Ira Francis Neal
Neal remembers Ira as taciturn and that he enjoyed watching wrestling on the TV. Neal and his family drove several times from Glendale, California to Phoenix, Arizona to visit Ira and once he ventured from Phoenix to Glendale.
Ira Francis Neal’s ancestry is difficult to trace with any accuracy. He was the 4th of 5 Children born to George W. Neal and Amelia Jane ‘Millie’ Clark in Crawford, Illinois in 1876. Ira was a farm laborer, then a farmer and then a coal miner until he was forced into retirement – and poverty – suffering from black lung disease. He and his wife, Cordelia Wilkins, moved from Illinois to Phoenix, Arizona sometime before 1950, where they lived with, or adjacent to, their daughter Buela and her husband, Mason Baker. Ira died in Arizona in 1961. Cordelia had passed away in 1955.
By 1910, Ira is married to Cordelia and they have sired both Idabelle and Bulea. Living close by is Ira’s brother Charles who is also married with several children. Living with Charles is the mother, Amelia Jane “Millie” Neal (born Clark). George Neal died sometime after 1880 (the last census he appears in) and 1893 when Milley is registered as having married a man named Joseph A. Midget.
In 1916 Ira was required to register for the draft for WWI. There is no evidence that he was ever called up to serve.
By 1920 his family was complete and he had become a coal miner, quite possibly in addition to some farming.
In 1940 Ira and Cordelia were living with Mason Baker, his wife and their daughter, Beulah and their 5 children. Neither Ira nor Cordelia had any work or any source of income but it looks like Ira owned the property they all lived in. It may have been a small farm. Its value in the census was $700. Ira was suffering from black lung disease caused by all the years down in the coal mines.
by 1950 Buela and Mason together with Ira and Cordelia had moved to Phoenix, Arizona. No doubt the climate there was better for Ira. Again they lived in the same house or in adjacent houses.
Ira died in Arizona in 1961. The death was reported by daughter Beulah and she reported that birthplace of father of Ira was Tennessee. Census records, however, consistently show George’s birthplace as Pennsylvania.
George W. Neal and Amelia Jane Clark
The US Federal Census of 1880 lists Ira as the Child of George W. Neal born in Pennsylvania and Millie J. Neal (born Amelia Jane Clark in Illinois). The family is living in Petty, Lawrence, Illinois, USA. In the Census of 1900 Amelia reported that her mother and father were born in Kentucky which is most likely correct. Her parents, William and Susan Clark (born Jewell) moved from Kentucky to Illinois about 1837. This is based on where their children were born. Two of Millie’s sons were still living with her in 1900. She was a widow and listed as head of household. Ira himself was working as a farm laborer on his Uncle Dudley’s farm close by. Dudley is the brother of Amelia Jane.
In 1860 Amelia Jane is living with her parents, William and Susan Clark in Craword County, Illinois. Both were born in Kentucky. Susan’s maiden name was Jewell. In the Federal censuses of 1870 and 1880, Millie as she was known and George W. Neal were farming in Lawrence County Illinois. They married 13 March 1870:
Amelia was born in Illinois. George was born in Pennsylvania To John and Elizabeth Neal. Elizabeth as born in New York and the couple probably married there. John was born in Pennsylvania. No record of their births can be found. Most likely John as born to a couple of Irish ancestry, but that is pure speculation. The census record from Salem, Mercer County, Pennsylvania seems convincing evidence that this is the George W. Neal who became the father of Ira Francis Neal:
In this record George W is 2 years old. Both the age and the birth place match records of his later life. But beyond knowing that his parents were John and Elizabeth Neal, we have no further clues of his ancestry. He was certainly of Irish descent and in all likelihood a 2nd generation immigrant from Northern Ireland.
William Clark and Susan Jewell
William (1819-1880) and Susan (1929-1902) were the parents of Amelia Jane and Dudley Clark. They were married in 1845 in Henry County, Kentucky.
Amelia was born in 1850 and her brother Dudley in 1856, both in Crawford, Illinois.
William Clark was a farmer and it is likely that the move to Illinois was in search of more fertile land.
Susan Jewell was the daughter of Barton Bastian Jewell and Mary Polly Smith or Arthur (this may have been her second marriage). Barton is recorded in the census of 1850 confirming his birth in Virginia. Both in 1850 and in 1860 he is recorded as living in Kentucky. He was the son of John Jewell (1768-1810) and Francis Jewell of Virginia.
The Jewell family came from southwestern England — most likely Devon.
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The Jewells went to several different places in Colonial and pre-Colonial America. It has not been determined which branch went to Virginia.
William Clark’s ancestors can be traced to a John Clark born in Virginia 1733. The reasons behind their emigration remain unclear, but they followed a familiar pattern: Emigration to Virginia followed by a move to Kentucky and after a couple of generation a further removal westward to the more fertile lands of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
