HILLSDALE—Can you remember a time when large families were much more common in the Pascack Valley? If you grew up locally as recently as the mid-20th century, you probably knew at least one household that had eight, nine, 10 kids—or maybe even more. For generations before that, in our more rural past, homes absolutely teeming with children were the norm.
Indeed, it wasn’t the size of Hillsdale’s O’Brien family that made them the talk of the town in the 1910s. Rather, it was the fact that all of their eight children were girls. This week, in honor of National Daughters Day (Sept. 25), we take a look at this exceptional family.
James O’Brien was born at Kilcoole, County Wicklow, Ireland, in 1860. He was 23 years old when he came to America, originally settling in Rockland County, New York, where he began working for the railroad. In 1897 he married Mary Fischer, a young woman from Pearl River.
After a wedding trip to Niagara Falls, the newlyweds settled in Hillsdale and lived on Harrington Street for decades. Mary and James were active in the Pascack Valley’s Catholic community. They were among the founding members of St. John’s Church in Hillsdale.
James was employed as a railroad conductor, a career he held for 40 years. Almost every commuter on the Pascack Valley Line knew Conductor O’Brien, whom they affectionately called Jimmy. The Irishman was known for his quick wit and having a kind word for everyone. His “All aboard! Let’s proceed!” became a byword among the commuters.
One year after the couple’s marriage, the O’Briens welcomed their first child, a girl named Mary Agnes. The second child, in 1901, was a little boy that they named Daniel. Sadly, the baby survived for just six months. Seven more girls would follow between 1902 and 1915: Julia, Margaret, Kathleen, Anastasia, Loretta, Alice, and Beatrice.
The family was mentioned in newspapers nationwide after Beatrice’s birth in 1915.
“There’s a smile on the face of Conductor James O’Brien, which is the kind that won’t come off. It’s all on account of the arrival in the O’Brien home of a little baby,” the Bergen Record reported July 2, 1915. “It wasn’t what you might term exactly a new event, as it is the ninth time that it has occurred there. The genial puncher of tickets would be able to soon lay claim to having a complete baseball team in his own family, but for a fact which might prove to be something of a handicap—all of the children are girls.”
The report adds, “Up at Hillsdale, where this interesting family lives, all of the girls are noted for their cleverness, those who attend school having a reputation for unusual aptitude and ability.”
This was not the only time Conductor O’Brien made the news. In March 1911, he was hailed as a hero when he rescued a woman in a carriage being pulled by a runaway horse. This happened in the center of Westwood.
The conductor outdid himself the following year. In July 1922, a freight train speeding toward the Hillsdale station was unable to stop due to a brake malfunction. O’Brien’s passenger train was parked outside the station at the time, and a few early morning passengers had already boarded. Hearing the frantic whistle of the approaching locomotive, O’Brien rushed through his train shouting for everybody to run for their life. The passengers dashed off just in time, and there were no serious injuries. The freight train hit the commuter train with such force that it split the rear coach from end to end and derailed the other cars into a twisted heap of metal that subsequently went up in flames.