Our Hometown
Nashua | Third-Generation Attorney in Nashua
Clip | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Martha O'Neill is an attorney in Nashua,... in the firm that her grandfather started.
Martha O'Neill is an attorney in Nashua,... in the firm that her grandfather started, & right down the street from where she grew up.
Our Hometown is a local public television program presented by NHPBS
Our Hometown
Nashua | Third-Generation Attorney in Nashua
Clip | 4m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Martha O'Neill is an attorney in Nashua,... in the firm that her grandfather started, & right down the street from where she grew up.
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Well, I'm a Nashua native.
Both my parents were Nashua natives.
Three of my grandparents were born in Nashua and some of my great grandparents.
And I'm still living within a few miles of where they all lived.
I'm a lawyer downtown, and my office is within blocks of where many of them lived.
But the one I'd like to tell you about is my mother's father.
I didn't have a chance to meet him, but I have been influenced by him my whole life.
And I actually work in the firm that he started.
He was born in Nashua in 1878.
His parents had come from Ireland, from an area in not Northern Ireland, but North Ireland, near Donegal, and they had 11 children.
He was the oldest to survive and four sisters grew up to adulthood and he got out of school after eighth grade to work to help support the family.
I think that was the year the students could leave school.
At that point, you could leave after eighth grade.
And he worked as in a foundry, and he had a pretty good career going.
But he always wanted to go to law school.
But he saved up his money when he was in his late twenties.
He was really driven.
He wanted to go to law school.
For some reason, he applied to law schools the only one that would take him because he didn't have a high school or a college degree was U.Maine completed law school, did very well and he graduated in 1910, came back to practice in Nashua.
He was helped out a lot by Harry Gregg, who ran a successful cabinet business and was from an old Nashua family.
Harry's son, Hugh, ended up becoming governor Hugh Gregg and grandson.
Judd Gregg was governor and senator, and Harry Gregg for some reason was impressed with my grandfather and was supportive of giving him business, and that helped him a lot, getting his career going.
He became the part time judge.
It later became the municipal court.
And when the new city hall was built, the courthouse was the courtroom was moved over to there.
He was on a number of boards, including the Board of Education, for many years.
So he made sure many Nashuans got education, including he was president of the board when the new high school was built, which is now Elm Street Junior High.
I did not feel pressured.
I went to Wellesley as well.
I majored in history in English.
I was thinking about journalism, but I really thought hard and long and decided on law school and it felt right.
And the practice my father and my uncle had, which I think was similar to what my grandfather had, is really a people practice.
You have to earn a living.
But it isn't all about the money.
It's about helping people.
You're a member of the community.
You're there to help serve your community.
So my father and my uncle, were very involved in boards as well.
And so I did get to practice with them for a while until they passed away.
I like cities, but city life is more challenging on an everyday basis, and Nashua, you can always park, and it's convenient.
You can get to the lakes, the beach, Boston.
You can get to a lot of places easily from here.
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