Neal Family History Prior to 1803

The St. Leger name appears through three generations of Neals. St. Leger married Susannah Rutter on April 13, 1826 and died in 1883.  

St. Leger's oldest son, William F. Neal, was born October 15, 1828, in Perry or Champagne County, Ohio.  The name William appears through the first five generations of Neals.  William died in Friend, Nebraska, in 1904.

 William and his wife Mary Ann Anstine were married in Urbana, Ohio, and had nine children, including Charles Cenley Neal, who was born Feb, 28, 1868 in Industry, Illinois.  

In 1890, Charles married Eliza Jane (Lyde) Delong, the daughter of a blacksmith by the name of George Washington Delong and Jane Smurthwaite. The Delong family traces its roots to Pieter Delong who was born in France in 1685 or 1702.

During the Civil War, George Delong enlisted in the Illinois 77th Regiment at Lacon, Illinois, which is located about 130 miles southwest of Chicago. He was captured at the Battle of Mansfield, also known as the battle of Sabine Crossroads in Louisiana on April 8, 1864.   

The battle was a Union defeat and the last major Confederate victory of the war. William was held as a prisoner of war in Tyler, Texas. When the war ended in April 1865, the guards didn't show up at the camp. The men, probably unaware the war had ended, thought it might be a trick by the guards to shoot them for escaping, so over the next day they set out in twos to sneak back to the north being careful not to be spotted along the way. 

Alec was born at Newport Pagnall in the County of Buckingham, England in 1889 and had been married twice before he married Gertrude. He had two sons by his first marriage; Jim and John. After his first wife died, he married Francis Neuschwander, the sister of Ethel (Neuschwander) Neal. Francis also passed away. After marriage to Gertrude, Alec adopted Robert.

Lilburn joined the Army in WWI and tested airplane motors before they were sent to Europe. He later was a traveling salesman and married Lela Fearn. They had two children; Lorene and Joe. Joe was a Vice President for Woodman Accident and Life Company.

Alta, who was deaf, attended the Nebraska School for the Deaf in Omaha, Nebraska, graduating in 1914. She taught at the Montana School for the Deaf in Great Falls, Montana before continuing on as a post-graduate in Minnesota for nine months with her goal to get accepted into Gallaudet College. She didn't make it, but met William Henneman when he was employed as a house counsellor at the boy's school. 

They were married three years later. They had two children; Wesley who died at an early age and Ella, who did attend Gallaudet College.

Maurice was born deaf and attended and graduated from the Faribault School for the Deaf) at the time of the great depression. He took sick and died as a young man while looking for work out west.

Willard graduated from Wadena High School in 1920 and spent some time as an auto mechanic before marrying Ethel Neuschwander.

After marriage, he purchased the Charles Guetzko farm east of Verndale where they lived the next 40 years, raising five children; Esther, Phyllis, Charles, Duane, and Darrel.  Willard and Ethel loved to travel, making numerous trips to Alaska to visit eldest daughter, Esther; at least one trip around the world in the 1960s; and spending many winters in Titusville, Florida, near their youngest son, Darrel.