J.D. Quinn was born about 1819 in Ireland of unknown parentage.  He married Mary Ann O'Maley, also born in Ireland, in January 1827, oldest child and daughter of James O'Maley and Alice "Allie" Graham.  

The 1855 New York Census for the 6th Ward of Rochester, Monroe County listed Mary as living with her parents; the record indicates that her father arrived in New York before his family, in about 1829, while his family arrived about 4 years later in 1833.  James O'Maley was a contractor. Both of the O'Maley daughters were born in Ireland whereas the 3 brothers were born in Rochester, New York.

J.D. Quinn and Mary Ann O'Maley were married sometime between 1855 and the 1860 New York Federal census.  In 1860 J.D. and Mary are living in her parents' household; both James O'Maley & J.D. Quinn are employed as contractors.  They have a daughter, Mary Alice, who was 8 months old.  A second daughter, Mary C. Quinn, was born in 1862 and their only son, John D. Quinn, Jr., was born in April 1864.

J.D. Quinn and his in-laws were operating a liquor store in Rochester, New York, under the name of O'Maley & Quinn, in the Washington Building, which burned as a result of a stove and suffered only minor damages. (Union & Advertiser, January 2, 1864).  Soon afterwards according to the Union & Advertiser of April 21, 1864, J. D. Quinn left his wife in New York in 1864 and traveled to California with her brother, Owen O'Maley, to take contracts for the Pacific Railroad. Their daughter was just over a year old at the time, and their son had just been born. Subsequent entries on the same timeline show that J. D. did not live with his family much, if at all, during the next and final 35 years of his life.  According to the 1875 York, Livingston Co., New York census Mary Ann O'Maley Quinn is a 47 years old boarder in the household of Ephraim and Martha Bates along with her two youngest children, ages 13 and 11; apparently the eldest daughter had died.

However, J.D. had returned east from California by 1870 and was living in Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois with his brother-in-law, Owen O'Maley and family; Owen's occupation was that of a clerk in the U.S. Court, while J.D.'s occupation was listed as Assistant Marshal.  Later in that decade both men moved to Denison, where Owen O'Maley died in 1894.  By winter 1894 J.D. Quinn was one of the Directors of The National Bank of Denison (The Sunday Gazetteer, Sunday, November 4, 1894, pg. 3)

He settled in Denison in the early 1870s, while his wife and children remained in New York. The children may have grown up without seeing their father much, if at all.  

In December 1875, local newspapers mention that J.D. Quinn & J.F. Cuff had purchased 80 acres just north of Denison and were surveying the land into lots on which to build tenement houses.  

The 1887 Denison, Grayson Co., Texas City Directory lists J.D. Quinn as a railroad contractor, living over 417 West Main St.  There are references to "the J. D. Quinn building" in the Gazetteer. That may have been 417, or it could have been some other address on Main Street. 

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, March 16, 1890

Col. J.D. Quinn, the railway contractor, has opened up a new stone quarry south of the Carpenter's Bluff road and east of the city, from which he is taking some of the finest stone yet seen in these parts.

As many men did in Denison, J.D. Quinn became associated with the railroad business.  His area of business was to produce from a local quarry, rock needed by the work gangs

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, July 19, 1891

PERSONALS
Wednesday evening Mr. J.D. Quinn left over the Central for White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, where he expects to remain a month or 6 weeks.  During his absence the quarries east of the city will continue to be operated and the stone shippped down the line to the foremen of the bridge gangs as usual.  His business, although of vast magnitude, requiring the outlay of thousands of dollars monthly, is in such excellent order and good condition that a 2 months' absence does not materially interfere with its progress.  At present he has between 20 and 30 hands employed here, and equally as many more on the works down the road.  Two years ago Mr. Quinn spent the summer at White Sulphur and so great were the benefits derived from the famous West Virginia health resort that, apparently, the cycle of time had gone backward at least 10 years.

One wonders what moved Mary Ann to file for the divorce almost 28 years after J. D. took off for California.


Quinn returned to Texas from his Ireland visit about a year-and-a-half before his death. The report in The Sunday Gazetteer on the day after he died said he had been battling cancer for more than two years.  Mr. Quinn died in Denison, Grayson Co., Texas where he had lived a life praised by all who knew him.  He is buried in Calvary Cemetery, the cemetery associated with St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Denison.

