Ezra H. O’Neal Obituary

Ezra O’Neal – cooper & farmer, second son and fi[f]th child of John O’Neal and Judy Grimes O’Neal was born in Culpepper county, Va. August 6th 1802. After his father’s death, which took place about 1807 he came with the family to Ohio and was raised in Belpre after living for a short time in Chillicothe Ohio. His stepfather Robert Russell lived in the old ‘Red House’ opposite Parkersburgh and kept the ferry at which Ezra was employed during his boyhood. When man grown, he came to Newport Tp. from Belpre and wrought for some time as a journeyman cooper, a trade which he had learned while in Belpre. Here he found his wife, a Miss Matilda Ferguson, oldest daughter of Thomas Ferguson and Grace Holdren Ferguson, and settled on a farm at the mouth of Newells Run in Newport Tp. where he died July 28th 1895 at the age of nearly 93 years, having survived his good wife 20 years. Mr O’Neal was an active and earnest worker in the Washingtonian temperance movement, and he and his wife were both members of the Baptist Church. They had ten children of whom three died in infancy, and seven are still living — Mary Jane Dunphe of Bridgewater Mass — Thomas O’Neal of Jamestown Pa — Huldah Taylor of Newell’s Run O. — Gilbert O’Neal of Newells Run — George O’Neal of Marietta Tp & Joseph O’Neal of Marietta O — and Judy E. O’Neal of Bridgewater Mass. [signed by] Dr. J. M. McElhinney, Newport O.”