Bio: Neville, Martin (History - 1841)

Contact: Janet Schwarze

Surnames: NEVILLE KELLY WRIGHT ROSS

----Source: Biographical History of Clark and Jackson Counties, Wisconsin published by The Lewis Publishing Company, 1891, pages 325 - 326

MARTIN NEVILLE, of section 3, Warner Township, and the second settler of his town, was born in Tarkio, Missouri, November 11, 1841, the son of Patrick Neville (deceased), a native of County Wexford, Ireland. He came to Canada East when a young man, and there married Catharine Kelly, a native of County Kildare, Ireland. They subsequently emigrated to Missouri, where they lived but a few years, having been frightened away by Indians, and returned to Canada. Of their eight children, seven of them are now living: James, John, Mary, Bridget, Kate, Martin, Lizzie. The father died in 1879, and the mother in 1881, and both were buried in Canada East.

The subject of this sketch was reared to farm life, and was educated in the common schools near Quebec, Canada. When sixteen years of age he went to Maine, where he spent four years in the pineries, and also loaded vessels with square timber. He was a contractor in the latter occupation for several years. In the fall of 1859 he removed to the Southern States, where he was engaged on a steamboat that winter, and the following winter on the Mississippi River, below New Orleans, and also on the Missouri as far up as Council Bluffs. In 1863 he went to Australia with a vessel loaded with pine and spruce lumber, and at Melbourne his captain sold the ship, after which he returned to Liverpool, England, and thence to Quebec in a sail vessel. Mr. Neville then returned to Maine and worked again in the woods one winter, and the following spring went to Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1866 he came to Neillsville and that winter worked for Robert Ross in his logging camp, and on his farm the next spring. In July he bought a claim of 160 acres, which he homesteaded, and where he still resides. He lived on this place seven years before proving it up. It was then covered with timber, and he had to clear a sufficient space to build a shanty.

Mr. Neville was married July 29, 1869, to Mary J. Wright, who was born in Canada East in 1842, the son of James Wright, deceased. They have had nine children, eight of whom are still living, namely: Alice M., Albert H., Mary Il, Eliza, Martin L., Katie M., James and Anna M. The mother died February 27, 1884, after a brief illness of inflammation of the lungs. After her death Mr. Neville kept the eight children together, the eldest having been less than twelve year old at her death. Both he and his wife were members of the Catholic Church. For three months he never slept an hour, but gradually sleep came back to him for a few minutes at a time. His trials were almost unbearable, and many men would have succumbed. He has been School Treasurer for twenty-four years, and was also Road Overseer several years.

NEVILLE KELLY WRIGHT ROSS