Biographies
THOMAS J. O’KELLY
Left fatherless at the age of four years
and forced to become self-supporting at an age when the majority of boys are
enjoying educational advantages and athletic sports, Mr. O'Kelly
developed qualities of self-reliance and industrious application that have been
of the greatest value to him throughout all of his life. With no one to advise
him, he early developed the quality of independent reasoning and thus has
always studied out in his own way personal problems, public questions, and
national issues. Of recent years he has given much attention to the fact that
twelve millions in cash annually goes out of California into the hands of the
eastern life insurance companies, thus building up the east at the expense of
the people of the west. It is now his ambition to keep at least a small portion
of this immense sum in our own home state and with that object in view he acts
as the Northern California agent for the Occidental Life Insurance Company, an
organization having its headquarters in Los Angeles, where it has a reputation
for substantial growth and excellent financial status.
Mr. O'Kelly
comes of southern ancestry and was born April 17, 1867, in Vernon County, Mo.,
where his father, a native of Tennessee, died during middle age. The mother
survived him for many years and finally settled in California, where in 1911
she died at Redlands. There are seven children in the paternal family and of
these all but one are residents of California. Formerly the home of the family was
in New Mexico, where at one time T. J. and his brothers had one thousand head
of cattle on the range. As early as 1882 he began work in the mines of that
then territory, but after eighteen months he relinquished that occupation and
turned to other enterprises. For two years he was employed in the car-shops at
Deming, N. M., after which he went on the road as a brakeman with the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company and eighteen months later was promoted to be
conductor.
Upon coming to California and settling at
Redlands in December of 1890, Mr. O'Kelly bought a
tract of land and began the improvement of the ranch, which eighteen months
later he sold to a brother. Thereupon he returned to the employ of the Southern
Pacific Company and had his headquarters at Tucson, Ariz. At the expiration of
two years he again resigned from railroad work, this time to enter the Wesleyan
University at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he studied during the year of
1893-94, meanwhile giving considerable attention also to religious work. Upon
his return to Arizona he was given a position on the Santa Fe road as a
conductor and as such continued for seven years, with headquarters at Winslow.
During the spring of 1902 he became identified with the life insurance business
for the first time. For one year he represented the New York Life Insurance
Company and it was during this period that he began to study the question of
immense financial drain upon western states through the spending of millions
annually to eastern companies. Now being in sympathy with the principle, he
decided to give his support to western companies and for that reason he left
the New York Life in order to represent the Conservative Life Insurance Company
of California. At the same time he engaged in religious and temperance work
among the railroad men and was instrumental in getting hundreds of men to
pledge abstinence from drink. When he came to Sacramento for the first time in
1905 and saw the prospects of the valley for future prosperity, he resigned
from railroad missionary work and became identified solely with insurance and
real estate.
The marriage of Mr. O'Kelly
and Miss Ethel Farmer, of Springfield, Mo., was solemnized May 5, 1897,
and has been blessed with by three daughters, namely: Ella, born in
Arizona March 27, 1898; Madeline, born in Arizona June 8, 1900; and Marjorie,
whose birth occurred in Sacramento October 15, 1911. The family
are connected with the Christian Science Church of Sacramento, in which
Mr. O'Kelly serves as an usher. In former years he was
very active in the Order of Railroad Conductors and his name is still enrolled
in the organization, while in addition he has been an influential factor in the
blue lodge of Masonry at Sacramento. In young manhood he gave active allegiance
to the Republican party and willingly aided all movements for the advancement
of that organization, but a later and closer study of national issues caused
him to transfer his allegiance to the Socialist party, in whose ranks he since
has been enthusiastic and interested. As a citizen he is progressive and loyal,
aiding with generosity measures for the permanent benefit of Sacramento and
devoted with the whole-hearted sympathy to the welfare of the commonwealth.
Transcribed by Sally Kaleta.
Source: Willis,
William L., History of Sacramento County,
California, Pages 1051-1053.
Historic Record Company,
© 2006 Sally Kaleta.