O BRIEN, JOHN AND NANCY

by Lou Long

Entry F315 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

John and Nancy O Brien were married in
1883 at Wilbur, Saline County, Nebraska.
They later moved to McPherson county,
where they located on a homestead just south
of Hooker County. During their marriage
they had six children. John, Jim, Rose, Ora,
Stella and Susie. On November 27, 1897 John
died leaving Nancy with six small children to
raise. When Jim and his brother John were
old enough they homesteaded in Hooker
County and ran a ranch together. In 1913
they moved their cattle to McPherson
County to winter where there was hay. The
cattle all froze in Brown Lake when the
Blizzard of 1913 caught them on the north
side of the lake. After the blizzard all the
cattle were skinned and hides sold. In 1919
John passed away. The other children lived
in the area. In 1926 Nancy became ill. She was
visiting a daughter at Harvard. During her
illness she suffered a nervous breakdown and
wandered in the path of a train and was
killed. She was survived by five children and
eight brothers. The brothers were Thomas,
Erastus, James, D.A. and Isaac, John, George
and Charles Haney.