Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 459-460 Wood
BENJAMIN T. NEAL, JR. The ancestor of the Neal family was Capt. James Neal, who changed his name from O'Neal during the Revolutionary war because one of his brothers was a colonel in the British Army. Capt. James Neal was born about 1737, and raised a company to join Wash- ington's Army at Valley Forge and subsequently was offered a commission as major in the army of General Greene. After the war he returned to his home in Greene County Pennsylvania. He keenly felt the poverty of the frontier, and is said to have sold a land grant of four thousand acres in Ohio for three hundred dollars. In the spring of 1783, as a deputy surveyor, he surveyed the preemption right and settlement claim of Alexander Parker of Pitts- burgh, the land upon which the city of Parkersburg has since been built. In the fall of 1786 he again left Penn- sylvania, with a party of men bound for the Kentucky country, but he and some of his companions stopped at the mouth of Little Kanawha and decided to make permanent settlement. Here they erected the block house afterward known as Neal's Station, the first structure of the kind in what is now Wood County. In the spring of 1787 Captain Neal returned with his family to Neal's Station. During succeeding years, until the victory of General Wayne in 1795, this settlement was exposed to recurring raids of Indians, during one of which a son of Captain Neal was killed. He was not only the first settler but always first in the affairs of his neighborhood until his death, which occurred at Neal's Station in February, 1822. He was a captain of Frontier Rangers, and held the office of justice of the peace and commissioner for the examination of sur- veyors. His first wife, Hannah Hardin, who died in 1784 was a sister of Col. John Hardin, a distinguished char- acter of the Revolution and founder of the Hardin family of Kentucky. She was the mother of all but one of Capt James Neal's children. His two sons who continued his posterity under the family name were John and James Hardin. Of these John Neal was born in Greene County Penn- sylvania, May 10, 1776, and died October 14, 1823. He was prominent in the affairs of Wood County, was a mem- ber of the County Court from May 12, 1800, until his death, served as high sheriff from 1807 to 1809, and in 1809 was elected a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, serving two terms. In 1796 he married Ephlis Hook, who was born about 1780 and died June 27, 1852. She was the mother of thirteen children, fourth among whom was Cincinnatus James Neal. Cincinnatus James Neal, representing the third genera- tion of the family in Wood County, was born January 1 1803, and died August 25, 1869. On February 24, 1836, he married Mary Ann Collins. Their children were: Vir- ginia M., Benjamin Tomlinson, Mary L., John Collins Narcissa P., Guy A., Libbie B., Eliza K. and Deric P. Cincinnatus Neal during a number of years was a mer- chant in Parkersburg, and subsequently at Cleveland, Ohio. His son, Benjamin Tomlinson Neal, Sr., was born at Park- ersburg in February, 1838, and in 1867 was appointed the first agent at Parkersburg for the Adams Express Com- pany. With this corporation he remained a faithful and responsible employe and official for more than forty years. In 1884 he was transferred to Columbus, Ohio, where he remained until he retired in 1910, but he died at Parkers- burg. His wife, Sallie Burns Shrewsbury, was born June 24, 1840, and died December 18, 1881. She was the mother of four children: Fannie S., wife of Frank P. Moats; Benjamin Tomlinson, Jr.; Edward Burns, court official; and Wellington V. Benjamin T. Neal, Jr., who therefore represents the fifth generation of the family in Wood County, was born December 2, 1873. He acquired a public school educa- tion, and since the age of sixteen has been connected with the banking business at Parkersburg. For fifteen years he was an employe of the Second National Bank, but since 1903 has been with the Union Trust & Deposit Company, of which he is treasurer. He is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. The church of the family is the Episcopal and nearly all those descended from Cin- cinnatus Neal have been republicans in polities. Benjamin T. Neal, Jr., married Mabelle Armstrong, daughter of William and Emily (Shannon) Armstrong. Their two children are Clifford B. and Emily A., and Clif- ford is now the only descendant in the fourth generation of the family of Cincinnatus Neal.