William M. O'Neill (1817 - 1896)

Born 12 Jul 1817 in Georgia, United States

Descendants

Died 2 Oct 1896 at age 79 in Bullock County, Alabama, United States

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Biography

William was born in Georgia. The identity of his parents have been suggested to me, but I prefer to do a little more research on them before I include them here.

migrated to Alabama sometime before his marriage to Mary Mahala Frizzell on April 2, 1840, in their home in Pike Co. Alabama. Their marriage is noted in the O’Neill family Bible on a beautiful, full color, marriage certificate page. William served as Justice of the Peace for Pike Co. AL and County Commissioner of Pike Co. He held patents for several inventions; namely a turn plow and sweep (farm equipment), and also conducted business as a blacksmith and “mechanic”, helping his neighbors to repair and build various items for their farms (receipts to this effect were found in Book 16 at Pike Co. Courthouse for the Thomas Frizzell estate, 1857-60).

When Bullock County was formed out of Pike County, the county lines changed in 1866. The area in which the O’Neills lived (Bruceville) was originally in Pike Co., but then fell into the newly created Bullock Co. Several O’Neill land transactions in Bullock Co. took place in 1892, the year before Mary Mahala’s death, including the donation of land to the Oak Grove Colored Baptist Church in Bullock Co. Many of these transactions are signed by Mary O’Neill (wife of William), indicating that her husband was, perhaps, too ill to participate, since we believe he did not pass away until 1896.

William O’Neill Sr. was known for his beautiful penmanship, according to his great granddaughter, Mamie Ruth O’Neal Bradberry. All of the entries in the O’Neill Family Bible are penned in this lovely script, leading us to believe that it was William Sr. who faithfully entered the important family events. It was not until the entry notating the death of a W. M. O’Neill in 1896, that the penmanship changes to a rough writing style. This is probable the death date of William O’Neill Sr. We believe the Bible passed into the hands of William’s grandson, William Thomas O’Neal, son of Thomas Benjamin and Olivia Louise (McMillan) O’Neill. William Thomas and his sister, Artemissie O’Neill were raised by William Sr. and Mary when they was orphaned at the age of 6 and 3. This accounts for the rough scrawl handwriting, so different than the beautiful hand of William Sr.. Though we do not know William O’Neill Sr.’s middle name, W. M. O’Neill is the only name of a William that these initials seem to fit. It is known that his only two sons, whose names begin with W. are W. E. (William Ellis) and W. L. (Washington Lee or William Lee) O’Neill, which also points to W. M. O’Neill, most likely being William M. O'Neill Sr.

Also, in the same rough script style, is the Bible entry for, Mrs. S. A. J. McMillen, believed to be (Olivia McMillen O’Neill’s mother) in 1900 (four years after William Sr.’s death). We believed to be this to be another reason that the Bible fell into the hands of William Thomas O’Neal, William’s grandson, and that this entry is for the death of William Thomas O’Neal’s mother-in-law, his wife Olivia’s mother, Sarah Jan McMillan.

It could be that had William Sr.’s eldest son, Thomas Benjamin, survived he could have stood stood to inherit the family Bible, which passed to Thomas’s son and heir, William Thomas O'Neall, since he was the last child/grandchild to live with his grandparents, William Sr. and Mary. A family Bible, especially one of this size and quality, was a treasured family heirloom to be passed on and cherished as part of the estate. The Bible then seemed to be passed down through William Thomas’ descendants. After William Thomas O’Neal passed away, the Bible remained in his wife, Emma Bell O’Neal’s possession. Upon her death the Bible was sent to Emma’s granddaughter, Sybil Janice Bradberry, daughter of Mamie Ruth O’Neal, with the instructions to give to her daughter Cynthia, great granddaughter of William Thomas O’Neal and ggg granddaughter of William O’Neill Sr. and Mary Mahala Frizzell, since she was the one great grandchild researching the family’s history at the time. Since Mary, wife of William Sr. began selling lands in 1892 we believe that William Sr. was incapacitated and could no longer make entries into the Bible, a duty which fell to William Thomas O’Neill. Due to his illness or infirmary, he and Mary made the decision to start disposing of their lands.

Wm. O’Neill was voted Justice of the Peace of Pike Co. in the General Election in March 1850 and Commissioned on June 14, 1850 (Vol 3 1844-1867, pg. 484, Civil Register of County Officials, Alabama State Archives). He was again voted Justice of the Peace of Pike Co. in the General Election of March 6, 1865 and Commissioned on March 31, 1865 (Vol 3 1844-1867, pg. 491, Civil Register of County Officials, Alabama State Archives).

By the way, you may have noticed that the younger generations after William O'Neill Sr. spelled their last name O'Neal. I was told, as a young girl the story of how that came about. Apparently there were a number of related O'Neill families living in the area. When the postman delivered mail, he kept getting them mixed up and packages and mail were miss-delivered to the wrong O'Neill persons. William Thomas O'Neal, grandson of William O'Neill Sr., had had enough of that mistake, when some important documents were sent to the wrong house. So he decided to change the spelling of his name to alleviate the problem of being mistaken for some of the other O'Neills.

Sources

• [Source: 1850; Census Place: Pike, Alabama; Roll: M432_13; Page: 184; Image: 368.] ----

[Source: 1860; Census Place: Western Division, Pike, Alabama; Roll M653_21; Page: 79; Image: 79; Family History Library Film: 803021.] ----

[Source: 1870; Census Place: Union Church, Bullock, Alabama; Roll M593_4; Page: 114A; Image: 232; Family History Library Film: 545503.] ----

[Source: 1880; O’NEAL Census Place: Union Church, Bullock, Alabama; Roll: T9_3; Family History Film: 1254003; Page: 167.4000; Enumeration District: 31; Image: 0712.] ----

[Marriage Record: William O’Neill Family Bible - married on Apr. 2 1840 at home in Pike Co. AL ------