20 Facts About Buckey O'Neill

William Owen "Buckey" O'Neill was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician, Georgist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona.

Buckey O'Neill's nickname came from his tendency to "buck the tiger" at faro or other card games.

Buckey O'Neill later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and died in battle.

Buckey O'Neill's father was an Irish immigrant who had most likely arrived in the United States during the 1850s.

On December 13,1862, during the Battle of Fredericksburg, the senior Buckey O'Neill was wounded and served the rest of the war as a member of the Invalid Corps.

The younger Buckey O'Neill was educated at Gonzaga College High School and Georgetown Law School.

In Tombstone, Buckey O'Neill took the opportunity to experience the local saloons before taking a job with The Tombstone Epitaph.

Where he went to next is unknown, one story has Buckey O'Neill journeying to Hawaii and then traveling through California.

Buckey O'Neill is known to have visited Santa Fe before going to Albuquerque, New Mexico and working briefly as a court reporter.

Several weeks later Buckey O'Neill moved to Prescott, his home for the next fifteen years.

Buckey O'Neill became the editor of the Arizona Miner weekly newspaper in 1884 to February 1885.

Buckey O'Neill became captain of the Prescott Grays in 1886, the local unit of the Arizona Militia.

Buckey O'Neill became a director of the development companies, and soon began railroad surveys, mine developments, and building a smelter.

Buckey O'Neill helped introduce a bill allowing women to vote in municipal elections in 1897.

Buckey O'Neill searched for the men for two minutes, before having to come up for breath.

Buckey O'Neill led his men at the front of the line in the Battle of Las Guasimas, capturing the Spanish flank.

Buckey O'Neill was strolling up and down in front of his men, smoking his cigarette, for he was inveterately addicted to the habit.

Buckey O'Neill was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia.

O'Neill Spring, in the Pumphouse Wash wetlands south of Flagstaff, was named after Buckey O'Neill, as is O'Neill Butte in the Grand Canyon and Bucky O'Neill Hill in Bisbee.

Bucky Buckey O'Neill is a main character in the TNT movie Rough Riders, portrayed by Sam Elliott.