1906 U. S. Congressional candidate from Pennsylvania's 32nd District. Clippings from his campaigns are part of the collection.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
O'Donovan Family Papers
Letters of an extended Irish family from Allegheny and Cambria counties. Includes, among other items, correspondence with several railroads, for whom Timothy O'Donovan worked, letters from Lucinda Byrne to her future husband, World War I documents, and correspondence with cousins in San Francisco.