Encyclopedia of Connecticut biography, genealogical-memorial ...

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
lord or owner. It was in use as a name He entered into the public life of the city
first in the spelling, O'Tighearnaighe, and was active in many affairs of public
which has been anglicized into Tierney. service. He served as clerk of the Bor-
(I) John Tierney was a native of Bal- ough Court of Greenwich, 1896 to 1899,
lylooby, County Tipperary, Ireland. He and was later deputy judge of the same
was a carpenter and contractor, and was court, while for two terms, 191 1 to 1915,
prospering well when he died at the early he served as judge of probate. In his
age of thirty years. He married Judith political views Mr. Tierney was a Demo-
Fitzgerald, and they were the parents of crat ; he was appointed by Governor An-
Jeremiah Tierney, of further mention drews as one of the commissioners to inand
of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Tierney, de- vestigate the labor conditions in prisons
ceased, a sketch of whom follows.
throughout the United States.
(II) Jeremiah Tierney, son of John and
Judith (Fitzgerald) Tierney, was a man
of keen business ability and determina-
In 1861 Mr. Tierney enlisted in the
Sixty-Xinth Company, New York Vol-
unteer Infantry, and at one time was the
tion. His strength of mind and quick only lawyer in the town of Greenwich
grasp of a situation made him a leader
among his fellow-men. He was born in Bal-
lylooby, near Mitchelstown, County Tipperary,
Ireland, and died in Greenwich,
Connecticut. He came to America with
his widowed mother when he was but
four years old, and they settled in Nor-
walk, Connecticut. The public schools
of that place afforded him his early educa-
tion, and after leaving school he learned
the trade of hatter, which he followed
many years. The hatters organized the
first labor union in the United States,
and Mr. Tierney became the National
who had been a member of the Grand
Army. He was a member of Douglass
Fowler Post, No. 48, of South Norwalk.
He was one of the very early members
of the Knights of Columbus.
Mr. Tierney married (first) Mary Ann
Loughlin, daughter of Michael Loughlin,
a native of Limerick, Ireland, and of five
children born to them four grew to ma-
turity : 1. Alice, who is Sister M. Ber-
nerdini, of the Sisters of Charity, Baltic,
Connecticut. 2. Kate, who is Sister M.
Bertrand, a Sister of Mercy, at Hartford,
Connecticut. 3. William Lawrence, of
secretary of the organization. It was in further mention. 4. Bertha, wife of Jothis
office that he displayed that force of seph F. Steegmuller, of Greenwich,
magnetism which made him a power (III) William Lawrence Tierney was
among his brother workmen. He prac- educated in the public schools of Norwalk,
tically settled one of the first big strikes Connecticut, and later was graduated
in that trade in
and while still
1884. After his marriage,
working at his trade, he
from Fordham University, in 1898, with
the degree of B. A., and from New York
took up the study of law under the pre- Law School in 1900, with the degree of
ceptorship of two able tutors, namely, L. LL. B., and he has an honorary degree
P. Deming, of New Haven, Connecticut, of M. A. from the same college. Previous
and General Nelson Taylor, of Norwalk, to entering Fordham, Mr. Tierney had
Connecticut, and was admitted to the bar taken up the study of law under private
in 1882. Mr. Tierney was an admirable tutors, and for a time read law in the of-
lawyer, of clear and impartial judgment, fice of DeLancey Nicoll, and was asso-
Soon after 1882 Mr. Tierney removed to ciated with John R. Dos Passos for two
Greenwich and there opened a law office, years. Mr. Tierney was admitted to the
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