OUR FAMILY OUR NEILL FAMILY

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Elijah Cameron
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1 OUR NEILL FAMILY Compiled by Dalton Ray Phillips

2 James Clinton Neill married Margaret Harriett Ferguson intennessee around Their son, Samuel Clinton Neill, married Lourahama (Ruy) Berry around in Texas around Their daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Neill, married James Sanford Callahan in Caldwell County, Texas in Their daughter, Willie Katherine Callahan, married John Wesley Phillips in the Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory around Their son, Walter Lee Phillips, married Mava Opal Gooch in Brownwood, Brown County, Texas around

3 James Clinton Neill (married Margaret Harriett Ferguson) William Martin Samuel Gooch Clinton (married Neill (married Elizabeth Lourahama Jane Oliver (Ruy) Berry William Elijah Sarah Gooch Sally (married Elizabeth Sarah Neill Elizabeth (married Jane James Davis) Sanford Callahan) Jesse Gooch Willie (married Katherine Bessie Callahan Fannen) (married John Wesley Phillips) Mava Opal Gooch Walter (married Lee Phillips Eustice (married Houston Ethel Price; Beatty; married Walter Mava Opal Lee Phillips Gooch) James Clinton Neill (About 1815 About 1856) Date of Birth About 1790 Date of Death: 1845 Place of Birth North Carolina Place of Death: Navarro Co., Texas Father: Mother: Spouse Margaret Harriett Ferguson (About 1790 After 1836) Place of Burial: Navarro Co., Texas Date of Marriage About 1814 Place of Marriage Tennessee Children: (1) Samuel Clinton Neill (2) George Jefferson Neill (3) Marry Harriett Neill 125

4 The ALAMO-DE-PARRAS website contains an interesting article entitled "J.C. Neill: The Forgotten Alamo Commander" by Stephen L. Hardin. SOLDIER NEILL, JAMES CLINTON ( ). J. C. Neill, soldier and diplomat, was born in North Carolina in He was a participant of the Creek War and was wounded at the battle of Horseshoe Bend in In 1831 he moved his wife and three children from Alabama to Texas and settled in what is now Milam County. Neill represented the District of Viesca in the Convention of He had apparently acquired some knowledge of cannons, for in September 1835, when conflict with Antonio López de Santa Anna's Centralist troops seemed inevitable, Neill entered the Texas militia as a captain of artillery. When fighting began, Neill was at the center of the action. On October 2, 1835, he was a participant of the skirmish at Gonzales. John Holland Jenkins recorded that Neill actually "fired the first gun for Texas at the beginning of the revolution"-the famous Gonzales "Come and Take It" cannon. The rebellious Texans valued Neill's skill with ordnance, and one described him as "the first in our camp whose experience was sufficient to mount and point a cannon at the enemies of Texas." From December 5 to 10 Neill, in command of a single gun and a small contingent, provided a successful diversion to cover the assault on San Antonio de Béxar. On December 8 he commanded the battery that repulsed a Mexican attack on the Texan base camp. Had Neill's defense failed, the insurgents inside the town-cut off from their logistical supportwould have been forced to abandon their assault. After the battle Gen. Edward Burleson praised Neill for performing his duties to his "entire satisfaction." 126

5 THE ALAMO The fall of Bexar brought recognition for Neill and a windfall of enemy artillery. On December 7 the General Council commissioned Neill lieutenant colonel of artillery in the regular army, in charge of more than thirty captured field pieces. In late December 1835 Francis W. Johnson and James Grant stripped the Bexar garrison of provisions to supply the quixotic Matamoros expedition of , leaving Neill to hold the town with fewer than 100 men. Neill wrote bitter letters to the council condemning these "arbitrary measures." While constantly calling for reinforcements and supplies, he buttressed the defenses of the mission fort of the Alamo. On January 17 James Bowie arrived with orders to remove the artillery and blow up the fort, but instead became committed to its defense. Bowie, impressed with Neill's leadership, wrote, "No other man in the army could have kept men at this post, under the neglect they have experienced." In mid- February, Neill left the Alamo to care for his family, all of whom had been stricken with a serious illness. He left William B. Travis in temporary command, assuring the garrison that he would return within twenty days. He was riding back when the fort fell. On March 6 - the day of the battle of the Alamo - Neill had reached Gonzales, where he spent ninety dollars of his own money buying medicines for the Alamo garrison. SAN JACINTO On March 13 he joined the withdrawal of Sam Houston's army to Groce's Retreat on the Brazos River. Unable to transport the cannons, Houston ordered them dumped into the Guadalupe River before abandoning Gonzales, and Neill found himself a cannoneer without weapons. That changed on April 11, when the "Twin Sisters" -two matched sixpounders-reached the Texan camp. Since Neill was the ranking artillery officer, Houston named him to command the revived artillery corps. On April 20 Neill commanded the Twin Sisters during the skirmish that preceded the battle of San Jacinto. During this fight his artillery corps repulsed an enemy probe of the woods in which the main Texas army was concealed. Neill was seriously wounded when a fragment of grapeshot caught him in the hip. AFTER THE REVOLUTION After independence Neill continued to serve Texas. In 1838 the republic granted him a league of land in Harrisburg County for his service during the revolution. The next year he ran for the position of major general of militia but lost to Felix Huston. In 1842 he led an expedition against Indians along the upper Trinity River. In 1844 he was appointed an Indian agent, in which capacity he traveled extensively. In 1845 he was granted a pension by Congress of $200 a year for life as compensation for the injuries he received at San Jacinto. Neill died at his home on Spring Creek in Navarro County in 1845 and was buried in Seguin. 127

