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Friday, April 14, 2017

Ancestor Birthday - April 14th - Commodore Perry O'Neal 1835 - 1919

The O'Neal Family  
One of my 2nd great-grandfathers was named Commodore Perry O'Neal. As a child, I remember that my mother listed one of her great-grandfathers as Perry O'Neal. It was after I started researching in the 1980s that I realized his full name was Commodore Perry. It is my belief that he was named for the hero in the War of 1812. He did have brothers named George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It seemed to be a common practice to name children for famous people in the time period he was born, 1835. He generally used the name Perry or his initials, C.P. rather than his full name.

Perry was born 14 Apr 1835 in Franklin County, Indiana, the son of Thomas and Sarah (Lollar) O'Neal. Both of his parents had been married previously, so there were 4 half-siblings in his family as well as the 13 full siblings. Six of his siblings were younger than him. He was about 12 years old when his father died in 1847. Sometime before 1850 the family had moved a little farther west to Bartholomew County, Indiana, where they were enumerated in the census. His mother Sarah was the head of the household and by now there were 7 children still in the household. It was 4 years later when Sarah died in 1854, so now Perry was about 19 years old. By 1858 he was living in Davis County, Iowa, because it was 25 Feb 1858 when he married Margaret Jane England. His brother George had moved there earlier. Perry and Margaret's first child was born there, my great-grandmother, Mary Ann O'Neal. On the 1860 census, he was shown as Perry Oneal, with his wife Margaret, his daughter Mary A, and his 14 year old sister, Rebecca.

The family left Iowa in 1865, traveling with some of Margaret's family to California. Perry registered to vote in 1867, listing his residence as Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. He was listed on the 1870 census there as Perry Oneal with his wife Margt J, his daughter Mary A, a son John J. and a 20 year old Chinese servant, Chang.

That fall the family moved to Oregon and Perry purchased for $500 168.89 acres about 4 miles west of the present town of Creswell. Creswell was not established until after the railroad came through that area in 1872. Perry and Margaret had 2 more sons after they had come to Oregon: Edward Chancy born in 1871 and George Elva born in 1873. In 1876 their daughter Mary Ann married John Howard Bond and she moved out of their household. But sometime before 1880 Margaret's father, William L. England came to stay with them because he was listed on the 1880 census as father-in-law. Now Perry was listed as C.P. Oniel with Margaret and the 3 boys also in the household.

It was three years later, in 1883, that Perry filed for about 160 acres of homestead land adjoining his other property. In his final papers in1890 he noted that the land was hilly and good for grazing and farming. It was in May of 1897 that Perry's wife Margaret died. She was buried in the Creswell Pioneer Cemetery. C.P. lived as a widower for over 20 years with his 3 sons who were unmarried at that time. He deeded his land, now over 300 acres, to them a few months before his death 12 Jul 1919. He was buried in the Creswell Cemetery next to his wife.

You can read about him on my website: http://www.joanneskelton.com/p13.htm#i317

Tomorrow I will try to give some more information about Commodore Perry's land in Oregon.


Posted 14 Apr 2017

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