I am researching Louisa Ann Neal, born 6/27/1832 in TN, to I BELIEVE Alfred and Elizabeth Polk Neal, who were the only Neal family living in Shelby Co. TN in 1850. Louisa married Edward T. Scott around 1858 in Shelby County. They had 12 children and later lived in Tipton Co. TN until their deaths. Louisa died 3/13/1892 and is buried in Shelby Co. TN with Ed. However, 1860 and 1870 census records show Louisa Neal (3 years younger than mine) living with Alfred in Yell Co. AR and other researchers say she died there in either 1853 or 1877, but I haven't seen any sources for those dates. Ed Scott's sister married William H. Neal, who I believe to be Louisa's brother and the son of Alfred and Elizabeth. Also, Louisa's brother James Neal married Martha Louisa George. Can anyone tell me if I have these Louisas mixed up, or if my Louisa is someone else's daughter? I am totally stumped! I have VERY extensive records to prove Louisa and Ed were married and lived in West TN and I have seen the headstone with their names together on it, so I know she's here, I just can't prove where she's from...please help! Thanks!

alfred neal and elizabeth polk had 12 children: James m. Martha, John, William, Thomas, Susan m. Carter, Emily m. James Barnett (which is my ggg grandmother)Eliza & Mary died unmarried, Sarah and Elvira died as young girls, two infants died soon after birth. I live in yell county, ar


Peggy

I note that the onlyreply you have received is from my husband's first cousin once removed who lives in Yell County. We have about the same information. I think I can say that the Louisa Ann for whom you are searching is not the daughter of Alfred Neal and Elizabeth Polk. I have researched the family for at least 25 yeara.

Louisa Neal, born 1831, and her sister, Mary Ann, died as spinsters. They are shown with their father in Magazine, Yell, Arkansas, in 1870. Although they both died in 1883, I am not able to locate them in either the printed 1880 census that I have or on ancestry.com census records. Louisa born August 16, 1831, died October 11, 1883, and buried in Dacus Cemetery in Yell County. Her sister, Mary Ann, was born December 16, 1832, and died September 12, 1883, also buried in Dacus Cemetery.

Their brother, William, was born in 1836, and died as a result of exposure in the Civil War. I researched for a number of years with Mrs. Hazel Neal whose husband was the descendant of Alfred's oldest child, Jame Monroe Neal. He and my husband's ancestor, Emily Neal, wife of James Moore Barnett, were the only two children to have children as far as I can ascertain.

I hope this solves part of your problem

Bena Taylor Kirkscey

I'm not related to this family but do have Yell County ancestors and love a challenge. Could these be your sisters in 1880?

Census Place: Magazine, Yell, Arkansas
Source: FHL Film 1254060 National Archives Film T9-0060 Page 348D

Eliza NEEL Self F S W 50 TN
Occ: Keeping House Fa: IN Mo: TN
Mary A. NEEL Sister F S W 48 TN
Occ: At Home Fa: IN Mo: TN

Janet

Thank you for your reply. Since I posted this originally I have discovered that, although Elizabeth and Alfred Neal did live in the 2nd Civil District in Shelby County at the proper time, they indeed were not the parents of my great-great-grandmother Louisa Ann. My latest theory is that she is the daughter of James and Nancy, whose last name was variously spelled Neal, Neel, and Neil in the records, and who also lived within Civil District 2 after marrying in either Sumner or Wilson County in middle TN. Some of their other children lived in the Shelby County area for some time after my ancestors married. I have not yet proven this lineage, but I have reasonably concluded that you and your husband's cousin are correct and I was not. Thank you for taking the time to respond, and I hope my actual Neal/Neel/Neil heritage proves to be as interesting as your own!

Your reply solved one of my questions. Refer to my reply concerning Louisa Neal. I have not found the 1889 census for any of this family. You have. Eliza Neel was actually Elvira Neal. I was told that she died as a young child, even a baby. But apparently not. Records for the family of Alfred Neal are scarce, a lot of hearsay. But the ages for Elvira/Eliza and her sister, Mary Ann, are correct as are the other facts, i.e. places of birth, residence in Magazine, Yell County, AR. Thank so very much. My husband has a number of ties to Yell County, even unto this day. Families include Barnett, Neal, Baird and Orr. All except Barnett have been a problem at one time or the other.

Just a caution. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that Eliza is Elvira. Eliza could be Louisa. If Elvira was alive in 1870, where was she? Since Louisa was alive in 1880, where is she? You'll probably want to find all three in 1870 and 1880 before you can assume that Elvira did not die as a young child. It's that kind of thing that makes this fun, right? :-)

You are absolutely right. Thanks for the heads up. I will rethink the problem.

I have Duncan Neel father of Rachel Neel who married Moses Decatur Yell.

