Originally hailing from Missouri, Buckey answered the call to migrate to the Arizona Territory and arrived by burro around 1879.
Before making his way to Buckeye, Arizona Buckey found himself in the employ of the Tombstone Epitaph the very same year as the infamous gun fight at the O.K. Corral between another man named Clanton and Wyatt Earp.
Seven years later, in 1888, Buckey, Thomas Clanton, and Malin Jackson are said to have banned together in laying out the first townsite near the center of the Buckeye Valley.
Located on a portion of the Clanton homestead this would become the Downtown Buckeye we know today.
Nicknamed for his ability to “buck the tiger” aka play contrary to the odds at the card table, William “Buckey” O’Neill is reported to have been an influence in the planning of Downtown Buckeye.
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