San Francisco County
Biographies
THOMAS R.
O’DAY
Thomas R. O’Day, one of the successful business men of San Francisco, now engaged in merchandise in coal, wood, grain, and other products at 4009 Third street, is a native of this city, his birth having occurred here December 4, 1881. He is a son of John and Margaret (Davis) O’Day. John O’Day was born in the state of Massachusetts, and when he was three years of age his parents came with him to San Francisco, making the voyage in a sailing vessel by the Cape Horn route. John O’Day was reared and educated in this city, and became engaged eventually as a cattle buyer for the wholesale butcher firm of H. Moffat Company. Mr. O’Day maternal grandfather, Richard Davis, born in Ireland, was also an early settler of San Francisco, and was in the employ of the Pope & Talbot Lumber Company.
Thomas R. O’Day first attended school in the Bay View district, sometimes known as Butcher Town, and later he studied at the Polytechnic high school at Bush and Stockton streets. For six years, he was in the employ of H. Moffat Company, wholesale butchers, and during the past quarter century he has been engaged in business for himself. He has an extensive trade, and deals in hay, grain, wood, coal, hardware, lime, and cement. He is well reputed as a tradesman, and is known as an honorable, upright citizen in every respect.
Mr. O’Day was married to Mary Leahey, a native of San Francisco, and they have become the parents of three children, namely: Raymond, who is a student at St. Ignatius College; Jean and Patricia, both of whom are attending St. Rose’s Academy. The ages of the children (1931) are respectively twenty-one, seventeen and fifteen.
Mr. O’Day has been extraordinarily active in fraternal circles of San Francisco, and in Catholic organizations. As a boy, he was captain in the League of the Cross. He belongs to the Native Sons of the Golden West, and is prominently affiliated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was one of the organizers of the Native Sons Division No. 4 of the latter order, and was its first president. Eventually, he became county president, then state president, and has attended eight national conventions in the east as a delegate. He is likewise state organizer of the Hibernians. There are twenty-four divisions in California. Mr. O’Day is past president of the United Irish Societies of San Francisco, and he has officiated for a number of years as grand marshal of the annual St. Patrick’sday parade. He has also acted each year for this period as floor manager for the grand ball held in the civic auditorium on the night of St. Patrick’s day. He was the organizer of the junior branch of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, named the O’Day division, in his honor, and every summer he has charge of the camp which this organization maintains on some appropriate site in California.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 304-305.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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