Los Angeles
County
Biographies
PATRICK
HENRY O’NEIL
The
career of Patrick Henry O’Neil, prominent citizen of Los Angeles, has been
featured by outstanding success in two large undertakings. First, in the land and cattle business in
South Dakota and the middle west and lastly in the oil business he California
he achieved extraordinary results, which reflected vividly his superior
business judgment and his ability to conceive and execute his own ideas.
Mr.
O’Neil was born in New Richmond, Saint Croix County, Wisconsin, on February 16,
1866, and is a son of Thomas and Johanna (Harty)
O’Neil. He grew to young manhood in his
native community and in 1882 graduated from the local high school. In the autumn of that year, he accompanied his
parents when they removed to Miller, Hand County, South Dakota. Here he found employment on a farm for two
years, after which he worked in a meat market in Faulkton. Only three months after he took up this work,
he bought a half interest in the business and then, two years later, he became
sole owner of the shop, which he conducted with fine results for two years
more. He made money and conserved it,
with the result that he was enabled to invest in land, in cattle and in sheep,
being at one time one of the largest sheepmen in southeastern Oregon. His possessions grew rapidly under his
skillful management, and eventually he became widely known as one of the
largest land and stock owners in the state of South Dakota. He looked beyond the ordinary horizon of
stock and land men and visualized improvements and development which should
operate for the general good of the industry.
His reputation became most favorably known over the state and because of
this, with his intimate knowledge of the business and active interest, he was
selected by Governor Crawford of South Dakota to represent the state at the
National Livestock Association convention held in Los Angeles in 1910. In this city, he was elected a member of the
executive board of the association and of the committee of transportation, and
in these capacities he took a leading role in the deliberations of the
convention. In the next year, 1911, he
was one of five delegates appointed to represent the American National
Livestock Association at the National Conservation Congress held in St. Paul,
Minnesota, and in this meeting was a member of the committee on
resolutions. In January, 1912, he was
named as a member of the committee on resolutions of the American National
Livestock Association at its meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. For a number of years from 1909, Mr. O’Neil
was a member of the South Dakota State Sanitary Board, which was a position of
importance, for these sanitary boards held authority and jurisdiction over
every herd of cattle within the borders of a state, were responsible for the
health of the stock, and for the prevention of diseases which would affect the
meat. In December, 1911, Mr. O’Neil was
chosen as chairman of the livestock sanitary board of the National Livestock
Association, and in this position he exerted a marked influence on the work of
guarding both the interests of the meat producers and the consumers.
Not
alone in livestock and land did Mr. O’Neil occupy his working time while in
South Dakota, but also became interested in other business enterprises. He was vice president of the Merchants Bank
in Faulkton, of the Bank of Cresbard, and the First
State Bank of Onaka, all of them South Dakota
institutions. He was a director of the
Northern Casualty Company of Aberdeen and also the Dakota Western Assurance
Company of Watertown. In South Dakota,
no man was better known in business circles, and his standing as an honest,
square-dealing citizen was without a blemish.
Over
twenty years ago, Mr. O’Neil disposed of most of his holdings in the state of
South Dakota and removed to Los Angeles, which may be said to have been the
beginning of another era of his business life.
About 1920, he became interested in the oil industry, which was attracting
so much attention at that time and which seemed such a promising field for the
accumulation of wealth. He entered into
this work with the same determination and wide viewpoint which he had
manifested in his South Dakota operations.
In 1922 he organized and became president of the Western Star Oil
Company, which was merged with the California Petroleum Company in 1923 and
which is now merged with the Texas Oil Company.
He is now a director of the last-named organization, also of the
Wellington Oil Company and the Petroleum Corporation of America. Again diversifying his business interests, he
became a director of the Citizens National Bank of Los Angeles; president of
the Merchants Bank in Faulkton, South Dakota; vice president of the Federal
Refrigerator Company, the Federal Cold Storage Company; and a director of the
Los Angeles Junction Railway Company.
This imposing array of business connections indicates well the wide
scope of Mr. O’Neil’s activities.
In
Zell, South Dakota, on the 13th of June, 1888, Mr. O’Neil was united
in marriage to Miss Annie Carlin, who was a native of Chenoa, Illinois. They have become the parents of five
children, namely: Louis B., Mary Ellen,
Ignatius P., John T., and Henry A. The
fine residential home of the family is situated at 1257 Manhattan Place, in the
city of Los Angeles. Mr. O’Neil first
bought property on Manhattan Place in 1912.
In
civic affairs and in his contact with his fellowmen in various undertakings,
Mr. O’Neil has always found time and had the desire to cooperate in every
possible manner. He has always been a
Republican in his political faith and has been an earnest worker for the
success of the party. In South Dakota he
was generally considered one of the foremost Republicans of the state. He was a delegate to the Republican National
Convention in Chicago in 1908, where he supported the nomination of William
Howard Taft for the Presidency. He held
many committee appointments, but never aspired to public office himself. By appointment, he was for ten years a member
of the school board in Faulkton, South Dakota.
In 1908 he was named by the governor of that state to be its official
representative at the National Corn Exposition in Omaha, Nebraska. He served for two terms as president of the
Faulkton Commercial Club and was also president of the Old Settlers’ Picnic
Association. Since making his home in
Los Angeles, Mr. O’Neil has been very active in the chamber of commerce, of
which he is a life member and has been a director and chairman of the
membership committee, likewise member of the building committee. He has made extensive investment in
California property, especially in the vicinity of Wilmington.
Mr.
O’Neil is a devout communicant of the Roman Catholic Church. His fraternal and club affiliations include
the Knights of Columbus (fourth degree); the California Club; the Los Angeles
Country Club; the Newman Club; the Chamber of Mines and Oil; and the
Congressional Country Club of Washington, D. C., of which he is a life
member. Mr. O’Neil has consistently been
interested in charities and has been a liberal cooperator in this laudable
phase of public life.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 479-482,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
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