I
am going to be telling about another one of my husband’s ancestors this week,
instead of one of my own. This man is just my husband’s great-grandfather,
his father’s grandfather, whose name was John Corlett McNeil. John was born January 10, 1823 in Santan in
the sheading of Middle on the Isle of Man, and was christened at St. Ann’s in
Santan, January 12, 1823. John was the
son of Richard McKneale and Ann Corlett.
For your information the Isle of Man is divided into six sheadings:
Ayre, Glenfaba, Garff, Michael, Rushen and Middle. Sheadings could be compared I guess you could
say to counties here in America or a shire in England, Scotland or Wales. The Isle of Man for those that might not
know is an island located between England and Ireland in the Irish Sea and is a
British Crown dependency today.
The following is the christening record from the church at
St. Ann in Santan, for John McNeil. My
husband’s grandmother, Annie Francis McNeil Thompson, said her father’s middle name
was Corlett, but I have yet to find a record where he uses that name or the
initial C.
John’s parents were married May 22, 1820 also at St. Ann’s
and John was the oldest son and the second child of his parents. John’s siblings were: Jane Eleanor McNeil
1821-before 1829, William McNeil 1825-1882 in Cleveland, Ohio; Richard McNeil
1827-after 1852 possibly in Australia; Jane McNeil Caine 1829-after 1850
probably on the Isle of Man; Harriet McNeil Kissack 1833-1916 on the Isle of
Man and Ann McNeil Sayle Fayle 1838-1902 on the Isle of Man. According to family stories, John’s father
Richard McKneale 1795-1861 was a master linen weaver, as was John’s grandfather,
Richard McKneale 1762-1848. If you have
ever heard about Irish linens and know how fine they are, and what it takes to
make them, then you will know what a master linen weaver was.
I have been able to trace the
McNeil/McKneale/Kneale line back to 1705 and they were still on the Isle of
Man. I do not have a picture of John’s
father, but I do have one of his mother Ann Corlett McKneale, 1797-1872, and it
is the following.
From a life sketch that was written by either one of his
children or grandchildren, there is not a name with it, we read that: “John
went to school on the Isle of Man, and at a very early age became an apprentice
to a shoemaker, however, he had a desire to become a sailor, and at the age of
fourteen, went to sea as a cabin boy, visiting South and Central America, the
West Indies, the British Isles, and other countries. He sailed the seas for eight years and at the
age of twenty-two returned to the Isle of Man and took up the shoe making
business, as well as giving private music lessons on the side”. John is
not on the 1841 census with his parents and siblings, nor can I find him
anywhere else on the island, so it is possible he was still at sea. If
John was twenty-two as the story says when he returned to the Isle of Man, then
that would make it around the year 1845.
I can only imagine the kind of life he led and the things he
saw while sailing around the world as a young man, but can you imagine the
stories he could tell his future children and grandchildren? Anyway, after coming back to the island, he
soon met his future bride, Margaret Cavendish, 1827-1854, and they were married
October 9, 1847 in Malew in the sheading of Rushen on the Isle of Man. The following year their only child, John
Edward McNeil was born. John Edward
McNeil, 1848-1915, lived in Utah, Arizona and Mexico and was a scout for
General Blackjack Pershing during the Mexican Revolution. The following is a picture of John Edward
McNeil.
From
the life sketch I mentioned earlier we read: “John McNeil possessed a deep
spiritual nature and gave much thought to religion and the salvation of his
soul. It was this spiritual disposition
that led to the investigation of the teachings of several churches such as, the
Ranter’s, Methodists, and the Church of England, to which he belonged for some
time, however he was not satisfied and did not find the comfort he sought in
any of these beliefs. One day he met and
conversed with a Latter Day Saint Missionary, a Mormon. He became interested at once and began
investigating their doctrines, as he had the teachings of the other churches. He was thrilled with the spiritual truths that
this new doctrine brought forth. When he
spoke of these things to his wife, relatives and friends, he was met with
sneers and ridicule. He attended the
meetings where the missionaries spoke and took part in the discussions, but
thought it best not to join the church until his wife could be induced to at
least be tolerant toward this new religion.
