Helbling Family History

This information in the above document was complied by Mary Brubaker, who has so generously shared it, and allowed it to be placed on this website. Thanks, Mary!

Dr. John O'Brien was born in Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland, in June of 1808 (or 1812 per another source). He trained in medicine at the University of Dublin. After he graduated, he immigrated in 1832 to the United States and settled in the Pittsburg/Lawrenceville/Allegheny county area of Pennsylvania. He married Jane Neel around 1840, and they had 13 children, 4 of whom died when young. Dr. O'Brien died in 1887, at age 79; his wife Jane died December 6, 1895, at the age of 74 years.

The Neel family was originally from the north of Ireland, and members of the Presbyterian church. John Neel, born 1729, and his wife Dorcas Michael, born c1720, immigrated to the Americas probably by 1751. They settled on Slate Ridge, Martick Township, Lancaster County, Province of Pennsylvania, and farmed the land with the help of their children. John and Dorcas lived in Lancaster County for the remainder of their lives, dying in 1791 and 1765, respectively. One of their sons remained in Lancaster Co., as well, but the other 3 sons moved to Western Pennsylvania. One of these sons, John, married Mary Cooper, a sister of James Fenimore Cooper, the novelist. John, his two brothers and their families crossed the mountains to Allegheny County, carrying their supplies in wagons drawn by horses. John and his brother William were slain by Indians in Western Pennsylvania. The remaining brother, James, settled in Versailles township, Allegheny County, at “Long Run Place.” The family then moved to Mifflin Township, ”…where he took up a large tract of land on Thompson's Run and there ended his days, a farmer and a strict Presbyterian.” Their brick house in Mifflin Township, built around 1797, was still standing 100 years later.

The large farm owned by James H. Neel, the grandfather of Jane, had coal beneath and that became a source of income for the family descendants. James Harvey Neel, father of Jane Neel O'Brien, was born in 1785 and a life-long resident of Allegheny County. Per “The Biographical review, v. 24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburg and the vicinity, Pennsylvania,” published in 1897, James Harvey Neel for a while ”…was engaged as a trader between Pittsburg and New Orleans, taking a flat-boat load of merchandise to the Southern city, making the return trip by alternately riding on horseback and walking. His wife repeatedly made horseback trips across the mountains between here and Philadelphia.” His wife was Elizabeth, or Betsy, Brierly, and she died at the age of 76, in 1871. The Brierly family were also early residents of Allegheny County. They built a brick home in 1795 that was still standing when the book was published 100 years later; Betsey helped carry the brick for the building, as there was not much local labor available and the whole family had to help in its construction.

James Neel married Rachel McClure in 1770. Rachel had also been born into a family originally from Ireland. Four McClure brothers left Ireland in July, 1730, and settled in North Carolina. John McClure, his brother James, and another of unknown name, later removed to Chester County, Pennsylvania, about 1746. John and James McClure were granted a patent of land by Thomas and Richard Penn (sons of William), dated Oct. 12, 1748, for a total of 361 acres in Uwchlan Township. John had married Jane Ahll in 1743, and they had 8 children, including Rachel, who became the wife of James Neel. The McClure family fought in the Revolutionary War, including James McClure, who commanded a company under General George Washington in the New York campaigns.

Although county histories and biographical portrait books are not always accurate, they can be interesting to read and may give information that can be corroborated by primary sources. The following works were utilized in this family history research.

For details and sources of the above O'Brien & Neel information, see “Biographical review; v.24, containing life sketches of leading citizens of Pittsburg and the vicinity, Pennsylvania,” published 1897 by the Biographical Review Publishing Company, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: pp 492, 495.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pitttext&cc=pitttext&idno=00ade1319m&q1=o+brien&frm=frameset&view=image&seq=498

For details and sources of the above Neel information, see also Vol. 3, “Genealogical and personal history of Western Pennsylvania,” editor-in-chief John W. Jordan, published 1913, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: pp 1107-1109, 1421, 1431, 1689.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/text-idx?c=pitttext;view=toc;idno=01aee8434m

For details and sources of the above McClure information, see Vol. 3, “Genealogical and personal history of Western Pennsylvania,” editor-in-chief John W. Jordan, published 1913, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: pp 1107-1108, 1389, and various other pages for other McClures.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pitttext;cc=pitttext;q1=mcclure;rgn=full%20text;idno=03aee8434m;didno=03aee8434m;view=image;seq=0397

Additional McClure information may be found in “Biographical and portrait cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsylvania: comprising a historical sketch of the county” by Winfield Scott Garner, Philadelphia etc.: Gresham Pub., 1893, pp667-668.. A copy may be found on ancestry.com.
Link: http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=10636&iid=dvm_LocHist000289-00346-1&sid=&gskw=

McClure information is also contained in “History of Chester County, Pennsylvania: with genealogical and biographical sketches,” Louis H. Everts, 1881. This text is available on ancestry.com. See pp 641-642, also p. 257 for church information.
Link: http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=10634&pageno=641

For mention of Dr. John H. O'Brien, see “Standard history of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,” edited by Erasmus Wilson, Chicago : H.R. Cornell Co., 1898, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: pp. 624,627. There is also an interesting discussion of health and medicine in Pittsburg, including a cholera epidemic in 1832, the year Dr. John O'Brien immigrated to Pittsburg, and later smallpox epidemics, on pp 621-624.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pitttext;cc=pitttext;q1=o%20brien;rgn=full%20text;idno=00hc03974m;didno=00hc03974m;view=image;seq=0604

For additional information on Charles Anthony O'Brien, son of Dr. John H. O'Brien and Jane Neel, and a portrait of same, See “Western Pennsylvanians: a work for newspaper and library reference” compiled by the James O. Jones Company, published 1923, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: p. 280.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pitttext;cc=pitttext;q1=o%20brien;rgn=full%20text;idno=00agb7453m;didno=00agb7453m;view=image;seq=0280

For mention of Charles A. O'Brien's wife, Lucy Bingey, see “The social mirror : a character sketch of the women of Pittsburg and vicinity during the first century of the county's existence.” Society of to-day / by Adelaide Mellier Nevin. Pittsburg, Pa. : T.W. Nevin, 1888, at the Historic Pittsburgh Full Text Collection: p. 153.
Link: http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=pitttext;cc=pitttext;q1=o%20brien;rgn=full%20text;idno=00anh8596m;didno=00anh8596m;view=image;seq=0157