The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, April 30, 1899
pg. 4

DEATH OF COL. J.D. QUINN
This (Saturday) morning Col. J.D. Quinn passed peacefully away at his home, 417 W. Main street.  He had experienced several bad days recently, and those who have been the nearest to his bedside knew that the end was not far off.  Col. Quinn died very peacefully.  There was no struggle to indicate that the end was so near.
Col. Quinn had been an invalid for over two years, the first symptoms of the disease which carried him off manifesting themselves about that period.
Going to press early this (Saturday) morning it is impossible to give all the events in connection with his life which marked him out as one of the most notable men who have lived in Denison and in the state.
Col. Quinn was one of the first to locate here, and has for a number of years been identified with the construction of the H. & T.C. railway.  In the hills east of Denison he dug out his fortune.  All of the rock north on the H. & T.C. was contracted by him.
Until within the past two and three years his life has been a most active one.  Even when attacked with the dread disease, cancer, which carried him off, he was loth to forego business duties.
At the time of his death the deceased was nearly 80 years of age.  He came to this county when a young man from Ireland.  His struggle with the world is an epitome of the history of many an immigrant lad who unknown to fame and fortune fought his way to the front.
The life of the deceased in Denison is closely identified with every feature that has marked our history from a struggling town to a great city.  He possessed all those sterling traits which go to make up a successful business man and useful citizen.  In the crude and forcible language of that great editor, Horace Greeley, "he was a town builder."  Without his aid and encouragement the Denison of the present time would have been shorn of much of its material greatness.  There is no one in Denison who will withhold from him the rich praise which he deserves.
His vast charities covered all Denison.  With a prodigal liberality he gave to every public enterprise which contributed to our material advancement.  This, however, is but a small fraction.  His private charities to the Catholic church, to individuals; these are the virtues which have fixed the name of J.D. Quinn upon the hearts of hundreds of people in Denison, across the seas, in every part of our country.  He was always kind, always doing good, always befriending honorable effort.
He was the personification of frankness, good nature and honor. His courtesy in business affairs made him highly esteemed by his large number of employees.  One of the best traits, the crowning excellence of his admirable character, was the strict justice which always marked his intercourse with those with whom he had business relations.
All with whom he came in contact were the recipients of courteous attention.  That is why he will be lamented.  Few deaths that have occurred in Denison will occasion such universal regret.
The Gazetteer regrets that it is not acquainted with the early facts of the life of Col. Quinn, it would make eventful reading.
The burial will probably take place Monday, and it is understood that Bishop Dunne of Dallas will officiate.
In consequence of the death of Col. J.D. Quinn, Father Crowley closed the Catholic fair to-day, Saturday.

 
The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, May 7, 1899
pg. 4

OBSEQUIES OF COL. J.D. QUINN
All that was mortal of Col. J.D. Quinn was laid to rest in the vault at Calvary cemetery Monday evening last at 5 o'clock.
At 7:30 a.m. the casket borne by Messrs. J.E. O'Brien, Tom Finn, Barney Finn, B. Carter and L. Eppstein, preceded by Father Crowley and followed by the A.O.H., entered the church and was carried up the center aisle to the foot of the altar.  At 8 a.m. requiem High Mass was said by Father Crowley, while the choir chanted the Gregorian Mass for the dead.  At the offertory was sung the beautiful hymn, "Nearer My God to Thee," and after the Mass the "Miserere."  The altar, sanctuary, choir railing and entrance to the church had been appropriately draped in black.  The handsome casket was literally covered with flowers, Nature's tribute to a good man gone.  The soft glow of the funeral tapers, the perfume of flowers, the burning incense and the low strains of the organ harmoniously blended with the measured chant of the choir was impressive of sadness in the extreme.
Col. Quinn was universally mourned; all day while the body lay in state those who had known him in life as a friend and benefactor, and they were legion and from all walks of life, came to pay the last tribute of respect to his memory.
His generosity, kindness, and charities were known only to the recipients, but were not forgotten by them.  The sad expressions of those who passed up the aisle to take a last farewell of him who had befriended them when they needed help, or knelt to offer a short prayer for the repose of his soul, spoke only too plainly of deep, heartfelt sorrow.
At 5 p.m. Rev. Martinier of Dallas pronounced the last absolution.  He was assisted in the funeral services by Revs. Father Donahue of Dallas, Father Toppet of Lehigh, I.T., Father Granger of Marshall, Father Brickly of Ennis, Father Harrington of Dallas, and Father Barbor of Texarkana. The choir chanted the Dies Iras from Missa Pro Defunctis, and a hymn, "Raise Me Jesus," concluding with the Miserere.
Rev. Father Crowley, pastor of the Catholic church, this city, spoke feelingly of the good the deceased had done for the city, the church and humanity.  While he had gained much of this world's goods it was through patient industry and strict business principles; he had lived economically and dispensed much in charities of various kinds, especially was he generous in his contributions to the church here of which he was a devout member.  He did not rely on his good works and charities alone, but while yet his mind was clear and his judgment good, he availed himself of the Sacraments of the church; he sought and obtained absolution.  He knew he was stricken with an incurable disease yet while he suffered greatly, he was resigned to the will of God and bore his sufferings patiently.  After this short sermon, the Priests, standing on either side of the casket, chanted responsively the Benedictus Zachary.  The flowers were removed and the pallbearers tenderly carried their dead friend to the hearse.  The funeral cortege, one of the largest in the history of the city, formed on Sears street and wended its mournful way to Calvary.
After the blessing of the grave the body was placed in the vault built to receive it, while the priest chanted the "De Profundis."  The final prayers were said, the body consigned to the tomb, the soul commended to the God who gave it.  Requiescat in pace.

When J. D. Quinn died five years later, he willed a horse and buggy to his nephew (Owen's son), C. J. "Charley" O'Maley. Then J. D.'s son and daughter showed up in Denison for his funeral and promptly announced their intentions to contest his will.