About this time, Margaret, who was always frail and often unable to go
about her work, again became ill, and was taken once more to her mother's home.
It was feared she would not recover,
however, she did become well enough to return to her own home. One day the Mormon Elders came, and laid
theirs hands on her head, promising that if she joined the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter Day Saints, and was faithful, she would never again be an
invalid and bedfast. The pain left her
and she was restored to health. This was
a testimony of the power of God, and the efficacy of prayer, which she could
not deny. She was baptized April 4, 1851
and a month later on May 6, 1851 John McNeil was baptized.” Why John joined a month later I am not sure,
you would think he would have been baptized at the same time as his wife, but
those are the dates that have been passed down as to his and Margaret’s dates
of baptism.
The following picture of John, was supposed to have been
taken when he was around 27 years old, so that puts it about 1850 to 1851 for
the year. The next picture is of my
father-in-law, Floyd Thompson, age 27 in 1940, and next my brother-in-law, Dan Thompson
at the age of 18 in 1968. I have always
thought they both looked so much like their grandfather and great-grandfather,
John Corlett McNeil.
John
and his family had a desire to come to America and join with the Saints in Utah
and so worked towards that end. In
January of 1852 they left the Isle of Man and went to Liverpool, England where
they worked to get the necessary funds to take a ship to America. Finally on April 6, 1853 they left from
Liverpool, England on board the ship ‘Camillus’ for America arriving in New
Orleans, Louisiana in May, 1853. John
worked as a cook aboard this ship, during their travels to America, to help pay
for his wife and sons passage. John’s
brothers, William and Richard McNeil, according to the family stories were also
supposed to be on this ship, but they are not listed as passengers, so they may
have been part of the crew. Can you just
imagine being at sea for almost two months with a four year old little
boy. My grandkids would be going
bonkers, cooped up in a tiny place with nowhere to run around. The following is the ship passenger list
showing John, Margaret and John Jr. You
will notice they are using the spelling of McKneale here, but pretty much by
the time they were in Utah, it was McNeil, which the family in America has
carried on to this day.
The family left a short time after their arrival in New
Orleans and went up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri arriving there
in June of 1853. While living here in St. Louis, John’s wife
Margaret took sick and died on June 27, 1854.
I am not sure what the cause was or if it had something to do with the
illness that she had suffered from while she lived on the Isle of Man. I do know that there was a lot of malarial
fever and cholera around St. Louis during this time period, so that may have
been part of the problem. John and his
son John Jr. continued on without their wife and mother, until John met a young
woman who had come from England with her family in 1849, they had also joined
the church and wanted to go to the Salt Lake Valley. On December 14, 1854 in St. Louis, John
married Mary Jane Quinn 1840-1910 and yes she was just 14 almost 15 years old. John
and Mary Jane became the parents of eleven children with the first three being
born while they still lived in St. Louis.
The three born in St. Louis and their names were: Thomas McNeil
1855-1913, William Richard McNeil 1856-1933 and Mary Jane McNeil Kirkham
1858-1892.
John and his family lived there in St. Louis and
worked to earn the money needed to outfit themselves to continue their travels
on to the Salt Lake Valley. It took
until April 1, 1859 before they were finally able to leave for Utah from St.
Louis. By the time they arrived at the
outfitting post in Council Bluffs, Iowa the wagon company they were to travel
with had already left for the Salt Lake Valley.
John did not want to wait another year to join the Saints in Utah, so
they loaded up their wagon and journeyed across the plains all by themselves. From what I have always heard and from what I
have been able to find so far, this is the only known crossing by a single emigrant
family.
