| Judge Michael Cochran, father of ‘Nellie Bly’ Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (she added the ‘e’), was born May 22, 1810 to parents Robert Cochran and Catherine Risher Cochran. (A photo of the great granddaughters of Robert and Catherine Cochran may be seen here.) He married Catharine Murphy in 1830, and had a family of ten children. Catharine Murphy died on April 24, 1857, at the age of fifty years, five months and fifteen days. |
Judge Michael Cochran |
Mary Jane Kennedy | Michael Cochran's second marriage, in 1858, was to Mary Jane Kennedy, daughter of Thomas Kennedy, first Sheriff of Somerset County, Pa., by whom there were five children. Elizabeth Jane Cochrane (Nellie Bly) was the third child, born May 5, 1864 (not 1867, as is often incorrectly cited) in Cochran's Mills, PA; married Robert Seaman, 5 Apr 1895, at the Church of the Epiphany, Ashland Ave., Chicago, Illinois; d. 27 Jan 1923, St. Mark's Hospital, New York City; bur. Woodlawn Cemetery, New York, NY).
The other children were: 1. Albert Paul Cochran (b. 31 Oct 1859, Cochran's Mills, PA; m. Jane Hartley; d. 1 Mar 1926, Brooklyn, New York); 2. Charles Metzgar Cochrane (b. ca 1861, Cochran's Mills, PA; m. Sarah Gillis; d. 30 Mar 1890); 3. Catherine May Cochran (b. Dec 1866; m. first John Elmer Kountz; m. second Arthur Sanchez; d. 1899); and 4. Harry Cummings Cochran (b. Apr 1870, Apollo, PA; m. Adele Graebner; d. 26 Oct 1923). Mary Jane died February 26, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York. A letter dated March 25, 1921, to J.E. Kinnard, Esq., Cochran Mills, Pennsylvania, contains details of her death. The letter text below was graciously contributed by Joy Kinnard. |
| Mrs. Mary J. Cochrane, passed peacefully out of this life Saturday evening at 8:50 o’clock on February 26, 1921, at her home, 1028 Beverly Road, Brooklyn, N.Y. following an acute illness terminating fatally after a period of three months.
She bore this affliction with characteristic fortitude and patience and until the last retained all her faculties of mind and heart, qualities that had endeared her to all with whom she came in contact, and all who knew her in life and in the final days of her advanced age (95 years) truly called her "a wonderful woman." Services were held at Fairchild’s Parlors at Lefferts Place and Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, the Reverend Pleasant Hunter officiating in a simple but beautiful and impressive service held on Monday February 28, 1921, at four o’clock P.M. On Tuesday at eleven A.M. the remains were removed to Kensico Cemetery, New York, where later interment will be made. |
Court records show that Michael Cochran bought property on April 19, 1845; from Jos. Miller, June 2, 1849; from Michael Davis, March 21, 1858; and sold all of it to John Schwalm and W.H. Carnahan on June 30, 1871 for $17,000, also one grist mill, tax valuation $650, from which the locality took its name of Cochran's Mills, although Michael Cochran was a lawyer and a judge. In 1849 Mr. Cochran opened a store. Cochran's Mills Post Office was opened August 1, 1855, Robert A. Paull, the first postmaster. Michael Cochran died July 19, 1870 at Apollo, Pa. He is buried with first wife Catherine Murphy Cochran in Apollo, Pennsylvania. Catherine and Michael Cochran originally were buried in Cochran's Mills but were moved to the Apollo Cemetery by the family. Brooke Kroeger wrote the following in her definitive biography of Nellie Bly, Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist. |
| He was a man of great standing in Armstrong County, born into a family of its early nineteenth-century Irish settlers. Still, he made his own way to prominence and financial success. From the age of four, after his own father's death, he lived in the town of Apollo, bound out by his mother to learn the trade of blacksmith and cutler. By the time he was nineteen, he had a shop on Main Street, taking in his own indentured apprentices. He married Catherine Murphy, and they started their family in a log house at what is now 217 South Second Street, having ten children in all, one about every two years. Michael was active in county politics. An avowed Democrat, he was elected justice of the peace in 1840, but three years later, his bitter campaign for the Pennsylvania State Assembly failed. By 1845, he was buying up the property known as Pitts' Mills on the banks of Crooked Creek, eight miles from Apollo. There, he established a general store and took over a four-story gristmill, powered by the creek and modernized at his expense. He prospered quickly, augmenting his fortune with the profits of real estate speculation. In 1850, he was elected to the esteemed position of Associate Justice of Armstrong County. In his honor, Pitts' Mills became Cochran's Mills in 1855, at the end of his five-year term of office. After that, Michael Cochran would always be known as Judge. --Brooke Kroeger Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist |
- Cochran Family of Apollo, Pennsylvania
- Books and Biographies about Nellie Bly, Woman Journalist
- Nellie Bly Trade Cards
- Armstrong County GenWeb
Please contact me with comments or information at the following address: gapehenry@worldnet.att.net
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