He promoted a change in the Rochester city charter in 1841 to support free public education.
He promoted and became president of the Young Men's Association that created the first library open to the public in the city.
O'Reilly signed an ambiguous contract on June 13, 1845, with Amos Kendall, agent of Samuel Morse, for a telegraph line from the eastern seaboard to the Great Lakes.
[4] The ambiguity of the contract and O'Reilly's aggressive interpretation led to conflict with Kendall and an acrimonious court action.
The subsequent case, O'Reilly v. Morse, has been highly influential in the development of the law of patent-eligibility.