Captain Cornelius O'Connor was born in 1821 in County Cork, Ireland and came to the United States in 1829. He lived in Boston, Mass. and New York City before coming west with his wife Katherine (Duggan) and family in 1857. They took a steamer from St. Louis and landed on May 18 at the already-established St. John's Colony near Jackson, Nebraska. O'Connor filed a claim near Elk Creek and lived there for four or five years before moving to the homestead near Homer. The family lived in a one-room house there until the mansion on the 1,000 acre farm was built.