Butte County
Biographies
CHARLES O’NEILL
CHARLES O’NEILL.—A pioneer of California of 1863, Charles O’Neill was born in the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., October 10, 1844. His parents, Lubin and Mathilda O’Neill built and started the first tannery, which he operated till he retired, and both he and his wife died there. Charles was the youngest of five children and grew up and went to school in Minneapolis. When fifteen years of age, in 1860, he joined Jim Fisk’s expedition to the Pacific Coast; the large train of five hundred people came as far as East Bannock, Mont., where our subject remained with old Bob and Jim Dempsey and engaged in mining with success. In 1863 they came on to California, remaining for a time on the Honcut, in the employ of George Gould, where Mr. O’Neill learned stock-raising as done in California. He became skilled at breaking and taming wild horses, and for some years traveled with Professor Tapp on the Coast, giving lessons in taming and training wild horses. Mr. O’Neill conquered and drove old Coniac, the man-eater—trained him till he drove him through the streets of San Jose without bridle or lines. Afterwards he located in Butte County and engaged in the stock business.
Mr. O’Neill was married at Marysville, June 13, 1901, to Miss Alice Westrope, born in Paradise Valley, Nev. She was the first white child born there—this was March 17, 1865—and the same spring her parents brought her to Butte County, Cal. Her father, George Westrope, was born in Illinois, of Scotch-Irish descent, and was married there to Mary Ann Meyers, who was born in Ohio. In 1864, they started for California and crossed the plains with ox teams, wintering in Paradise Valley, where their daughter was born. They arrived in Butte County in April, 1865. The father followed farming and soon located on one hundred sixty acres on Big Dry Creek and engaged in Stock-raising. He purchased land until his holdings amounted to twenty-three hundred acres. He died December 3, 1908. The wife survived him till December 2, 1917. Mrs. O’Neill was the only child born of this marriage. She was reared in Butte County and was educated in the public schools. Her father called her his boy; she learned to ride from the time she was a little girl, and assisted him. After her marriage she continued with her father in business until his death. She then became owner of the old home ranch of two thousand eighty acres, her father having deeded it to her. She and her husband then took charge of the place, and after her mother died was appointed administratrix (sic) of her mother’s estate. She now owns the old home of two thousand eighty acres and the Cool Canyon Ranch of two hundred acres, devoted to raising grain and Durham cattle. The ranch is well fenced and is watered by Big Dry Creek and numerous springs and is a fine stock ranch.
Mr. and Mrs. O’Neill built a new cement-block house in 1911. The cement blocks were made on the ranch. Mr. O’Neill has served as road overseer in his district.
Transcribed
by Sharon Walford Yost.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 1131-1132, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2009 Sharon
Walford Yost.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies