O’Neal – Neal Family

Source: West Virginia and its People by Thomas Condit Miller and Hu Maxwell Vol.2 – 1913

This family name was originally spelled O’Neal, the prefix being dropped in familiar usage after the immigrant ancestor had reached America. Thomas Neal, or O’Neal, ran away from home when he was a mere lad. He settled in the vicinity of the Kanawha salt mines, later moving to the Ohio country, where he married and reared a family. Among his children was a son, Elliott, who further.

(I) Elliott, son of Thomas Neal or O’Neal, was born in Lawrence county, Ohio, and died in 1892, aged sixty-three years. He was a resident and farmer in his home county. He married — and had a son, Thomas J., of whom further.

(III) Thomas J., son of Elliott Neal, was born in 1852 and died in 1904. He was a merchant and general storekeeper in the town of Bradrick, Ohio, for fifteen years or more of his life. He married Alice Langdon, born about 1855, died in 1892, daughter of Elijah Langdon, also a farmer of Ohio, who departed this life in 1889, at the age of fifty-eight years. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Neal had two children: 1. Dr. William Elmer, who further. 2. Luther B. died of fever in the Philippines, having been a soldier in the Spanish-American war, a regular of Company I, Second Regiment United States Army, and holding the rank of corporal. He was a rising man when his career was cut short by death in 1900.

(IV) Dr. William Elmer Neal, son of Thomas J. Neal, was born in Lawrence County, Ohio, on 14 Oct. 1875, on his grandfather’s farm. He attended school as a boy in the home district, and after a course at the Proctorville High School, from which he graduated in 1894, engaged in teaching school. This he followed for six years in Ohio and Kentucky. In 1900, he graduated from the National Normal University, Lebanon, Ohio, and from there proceeded to the Medical College of Ohio to study for his profession. He graduated from that instruction in 1906.

After spending part of 1906-07 in the Good Samaritan Hospital in the Queen City, he began to practice. The first three years, 1907 to 1910, he put in at Proctorville, Ohio, coming then to Huntington, where he opened an office at No. 1003 1/2 Third avenue. He entered at once into an active and profitable career, which is expanding and progressing day by day. He has had business experience, also, having been a manager for five years of his father’s site at Bradrick.

Dr. Neal is a Republican, though taking no active part here in politics…

Dr. Neal married, on 11 Sept. 1912, Susan, daughter of L.A. and Rith (Garden) Witten, who was born in Monroe county, Ohio.