Edson L. O'Donoghue is the general manager of the Genesee Motor Car Company of Utica, which he organized in 1921, in partnership with Edward F. Wetzel, for the purpose of handling the Cole, Gardner and Flint automobiles. His birth occurred in Ogdensburg, St. Lawrence county, New York, on the 9th of February, 1894, his parents being Edward and Alice O'Donoghue of that place, where the father is prominent as a ship chandler. William O'Donoghue, the great-great-grandfather of Edson L. O'Donoghue, was the first of the name in St. Lawrence county, this state, settling there in 1780.
In the acquirement of an education Edson L. O'Donoghue attended the grade and high schools of Ogdensburg and subsequently spent two years as a student in Syracuse. He was a young man of nineteen when in 1913 he embarked in the automobile business in Syracuse, whence he came to Utica two years later and here became identified with the Packard company. It was in 1921 that he organized the Genesee Motor Car Company, in association with Edward F. Wetzel, and he has since developed a large and profitable business as a dealer in Cole, Gardner and Flint automobiles. Mr. O'Donoghue has made a careful study of the business and keeps in close touch with all new developments in the automobile industry. He has instituted many well devised plans for the promotion of his business, which he conducts along the most modern and progressive lines, and has established his position among the most enterprising and reliable automobile dealers of Utica.
On the 25th of September, 1913, Mr. O'Donoghue was united in marriage to Miss Marie Antrim, daughter of J. M. Antrim of New York. In 1917, when the United States had become involved in the World war, Mr. O'Donoghue enlisted as a private in the Medical Corps, after which he spent fourteen months overseas in the ambulance service. He was discharged in May, 1919. He belongs to the American Legion and also has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the City Club, the Automobile Club and the Utica Golf and Country Club. In business affairs he has made steady progress, his capable management and indefatigable industry constituting the basis upon which he has built his prosperity, and in social circles he enjoys merited popularity as a young man of many admirable personal characteristics.