John Boyle O'Reilly was an Irish patriot, activist for minority rights, poet, and editor of The Pilot. Mary Murphy O'Reilly was a journalist for The Young Crusader who wrote under the pen name Agnes Smiley. Their daughter Molly, Mary Boyle O'Reilly, was a journalist, investigative reporter for Harper's Magazine and the Boston Globe, political activist, and Massachusetts prison commissioner. Their daughter Agnes Boyle O'Reilly was an educator and co-founder of Shady Hill School. The site has housed the Hull Public Library since 1913.