HUGH O’NEIL

O’NEIL

Posted By: Jake Tornholm (email)
Date: 4/21/2020 at 17:41:26

HUGH O’NEIL, a farmer on section 33, Nodaway township (postoffice Nodaway), was born in county Derry, Province of Ulster, Ireland, April 27, 1833, a son of Barnett and Catharine (Flanagan) O'Neil, natives of Ireland. His mother died when he was four years old, and three years afterward his father moved to Scotland, where they resided about seven years. They then came to America, settling first in La Salle county, Illinois, for a short time. Next they moved to Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, engaging in mining there for a time, and then returned to La Salle county, Illinois, where Hugh made his home for nineteen years, mining coal. In 1876 he came to Adams county, settling on and which he had purchased five years previously. He now has one of the best farms in the neighborhood, comprising 120 acres on each of sections 32 and 33, Nodaway township, also forty acres on section 5, Nodaway township, Taylor county, and twenty acres of timber on section 9, in the last mentioned township. His residence, 20 x 30 feet in dimensions and one and a half stories high, is nicely furnished, attesting the refined nature of the inmates. The barn is 24 x 34 feet in ground area. Other outbuildings and farm appurtenances complete the equipments. General farming and stock- raising constitute the scope of Mr. O'Neil operations. In politics he is a Democrat and in religion a Catholic.

He was married in 1854, in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, to Miss Margaret Collins, who was born in Sligo, Ireland, the daughter of John and Bridget (Tillen) Collins, both natives of the Emerald Isle. By this marriage there were eleven children, eight of whom are living, namely: Patrick and John, in Colorado; Mary Bigley; Maggie, a popular teacher in Omaha; Bridget, in Kansas City, Missouri; Hugh, Jr., at home; Michael, at Shenandoah (Iowa) College; and Charley, at home. The three deceased are, a babe unnamed; Winnie, at the age of twenty-two years, in this county; and Ellen, also at twenty-two, in this county; she was a successful school-teacher. All the children received a good liberal education.