George Franklin McNeil (1934-2018) was my cousin and friend. I had the privilege of meeting him in person in 2004 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, land of our ancestors.

By that time, I had been corresponding with George and his wife, Joyce Dancy McNeil (1937-2003) for decades. I was related to both George and Joyce individually in multiple ways through several Wilkes County families: the McNiels, however you spell it, Vannoy, Hickerson, Shepherd, and more.

George and Joyce spent more than a quarter century traipsing through the mountains and documenting the cemeteries, their locations, and burials in Wilkes County. Many were unmaintained family plots, deep in the underbrush, nearly lost forever. This mission was truly their legacy and a result of their love of history and genealogy.

Joyce and George were kind enough to send me letters with information when I was a novice genealogist, finding my way and making those wonderful early discoveries of who my ancestors were, and where they lived. Yes, before the days of the internet and databases where hints are served up to eager genealogists. George never adopted technology and staunchly refused to sign up for an email account. “Call me,” he would say. How I wish I could now.

As I matured in the field, I was able to contribute to their research and eventually test George’s Y-DNA and autosomal DNA.

Before his death, George donated his research and cemetery database to the Wilkes County Genealogical Society as an avenue to fund their efforts. The McNeil Family History Room carries his name, and lookups are available for a fee.

George penned his understanding of the McNeil/McNiel genealogy before his death. He distributed it widely among those requesting information. I think he got tired of having to write the same information over and over in letter after letter. When I asked if I could share this, he cheerfully said, “Of course.” George is gone now, and unfortunately, I can’t ask him any more questions.

There are no more trips with Cousin George riding through the beautiful rolling countryside to stare at fields where cemeteries once stood before chicken houses usurped the few flat places in the county – clearly flat land that was once just as eagerly sought-after for cemeteries.

George drew maps of the locations he was going to take you to. He drew maps for me, and several cousins have sent me maps he drew for them as well. He would tell you that he would “ride along” because otherwise, you would never find the locations. He was dead right, too.

In honor of George’s years of work, I’m publishing the document cousin George sent me about our ancestor, the Elder George McNiel, as cousin George referred to him. George would want this to be shared and certainly took every opportunity to do so himself.

I wrote an original article about the Reverend George McNiel, here, but since that time, I’ve had the opportunity to obtain additional records. After George’s work, I’ll have some commentary (did you have any doubt about that) and will provide additional records and updated DNA information in a future article.

George’s original document didn’t include photos, so I’ve added some that I took with him in the appropriate places.

Thank you, Cousin George, and Godspeed. PS – If you figure out who George’s parents were – could you please let me know! 😊

George’s article begins here. My commentary is noted as “RJE Note.” Everything else, other than photos, are verbatim.

What IS the McNeil Family History?

(By George Franklin McNeil, 4G-Grandson through one line, and 5G-Grandson through another line of the George McNiel who arrived in Wilkes County, NC in 1778, and died in the Parsonville Community in 1805. My late wife, Joyce Dancy McNeil, was an avid genealogist during the last 25 years of her life. She spent many of those years trying to unravel my ancestry. She obviously uncovered more questions than she found answers. This was before the days of the Internet and Google, so we accumulated quite a file of printed material. Much of it is contradictory. I will try to present the major differences in a logical sequence, and let you choose the story you like best.)

In this paper, I will refer to the progenitor as Elder George McNiel. I do that for two reasons. He was the first McNiel to arrive in Wilkes County, probably arriving in 1778, the first year of the existence of the county. Almost every McNeil family since then has had a son named George. To clarify which George I am talking about, I use Elder when I am talking about this eldest George. He was also a Baptist preacher.

In those days, Baptists were very adamant about equality in the church. God regarded every person as equal, they said, even though they didn’t let women say much in church. They absolutely prohibited the use of any kind of title that would suggest that one person had authority over another in the hierarchy of things. Most church covenants of the day included a section stating that no one was to be called anything other than “Brother” or “Sister.” They did make one exception. Preachers and deacons were called Elders of the Church, and were often referred to in church records by the title of Elder. So, our George was an Elder in our family, and an Elder in the Baptist Church.

Ask any McNeil, McNiell, McNeil or McNeill whose family roots extend to the tri-state area of Northwestern North Carolina, Southwestern Virginia or Eastern Tennessee, and they will tell you they are Scottish. Their earliest known ancestor was a Baptist preacher named George McNeil who arrived in Wilkes County about the time of the Revolutionary War. He bought land and settled in the Reddies River Community, but helped start many of the earliest Baptist churches in parts/most/all of the three state area. Minutes of the Strawberry, Yadkin and Mountain Baptist Associations record that he often moderated their annual meetings. He started a church near his home that was sometimes referred to in religious records as George McNiel’s Meetinghouse, and sometimes as Deepeford Meetinghouse. He was elected Wilkes County Register of Deeds and served in that office until he died. In his later years, he moved to a place on the headwaters of Lewis Fork Creek that became known as Parsonville. He is buried in a graveyard in a cow pasture in that community.

So far, so good. But from here, each descendant’s story usually differs significantly from, or completely contradicts another.

My Daddy’s Version

(RJE Note – George’s father was Commodore Christie McNeil (1898-1988), son of George Franklin McNeil (1866-1935), son of Jesse A. “Tess” McNeil (1825-1891), son of George McNeil (1802-1878), son of Rev. James McNiel (1763-1833), son of the Elder George McNiel born about 1720 and died in 1805.)

