Peter H. McNeill, Jr.

MCNEILL, MCGILVERY, FIGGINS, CART

Posted By: Connie
Date: 8/24/2010 at 11:38:57

"All History of Klamath County, Oregon:
It's resources and it's people. Page 454

Earnest efforts and good management have brought a goodly measure of success to Peter H. McNeill, industrious farmer of the Merrill district, who migrated westward from Kansas and Iowa to follow his occupation in the fertile land of the Klamath Basin.
Mr. McNeill was born in Eureka, Kansas, July 13, 1873, son of Peter and Mary (McGilvery) McNeill, natives of Canada, who were the parentsof eight children. Peter McNeill (Sr) died in Greenwood County, Kansas, in 1873 and in 1910, his widow moved to Klamath County where she lived until 1913. She was buried in Malin, Oregon.
After completing the elementary school years in Kansas, Mr. McNeill was employed at farm labor, working 16 hours a day for a wage of seven dollars a month. He also followed this work in Iowa, but at 19 years of age started farming on a share basis. March 10, 1907,deciding to sample some of the opportunities opening in the West,he came to Klamath County where he worked for the McIntire and Davis Stage Company, and for B.B. Campbell in Klamath Falls. In the fall of 1907, he went to Portland, Oregon, where he was employed with the telephone company, but, on February 8, 1908, he returned to Klamath County and leased the Beardsley Ranch where he resided for 17 years, raising cattle and doing county road work. After realizing a good profit from the sale of this claim, in 1928, Mr. McNeill purchased his present ranch of 114 acres. To this property he has added additional acreage near the State Line and at Adams Point and is raising grain, potatoes and alfalfa. In addition to a modern home and outbuildings on the home ranch, he erected a large potato cellar for storage of his crop.
Peter H. McNeill was married on January 27,1898, to Clara Belle Figgins of Carbon, Iowa, whose birth date is September 19,1879. Her parents are Job Figgins, born in Indiana, 1853, and Orpha (Cart) Figgins, a native of Illinois, born in 1859. One son has been born to the McNeills, Leonard R. at Council Bluffs, Iowa, on June 13, 1900. Like many of the other residents of his community, Mr. McNeill enjoys annual hunting trips, but his outside activities are few, being affilited only with the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Adventist Church and is a Republican. A tall slender man of affable personality, Mr. McNeill is well liked throuhout the community in which he has made his home since 1928.