Col. Steven P. O'Brien clipping 1907

OBRIEN, PARKER, HIESTAND, ZENOR, PHILLIPS, JACKSON, GLIDDEN, EVANS

Posted By: Linda H. Meyers (email)
Date: 6/13/2009 at 13:03:59

First Man Admitted to Bar of Story County was Honored Last Week.
From Ames Intelligencer.

Tuesday was the eighty-second birthday of Col. S. P. O'Brien who is one of the oldest settlers of Story county and Ames. The Colonel has lived for many years in the city of Ames and is generally known to those who have resided here for any length of time. His biography is exceedingly interesting and shows him to have been one of the foremost men in the settlement of the county in which he has resided fifty-five years. It is given here from notes taken from his own dictation. Mr. O'Brien's memory is wonderfully distinct and he can tell of the happenings of many years ago with the ease that one would tell of yesterday's events.

Steven P. O'Brien was born on the 24th day of December, 1825, the second son of Enoch and Naomi Parker-O'Brien. He lived with his parents in Brown county, Ohio, until the year 1831, when they moved to Hancock county, Indiana. He father died in 1835 and a little later he and his mother removed to Clay county in the same state. It was from this place of residence that he enlisted for the Mexican war in June, 1846. The following year, on the 4th of July, he returned home from this war.

On the 19th of July, 1849, Mr. O'Brien was united in marriage to Miss Sadie Hiestand, and three years later, in 1852, they moved from Indiana to Story county, Iowa, taking up a "squatter's claim" on land which is now within the corporate limits of the city of Ames.

August 24, 1862, he enlisted in the civil war. It was in the charge on the enemy's work in the battle of Big Black River, on May 17, 1863, that Mr. O'Brien was wounded, but he remained with his regiment until 1864, when he was honorably discharged because of disability. He reached home the third of May, 1864. Three weeks after his return from the war his wife died. To this union six children had been born.

On his fifty-ninth birthday, Christmas eve, 1864, he was married to Sarah R. Hiestand, who still lives to celebrate with him the eighty-second anniversary of his birth.

He is the father of six children, all by his first wife, all of whom are living. They are: Mrs. Mary E. Zenor of Ames, Samuel W. O'Brien of Jefferson, Iowa, Mrs. Ann Phillips of Lewiston, Mont., Mrs. Alice Jackson of Sullivan county, Indidana, Geo. W. O'Brien of Ames, and Mrs. Viola L. Glidden also of Ames. He has sixteen grandchildren, and twelve great grandchildren living. All his children are living.

Mr. O'Brien was the first man in Story county to be admitted to the bar to plead law, and also has the honor of being the first county assessor appointed in Story county. At the time of the first election Mr. O'Brien had not resided in the county long enough to vote but was within a few days of the time required, and for that reason, the office of assessor was kept open, the office being made appointive. Judge Evans, the father of his present wife, then appointed him as county assessor as soon as he was able to hold the office according to law. At that time the county was so young that but one man was necessary to assess the whole county, and Mr. O'Brien found many peculiar cases on his first trip. In one instance he assessed two parties who had so recently moved to Story county that they had not had time to build houses and were living in the wagons in which they had moved. Mr. O'Brien also held an office in which were embodied some of the duties of the present superintendent of schools coupled with the power to sell government lands and disburse county school funds.

A six o'clock dinner was given, in his honor at his home Tuesday evening, that being the twenty-third anniversary of the marriage with his second wife as well as his birthday.

When the remark was made to Mr. O'Brien that the occasion was his eighty-second birthday, he instantly replied, "No, sir; it is not." He was then asked why he made such a statement and answered with good story which went to prove that a person had but one birthday and that all the rest of the so-called birthdays were merely anniversaries of the first.

The Colonel's mind is as clear as a bell and all who were at the dinner enjoyed themselves immensely.

---from the Ames Intelligencer, just after Dec. 24, 1907