McNiels are Scotch-Irish. The prefix “Mc” means “son of” in Scotland, so McNiel means “son of Niel.” We don’t descend from the MacNiels of Barra (but I can’t remember where he said we came from.) Our earliest ancestor in this section was Elder George. While North Carolina was still an English colony, George came up the Cape Fear River and settled in what became Moore County amongst a large contingent of Scotch-Irish around Cross Creek — now Fayetteville in Cumberland County. Soon, he moved a little further northwest and came under the influence of the Sandy Creek Baptist congregation and one of their famous preachers like Shubal Stearns and the Murphy Brothers. Eventually, the Sandy Creek Baptists commissioned Elder George as a church planter and encouraged him to go to the wild frontier in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina.

About the time of the Revolutionary War, Elder George came to Wilkes County and bought land on the South Fork of Reddies River adjoining Robert Shepherd’s land. He helped organize Briar Creek Baptist Church, and (Old) Roaring River Baptist Church. He was involved in some way in starting Lewis Fork Baptist Church. Three Forks Baptist Church in Boone claims that he was involved in their early history. He started a preaching point on top of Deep Ford Hill, just a short distance from his home. (Although Flat Rock Baptist Church’s minutes say their preacher went to help organize a church here in about 1792, I can’t find any record of it being officially organized at that time. It was organized on ye 7th Aprile 1798 as “Baptist Church of Christ at Reddies River” which was the normal naming convention for Baptist churches of the day. That congregation used the old Meetinghouse for about 10 years, then moved to Seed Tick Hill — across the road and river from Old Union Township School — and half a century later to its present location a short distance further up the river. It is now known as Old Reddies River Primitive Baptist Church, and services are no longer held there.)

In his later age, Elder George moved west to the headwaters of Lewis Fork Creek and started a church. (Daddy thought the name of the church was Pine Run Baptist. However, Pine Run is just over the crest of the Blue Ridge in Ashe County and Pine Run Baptist Church is located there today.) Elder George is buried in an old graveyard across the creek from where he lived.

Our line of descent came through Elder George’s son, James, whose wife was Mary ‘Polly’ Shepherd. (Daddy didn’t know the name of Elder George’s wife or of his other children.)

George William McNiel’s Additions

George William McNiel was the son of Elder George’s son Thomas and his wife Mary Hannah Parsons. George W. was born in 1825, so his grandfather had been dead 20 years when he was born. As the centennial of Elder George’s death approached (RJE -in 1905), some of the family came up with the idea of having a ceremony to mark the anniversary. Rev. William Harrison Eller of Greensboro wrote George W. asking for any information he had about his grandfather. George W did not answer the letter for almost two years, and the information he finally supplied was limited. One of his statements was “My grandfather (Elder George) came into the State of Virginia with his brothers John and Thomas.” He also wrote, “He came into the State of Virginia and married a Miss Coats.” He then lists the names of some of the children and grandchildren of Elder George.

Booklet Distributed at the Centennial Observance of Elder George’s Death

Pages 90-101 of Judge Hayes’ book, Genealogy of the McNiel Clan, appear to be a reproduction or summary of the Centennial Observance hand-out. Page 92 refers to “tradition,” but no source is mentioned. It says Elder George had a daughter, Mary, born in Scotland. It also says that Elder George was closely associated with the Sandy Creek Baptists and their preachers, Shubal Stearns, the Murphy Brothers and John Gano. (RJE note – read about John Gano here, here, here and here in conjunction with his early forays into North Carolina and his association with the Vannoy family.)

George “attended upon the ministry” of Shubal Stearns before his ordination. (From the structure of the whole paragraph, I can’t tell whether Stearns was preparing Elder George for ordination or George was preparing Stearns for ordination.)

(RJE note – Stearns was baptized into the ministry in 1751. Read about him here, and here. Elder George’s preaching style may have been similar to Stearns’s charismatic “Holy whine.” Sandy Creek was Stearns’s home church. He died and was buried there in 1771.)

(RJE note -You can see the Sandy Creek Baptist Church, above, here, here, and here.)

Rev. Joseph Murphy was baptized at Deep River, near the McNiel home in Moore County. Elder George served as a volunteer chaplain during the Revolutionary War.

The writing includes much history about early Baptist churches and associations, with Elder George’s name sprinkled here and there. However, it is impossible to determine the dates when he was involved. For instance, it may have been started in the 1750’s and still exists today. Then Elder George may be said to have been associated with it, but we can’t tell whether it was in the 1750’s or fifty years later.

If you have not read his version of family history, you should borrow a copy of Hayes’ Genealogy of the McNiel Clan from the library at Wilkes Community College and read pages 90-101.

(RJE note – a full text version of this book is available at FamilySearch, here.)

History of North Carolina Baptists, by G. W. Paschal – 1955

Shubal Stearns organized the Sandy Creek Baptist Association in 1758. He died on 29 Nov 1771. The Yadkin Baptist Association was organized in 1786. The Mountain Baptist Association was organized in 1797. George McNiel is mentioned several times:

• 1776 – In a list of “unlettered” preachers active in Northwestern North Carolina
• 1786-89 – Moderator of the Strawberry Baptist Association
• 1787-89 – Moderator of the Yadkin Baptist Association
• 1794-1800 – Messenger from Briar Creek Baptist Church to the Association
• 1794 – Helped organize Lewis Fork Baptist Church
• 1795 – Preacher at Lewis Fork Baptist Church

Version Published in 1933

James Larkin Pearson was a native Wilkes Countian who gained a reputation as an author, poet and newspaper publisher. His mother was Mary Louise McNiel, daughter of Larkin McNiel and Nellie Ferguson McNiel, so he was Elder George’s Great-grandson. In 1933, Pearson published the first (and only) issue of The McNiel Family Record. In it, he stated his intention to print an issue each month and to feature one McNiel family per issue. He solicited paid subscriptions and submissions of family histories. (His response must have been limited in both endeavors — no more issues were printed.) In the first issue, Pearson printed an article based on information furnished by Rev. Eller. It said that George had departed from Glasgow, Scotland along with his brothers, John and Thomas. Mary (George’s daughter) came to see them off on their voyage to America. She remained on the wharf, waving goodbye and George stood on the aft deck looking back, until the land vanished over the horizon.

