Patrick Healy

Patrick "Patsy" Healy (February 17, 1847 – May 23, 1918) was an Irish-born American railroad engineer, sheepman, banker, and businessman based in Ogden, Utah. After emigrating from Ireland as a teenager, he worked on construction of the first transcontinental railroad and witnessed the driving of the Golden Spike at Promontory Summit, Utah, on May 10, 1869. He later co-founded one of the largest sheep operations in the western United States, served for many years as president of the Commercial National Bank of Ogden, and built the Healy Hotel in Ogden.

Early life Healy was born on February 17, 1847, in Kenmare, County Kerry, Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in October 1862 at the age of fifteen, arriving with his mother and siblings. Alongside his father, who had arrived there a couple of years earlier, Healy worked in the copper mines of Hancock, Michigan. He then worked for while in the Michigan timber industry, where he learned to operate steam locomotives, hauling felled logs out of the forest. After the American Civil War, Healy left to seek his fortune in the West. He left his Union Pacific job at Green River, Wyoming in 1868, and kept going west. Given his experience operating steam engines, it is plausible that Healy sought to find a higher level of skilled work with the Central Pacific than he had with Union Pacific. Healy arrived in Utah in 1868, reportedly walking 180 miles or so from Green River to Salt Lake City. Healy's engine was named "The Emigrant." On May 10, 1869, Healy was present at Promontory Summit when the Golden Spike was driven, completing the first transcontinental railroad across the United States.

In the early 1890s the partnership also purchased the Ross outfit at Mountain City, Nevada, where it maintained a flock of 30,000–40,000 sheep. For several years, the property served as an important operational base from which sheep were trailed to the summer range, before continuing on the firm's annual Wyoming grazing circuit. Esponda subsequently encouraged relatives and fellow Basques from the Baigorri region of the French Basque Country to immigrate to Johnson County. Their arrival marked the beginning of a chain migration that established one of the largest Basque communities in Wyoming, supplying experienced sheepherders to the state's sheep industry for decades. Many of these also became leading ranchers and other businessmen in their own right.

Banking and other business interests During the 1880s, Healy acquired stock in the Commercial National Bank of Ogden. He later became its president and remained in that office until his death in 1918. Through the bank Healy financed numerous sheepmen in Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming, including several former employees who later established independent sheep operations. As described above, Healy and Patterson had already "staked out" (i.e. financially backed) such sheepmen independently, before Healy's formal affiliation with the bank. Healy also held large investments in the sugar industries of both Utah and Wyoming, and in 1901 constructed the Healy Hotel in Ogden.

Personal life Healy married Mary Ann Patterson in February 1876. They owned a fine home at 2529 Jefferson Avenue in Ogden. Of ten children born to the couple, only the three oldest survived childhood: Patrick "Patsy" Healy Jr.; Helen "Nellie" Healy Lynch; and Alexander "Alec" Healy. In declining health, Healy spent the winter of 1917–1918 in southern California before returning to Ogden, where he died on May 23, 1918, aged seventy-one.

Legacy Patrick Healy was among the leading figures in the development of the western sheep industry during the late nineteenth century. Through Healy and Patterson he established large-scale sheep operations extending across Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, and Wyoming. He also helped to provide financing for numerous independent sheep ranchers throughout the Intermountain West. The Healy and Patterson Sheep Company amicably dissolved in 1904, when Patrick Jr. bought out his uncle Adam Patterson's share. The firm operated as Healy & Healy until 1906, when Alexander, an MIT-trained mining engineer, bought out Patrick Sr.'s share of the sheep operation. The firm then operated as Healy Brothers. With its LU Ranch, the Healy family remains active in northern Wyoming livestock operations to the present day.