Daniel McNeil

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BORN ADVENTURER LEFT HIS STAMP ON MONMOUTH

From the time he settled in Warren County as a young man in 1830 until he headed west two decades later, Daniel McNeil Jr. left an indelible mark on Monmouth, the city he helped found. The legendary frontiersman held virtually every important local office except sheriff.

A born adventurer and leader, McNeil traced his lineage to Scotland and Northern Ireland, where the motto on the family’s coat of arms was “Conquer or Die.” His great-grandfather, John McNeil, stood nearly 6-foot-6 when he emigrated from Londonderry to New Hampshire in 1719. An early New Hampshire history called him “a man of great strength, and neither white or red man upon the borders dared to risk a hand-to-hand combat with him.”

John’s son, the first of three Daniel McNeils, served as a lieutenant in the French and Indian War, receiving a 2,000-acre land grant from King George III.

The second Daniel McNeil—father of Monmouth’s Daniel McNeil—was born in New Hampshire in 1764 and married a formidable woman in 1788. Martha Parker McNeil was said in a biography to have been “a brave, strong woman, equal to any emergency…vigorous, lively, muscular.” At age 70, when she suffered a debilitating fall, she was described as weighing nearly 300 pounds.

Daniel Jr. was the first of six children born to the couple, who moved their young family to the wilds of Ontario County, New York, in 1805. It was there that young Daniel learned the carpenter trade, but a love of adventure induced him to travel with one of his friends to Louisiana, stopping at Plaquemines Parish in 1811. When the War of 1812 broke out, he enlisted with Tatnall’s 43rd North Carolina infantry and took an active part in the Battle of New Orleans.

Following the war, he returned to New York, where in 1815 he married Lucinda Miller, but she died in 1817. Later that year, he received a land warrant for his service in the military, claiming 160 acres of bounty land in western Illinois. With his parents and siblings, he travelled to Wabash County, Indiana in 1819, and in 1821, he married Elizabeth Bell Brown of Louisville, Kentucky. Eventually, the McNeils settled near Lewistown, where a son, Quincy, was born in 1822.

The area in which they settled was highly wooded, and Daniel set to work clearing 10 acres of heavy timber, but was struck down by inflammatory rheumatism. With the nearest neighbor 20 miles away, Elizabeth by herself split the rails, built the fences, tended the crops and hunted wild game with a rifle.

When Daniel recovered that fall, the crops were meager, but food was plentiful in the form of wild hogs. On one occasion, he and some friends, with their rifles and dogs, came across a large gathering of hogs that appeared ready to fight to the death. The men and dogs took refuge in some leaning trees, from which they shot 80 of the swine, laying up ample provisions for winter.

A second son, Daniel Clarence, was born to the McNeils in 1825 and a third son, George, was born in 1827 at Astoria, where they had recently settled.

In 1830, the McNeils moved north to the Warren County river town of Lower Yellow Banks (later Oquawka), where Daniel worked as a fur trader. At that time, the county, which encompassed all of what is today Warren, Henderson and Mercer counties, had achieved a population of 360 settlers, and because inhabitants had to travel to Peoria for all legal matters, McNeil was sent there, where he successfully petitioned for the formation of a local county government.

McNeil was appointed the first Warren County clerk, and shortly thereafter circuit clerk and justice. A devout Methodist, he also opened a Sunday school, and later that year Elizabeth gave birth to their first daughter, Lucinda.

In 1831, the city of Monmouth was founded as the county seat. The name had been suggested by Fulton County commissioner John McNeil, Daniel’s younger brother. Deciding to move to Monmouth, Daniel found a deserted log cabin with a dirt floor a mile east of town, where his family took up residence. In the cabin, he also had his offices as clerk of the county commissioners’ court, circuit clerk, probate justice and recorder. In addition, McNeil was appointed Monmouth’s postmaster, a job he had held briefly at Yellow Banks.

McNeil soon purchased a large tract of land on the north side of Monmouth, where he began constructing a cabin on East Broadway. It was a little shanty, with boards nailed directly to log supports. In this house occurred the first marriage, the first birth, the first death and the first religious services in Monmouth. Following the murder of William Martin by Indians, the first criminal court was held in the house. For years, a lantern would be hung at night from a pole in front to welcome visitors, who included such dignitaries as Lincoln, Douglas and Orville Browning.

In 1832, McNeil opened a general store on the site of the current city hall and in 1836 he was elected Monmouth’s first mayor.

Like their father, McNeil’s three sons distinguished themselves as warriors. Quincy worked his way to lieutenant colonel in the 2nd Illinois Cavalry, fighting in 42 battles, but was captured at Holly Springs, Mississippi. After being paroled, he was appointed by President Lincoln major of the 39th U.S. Colored Troops and went through the battle of the Wilderness to Petersburg. Second son Daniel fought at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican War and served as captain of Co. A, 1st Regiment United States Lancers during the Civil War. A physician, he was later an army surgeon at forts in the West. George McNeil was color-bearer for Capt. Wyatt Berry Stapp’s company of Monmouth volunteers in the Mexican War. He died at Jalapa, Mexico in 1847.

In the late 1840s, Daniel McNeil left his wife, Elizabeth, after she was caught in a romantic affair with a young member of his Masonic lodge. In 1851, he remarried and moved to DeWitt, Iowa, where he was elected judge of Clinton County and in 1858 founded the DeWitt Standard, a Republican newspaper that was published until 1862.

McNeil died in 1869 at the age of 76. A member of the Masons since 1816, McNeil was buried in a special ceremony by the DeWitt lodge. He had requested a quiet funeral, but special trains reportedly brought thousands to pay their respects.

For Maple City Memories, I’m Jeff Rankin.

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