(RJE Note – George and Thomas McNeil are both found as adults in Spotsylvania County, VA in 1752, both taking tailor apprentices.)

The McNiel Reunion

In 1935, a big McNiel reunion was scheduled – well promoted and advertised. My father and his brother, who were living in Roanoke Rapids, NC at the time, heard about it, and even in Great Depression days were able to scratch up enough money for train fare to North Wilkesboro. As best I can reconstruct events, Robert McNeill, one of Milton McNeill’s sons (that’s the same Milton who served on the centennial memorial committee), an attorney in Washington, DC, spearheaded the reunion idea. At about the same time, Robert was the leader in organizing The Clan MacNeil Association of America and was elected its first president. It seems that Robert enlisted James Larkin Pearson and Johnson J. Hayes as coordinators of the reunion.

The event was well attended, according to what Daddy told me. The organizers announced to the attendees that they hoped to gather information about all the descendants of Elder George McNiel. To that end, each family was encouraged to gather and write down the name and vital dates of every member of their immediate family, and trace their McNiel lineage back as far as they could. After everybody responded, some variety of book would be published to present all this history. There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm, and the heads of many families promised to get to work on the project.

Then came the keynote address by Robert McNeill. Unfortunately, he chose not to talk about family history, but launched into a hard-core political campaign speech. He extolled the Hoover Administration and denounced the Roosevelt Administration. Then he urged all those present to be sure to vote to return the Republican Party to power next year.

In rural and small-town Carolina, in the midst of the Great Depression, there were those in the audience who did not share Robert’s opinions. They were offended by his speech, doubly so because he had chosen to use the crowd that had gathered for a totally different purpose. The reunion ended in disarray, with some families vowing that they “wouldn’t give him air if he were in a jug.” Some families sent in information about their families, others didn’t send in anything. No published data came out of the reunion until many years later.

Genealogy of the McNiel Clan, by Judge Johnson J. Hayes – 1965

Some 30 years after the ill-fated reunion, Judge Hayes attempted to make sense of the material that had been submitted much earlier. The result is a booklet that he self-published and has been out of print for almost 50 years. Today, his booklet is given more credence than it probably deserves. With his quite detailed history of Wilkes County, titled The Land of Wilkes, the Judge established a reputation as a thorough and accurate researcher. Many people today want to think that the information in his booklet is the result of his personal research, and is entitled to great respect. However, on page 1 he plainly says that the booklet is based on information submitted following the reunion. While the booklet is a valuable tool for researchers of McNiel family history, everybody needs to be aware that there are many omissions and many errors in the data presented.

Ben Rose’s Version

In the latter part of the 20th century, one of the Baptist Conventions in Virginia asked Ben Rose to write a history of early Baptist activities in the state, and to develop profiles of as many early preachers and leaders as he could. He did not research our Elder George, but he developed a profile on Elder Thomas McNiel of Spotsylvania County.

Rose concluded that Thomas’ parents and grandparents had been born in the colonies. Two earlier generations had been ship owners and masters engaged in local trade between ports in Ireland, Wales and Scotland. It is Rose’s conjecture that the family of the master lived on board the ship, and probably did not claim a home ashore.

What’s the Real Story?

Nobody knows for sure! After spending more than a third of a century trying to make sense of the stories told about Elder George McNiel, that is my honest evaluation. We have found nothing that we can tie to him before 1758. The name, George McNiel, appears a few times in Spotsylvania County, VA records. Those records were made at the time each particular event happened. They all occurred between 1758 and 1775. His involvement in helping organize Baptist churches in Northwestern North Carolina and participating in and moderating the annual meetings of the Strawberry, Yadkin, and Mountain Baptist Associations is documented in minutes recorded at the time they happened. Public records confirm that he served as Register of Deeds for Wilkes County. Written accounts of the proceedings of the NC General Assembly confirm that he was considered for a pension for Revolutionary War service and it was denied on the basis that he had not officially enlisted in a militia unit and he had already been compensated for his horse. These events in North Carolina happened after 1778. I believe the Spotsylvania County VA and the North Carolina records refer to the same person.

All the details about his personal life—date of birth, place of birth, names of parents, education, place(s) of residence before 1758, names of wife/wives, date(s) of marriage(s), total number of children, exact dates of birth of some children, place of birth of the children, involvement with Sandy Creek Baptists and their preachers, and many other details—are either omitted or based on word of mouth accounts passed down for a hundred years through families of different children, grandchildren, etc. The first time I can find that any of this kind of information was written down was when his grandson, George William McNiel, responded to an inquiry from Rev. W. H. Eller in 1898—almost a century after Elder George’s death. This grandson never saw his grandfather, being born 20 years after Elder George’s death. That it took George William almost two years to respond to the inquiry indicates to me that he was not very interested in such things and probably didn’t know much family history. He came up with something as a favor to Rev. Eller.

Over the past century, many different people have taken the few pieces of known information and elaborated on them. Some would not have been above a little puffery, or of adding some events just to make things interesting. When I questioned the details one author had written, he replied, “I can’t prove that it happened, but you can’t prove that it didn’t.”

If you find a nicely written, fairly complete biography of Elder George, my advice is to look at the sources. Unless those sources were recorded at the time the event happened, take it with a grain of salt. I can take selected versions of material printed after 1900 and make his story say anything I want it to say.

