FAMILY OF DAVID AND ISABELLA MCNEIL (L)

FROM ANTRIM COUNTY, IRELAND TO ARGENTEUIL COUNTY, QUEBEC PROVINCE TO ALPENA COUNTY, MICHIGAN

David MCNEIL (L) was born in 1841 to Phillip MCNEIL (L) b. 1812 and Mary BARKLEY b 1819. He joined an older sister, Margaret, b 1835. His mother died of pneumonia about 1845 and David later married Mary CROOKSHANK b. 1827. They emigrated to Canada in 1848 to join MCNEIL (L)s in Argenteuil County, Quebec. A son, Hugh, was born aboard ship.

In Argenteuil County, near the now ghost town of Avoca, they joined a likely uncle Hugh MCNEILL b 1791. Hugh had emigrated there in the 1820s. He was married Margaret MCGAVIG b 1793 in Ireland. They had 9 known children: David (b 1821), Margaret (b 1825), Martha & John (b 1828), Adam (b 1831), William (b 1834), Mary & Joseph (b 1839) and Hugh (b. 1843).

In addition, there were other MCNEIL (L)s who emigrated there after Hugh who may have been siblings or cousins of DavidÂ’s father, Phillip. There are James (b 1819), David Stewart (b 1819), Isabella (b 1824) and Margaret (b abt 1826).

David was found in a lumber camp north of Buckingham, Ontario in the 1861 Census working for a Mr. ROSS. He apparently went to Mr. ROSSÂ’s home and met a neighbor George and Christina ROSSÂ’s daughter Isabella (b 1843 in Lancaster, Glengarry County, Ontario) and married in 1862 or 1863, reportedly in Thurso, Ontario.

In 1864, with their first born, Emma MCNEIL, they emigrated to the newly settled lumber boom town of Alpena, Michigan and purchased a home site, currently the entrance to the Fletcher Paper Company, from lumber baron George Fletcher. In 1866, a second child, John Philip, was born. In 1868, he and Isabella attended a revival service of the newly established First Baptist Church, accepted Christ and were baptized. By 1870, David worked in a local wood shingle mill. It may have been owned by Ford Barlow, who was also the First Baptist Church minister. He also participated in the Masonic Lodge.

During the 1870s, David and Isabella encouraged many Argenteuil County MCNEIL (L)s, including his likely uncle David Stewart MCNEILL and his stepmother Mary CROOKSHANK MCNEIL after his father died in Argenteuil abt 1867, to settle in Alpena. Mary lived on Second or Third Ave. home at the current site of the old Alpena High School swimming pool. Other MCNEIL cousins also settle in Alpena and Hubbard Lake. Another two children were born in Alpena--Margaret Jane (b. 1870) and Hattie Christina (b 1871). In the 1870s they homesteaded to Long Rapids Township and established a lumber camp and farm. Here Fannie Berthia (b 1879) and James Stuart (b 1883) were born.

In the 1880s and 1890s, they helped establish a Baptist mission in Long Rapids and encouraged his MCNEIL step-family, cousins, brother-in-law Daniel and sister, Margaret MCNEIL CURRIE, and many of his older children to also settle there. David and Isabella faired well in their Wellington Township lumber camp and Long Rapids farm, tore down their old log cabin and build a new house around 1897 (this house stood until it burned about 1997). David died on the Fourth of July, 1903 followed by Isabella in 1904. Both were buried in the Long Rapids Cemetery.