One of the stories told in the family about this journey is
the following. Somewhere in Nebraska or
maybe in Wyoming a large group of Indians came charging up over a rise and
completely circled the wagon. John on
seeing them coming, said to his wife Mary Jane, “Do not act afraid and be very
quiet”. The Indians circled and scream
war cries at the terrified wife and children and then one of the Indians came
right up to the wagon and ask them where the rest of their company was. John apparently unafraid or a very good actor
told the Indian they were traveling by themselves. The Indian rode off and then they started
circling and screaming war cries again, John set on the wagon seat and remained
calm, but whispered back to Mary to get the large wooden bowl and fill it with
the sea biscuits he had in his trunk.
John’s trunk he had used while a cabin boy was completely filled with
sea biscuits, which Mary had thought was a waste of time to bring with them
since she apparently did not like them.
There were so many Indians, so the story goes that the huge bowl of sea
biscuits was passed around until the trunk was empty. The same Indian rode back up to John after
the last bowlful was passed around and said, “Crazy white man”, and then they
all rode off as quickly as they had come up.
I am sure there are other stories that could be told about this trip, I
know they were stuck in sand, almost washed away in the Platte River and I am
sure there were others, but for now it is time to go on to something else.
John and his family arrived in the Salt Lake
Valley in August of 1859, first living in the area now known as Woods Cross and
then eventually in the area known now as Bountiful. John’s rock home in Bountiful is on the Utah
Historical Homes register and the following are a couple of pictures we took of
it last year in 2014. The time before
that we had stopped by, there was a man outside that we talked to and he was a
descendant of John McNeil and Mary Jane Quinn and he said there had always been
a McNeil/Quinn living in this home since the day it had been built. We saw no one around this time, but I am
assuming there is still a McNeil descendant still living there today.
The rest of John McNeil and Mary Jane Quinn’s eleven
children were born there in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah and their names were
the following: Robert Corlett McNeil 1860-1916, Joseph Henry McNeil 1862-1921,
George Quinn McNeil 1865-1943, Charles Hyrum McNeil 1867-1934, Margaret Jane
McNeil Schmidt 1869-1937, Elizabeth Ann McNeil Fuller 1872-1961, David McNeil
1875-1912, and Harriet Jeannette McNeil Bradshaw 1877-1962. The
following is a picture of Mary Jane Quinn McNeil taken in Bountiful, but I am
not sure what year and one of John McNeil taken in about 1874, so that could be
about when Mary Jane’s was taken as well.
On September 12, 1868 at the Endowment House in Salt Lake
City, John took as his plural wife, Mary Ann Smith 1853-1944 and yes she was
also 15 when she married, who was from England and had come with her parents to
Utah in 1862. Mary Ann had been living
with her parents in Porterville, Morgan County, Utah and after her marriage to John
he brought her to live with his wife Mary Jane and her children. Mary Jane wasn’t really thrilled with John
taking a second wife and so John built a dugout in the hill behind their home
where Mary Ann lived and raised her children. John now had two wives and eight children and
before long there would be even more children added to his family. The following picture was taken after the
funeral of Mary Jane Quinn McNeil in Bountiful, Utah in 1910 and is supposed to
be of all of her surviving children and a picture of her daughter who had died
in 1892, which would have been eleven children all together. However, there are twelve people in this
picture, so there are two of them that I am not sure of, possibly Mary Ann’s
children. If anyone sees this picture
and knows who everyone is in it, I would love to find that information out. John and Mary Jane are the little circles
that someone added into the picture.
Mary Ann soon added to John’s children when the following
children were born in Bountiful and they were: Sarah Alice McNeil Mills
1870-1958, Daniel McNeil 1873-1948, Ephraim Smith McNeil 1874-1962, Lillias
McNeil Dalton 1876-1961 and Hannah McNeil Goodman 1878-1960. In 1878 John was called to go and settled in
Arizona and so he planned on taking his wife Mary Jane and her children since
they were older, but Mary Jane refused to go.
So John took his five young children and Mary Ann who was pregnant with
their sixth child and headed to Arizona in the summer of 1879. John and Mary Ann’s son, Angus Smith McNeil,
was born July 6, 1879 and died August 8, 1879 in Kanab, Kane County, Utah and
was buried there in Kanab in one of Jacob Hamblin’s plots.