Some family traditions, and his tombstone, indicate that Elder George McNiel was born in Glasgow, Scotland. If The McNiel Family Record is correct in saying that he had brothers John and Thomas, and if you believe Spotsylvania County records that indicate that Thomas and George, who were neighbors in the county, were brothers, and if you believe Ben Rose’s profile of Thomas’s ancestors compiled for Virginia Baptists, then George and his parents were born in the colonies, and their distant ancestors had lived aboard their ship. Therefore, he would not have been born in Glasgow, nor would he have departed from there, leaving his daughter, Mary, standing on the wharf. If you believe that George, John, and Thomas sailed from Glasgow, leaving his daughter Mary on the wharf, you open a whole different can of worms. Who was Mary’s mother?

Was the mother dead or alive? George is said to have fathered a daughter named Mary in America in the 1774/84 time frame. If he had a daughter named Mary in Scotland, would he have named another one Mary? I don’t think there is proof of where George was born. You can accept the version that suits your fancy.

Who was George’s wife (wives)? If he left a daughter, Mary, on the wharf in Scotland, perhaps he had a wife there that we don’t know about. I’ve never heard of one. Did she die in Scotland? Did she later join George in the colonies? Records are silent about this possibility.

Elder George’s grandson, George William, wrote that his grandfather “came into the state of Virginia and married a Miss Coats.” Where did she come from? When did they get married? How does his “Miss Coats” turn into “Mary Coats”? Public records in Wilkes County show that George and Sally McNiel witnessed a bill of sale transferring ownership of 3 Negro slaves, August, Cumbo, and Bird, from John Stubblefield of Wilkes to Jacob Nichols of Rowan on 3 Oct 1782. Documents in the loose estate papers in the State Archives in Raleigh, dated 2 Feb 1808, show that William McNiel was the administrator of the estate of George and Sarah McNiel in Wilkes County. There could have been a wife named Mary, but public records suggest that from at least as early as 1782 until his death, his wife’s name was Sarah.

(RJE Note – I wrote about Mary, Sarah, Miss Coates, here.)

Most family histories attribute eight children to Elder George and Mary Coats. The dates of birth range from 1758 for John to 1782 for Thomas. That’s 24 years. While not impossible, that’s a rather long period for a woman to be having babies. If we examine the documented and estimated dates of birth for the children, there is one child, then a gap of 7 years, six more children, a gap of 6 years, and then one more. That’s not a natural pattern for a woman to have children. Were there two or three babies who died during each of those gaps? Did Mary actually have 12-15 babies? Or did a wife die and there was an elapsed period of time before he remarried?

There were two Federal Censuses taken during Elder George’s lifetime—1790 and 1800. At that time, the Census did not include the name of each member of the family. Only the name of the head of household was recorded, along with the number of males and the number of females living in the household, placed in broad age groupings. There is no woman in his household in either Census old enough to have been the mother of all the children attributed to Mary Coats. It’s impossible to fit the ages of the children attributed to Elder George into the age groupings in the Censuses. Of course, some of his children could have been visiting somebody else, or some grandchildren could have been visiting in his home on the day the Census Enumerator came by. Anyway, the Censuses don’t fit the family as traditionally known.

When can George and his brothers first be documented in the colonies? From several sources, we are told that Elder George worked with the Sandy Creek Baptists and their preachers, especially Shubal Stearns. Paschal tells us that the Sandy Creek Association was formed in 1758 and that Stearns died in 1771. My wife spent several months looking through records of the Cross Creek NC Scots and could not find a George, John, or Thomas that could fit into what we know about later records. If the three brothers lived in the Cross Creek community, she couldn’t find their trail. If he were so closely associated with Shubal Stearns and Sandy Creek, why did Paschal not find him there? Stearns and Sandy Creek are quite well covered by Paschal. Why is George mentioned by Paschal only after 1786, the time when we know he was living on Reddies River? A George McNiel that I believe was our ancestor was living in Spotsylvania County, VA during this period. Did he travel between Spotsylvania County and Sandy Creek?

Spotsylvania County, VA public records show that a Thomas McNiel bought land from John Lea on 4 Aug 1752. Records suggest that Thomas was a Baptist preacher. He eventually wound up in Caswell County, NC, where his will was proved at the December 1781 session of court. There is no trail of John.

On 7 Mar 1758, George McNiel witnessed the will of William Matthews in Spotsylvania County.

He and Thomas were charged with attending unauthorized religious services in Caroline County, VA, in 1768. The charges were dismissed. Elder George was assistant to the preacher at Lower Spotsylvania Baptist Church (now Wallers Baptist Church) in 1772.

On 13 Feb 1775, Daniel and George Musick sold 68 acres of land in Spotsylvania County, adjoining John Shepherd, to George McNiel. In that same year, George McNiel witnessed the deed when John Shepherd sold 500 acres in Spotsylvania County to Mack McDaniel.

On 12 Mar 1778, George McNiel purchased 120 acres on the South Fork of Reddies River in Wilkes County, NC, adjoining land owned by Roland Judd and Robert Shepherd. On 20 Nov 1778, he entered 132 acres on both sides of the South Fork of Reddies River adjoining Robert Shepherd. This was Entry No. 35, indicating that it was made very shortly after Wilkes County was formed. NC Grant No. 442 was issued for this land on 23 Oct 1782. On 15 Apr 1780, he entered another 100 acres on the South Fork of Reddies River, and on 2 Aug 1791, he entered 222 acres on the North Fork of Lewis Fork Creek.

We know that the McNiels and Shepherds were neighbors in Spotsylvania County. Two of the McNiels married Shepherds. That the McNiels settled beside the Shepherds in Wilkes County indicates to me that the Wilkes County George McNiel is the same one who had lived beside the Shepherds in Virginia.

