O'Connor, Thomas (1817–87), ‘cattle king of Refugio county, Texas’, was baptised and probably born in February 1817 in Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford, second son of Thomas O'Connor, tenant farmer at Kilmuckridge, and Margaret O'Connor (née Power). As a younger son, he had no prospect of inheriting the farm and was probably staked to go to Texas with his uncle, impresario James Power in 1834. O'Connor sailed with Power and other relatives on board the Heroine from Liverpool to New Orleans, arriving on 7 May at a time of a cholera epidemic which killed a third of the would-be colonists to Mexican Texas. Others died from shipwreck en route to the Texas coast. In September, Thomas O'Connor was awarded a full land grant of 4,428 acres (1,792 ha) of pasture and 177 acres (72 ha) of arable land in the Power – Hewetson colony of Refugio.
Between 1835 and April 1837 O'Connor served as a volunteer in the Texas army during the war of independence, signed the Goliad declaration of independence in December 1835, and was one of the youngest soldiers at the decisive battle of San Jacinto in April 1836. He received three bounty grants of 640 acres (259 ha) for his military service and, during the period 1836–42, obtained $4,000 dollars worth of army contracts, mostly supplies of beef, with which to buy more land. He married (13 October 1838) Mary, daughter of rancher Nicholas Fagan, in San Antonio, and acquired more land and cattle as a dowry. He also borrowed money from the Fagans to purchase more land. In 1848 he sold his first shipment of beef sent by steamship to New Orleans and continued to buy small parcels of land with the proceeds. From 1849 to 1854 he served as a commissioner for Refugio county. By 1860 he had 40,000 head of cattle and sold $80,000 worth of beef annually. He became the unchallenged cattle baron of the Coastal Bend.
After the civil war O'Connor sent his foremen on the long cattle drives to Abilene and Chicago, ushering in the golden age of Texas ranching that lasted until the 1880s. The decade of the 1870s saw the major advance into big-time ranching. Between July 1873 and January 1875 there were thirty-seven land transactions in Refugio county alone. Some land was bought for as little as 31 cents an acre. By 1879 O'Connor had an enclosed pasture of 170,000 acres (68,797 ha) with control of grass and water to sustain large-scale production. Major expansion also took place in the 1880s: land was purchased in La Salle and McMullen counties for $44,846, and a 45,000-acre (18,211 ha) estate was acquired in exchange for O'Connor cattle. A leading partner in the O'Connor & Sullivan bank in San Antonio, Thomas O'Connor financed cattle sales and acquired the land on default of payment on loans of 12 per cent per annum.
He died from cancer at his ranch on the Dry Bayou, near Refugio, on 16 October 1887, leaving his estate to his two surviving sons: Dennis inherited 276,203 acres (111,777 ha) and Thomas Marion 92,264 acres (37,338 ha). His daughter, Mary, received $50,000 paid in instalments. He lies buried in the O'Connor burial ground in the St Denis catholic chapel yard on the O'Connor estate. An obituary in the San Antonio Daily Express began the legend of a poor Irish orphan who by dint of enterprise and economy amassed a very large fortune. According to this account, the deceased ‘began life a good many years ago as a poor man, earning a scanty living by making saddletrees for ranchmen and cowboys. His spare money he invested in lands and cattle, until in a few years he became one of the richest men in the entire state, numbering his cattle by the thousands and his acres by the million’. The truth was less romantic, but no less interesting. His uncle, James Power, and father-in-law, Nicholas Fagan, acted as mentors, assisting him with land purchases during his youth.
Undoubtedly, Thomas O'Connor was a man of singular vision and determination, overcoming a life of insecurity and tragedy to pursue his mission of acquiring land. His philosophy was summed up in a characteristic saying, ‘Buy land and never sell. Land can't die and it can't run away’ (O'Connor, Cryin' for daylight). While he amassed great wealth, he lived frugally to the point of austerity. Invariably ahead of the game, he diversified into the tallow and hide business in the 1860s, and in the 1870s was the first in Refugio county to begin fencing the land. He invested with Thomas Marion in the meatpacking business and with other ranchers in the new refrigerated railway cars that took fresh beef to New Orleans. In the 1880s he began the vital drilling of artesian wells to provide constant water on the O'Connor ranches and imported foreign breeds of cattle, a practice fully developed by his sons after his death.
Thomas O'Connor's life contains the classic ingredients of Texas history: pioneer settler, soldier in the Texas revolution, fighter of Native Americans, and successful cattle rancher. His story represents the culmination of the adventures of the Irish pioneer colonists who settled in Refugio and San Patricio, Texas, between 1829 and 1834.
In 1934 oil was discovered on the O'Connor estate on the land bought from the impresario James Hewetson. O'Connors still live on ranches in the Texas Coastal Bend. The O'Connor family papers, a substantial archive, are in the care of Louise S. O'Connor in Victoria, Texas.