Soon after Angus died the family continued on to Arizona,
going over the backbone and crossing at Lee’s Ferry and settled in Walker in
Apache County, Arizona where they were living when the 1880 census was
taken. By December of 1880 they had
moved over into Showlow, Navajo County, Arizona where the rest of John and Mary
Ann’s fourteen children were born. The
rest of the children were the following: Benjamin McNeil 1880-1956, Althera
McNeil Peterson Evans 1883-1912, James Hibbert McNeil 1885-1886, Jesse Smith
McNeil 1887-1955, Annie Frances McNeil Thompson 1890-1989 (my husband, Roy’s
grandmother), Willie Smith McNeil 1892-1892, Frederick McNeil 1893-1921 and Don
Carlos McNeil 1896-1966.
Things were hard for the family there in Arizona
and there were Indian problems here too, even though the Apache were starting
to be put on reservations, they were still wreaking havoc here and there. John continued his trade as a shoemaker, but
also was well known for his doctoring abilities and was often called upon by
the white’s as well as the Mexican’s and Indians to come and doctor anyone from
broken bones to regular every day colds, that back in those days could be fatal
if not taken care of quickly. They also
raised and sheared sheep, as well as farmed to make a living and to feed his
ever growing family. John was known up
in Utah as well as in Arizona and Mexico for his musical abilities too and was
leading the music or helping make musical productions to entertain those in the
areas where he lived. I believe the
following picture of John and Mary Ann may have been taken in Arizona before
they went to Mexico, but I am not sure on the date of it. We have an original of this picture hanging
in our living room in an old oval frame.
John had gone back up to Utah, quite a few times to visit
his wife and children there, but would always come back to Arizona as soon as he
could. In 1896 when John was 73 years
old, his last child was born and soon after John was called to go and settle
down in the Mormon Colonies in Old Mexico. Again with Mary Ann and most of their
children in tow, they packed up their belongings and headed towards Mexico and
a new life down there. The older boys
herded the sheep which numbered over 100, John drove a wagon with their goods
and John’s oldest son by his first wife, John Edward McNeil, who had already
moved to Mexico with his wife and children, had come up to help his father and
he drove another wagon with the family possessions. Mary Ann, my husband’s great-grandmother,
kept a journal of their travels to Mexico and their time there, and it is a
wonder any of them survived. Food was
scarce, Indians would run off the sheep and steal anything that wasn’t tied
down and they were always hungry she said many times throughout her journal.
The following picture I have always loved, is
one of my husband’s grandmother, Annie Frances McNeil Thompson, standing, with
her mother Mary Ann Smith McNeil who is setting. I am not sure on the date of this one but I
believe it could have been around the time of John’s death in 1909.
The family settled in Colonia Morelos in Sonora,
Mexico. John continued his doctoring,
raising sheep and farming to support his family. John’s
health had been failing and he could not do too much and so had to rely on his
wife Mary Ann and his children, John suffered a stroke and on August 20, 1909
he passed away at the age of 86 and was buried there in Colonia Morelos the
following day. Shortly after Mary Ann
and some of her children moved up into Douglas, Arizona where she worked at all
kinds of jobs to support herself and her family. By 1920 Mary Ann and some of her children,
moved back up to Showlow where she lived out the remainder of her days, dying
there in 1944 at the age of 91 years.
The following pictures were taken at her funeral, of her surviving sons
and daughters.
There are so many more stories that could be told about John
and his family and I have lots of old pictures of this family as well, but I am
already running behind getting this story out for the week that I need to bring
things to a close.
John Corlett McNeil, cabin boy, shoemaker, doctor, musical
director and husband to three wives and 26 children and too many grandchildren
to count, without missing someone. His daughter Annie Frances had 8 children and
39 grandchildren, if I counted correctly, so you can just imagine how many
grandchildren and great-grandchildren there were all together for John.
John was a stalwart in the new faith he had chosen to the
very end and went where he was called to go without hesitation, may we as his
descendants show just as much faith and perseverance.
