These documents were in an old rusty metal box found among the possessions of my late uncle John T. McNiel, who lived on his family’s ancestral home in Floyd County Va. There are included letters from relatives, most interesting being those from Samuel D. Light and family, who had moved to Missouri about 1857 from Floyd County. Samuel’s wife Margaret was sister to James I. McNiel’s wife Lydia. And, Lydia and Margaret’s mother, Nancy Smith, lived with James I. and family.
There are also many receipts and proceedings of my gr-grandfather James Ireson McNiel, who, as judged from some of these documents, was a blacksmith and also a Justice of the Peace.
The homestead of James I. McNiel still stands behind the more recent house, built about 1930. When new, the old log house was said by my great-uncle Charles Lewis McNeil to have been “the finest house between here and Christiansburg”. The actual date of construction is unknown.
Assembled by Maynard McNeil, September 2009