Coffee County Wills, June 1836-August 1906, abstracted by Betty Anderson Bridgewater, Coffe County Historical Quaterly, Vol XVII, Numbers 3-4, 1986:

Duncan Neel (E), Original; Bk. O, p. 22, 50, Bk. 1, p134, 166; WPA

DAte Written: 28 Nov. 1840
Wife Bestsy (also Elizabeth) Neel, life estate on land
Son Thomas Neele
Son Alexander (also Elexander) Neele
Son William Neele
Dau. Elin Campbell (wife of John Campbell)
Dau. Mary Oldfield (wife of Milton Oldfield)
Dau. Susan Hardway (wife of Benjamin S. Hardaway)
Dau. Rachael Yell (wife of Moses Yell)
Dau. Angelina Neel my 2 youngest ch.-to be educated
Son. James Neel he is to have plantation I live on with all land on S side of Duck
river up to John Carroll's spring branch
Executor: Elexander Neel Date Proven : 2 Aug. 1841
Signed Witnesses: John Penn, Daniel hardaway

(Not in J-S; widow Elizabeth & son James Neel arre #60 in 1850 CC census)
(also included with the original will was the following document:)
Case of Duncan Neel's estate in Circuit Court, 27 June 1842:



'CELEBRATING 200 YEARS OF AGRICULTURE'--a Bicentennial essay

By Clint Neel
12th Grade
Lincoln County High School
Fayetteville, Tennessee

It is a great pleasure for me to write about one of my favorite topics, farm heritage. I feel fortunate that I know much of my family's history, which spans from the time before Tennessee was a state to the present. I believe it is of great importance to maintain the tradition of the family farm. When I look over my family history, I realize not only what a great debt I owe to these first pioneers, but also what an abundance of history I have to celebrate and to share.

My first recorded ancestor to move to Tennessee was in 1794 when Duncan Neel moved from northern Virginia to a 5,000 acre land grant farm in the area between the communities of Tullahoma and Normandy. The family naturally made their living farming on this land from generation to generation while the land continued to be divided between their heirs.

SUPPORTED CONFEDERACY

By the time of the Civil War, the family was doing quite well. James Neel, my great-great-
grandfather, was making his livelihood raising corn and hogs in the fertile valley that bordered the Duck River in Coffee County. He continued to farm and support the confederacy as the war raged on. He performed his greatest feat when he joined up with a few other men of the community and drove 10,000 hogs from Tullahoma to Lee's Army in Richmond, Va.

James Neel was allowed to take all of the Confederate money home with him that he could--
unknowing that the war was almost over and the money therefore useless. He was also awarded the title of Honorary Colonel for his help.

At the same time, great-great-great-grandfather Saudek, who was a medical doctor, was adminitering to the wounded soldiers in the field. He was a German immigrant that stowed away in a ship bound for America. He owned a small farm in what is now Percy Warner Park in Nashville.

MULE SALE TALE

A story that always amuses me is that of a mule sale. My great-grandfather Robert Wilburn Neel, had raised 100 mule colts and fed two corn crops to them. He went to southern Alabama to sell them and brought back a new delicacy--a crate of oranges. When my grandfather and his sisters, who were then children , ate the oranges like apples, they got the bitter taste of peel.

During this same time, my family raised 100 hogs on 100 acres of hilltop. The hogs made their own living and fattened up on the famed American chestnut which is now wiped out by the blight.

This same 100-acre hilltop is all that my grandfather inherited. Grandfather was the first to finish college in his family, and because of the Depression he had to also milk cows and miss many meals. However, he was able to build up his farm to the size of 1,500 acres by growing corn on hillsides under a "cut-throat " mortgage. I feel especially indebted to my grandparents because of this.

SOIL FERTILITY MAINTAINED

I am amazed at how well the family maintained the soil fertility by changing the area that was row cropped each year. At the time my father's early years, the farm was still about half woodland because of the care they took in not clear-cutting. They did all of this without any government regulations.

During the time from 1975 to 1976, the family was forced to relocate because of the building of Normandy Dam to Lincoln County where we still continue to farm.

My family raises cattle, and I hope to Continue the heritage of the family farm by farming here myself one day. I have expressed a strong interest in the environment and hope to raise a variety of products from cattle to fruit.

These tales give me hope as together we reshape another 200 years of agriculture. When I look at all this Tennessee history that my own family shaped, our state's Bicentennial becomes a very special occasion for me, and I hope it does for you, also.

First Place Essay in its division in the bicentennial essay competition staged by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Tennessee Cooperator, April 1996, pg 16A


Notation by Dwight Alford May of 2003: Duncan neel was a man of means, with large land holding in Tennessee. He built a large house, smoke house. He wore a large beaver hat and had one slave. The Neel land in Coffee County, Tennessee remained in the family until the 1970's, when the TVA build the Normandy Dam inundating the rich farm land.