Virginia records indicate that George was involved in religious activities before he came to Wilkes County. Tradition says he was trained as a Presbyterian preacher but became a Baptist after reaching the colonies. One story I have heard was that he said he changed because there were more Baptists to preach to. In History of North Carolina Baptists by G. W. Paschal, Elder George is on a list of “unlettered” preachers active in Northwestern North Carolina. So, how well trained was he?

Old church records substantiate his involvement in establishing Brier Creek Baptist Church and (Old) Roaring River Baptist Church in Wilkes County. In the early 1790s, he started a preaching point on top of Deep Ford Hill, a short distance from his home at the time. Early Baptist records sometimes refer to this as George McNiel’s Meetinghouse and sometimes as Deep Ford Meetinghouse. (Prior to American independence, the Anglican Church was the “official church,” supported by taxes and having clergy approved by the Church in England. A building used by the Anglican Church was the only facility in colonial America that could be called a “Church.” The places where people of any other religious persuasion worshipped could not be called a church, so the name given to them was “Meetinghouse.” By the 1790s, after Independence, Baptist worship sites legally could have been called a church, but people were so accustomed to calling them “Meetinghouses” that the term continued for years. In fact, I can remember old folks continuing to call the churches in our community Meetinghouses as late as the 1940s.) The sites of the old church and its associated graveyard have undergone so many changes that neither can be identified today.

Minutes of (Old) Reddies River (Primitive) Baptist Church state that the Deep Ford Meetinghouse was where that church was constituted on “ye 7th Aprile 1798” and that they continued to use it for worship services for the next ten years or so. The location of the road has been changed. The Deep Ford is no longer used and its exact site is no longer remembered. The supposed site of the church is covered in timber and has been logged several times, so any trace of a church would have been destroyed years ago.

The McNiel and Shepherd families were active in the new church, Reddies River (Primitive) Baptist Church. I assume they had been active in the older Deep Ford Meetinghouse. There is no way for us to know who was buried in the old graveyard. I can only assume that the older Shepherds and perhaps a couple of Elder George’s children were among those buried there. Many residents of the community with whom I have spoken can remember the old graveyard and remember that it was located in the southwestern quadrant formed by the intersection of Highway 16 and Shingle Gap Road. Ann McGlamery Carter, who grew up almost next door to the graveyard, told me that she remembered playing hide and seek in it when she was a little girl. She thought there were a few inscribed tombstones, but most of them were fieldstones. Some were large enough for her to hide behind, she said. It is a common allegation by residents of the community that Vance Lovette used the tombstones in the foundation of a chicken house that he built in the 1930s on or close to the graveyard site. (The old chicken house ceased being used in the 1970s and was bulldozed into a nearby ravine a few years later.) Several mobile homes are now located on the site of the old graveyard.

(RJE note – George took me to this location. I wrote about it in two articles about Robert Shepherd and his daughter, Elizabeth Shepherd.)

Elder George was also involved in establishing Lewis Fork Baptist Church in Wilkes County and Three Forks Baptist Church in what is now Watauga County. Most churches of that day had services on only one Sunday a month, and the same preacher served several churches. Therefore, it is probable that Elder George preached at most of the Baptist churches in existence at that time in the tri-state area. He was active in various associations of churches, often moderating their annual meetings.

George’s Later Life

I think it would have been about 1797 or 1798 when he moved from his home along the South Fork of Reddies River to a place on the headwaters of Lewis Fork Creek that is now called the Parsonsville Community.

A new church, Reddies River (Primitive) Baptist Church, was organized at the location of his old church in 1798. That probably meant that Elder George had stopped using the church building. I think that is about the time he moved away from Reddies River. The new congregation didn’t have a preacher for years, but Elder George was called upon for baptisms and funerals. I don’t have any documentary proof of why he moved to the North Prong of Lewis Fork Creek. He had entered land on Lewis Fork Creek in 1791. Perhaps, for some reason, he preferred it to his home on Reddies River. His youngest son, Thomas, must have moved with him, because a few years later, Thomas married Mary Hannah Parsons, whose family gave the Parsonsville community its name. Thomas and Hannah are buried in the same graveyard as Elder George.

I can remember when a rather large house stood on the opposite side of the Parsonsville Road from the graveyard where Elder George is buried. It had been the home of George W. Welch. Two chimneys from that house are still standing in 2013.

(RJE Note – This is a 2004 photo of the location as shown to me by Cousin George when we visited the Elder George McNeil cemetery.)

I have seen descriptions of the location of Elder George’s house as being “back of the George Welch house.” To me, that sounds like the Welch house was standing when George moved there. However, that is not the case. Actually, Welch married America A. Parsons, Elder George’s great-granddaughter, and they probably lived in the house from about 1875 to 1940. I think Elder George’s house was back of where the George Welch house was later built.

Records seem to prove that Elder George served as Wilkes County Register of Deeds until close to the time he died. His signature appears on some of the earliest documents. I’m not sure where the official office of the Register of Deeds was in those days, and I don’t know how frequently he had to be in the office. In those days, documents had to be “proved” in a regular session of court before they could be recorded. Court was held only three or four times a year. Perhaps the only time he had to be in the office was during and immediately after each court session. If that is true, I can see how he could live in Parsonsville and attend his office in Wilkesboro, some fifteen miles away. However, if he had to be in the office every day, I don’t understand how an 85+ year old man tolerated such a commute. I don’t think the roads would have accommodated a buggy, so his transportation would have been by horseback. Perhaps he could have boarded with someone living near town during the week and went home only on weekends. (A problem is that there was no town during the early part of his tenure.) In 1799, the General Assembly ordered Wilkes County to acquire some land for the county seat, and build a court house, stocks, and jail. The land that was acquired had disputed ownership and was tied up in a lawsuit until 1837.

