The history of what is now San Benito County is full of positive
changes that the Irish immigrants and their descendants wrought
here. It is appropriate as St. Patrick’s Day approaches to
acknowledge several of those families.
Many of its people left Ireland in the 1840s and later for a number of reasons, but the chief was to escape starvation after six successive seasons of the great potato blight.
Those who could afford passage to other parts of Great Britain, Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States reluctantly left their native land. Many made their way to the New World where, it was said, they could find work and raise their families in a better way than they had ever the opportunity before.
So they came by the thousands upon hundreds of ships year after year. Some settled in New York City or Boston where many of their fellow countrymen had preceded them. Others who did not relish the crowded tenement life of the sprawling cities or the biased social views toward them looked beyond the horizon, and many of those made their way west to California.
The history of what is now San Benito County is full of positive changes that the Irish immigrants and their descendants wrought here. It is appropriate as St. Patrick’s Day approaches to acknowledge several of those families.
The Breens
What would Patrick Breen Sr. have thought of being pinpointed by history as the first “Anglo” to settle permanently in San Juan Bautista in the 1840s? He came from County Carlow and it is assumed he had no more love for the English than did his countrymen.
However, he was the first non-Hispanic or non-Indian to do so and the generations of his family have left their mark upon local history.
Breen and his family first went to Canada, then later to Iowa. He was caught up in the great Western movement and in 1846 set across the plains to California with his family in hope of greater opportunity.
It fell to their lot to become stranded in the Donner Pass during winter. For weeks, they looked for help that did not come and their provisions slowly dwindled until they were reduced to eating leather straps and the bark of trees. Some were reported to have resorted to cannibalism in a desperate fight for survival. Many died of starvation and the remainder were too far physically gone to seek help.
But the survivors were finally rescued and nursed back to health. Breen and his family eventually made their way to San Juan, a community established around Mission San Juan Bautista 50 years earlier.
It had passed from Spain to Mexico and was then an American community because of the recent outcome of the Mexican-American War. The Breens did well, with Patrick operating a hotel, and they moved into the adobe house that had previously been the home of the Castros. It is listed as the Castro-Breen Adobe and seen by thousands of tourists every year.
Patrick’s son, Patrick Jr., loved his new land and in turn married and raised a family. A son, Peter Breen, became an attorney. His son, James, was an engineer who worked on the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Two of his sons, John and Thomas, became attorneys; the late John Breen worked in the San Benito County District Attorney’s office.
While working for the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary in Washington, D.C., Thomas Breen learned that Judge Ed Brady was planning to retire from the county Superior Court, and applied for the position. He was accepted and began his 20-year tenure in June 1980. A great-great-uncle, James Breen of San Juan, had been a Superior Court Judge in Monterey County when San Benito County was formed in 1874, and became the new county’s first Superior Court Judge.
Thomas Breen was elected to the Gavilan College board in 2000 and plans to seek a second term next year. His son, Adam Breen, is the former editor of the Free Lance.
The O’Briens
The O’Brien line started here in the 19th century when William O’Brien of County Clare opened a blacksmith shop at the corner of Sixth and East streets. His son, William Howard O’Brien, became a civic leader and served at different times as Hollister postmaster, city clerk and fire chief. He was also the editor and publisher of the Hollister Advance, a morning newspaper later sold to the Free Lance.
One of his sons was John O’Brien, today Hollister’s senior attorney. After earning a law degree at the University of Santa Clara in 1957, O’Brien worked for the state Attorney General in San Francisco, then returned to Hollister in 1958 where he ran for district attorney; he was elected and served two terms. Four months after leaving that office, O’Brien was appointed Hollister City Attorney, a post he held for a record 24 years. He was often referred to as “Council’s sixth member.” At 72, he is still a practicing attorney.
Until recently, O’Brien presided at the annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration at a local bar and led the celebrants in many Irish airs.
The O’Donnells
Another prominent Irish name in the community is O’Donnell. The local line started with Thomas O’Donnell who was born in County Clare in 1840 and lived through the great famine, when many of his countrymen perished. He emigrated to Australia, then sailed to the United States and lived for awhile in San Francisco before moving to Hollister around 1873. Several months after the new county was formed he was listed in its first register as a saloon keeper.
In 1876, he sent passage money to his fiancee, Sarah Moran, in Ireland. They were married in 1877 and became the parents of seven children. The first child, Joseph M. O’Donnell, earned a doctorate in medicine at the University of California and returned to Hollister to practice. When the influenza epidemic of 1918-19 struck, he sometimes was up for several days at a time to attend to those stricken. He even prepared food at his home and took it to those who were too weak to cook for themselves.
Joseph P. O’Donnell was the chairman of the local high school board for more than 35 years. When a gymnasium was built in 1938, it was named for him. He also was a force in local politics, headed several civic groups, chaired many committees and was in charge of several bond drives in World War II.
An ongoing function in which he delighted was to serve as Santa Claus for the Christmas party that the Hollister Elks put on for children of the community every year. He also collected and delivered food, clothing and toys to families who could not afford them.
Thomas O’Donnell, his brother, was an attorney in Hollister for nearly 40 years until his death of a heart attack in 1939. For a few months in 1915 he was interim county Superior Court Justice.
He and Amy Breen, a descendant of Patrick Breen, were married in 1908 and the following year became the parents of Thomas Patrick O’Donnell. He became an attorney and joined his father’s law firm. In 1950 he was appointed judge of the county Superior Court and served in that capacity until his death in 1960.
Another brother, Eugene Francis “Frank” O’Donnell, became Hollister’s postmaster in 1935, a position he held until his death in 1946. He married Kate Cornwell in 1908 and they became parents of five children. The youngest, Kathryn Mary, married attorney Jim Paxton in 1955 and had two sons. The elder, Mark Paxton, was editor of the Free Lance for 10 years.
Frank O’Donnell’s second son, Jack O’Donnell, is the patriarch of the family now. He declined an athletic scholarship to Santa Clara upon graduation from Hollister Junior College in 1933 because he wanted to help his family. He was a foreman of the Civilian Conservation Corps camp at the Pinnacles before going to work for the post office.
Jack O’Donnell later became an orchardist and even in retirement is one of the most active members of the county historical society. He turns 91 on Sunday but celebrates his birthday with his grandson, Patrick O’Donnell, on St. Patrick’s Day.
“Patrick was born on Dec. 25, 1976, and because it was Christmas, wanted another to get gifts,” Jack O’Donnell explained. “So I suggested that we both observe our birthday on St. Patrick’s Day.”
Patrick O’Donnell worked briefly for the Free Lance but is now “the entire editorial staff of the Kingsburg Register,” his grandfather said.
Commenting on the Breens, O’Briens and O’Donnells, Jack O’Donnell said with a laugh, “They seemed to start off well enough as saloon keepers, blacksmiths and farmers, but then they got into the law and journalism. You never can tell.”
