Providence County Biographies
O
O'Reilly, Francis L., Collector of Port of Providence, was born in county of Cavan, province of Ulster, Ireland, June 24 1844, the son of Philip and Catherine (McEntee) O'Reillys of Cavan were for more than a thousand years powerful princes and cheif-trains in that country, who after centuries of warfare againist the invaders of their native land, were gradually reduced in their power of possessions by the confiscation of their lands by the kings and queens of England. He was educated under private tutorship in his father's house until he was seventeen years of age, at which time he came to the United States and settled in Rhode Island. After brief residence he removed to the Southern States and spent a few years in the dramatic profession and as a public speaker and lecturer. He then studied law and was admitted to the Rhode Island bar in 1870. Since that time he has beem in the active practice of his profession iin Woonsocket, R.I. In 1882 he was admitted to practice in the United States Sepreme Court. His activity and energy have found scope not only in a large law practice, but in military and civil organizations, in political work, and in the promotion and furtherances of many business enterprises of a public nature for the advancement of his city. In 1879 he was commissioned Lieutenant Colonel of the Rhode Island Gurads, of which regiment he has been an active member for several years. He has been active in politics and influential in the councils of his party , and has been for the past fifteen years a member of the Democratic State Committee. He was a Delegage to the Democratic National Conventions in 1888 and 1892, and was largely instrumental in having the vote of the state delegation cast in convention for President Cleveland in 1892. he was a Represenitive in the General Assembly in 1879-80; Town Solictor of Woonsocket in 1887-88; and a member of commission created in 1890 to build a new State House in Providence. In 1894 he was appointed Collector of the Port of Providence by President Cleveland, which office he now holds. He is married and has a family of three children.
Source: Rhode Island Men of Progress - Submitted by Erica Beatty
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