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From: Valerie & Tommy Crook <>
Subject: BIO: REV. MOORE MCNEILL, Ritchie Co. WV
Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 21:31:46 -0400

The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 437-438
Ritchie

REV. MOORE MCNEILL has been justly called the best loved
man in Ritchie County. Gifted with many talents, blessed
with long life, he has used both as a constant opportunity
for doing good. His good deeds will follow him while the
memory of lesser but perhaps more prosperous men fades.

He was born in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, No-
vember 9, 1830, in early life took up the ministry, and at
this writing is in his ninety-second year. He is widely
and universally known and respected, and when he lays
down the cross to wear the crown of glory no one in the
community will be more sadly missed.

The McNeills are of a sturdy Scotch-Irish lineage. In
Scotland for several generations they were known as "dis-
senters." About 1689 some of them removed from Scot-
land to Ireland, and one or more of the family was repre-
sented in the siege of Derry. Following that a part of
the family settled in Wales. Thomas McNeill, the direct
ancestor of Rev. Moore McNeill, was born in Wales in
1747, and was a small child when his parents immigrated
to the American colonies, settling in Capan Valley of
Frederick County, Virginia. There Thomas McNeill mar-
ried Mrs. Mary (Hughes) Ireson, and in 1770 he moved from
Franklin County to what is now Pocahontas County, West
Virginia. He entered three hundred acres of land, which
still remains in the possession of his descendants. Thomas
McNeill gave service on the side of the Colonists in their
struggle for independence.

His son Jonathan married Miss Phoebe Moore. Her father,
Moses Moore, was a romantic figure in Revolutionary times
and in the Indian wars. He was three times captured and
carried from his home on Swago across the Ohio River to
the vicinity of Chillicothe, Ohio. Once he was compelled
to endure the ordeal of running the gauntlet. Another
captive preceding him was stabbed, bruised and hacked
to pieces before reaching the end of the line. Moses Moore,
therefore, decided that death was the least he could expect,
and determined to sell his life dearly. He went down the
line some distance and when a squaw struck him with a
long-handled frying pan he wrenched it from her, knocked
her down with his fist, and then striking right and left with
the handle of the frying pan, he proved such a terror to
his persecutors that many of the squaws ran away. The
spectacle altogether pleased the Indians, who permitted
this little diversion as an entertainment for their squaws,
and they crowded round him praising him with the words
"good soldier," and decided to spare his life. Afterwards
he made his escape and returned home.

The parents of Rev. Moore McNeill were William and
Nancy (Griffey) McNeill. Nancy Griffey was a daughter of
Jonathan Griffey, whose name in the records of Bath
County, Virginia, where he married, is spelled Griffee.
Jonathan Griffey was a native of Switzerland, was a fol-
lower of Lafayette to the Colonies, a soldier until the close
of the Revolution, and thereafter lived in Virginia. Jona-
than Griffey was in the last battle of the war, the siege and
surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

William McNeill and wife had the following children:
Jonathan; James, a Confederate captain; Claibourne; Jane,
who became the wife of John E. Adkisson; Elizabeth, who
was married to Solomon Cochran; Agnes; and Reverend
Moore.

Rev. Moore McNeill has been a stanch republican since
the organization of the party, and he cast his first vote for
the whig candidate Zachary Taylor, though the family were
strongly Southern in their sympathies. During the last
month of the Civil war Governor Arthur I. Foreman of
West Virginia commissioned him captain of a company of
state troops to take the place of Captain Haller, who had
been killed.

Rev. Mr. Moore was licensed to preach in 1859. For
ten years he was identified with the Methodist Protestant
Church, and then transferred himself to the Methodist
Episcopal Church, to which Conference he now belongs.
His first appointment was at Kingwood, and other com-
munities that recall with affection and gratitude his serv-
ices as pastor were Mannington, Harrisville, Spencer and
Dallas. Very appropriately one might quote from the
words of a former history of Ritchie County: "He is one
of the most widely known and beloved citizens of the
county, having endeared himself to the hearts of the many
by his comforting ministrations in times of sorrow and
bereavement. Perhaps no other minister in the history of
the county has married or buried a larger number of its
citizens."

Now, in his ninety-second year, he is spending the
evening of his life at his country home "Locust Grove"
near Smithville. He still takes a great interest in the
affairs of the world and the people with whom his duties
have brought him in contact. His singularly long life has
been an expression of great devotion and consecration to
the ideals of service upheld in the ministry of Christ.

In the peaceful scenes of evening as in the laborious
hours of life's noontide he has had the devoted companion-
ship of his wife. Her maiden name was Jane Eliza Cald-
well, a daughter of John and Jane (Poole) Caldwell, who
were born in that portion of the old Augusta District of
Virginia now Marshall County, West Virginia. The twelve
children of Mr. and Mrs. McNeill were: Owen M.; Cloyd
Tutt; Ida, wife of George W. Clammer, of Fort Collins,
Colorado; E. Augusta, wife of Gus J. Shaffer, of King-
wood; Minnie H., wife of Rev. A. L. Ireland, of the West
Virginia Conference; Ellen H., Mrs. H. H. Cochran, of
Clarksburg; Isa Pierpont, wife of Stanley J. Morrow, of
Dallas, Texas; Alfreda, wife of Kenney P. Wright, of
Washington D. C.; Burley S., who occupies the old home;
William K., a farmer in Ritchie County; Frank C., of
Smithville; and Otis, deceased.

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• BIO: REV. MOORE MCNEILL, Ritchie Co. WV by Valerie & Tommy Crook <>