Our ancestors experienced a stressful year in 1861. Abraham Lincoln was sworn in as the 16th president of the United States and the Civil War erupted.
Many people in the greater Concord community enlisted for what was thought to be a very short war to preserve the United States Union. Sadly, this was not to be and the war continued for years. The soldiers from Concord and Penacook that enlisted and departed would be away serving their country for a long while, some would never return.
It was during 1861 that a young couple welcomed a new son to their family. Edward and Catherine O’Halloran were both originally from County Cork, Ireland, and settled in Fisherville after their arrival.
They arrived with many people from Ireland in pursuit of a better life with the ability to start a family. The potato famine in Ireland in the 1840s ravaged all of the tenant farmers, leaving them without income, a home and the ability to feed themselves.
Edward and Catherine O’Halloran were quite pleased to have escaped this nightmare in Ireland and settled into their home in Fisherville. Their first child arrived on Nov. 14, 1861, with two additional children born over the next few years. Their oldest child was named Jere O’Halloran and he arrived at this most difficult time in history.
Young Jere lived a good life in Fishersville, he was educated in the local schools and developed friends quite easily. His teachers realized at a very young age that Jere was different than the other children, very gifted with intelligence as well as a unique grasp with spelling and sentence structure. Jere studied hard and excelled along the way, with a special appreciation for the English language as well as the ability to use it quite well.
Sadly, at the age of just 10 years old, Jere lost his father. When Jere was 20 years old, he also lost his mother on Halloween. At 20 years old, Jere was now responsible to maintain a homestead and support his two younger siblings. He initially worked in the cotton mills shortly after his father’s passing and then transferred to a furniture factory owned locally by Mr. Amsden. While he enjoyed the skills he was acquiring, he decided to further his development by working for a grocery store owned by J. C. Lineman. All of his employers were local and knew about his intellect and ability to function quite well and be trusted. After a period of a few more years and one last attempt in the woolen mills of Fishersville, Jere decided it was time to receive some formal training and a career with a future.
Jere O’Halloran would become a barber as well as a tonsorialist, who would do minor surgery and dental work in addition to haircutting. He studied during his spare time and eventually established a local shop. As a tonsorialist, he was in a state-licensed position allowing him to paint iodine onto the tonsils of a sick person as a first step to combat tonsillitis. This saved the patient the expense of visiting a doctor while providing somewhat of a remedy. Jere had found his true profession shaving, cutting hair and painting tonsils in Fishersville.
As the years progressed, we find Jere O’Halloran becoming successful and very well-liked in the greater Concord area. He was very quick-witted and still possessed another unique skill above and beyond his tonsorialist work. Jere was a poet; he could whimsically rhyme words at the drop of a hat and his kind disposition invited many members of the community to seek him when they desired a poem for those they loved.
Soon, Jere was writing as much as barbering and painting tonsils with iodine. He wrote verse after verse and the people loved each and every word. Word spread across state lines and soon he was writing verse for people in Massachusetts, too. During the summer months, he also worked in a barbershop at Old Orchard Beach in Maine and word of his poetry spread via the many visiting tourists.
It was rather quickly that people starting referring to Jere O’Halloran as the poet-barber. With his further development in verse, musicians began to seek the talents that Jere provided to write songs for them. He would write the song and the musicians would provide the notes. Jere O’Halloran was a local celebrity and soon started a group known as the Fishersville Minstrels to perform about town. Jere was indeed a very popular rhymester and joke maker, spreading cheer and solidifying his poetic verse with every head of hair that he cut.
A natural performer, Jere was also a very gifted skater and provided much entertainment on the rink as well as in the barbershop or on the stage.
Jere O’Halloran married Miss Maude Elliott of Concord, herself a very talented young lady. They had one son, Edward, that went on to be a very skilled and known musician himself in later years.
In 1888, Jere and Maude moved their family to Cambridge, Mass. He practiced his barbering, tonsorialism, poetry and song-writing to a very great degree in Cambridge. Jere composed some beautiful and popular songs during his early years and continued to write for his entire life.
It is interesting to speculate about the success that Jere O’Halloran experienced in his life. Certainly, gifted and quite brilliant in the classroom, he experienced much sadness at a young age. With the loss of both his father and mother and the responsibility to manage his own house and raise his two siblings his early life was difficult.
Inspiration can arrive in many forms. For some, the sadness translates into success where they can share the proper phrase at the right moment to comfort those in need. Jere was certainly a unique young man, he found joy where some only saw sadness. He built a family to replace the young family he had lost. Jere O’Halloran dedicated his life to making people happy. He used his poetic skill as a rhymester and joke-maker to brighten many lives so many years ago.
The world will always need more Jere O’Hallorans.