Elder George died 7 June 1805. As the centennial of his death approached, family members came up with the idea of having a memorial service to commemorate the anniversary. The resolution by the Brushy Mountain Association to observe the centennial of his death says that no tombstone had been erected to mark his grave. The Brushy Mountain Baptist Association provided funds to buy one. A committee of relatives was named to coordinate the proceedings. The committee gathered information about Elder George’s life and had a booklet printed that was made available to those attending the service in 1905. The tombstone was erected in the graveyard directly across the creek and road from where his house had been located. It is a granite shaft about 10 inches square and some 4 feet high, resting on a base of three granite blocks of graduated size. The shaft is inscribed on three sides:

“Elder George McNeill was born in Glasgow, Scotland in or about the year 1720 and departed this life June 7, 1805.”

“He was one of the pioneer Baptist preachers and organized the Yadkin and later the Mountain Baptist Associations. He was a patriotic citizen and companion of the American Army in the war of the Revolution.”

“Committee: J. M. Eller, J. O. McNeill, G. W. Walsh, T. L. McNeill, M. McNeill.”

Whether or not the granite marker is supposed to be at the exact spot of his grave, or whether it just marks its general location, I do not know. There are no other inscribed tombstones at adjoining graves. His son, Thomas, and his grandson, George William, are buried in the graveyard, but their graves are a couple of rows west of his tombstone.

Over the years, the graveyard was not maintained. Trees and weeds grew in it. When I first remember it, it was in a cow pasture. Periodically, the cattle would turn over the tombstones, including Elder George’s.

It was probably in the 1980s when a few descendants cleaned up the graveyard and built a barbed-wire fence around it. Trees continued to grow in it.

I visited the graveyard periodically, and by the beginning of the 21st century, the barbed-wire fence was down in places, and most of the tombstones were turned over again. Weeds and briars were so thick that it was best to visit in the wintertime. In the fall of 2005, a group of descendants and friends spent one Saturday cutting and removing weeds and bushes, probing for and resetting grave markers, and removing a large dead poplar tree that threatened the graveyard. Since then, the graveyard has been cleaned off about once a year. The land is owned by an elderly man who lives outside of Wilkes County. The cemetery is not separately deeded nor is there a deeded right-of-way to it from the road. (RJE note – George wrote this document in 2013.)

How Do You Spell McNeil Anyway?

You will note a discrepancy between the way the surname is spelled on the tombstone and in this commentary. Signatures on various public documents show plainly that Elder George spelled his surname “McNiel.” Later, it became fashionable in some branches of the family to add an extra “I.”

One bachelor who was considered to be rather well off, and who retained the original spelling, had brothers, each married with a family to support and struggling financially, who changed their name to McNiell. The bachelor told someone, rather facetiously I suspect, that when your net worth exceeded a thousand dollars, you could add the extra “I.”

For some reason, some of the family started using McNeil or McNeill. One of the earlier advocates of the McNeill version was Rev. Milton McNeill. He was not only a preacher, but a politician as well. He served in most elected offices in the county as well as in the state legislature. He is the “M. McNeill” listed as a member of the centennial committee on Elder George’s tombstone. (His obituary refers to him as the “best known man in Wilkes County.”)

The other McNiels on the committee, J(ames) O(liver) and T(homas) I(rvin), both actually spelled their name McNiel, but evidently Milton prevailed to have all surnames on the tombstone spelled the way he spelled his. (The G. W. Walsh named as a committeeman on the tombstone descended from those who spelled their name Walsh, but he actually spelled his name “Welch.” He married America A. Parsons, who was Elder George’s great-granddaughter and built their house across the road from the graveyard. Chimneys of his house still stand in 2013.)

Don’t let anybody tell you that those with different spellings are not related. Essentially all of those from the tri-state area with either variation of the spelling descend from Elder George. I had uncles who used McNeil as well as some who used McNiel.

Today, the variation in the way the surname is spelled continues. I guess we just don’t know what our name is.

What About the Battle of King’s Mountain?

Many of his descendants say Elder George was at the Battle of King’s Mountain on 7 Oct 1780, during which a loosely organized group of volunteer militia from Eastern Tennessee, Western Virginia, and Northwestern North Carolina (known as the Overmountain Men) attacked and utterly destroyed a regiment of trained British soldiers along with some local Loyalist followers. There is no mention of him on the monument at King’s Mountain or in any official roster of men at the battle.

In 1881, a book titled King’s Mountain and its Heroes, written by Lyman C. Draper, was published, giving a rather detailed account of the events surrounding the battle. I have summarized that book in the following pages.

There were nine company-sized militia units involved in the battle, each under its own Colonel. Usually, a county raised a militia unit primarily to protect the settlers from Indian raids. Each of the units now looking for Colonel Ferguson had chased Indians, but they had never trained together or been in battle together. There was no overall commander, until they finally chose one during the march.

It’s hard to determine the exact number of men on either side who were actually engaged in the battle. The militia units were almost 1,800 strong, but as we will learn later, about half of them did not get to the battle. The estimated strength of the British varies all over the place, but it is believed that the number of men actually engaged in hostilities on each side was fairly equally matched, at about 900. Today, the commander of an attacking force wants at least twice the number of troops, and would like to have three times as many as the defending troops. How can we explain the lop-sided outcome of this battle in which the forces were very nearly equal in size? The Overmountain Men were motivated. They had better weapons. They used different tactics. The high ground occupied by the British, usually a military advantage, turned out to be a huge disadvantage. And maybe there was a little luck and answers to Patriot prayers.