6 BIBLIOGRAPHY Sam Houston Dixon and Louis Wiltz Kemp, The Heroes of San Jacinto (Houston: Anson Jones, 1932). Texas House of Representatives, Biographical Directory of the Texan Conventions and Congresses, (Austin: Book Exchange, 1941). Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker, eds., The Writings of Sam Houston, (8 vols., Austin: University of Texas Press, ; rpt., Austin and New York: Pemberton Press, 1970). Stephen L. Hardin A son of James Clinton Neill, Samuel Clinton Neill, married Lourahama (Ruy) Berry. Their daughter, Sarah Sally Elizabeth Neill, married James Sanford Callahan in

7 William Samuel Martin Clinton Gooch Neill (married (married Lourahama Elizabeth Jane (Ruy) Oliver Berry William Sarah Sally Elijah Gooch Elizabeth (married Neill (married Sarah Elizabeth James Sanford Jane Davis) Callahan) Jesse Willie Gooch Katherine (married Callahan Bessie (married Fannen) John Wesley Phillips) Mava Walter Opal Lee Gooch Phillips (married Eustice Ethel Beatty; Houston married Price; Mava married Opal Walter Gooch) Lee Phillips Samuel Clinton Neill (About 1815 About 1856) Date of Birth About 1815 Date of Death: About 1856 Place of Birth - Place of Death: Texas Father: James Clinton Neill Mother: Margaret Harriett Ferguson Spouse Lourahama (Ruy) Berry (About 1816 After 1870) Place of Burial: Texas Date of Marriage 1845 Place of Marriage Texas Children: (1) Sarah Elizabeth Neill (2) Jane Neill (3) Jemima Neill (5) Mary Neill 129

William Martin Gooch (married Elizabeth Jane Oliver William Sarah Sally Elijah Gooch Elizabeth (married Neill (married Sarah Elizabeth James Sanford Jane Davis) Callahan) Jesse Willie Gooch Katherine

8 William Martin Gooch (married Elizabeth Jane Oliver William Sarah Sally Elijah Gooch Elizabeth (married Neill (married Sarah Elizabeth James Sanford Jane Davis) Callahan) Jesse Willie Gooch Katherine (married Callahan Bessie (married Fannen) John Wesley Phillips) Mava Walter Opal Lee Gooch Phillips (married Eustice Ethel Beatty; Houston married Price; Mava married Opal Walter Gooch) Lee Phillips Sarah Sally Elizabeth Neill ( ) Date of Birth January 23, 1848 Date of Death: February 15, 1900 Place of Birth - Texas Place of Death: Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory Father: Samuel Clinton Neill Mother: Lourahama Berry Spouse James Sanford Callahan Place of Burial: Moore Cemetery, (1844 after November, 1917 Bromide, Oklahoma Date of Marriage January 24, 1866 Place of Marriage Caldwell County, Texas Children: (1) Harriett E, Callahan (2) Mary Rue Callahan (3) Willie Katherine Callahan (4) Anna Bolden Callahan (5) Headley Hughes Callahan (6) Mollie Caloma Callahan (7) James Sanford Callahan, Jr. (8) Carrie Mae Callahan 130

Wayne Simpson, who has researched the Callahan family for many years, indicates that he found a journal written long ago that describes Sarah Elizabeth (Neill) Callahan as, "a small woman who would

9 Wayne Simpson, who has researched the Callahan family for many years, indicates that he found a journal written long ago that describes Sarah Elizabeth (Neill) Callahan as, "a small woman who would ride for many miles on horseback alone to tend to someone that was sick or injured". He also quotes her as saying,"if I knew which veins carried the Indian blood, I would rip them out". This indicates that she was part Indian but that is pure speculation and I cannot confirm it. The name of her mother, Lourahama "Ruy" Berry, catches my eye and it could be an Indian name. On a family tree chart made by Wayne Simpson, there is a notation beside the name of her daughter, Mary Rue, that reads, "Luhame". This may be a variable spelling of her mother's first name, Lourahama. The "Rue" may also be a variable spelling of her mothers middle name or nick name, "Ruy". There is also a notation that reads Heyne beside the name of another daughter, Harriett E. Callahan. She worked as a laundress for many years at the Wapanucka Rock Academy, an Indian School in Wapanucka, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory. (Oklahoma did not become a state until 1907.) Wayne Simpson states that she was bitten by a snake about a month before she died in Pedigree Chart prepared by Wayne Simpson several years ago. The Native American connections in our Phillips and Callahan families remain a mystery. Sarah Sally Elizabeth Neill married James Sanford Callahan in Caldwell County, Texas in Their daughter, Willie Katherine Callahan, married John Wesley Phillips around 1890 in the Indian Territory. 131

3. James Jim Bowie. On February 23, the bells of San Fernando sounded the alarm of the approach of the Mexicans. The siege of the Alamo had begun.

3. James Jim Bowie. On February 23, the bells of San Fernando sounded the alarm of the approach of the Mexicans. The siege of the Alamo had begun. 1. Juan Seguín As a teenager in Mexico, Juan Seguín had a strong interest in politics. His father helped to write the Mexican Constitution of 1824. Juan learned the importance of politics from watching