Greenbrier independent. [volume] (Lewisburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1980, 1897-03-18
MISCELLANEOUS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.


The compiler of these pioneer
memorabilia of John McNeel and
his family feels happy in his oppor-
tunity to express his grateful appre-
citation of the assistance rendered by
Captain William l.. McNeel and DIR.
Matt Wallace.
John McNeel, the ancestor of the
McNeel relationship in our county,
appears to have been the first to oc-
cupy the Little Levels by permanent
settlement. He was q native of
Frederick county, Virginia, but
passed much Of his early life in
Cumberland, Maryland. He seems
to have been fond of athletics, and
in pugilistic contest his antagonist
was so badly Knocked out as to be
regarded fatally injured. To avoid
arrest and trial for murder he refu-
geed. He followed the trend of the
Alleghanies. A long time was spent
in their gloomy sOlitudes, and his
sutferings Of mind and body cannot
be even imagined by any ofus. FL
nally, going deeper and deeper into
the wilderness, he at last came in
view Of the Levels, about 1868.
AS he overlooked this section from
some neighboring eminence he saw
much to remind him of his native
region. An extensive wooded plain,
bordered by muontain ranges of un-
surpassed beauty, and very fertile.
He decided, as everything looked
so much like the old home scenery,
to settle here; and chose site for
his cabin Eear the present home oc-
cupied by Hon. M. j. McNeel.-
Traces of this cabin have been seen
by persons yet living, between Nj. J.
McNeel's gate on the public road
and his residence. If the spot could
be identified, it would be we'll to
mark 1t with piece of the marble
recently found in such fabulous guam
titles close by.
Here the solitary man brooded over
his supposed guilt, prayed with his
broken heart for pardon, and hunted
for his food ,-subsisting almost en-
tirely upon venison and trout. One
day while hunting he met Charles
and Edward Kinnison, from his old
home; who had come out here pros
pecting for situation. He learned
from them that the person he boxed
was not dead, nor even seriously
hurt. This was, indeed, good news,
and then and there he felt free from
all bloody stain, and he could return
without fear of molestation.
Mr.. McNeel insisted upon his
friends to share his cabin with him.
He assisted them in making a selec.
tion for a home adjoining his tract.
The three then set out on their return
to the lower Valley of Virginia.
While on his visit home, Mr.. Nc
Neel married Miss Martha Davis,
who was born in Wales in 1740, and
soon after their marriage they came
out to the Levels. A few acres were
soon cleared off-plenty to subsist
upon was raised.
Mr.. McNCel seemed deeply i'm
pressed with a sense of gratitude to
God for His providential care, after
all his wanderings and fears, to per-
NIT the lines to fall to him in such a
pleasant, wealthy place that he built
a house for worship, the White Pole
Church.
In a few years the Dunmore war
opened up. The three frieEds-Mc-
Neel and the two Kinnis0ns-went
into comp at Lewisburg and joined
the expedition to Point Pleasant, Oc'
tober 10, 1774. They survived that
eventful and important cUntest, came
back, but not to remain very long
They went across the eastern noun
tains and enlisted in some company
that went from Frederick county,
served during the war and then took
up the peaceful tenor Of their lives
where they had left off. There is
pathetic tradition to the effect thai
while Mr.. McNeel was absent al
Point Pleasant child was born and
died before his return. The mother
with her own hands prepared the
, coffin and the grave and buried it,
So far as now known this was the
frat white child buried west of the