Date : 19 Nov 1900
Location :
J. F. O'MEARA DEAD.
Malignant Type of Smallpox the Cause of the Fatality.
J. F. O'Meara, for some time bartender at the Southern hotel, a popular man among a large circle of acquaintances, died yesterday morning at the pest-house, His was a malignant type of smallpox. Mrs. O'Meara is at the same institution.
Mr. O'Meara leaves a brother at Delmar Iowa, one in Kalispell and one in Lyons. He Came, to Butte about three months ago from Greenwood, B. C. He was 30 years old.
Mr. O'Meara was born Clinton county, Ia. He was member of the K. of P. and the Eagles and carried life insurance of $1,500. He was interred in the Catholic cemetery.
The Anaconda Standard - Nov 20, 1900
Research notes for John
RE: 1900 Census. I've looked, but I suspect it does not exist. The obits (taken with a grain of salt) mention coming to Butte 3 months ago (Aug) from Greenwood, B.C. So he would have left Canada before their 1901 census and arrived after the U.S. 1900 census.
How did we get here? Tying John and James to the family.
Lots of trees have info on both John F. and James F. O'Meara. Most of them have some variation of the following...
James F. B. 25 Aug 1863 D.31 Mar 1926 M. Josephine M. Purcell 12 Jun 1901
John F. B. 1870-1872 Davenport, IA D. 19 Nov 1900 Iowa M. Alice L. Theriault 23 Aug 1898
I had an exact DOB for James (baptism record) and little else.
I had a rough DOB for John (census records) and little else.
So, is the consensus correct? Let's dig.
I started with an obit for James from Davenport. It mentions his BIL, W.C. Purcell. Seems to fit with wife. It mentions he is the nephew of T.J. O'Meara. Now, when it comes to the city of Davenport and the name T.J. O'Meara, there is only one. T.J. was revered in Davenport. Years after his death, you can still find his name in the local papers about honoring his gravesite. There is no question about who T.J. O'Meara is. And yes, James would, indeed, be his nephew. But, does T.J. have any other nephews named James O'Meara? Possibly. Let's keep digging.
I started digging into John. This got interesting. I found about 5 obits for John and while most are very similar, there are discrepancies. Most mention 3 brothers: one in Lyons (Thomas), one in Delmar (Michael), and one in Kalispell (James). However, there were 4 brothers. The last, Daniel, was living near Bytown/Ottawa, Canada. One obit does mention 4 brothers with 3 in Iowa and one in London, Canada. This isn't bad considering James (Kalispell) used to live in Clinton/Scott Co., IA. Several mention the brother in Kalispell. Now, who is he? Well, these obits list him as: J.F., brother of J.F.; J.F.; J.J.; J.S.; and Jefferson F. (headline) and Jefferson J. (article). Ironically, the last of these is the one that mentions all 4 brothers. Incidentally, there were also 3 living sisters at the time of his death.
Ok. So, I'm feeling pretty good about John and James being brothers. John has okay ties to the rest of the family, but there are also A LOT of O'Mearas in Clinton Co., IA. So, we need to tie these brothers into the family. Is the notorious stature of T.J. O'Meara enough? Well, probably. But what sealed it for me is a combination of 2 articles: an obit (dated 19 Nov 1900) for John which mentions, "[James] had just gone east and could not be communicated with."; and a blurb from a Davenport paper (dated 18 Nov 1900), "James O'Meara of Helena, Montana is visiting the home of his aunt Mrs. T.J. O'Meara on West Sixth street." That is unmistakably the home of the widow of T.J. O'Meara - the uncle of James and John.
Born : 1872
