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Jacob (Ireson) McNeil was born in Harper’s Ferry, now in West Virginia , in 1759 the son of MARY HUGHES and JAMES IRESON. When James Ireson died, his wife, Mary remarried to THOMAS MCNEIL. Young Jacob Ireson then took the name of his stepfather and became known as JACOB MCNEIL. In 1768, when Jacob was nine years old, his family moved to Greenbrier County, later to become Pocahontas County, Virginia, and still later both counties became a part of West Virginia. Jacob McNeil served in the Revolution, and was a guard at Fort Randolph, in 1777, when the famous Indian Chief Cornstalk and his son were killed by the enraged settlers. Fort Randolph was located at Point Pleasant which is now in West Virginia to a point where there was a ferry to take passengers across the Ohio River into Ohio. After the end of the Revolution, Jacob married as his first wife, Annie Stevens, by whom he fathered nine children. In order to get his bride away from the Indians, he moved his family to Franklin County, Virginia. Annie Stevens McNeil died there around 1800. She may have died at the birth of her youngest child, Ann McNeil, who later in Giles County would marry Charles T. Miller. Jacob McNeil married as his second wife, Peggy Cool, by whom he fathered five children. ANNIE MCNIEL, Jacob’s youngest child by his first wife, was born according to the 1850 Census, about 1800. It is not known exactly when her family came to what is now Bland County. One of her older sisters, named Elizabeth, had married a man named Charles Kennison, and it was Charles Kennison who was the guardian of Anne McNiel. One of the Kennison girls, named Susanna, married James Bogle, son of John Bogle Sr., and Margaret Bogle. We have never found the maiden name of Margaret Bogle. Charles and Elizabeth Kennison left Giles County before 1838 and were living in Jackson County, Ohio, where a deed was signed and notarized, on Feb. 20, 1838, deeding 91 acres of land on Kimberling Creek, to William Crawford, The land joined the lands of Ralph Stafford, John Bogle, and John Chapman, Part of the land was bought from James Orr and part was entered by Kennison in 1820. This land is now in Bland County, Virginia. Charles and Anna were parents of six children named William Rice, Abraham Woodson, Lorenzo John, Charles K., Lucinda Ann, and Alexander Fleming. William Rice Miller was born around 1820 and died sometime before 1848. He married Lydia Hearn in Wythe County, Virginia on February 15, 1839. She was the daughter of William Hearn. William and Lydia had no children. William was approximately 28 years old when he died leaving a young widow. On June 25, 1850 Lydia Hearn Miller married Alexander T. Suiter by the Reverend Joshua Bruce. The Giles County deed Book “H” page 192 records the following information: April 1, 1848 – Lydia Miller of Wythe County, widow of William R. Miller, deceased, having no issue, deeds to her father-in-law, Charles Miller, her dower interest in a tract of land on Kimberling Fork of Walkers Creek, containing between 400 and 500 acres, joint the lands of John A. Helvey, Abraham Miller

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