Ex-Convict Arthur O'Connor Seeks Family Reunion
Bainbridge Republican, August 29, 1878
Owego [Tioga Co., NY] had a very romantic, but entirely true story, which is the general topic of conversation in that vicinity. In 1863 a man named Arthur O'Connor kept a hotel known as the Gate Hill House, three miles north of Owego. He was arrested in that year, tried and convicted for passing counterfeit money, and was sentenced to two years in the Auburn Stat Prison. He was married and had two children. He never returned home, and his wife, believing him dead, was married in 1869 to a shoemaker name Hermann Berry. A day or two ago, O 'Connor made his appearance in Owego. Berry, his wife's second husband, was absent from home. O'Connor obtained an interview with the wife. She accompanied him to Hornellsville, where one of his children, a daughter, who had grown up and married during his absence, lives. Berry, coming home and finding out the situation, went to Hornellsville. He found his wife, and asked her whether she would go back with him, or intended to go with O'Connor. She decided to return to Owego with Berry. O'Connor left on the next train, taking with him his son, a young man aged 17 years. he is going to South America. He says that after being released from Auburn Prison he went to St. Louis. There he joined a gang of bank robbers. They robbed an Illinois bank of $240,000. O'Connor's share of the spoils was *25,000. With this he fled to Cuba. He was followed, arrested, brought back and sentenced to ten years in Joliet Prison. His treasure he secreted in Cuba. On his release in 1876 he went directly back to Cuba and recovered his spoils. With it he went to Brazil, where, he says, h has acquired wealth and position. He came to this county after his family. He had in his possession $26,000 in cash, $10,000 of which it is said, he gave to his wife.--N.Y. Times
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