1925 Biography - Andrew O'Brien

Hon. Andrew O'Brien. An abiding faith in the future of his community and a natural sentiment which has drawn him to the soil have been leading factors in the success of Hon. Andrew O'Brien, one of the leading planters of Franklin Parish, whose home is LaMar plantation in Ward Four. While his chief interests have been of an agricultural character, Mr. O'Brien has also engaged in other activities, including banking and merchandising, and for a number of years has been before the public as the incumbent of offices of responsibility and trust.

Mr. O'Brien was born on his father's old plantation two miles south of LaMar, March 13, 1868, a son of Irish parents, John and Catherine (Howard) O'Brien. John O'Brien, who possessed an adventurous nature, ran away from his home in Ireland as a lad of fourteen years and made his Way to the United States, taking up his home in the Southland until the war between the states gave him an opportunity to satisfy his craving for excitement. He joined the Confederate army, where he proved a brave and faithful soldier, and it is said of him that on one occasion, when he had run out of ammunition, he reverted to the use of rocks, which he cast with such unerring precision and force that he put three Union soldiers to flight. Following the close of the war he settled in Louisiana and here married Mrs. Catherine Howard, the widow of Thomas Howard, who owned eighty acres of land on Bayou Macon, in what is now Franklin Parish. He was successful in his efforts as a planter and soon purchased the plantation where his son was born and which is now the latter's property. His mother came to the United States sonic years later, but lived and died at Chicago. Mr. O'Brien's first wife died in 1874, leaving live children: John, who died at the age of twenty-one years; Andrew; Dr. Michael, who secured his medical education at Louisville, Kentucky, practiced for some years at LaMar, married Rosa Pennebaker, by whom he had a son, John T., and died at the age of forty-five years; Thomas, who died when fifteen years of age; and Catherine, who died at the same age. After the death of his first wife Mr. O'Brien married again and had a daughter, Theckla, who died at the age of nineteen years. Mr. O'Brien died aged forty-five years of age, when Andrew O'Brien was about twelve years old.

Andrew O'Brien was reared by his stepmother, and after attending the local schools completed his education at the Brothers School at Vicksburg, Mississippi. As a young man he engaged in planting, and in 1895 acquired LaMar plantation, named in honor of the noted Mississippi statesman, L. Q. C. La Mar. Since that year, also, he has had mercantile interests at LaMar, but planting has continued to hold the greater part of his attention, and he is now the owner of the old home place and Nash, Tallent, Foley, Hoben, Courtney and Campbell plantations. Much of this land was purchased as a matter of sentiment, the plantations having been the homes of former friends of his father, although as a good business man and one possessed of faith in the land, he has also regarded the deals as shrewd investments.

About 1900 Mr. O'Brien became interested in politics, and for a number of years has been a member of the Democratic Executive Committee of the parish. He became a member of the police jury in 1908, and was reelected in 1912, 1916 and 1920, serving as president of that body from 1912 to 1924. A man of progressive spirit, he has supported all worthy movements, and is particularly strong in his advocacy of good roads. Mr. O'Brien is a director in the Bank of Delhi and a stockholder in both banks at Winnsboro.

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Note: The sketch is accompanied by an autographed portrait of the subject.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 363-364.

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