Thomas B. Searcy was born in 1860 in Kentucky and moved west in the early 1880s; in 1883, Searcy filed for a homestead on land in Sherman County, Oregon, about 10 miles south of Moro. Searcy married Lena Rivers Shelton in 1895, who filed her homestead claim on land adjoining Searcy's. Thomas B. Searcy resided on the ranch until his death in 1934.