What had got these backwoods farmers so riled up that they went looking for a fight? British General Cornwallis had landed his army at Charleston, SC, and started north. He had expected that many locals would join his army along the way. That didn’t happen, but he had not encountered strong resistance either. As he neared Charlotte, NC, he dispatched Colonel Patrick Ferguson and some 900 men to move west and pacify that region. Part of this unit got as far as Gilbertown (now Forest City) and ran into resistance. They heard rumors that the settlers to the north—in the foothills and mountains—were serious about independence and would not welcome British soldiers. Ferguson took a few prisoners, gave them a message for their leaders, turned them loose, and headed back toward Charlotte.

When Ferguson’s men reached King’s Mountain, he considered it to be an ideal defensive position. The top of the mountain was almost flat and was large enough so his whole regiment could deploy in a defensive posture. These positions overlooked a very steep drop-off of 100 feet or so on all sides of the mountain. Any attacking force would have to climb the steep incline right under the defenders’ guns. Ferguson opined, “God Almighty himself can’t drive me from here.”

Ferguson’s message to the residents was delivered to the first settlement. The original paper no longer exists and a sanitized version of it has been published. It was passed along as a verbal message to all of the other communities throughout the foothills and mountains of North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee. It went something like this:

All you scoundrels and riffraff who are rebelling against the king are not fit for a true Englishman to piss on. Unless you forthwith lay down your arms and swear allegiance to the king, I will march my army over the mountains. We will hang all your men and boys, **** your widows and daughters, burn your houses and outbuildings and lay waste to your crops and livestock.

The Americans didn’t like his tone. But, even worse, they knew that, given an opportunity, Ferguson would do exactly what he threatened. The leaders quickly decided they were not going to sit around and wait for him to show up. The best defense might be a good offense. They would go and find him and have it out once and for all. They would protect their family and property! They were motivated!

The militia leaders in Eastern Tennessee and Western Virginia quickly assembled their units and met at Sycamore Shoals (now Elizabethton, TN). About half of the men were on horseback. The others, who did not own a horse, or it couldn’t be spared from home for an extended period, were on foot. Each man came armed with his personal weapon. Most were long rifles that they depended on for hunting. They were accurate, and each man was well accustomed to using the weapon he carried. (The British were armed primarily with short-barreled, smooth-bore muskets.) Technically, the Militia out-gunned the British.

The combined militia moved south along paths through gaps in the mountains, headed for Quaker Meadows (Morganton). Other units joined them along the way. The Wilkes and Surry County Militia under the command of Colonel Ben Cleveland joined the main body at Quaker Meadows. Then, across the South Mountains to Gilbertown (now Forest City). Here, they found people who had seen some of Ferguson’s men. They had headed east when they left that community.

The Patriots lost a day trying to find a ford across the river. Finally, they crossed and headed generally east along the NC-SC line. They met some travelers coming from the east. Obviously, they had taken a load of food supplies somewhere. The men “persuaded” them to tell where the British troops were camped. They were on top of King’s Mountain. But, how long would they stay there? How long would it take for the militia to get to King’s Mountain moving at the speed of foot-soldiers? The leaders concluded that they would prefer to move faster with fewer men than to take the time for the whole group to get there.

The leaders of each militia unit gave the order. If you are on horseback, but you are old, or not in top physical shape, or don’t have a good rifle, or have any qualms about going into battle and shooting British citizens, get off your horse and let one of the foot-soldiers take your place. Colonel Herndon of Wilkes County was placed in command of those left on foot, which accounted for about half of the entire body. He was told to let the men camp for the night, and then move at sustainable speed toward King’s Mountain the next day. They estimated that the march would take three days.

A member of the party began to recognize landmarks and realized that he had hunted in the area years before. He gave the leaders information about the general lay of the land and agreed to act as a guide for the mounted contingent.

After a few hours’ rest, the mounted men set out in the pouring rain, expecting to ride all night. It was shortly before noon when King’s Mountain came into sight. A place was found to stop and get oriented. The leaders went as close to the mountain as they dared and marked the best approach routes. They decided to approach the mountain from the west, with 5 units (Col. Hambright/Maj. Chronicle, Col. Cleveland, Col. Lacey, Col. Williams, and Col. Shelby) moving along the north side of the mountain and 4 units (Maj. Winston, Maj. McDowell, Col. Sevier, and Col. Campbell) moving along the south side. The plan was for the men in front of each column to continue until they met at the east end of the mountain. Then, on signal, they would attack from all sides of the mountain simultaneously.

The men were told the plan. They tied their horses. Then they advanced on foot through the wet leaves, which enabled them to move with very little noise. By staying in the dense forest, they might not be detected before they were in place. But, it didn’t quite work that way. They were spotted by a British outpost before the lead elements met. The British opened fire but were ineffective at that range. The militia hurriedly got in position and began the attack.

They didn’t attack side by side in a nice straight line. Each man rushed from behind one tree to the next. Or to a big rock, or a downed log, or a stump hole or other depression in the ground. They took every advantage of camouflage and cover. They didn’t give the British much to shoot at. The only time that a militiaman was exposed to British fire was the few seconds it took for him to run from one covered position to the next. When a British soldier had loaded his musket, he moved to the edge of the drop-off and stood up to fire down the slope. He made a good target for a militiaman with his long rifle. Thus, the tactics of the two units were worlds apart. The British fought European style, while the militia fought Indian style.

That’s not the only problem the British were having. Many times, when they pointed their muskets downward to shoot down the steep slope, the bullet rolled right out of the muzzle. They were shooting blanks! They resorted to bayonet charges. But those pesky Americans wouldn’t stand still out in the open so a soldier could impale him on a bayonet blade. It’s hard to bayonet somebody on the other side of a big tree, who has a rifle ready to shoot at you. The charging British couldn’t find anyone to engage, while, all the time they were being shot at from behind trees, rocks, and logs. In rather short order, each charge ran out of steam and the British scrambled back up the steep slope to their defensive positions. So, for the British, this particular configuration of high ground was a distinct disadvantage.

