Thomas A. O'Donnell

Thomas A. O'Donnell
Thomas A. O'Donnell – Oil magnate (1912)
Born	Thomas Arthur O'Donnell (1870-12-26)December 26, 1870 McKean, Erie County, Pennsylvania
Died	February 21, 1945(1945-02-21) (aged 74) Los Angeles, California
Nationality	Irish American
Occupation	Oil Tycoon Miner Driller Businessman Land Speculator Philanthropist
Spouse(s)	Lillian Constance Wood Dr. Winifred Willis
Children	Ruth O'Donnell Davis Doris O'Donnell Connolly
Parent(s)	T. A. O'Donnell Myra Parsons
Relatives	James E. O'Donnell (brother) Mary F. "Mamie" Lister (sister)

Thomas Arthur O'Donnell (June 26, 1870 – February 21, 1945), was an Irish American pioneer in the California oil industry along with Edward L. Doheny, Charles A. Canfield and Max H. Whittier who became known as the "big four."

O'Donnell was born in McKean, Erie County, Pennsylvania to Thomas O'Donnell and Myra Parsons, where he worked for some time as a newsboy until the age 12 when he left Pennsylvania and arrived in Florence, Colorado. He remained there for two years working in an all-around capacity as a grocery store clerk.

With his ambitions extending beyond the grocery store, O'Donnell went to work in a gold mine and for the next five years, with pick and shovel, became a very experienced miner by the age of 19. In 1889 he gave up mining and headed to California where he obtained a position at the Union Oil Company in Ventura County remaining there for four years where he mastered the oil business.

Leaving Union Oil in 1893, O'Donnell went to Los Angeles where he met Edward L. Doheny, a wealthy pioneer in the development of oil in California. Working as a field superintendent for Doheny for about a year, O'Donnell too saw the promise that the oil fields held and decided to go into business for himself forming a partnership drilling oil wells with Max H. Whittier. The partnership with Whittier lasted for five years, at the end of which, O'Donnell decided to continue alone becoming an independent driller, operator and oil land speculator.

In 1902, O'Donnell entered the oil fields in Coalinga, California, and his success there was one of the most remarkable on record. He organized several companies and financed many of them himself. As well as holding other positions in other companies, O'Donnell held presidencies in the Whittier Consolidated Oil Company, Midland Oil Fields Company, Four Oil Company, Section One Oil Company, Circle Oil Company, Maricopa Star Oil Company, California Star Oil Company, Buena Fe Petroleum and Salvia Oil Company.