Thomas Daniel O’Neil Sr.

1867 - 1955
Big Piney

Thomas Daniel (T.D.) O’Neil, Sr., was born July 5, 1867, in Pomeroy, Ohio. T.D. was widely known for wearing a suit and tie during all his ranch operations whether he was moving cattle, branding, haying, or attending cattle auctions. T.D. married Mary Ellen Searcy, a schoolteacher from Cheyenne, and they had seven children. In the late 1890s, T.D. and Mary, began their ranching career raising and selling horses in Cheyenne. In 1904, T.D. bought the N.R. Davis horse ranch, the Lazy D, operating in Wyoming and Colorado. During this time, the Cheyenne Frontier Days committee awarded a contract to T.D. to furnish the wild horses for the bucking and pitching contests in the wild horse races. In 1905, he sold his entire band of horses and turned from horse to cattle ranching. In 1907, he sold the ranch to Warren Livestock Company. In 1909, T.D. moved to Big Piney purchasing several ranches, including the Allen place, the Johnson-Bentley, the Rich and Birch places. Together, these purchases created T.D.’s legacy ranch, Cottonwood, a Hereford ranch. The last few years of his life, T.D. and Mary lived in Cottonwood Canyon outside of Salt Lake City, Utah. This is where T.D. died on February 23, 1955.