Colonel Ferguson first attempted to direct the defense by a series of whistle signals. Then he mounted his horse and rode from position to position urging his men to fight harder. He was shot several times and could not stay in the saddle. Upon his death, his subordinates surrendered. So, less than an hour after the first shot was fired, the battle was over and every British combatant had been killed, wounded, or captured. American casualties were 28 killed, 62 wounded.

We would like to think that our forefathers would honor enemy surrender and treat their prisoners humanely. But they didn’t. Several British were shot while waving a white handkerchief. Soon after the battle ended, they held kangaroo courts, convicted and hanged 30-40 prisoners. Then the militia, with some 600 prisoners, headed back toward home. On the second day, they met the foot-soldiers, still moving toward King’s Mountain. During the long march from King’s Mountain to Guilford Court House, about 125 prisoners managed to escape. Many were shot “while attempting to escape.” Of the 600 prisoners when they left King’s Mountain, there were only 130 when they were transferred to General Gates.

We like to say Elder George went to King’s Mountain. He’s not named on the battlefield monument or in the roster of men at the battle. Which is right? Maybe both. Here’s the way I reconcile the contradictory versions.

The battle was in 1780. If we accept tradition that Elder George was born in 1720, he would have been 60 years old. Would a 60-year-old man set out on foot with a bunch of young whipper-snappers half his age on a march of unknown duration? I suspect he would have ridden a horse.

He was a preacher—had been for years. Regardless of how strong his support of independence was, would he have carried a rifle and would he have been expected to kill British soldiers that he encountered? I like to think that he would have carried a Bible rather than a rifle. Maybe he set out to be available to provide spiritual comfort to anyone in need of it. Maybe he counseled the Overmountain Men—those who were over-eager to kill, as well as those who had trouble reconciling the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” with the immediate objective of their journey. Some may have been afraid of combat—afraid that they might die. Perhaps he could offer encouragement, hope, and peace.

I think Elder George’s mission would have been to give spiritual comfort to the men. They were headed to battle. Casualties are to be expected in a battle. He could comfort the wounded and give the dead a Christian burial. However, there were no slots in the militia for chaplains. There was no place for him to enlist. He just went along. Perhaps he felt called by his religion or by his desire for freedom, or both.

So, I think the chances are good that Elder George left Wilkes County with Colonel Cleveland’s Militia. I think it was probably his intention to render spiritual aid before, during, and after any action in which the unit participated. I think he was most likely traveling on horseback. When the leaders decided that they wanted a young, lean, mean killing machine on every horse, I suspect that a 60-year-old preacher would have yielded his mount to a younger replacement.

There is documentation that could be construed to support this notion. In the record of legislation introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly, it is recorded that a bill to pay Elder George a pension for his Revolutionary War service was introduced. It bounced around between committees, and no one questioned his service. However, the pension was denied on the basis that he had not officially enlisted in a militia unit, and he had already been compensated for his horse.

(RJE note – You can read about my visit to Kings Mountain with photographs, here.)

My DNA Analysis

A 25-point analysis of my DNA does nothing to prove or disprove any of the contradictions in our recent family story. All 25 points correspond exactly to those of inhabitants of northern Ireland whose ancestors have lived there as long as history has been recorded. Many of those families are said to go all the way back to Niall of the Nine Hostages. This Niall was the first to consolidate the rule of northern Ireland under one person. The short version of his exploits is that he invited nine of his rival chiefs to a big party at his digs. After a big meal and consumption of quantities of Irish beverage, he boiled the doors and announced that nobody could leave until all of them had sworn allegiance to him. Thereafter, he evidently ruled the roost until he was killed in battle in 403 AD. His descendants became the historical Irish Kings.

(RJE Note – This is the painting of Kisimul Castle that hung on Cousin George’s wall.)

Local McNeils have assumed that we are related to the Scottish Clan MacNeil, whose ancestral home was Kisimul Castle on the Isle of Barra in the Hebrides Islands west of Scotland. In Castle in the Sea, Clan Chief Robert Lister MacNeil traces his ancestry through Niall of the Nine Hostages back to Noah. But DNA does not link the Barra MacNeils to Niall’s descendants nor to me. So, another male must have snuck in somewhere. Anyway, the DNA analysts at Family Tree DNA say that scientifically we descend from Niall and his Irish bunch before any of them strayed off to Scotland.

If you are a male, with a male line stretching back to Elder George, perhaps an analysis of your DNA would prove interesting. It’s painless, and you will find out what science says your background is. Don’t ask me to explain how it happened!

Roberta’s Notes:

Bless Cousin George’s heart for his decades of research, and that of his wife, my cousin, Joyce Dancy McNeil, too.

Today, we have information that wasn’t available to George – both historical and genetic. George took the Y-25 DNA test in 2005 and later upgraded, taking the Family Finder autosomal test too. His Y-DNA matches other McNeil men, by various surname spellings, including two with Big Y-700 tests. One match is from a descendant of the Thomas McNiel who moved from Spotsylvania Co., VA, to Caswell Co., NC. Additional matches are men who descend from other early McNiel settlers, one from New York and others from Ireland.

The historical assumption that every McNeil descended from one line, such as the McNeil of Barra Clan, is typical for early genealogy. It wasn’t until DNA that we had the capacity to discern that men with the same surname could have descended from multiple, unrelated ancestors.

I’ll have more to share in a subsequent article with new information.

I wanted Cousin George’s wonderful article that represents more than 30 years of work to stand alone.

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