Ezra Neff and Mary A. Neil
Husband Ezra Neff 1 2 3
AKA: Squire Neff 1 Born: 7 Mar 1843 - South Mahoning Twp, Indiana Co, PA 1 3 Christened: Died: Buried:
Father: Jonathan [2] Neff (1814-1908) 1 4 5 Mother: Mary Jane Farnsworth (1817/1818-Abt 1912) 4 5 6
Marriage: 10 Sep 1865 1 3
Other Spouse: Lika B. Gibson ( -Abt 1884) 1 5 - 1883 1 5
Other Spouse: Louise M. Seitz (1842- ) 1 5 - 5 May 1885 1 5
Wife Mary A. Neil 7
AKA: Mary Arminta Neale 1 5 Born: 5 Jun 1847 - Indiana Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: 30 Apr 1881 - Reynoldsville, Jefferson Co, PA 3 Buried:
Father: Thomas N. Neil (1819-1877) 7 Mother: Eliza A. McClelland (1820-1865) 8 9
Children
1 F Ella Larue Neff 3 5
Born: 6 Feb 1868 - Indiana Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: 26 Sep 1869 3 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Bertie C. Neff 3 5
Born: 23 Nov 1870 - Dayton, Wayne Twp, Armstrong Co, PA 3 Christened: Died: 6 May 1883 10 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
3 M Thomas N. Neff 5 10
Born: 8 Apr 1875 10 Christened: Died: 5 Nov 1903 5 Buried:Spouse: Hettie C. [Unk] ( - ) 5
General Notes: Husband - Ezra Neff
He obtained his education in the public schools of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, but his privileges were exceedingly limited, owing to the fact that his assistance was needed on the farm. He continued to aid in the cultivation of the fields until the progress of the war seemed to make it imperative that he go forth in defense of his country. Accordingly, in 1863, he enlisted in Company A, Second Battalion P. V. I., from which he was honorably discharged in February, 1864. Re-enlisting July 11, 1864, he was appointed quartermaster sergeant, was discharged November 11, 1864; re-enlisted March 1, 1865, and was elected first sergeant of Company B, 74th P. V. I.; and was finally discharged, at the close of the war, June 29, 1865, and returned to his home in Indiana County. He was in active service through the entire time, but fortunately escaped wounds and capture. On April 11, 1865, two days after the surrender of Lee, he lost his voice, and it was never fully restored. Until the spring of 1869 he followed farming, after which he engaged in railroading until June, 1870. He then went to Dayton, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in the livery business and also followed the same pursuit in Marion Centre until the fall of 1872. In November of that year he came to Reynoldsville, and conducted a livery until May, 1873, when he sold out to become constable, in which position he served a four-years' term, resigning March 17, 1877, to assume the duties of justice of the peace, in which capacity he served for ten consecutive years; also in connection therewith he acted as pension agent, being a registered pension attorney. Next he embarked in the grocery trade, and served as notary public for four years. In the spring of 1892 he was again elected as justice of the peace, being re-elected in the spring of 1897. In connection with his other interests he was for many years engaged in the real-estate business.
He was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Socially he was identified with the Knights of the Golden Eagle, with the American Mechanics and the Junior branch of that order; also with the Improved Order of Red Men, and with the Grand Army of the Republic. In politics he was a stanch Republican since casting his first Presidential vote on the battle-field, in 1864, for Abraham Lincoln.
In his boyhood and youth he gave his due quota of assistance in the varied operations of the home farm, meanwhile not neglecting the advantages afforded in the common schools of the locality. The Civil war was precipitated shortly before he had attained the age of eighteen years, and it was not until 1863 that circumstances were such as to permit or at least justify him in tendering his services in defense of the Union. He first enlisted in Company A, 2d Battalion, Pennsylvania Volunteers, and with this command was in service at the front until Feb. 7, 1864, when he received an honorable discharge. On the 11th of the following July he reenlisted and was appointed quartermaster's sergeant, in which position he served until November 11th of the same year, when he was again given an honorable discharge. On the 1st of March, 1865, he reenlisted, this time becoming orderly sergeant of Company 74th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, in which he was chosen first sergeant, in which capacity he served until the close of the war, his final discharge having occurred June 29, 1865. Under each enlistment Mr. Neff was in continuous service at the front, and though he was never wounded or captured the arduous service caused him, on the 11th of April, 1865, to lose almost entirely the control of his voice, an affliction from which he never entirely recovered, though the indisposition became one of but slight significance to him in later years.
After the close of the war Mr. Neff returned to his native township, where he continued to be associated with agricultural enterprises until the spring of 1869, when he became an employe on the line of the Allegheny Valley railroad. A short experience in railroad work sufficed, and in 1870 he engaged in the livery business at Dayton, Armstrong county. One year later he established himself in the same line of enterprise at Marion Center, Indiana County, but within a few months, in November, 1872, came to Jefferson county and established his residence at Reynoldsville, which was then a small and relatively unimportant village. Here he conducted a livery business for six months, and he was then, in May, 1873, appointed constable of Winslow township. He was retained in this position by being regularly elected in the following year, and when the borough of Reynoldsville was organized he was, in 1875, elected a constable of the same, thus becoming one of the corps of officials in the new borough. He was reelected in 1876, and in February, 1877, he was elected justice of the peace of the borough, to assume the duties of which magisterial office he resigned that of constable on the 17th of March. Through successive reelections he was retained in that office for a long period, within which he gave constant thought and study to the legal phases as well as the points of equity and justice involved in the causes presented before him, and very few of his decisions were reversed by courts of higher jurisdiction. Esquire Neff also served many years as local United States pension agent, and for ten years he held the office of notary public. For a time he gave considerable attention to the real estate business, but he found there were too many demands upon his time in the discharge of his official duties. Esquire Neff never deviated from a line of strict allegiance to the cause of the Republican party, his first presidential vote having been cast while he was serving as a soldier in the Civil war, in November, 1864, this initial ballot was cast in support of the martyred President Lincoln. He was a charter member of John C. Conser Post, No. 192, Grand Army of the Republic, at Reynoldsville, and held various offices in the same. He was affiliated also with the local organizations of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Moose, the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and the Improved Order of Red Men, besides which he was for some time identified also with both the senior and junior branches of the Order of the United American Mechanics.
1 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 1176.
2 Editor, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 197.
3 O. S. Marshall, The Marshall Family (Kittanning, PA: Steam Press of Reichert Bros., 1884), Pg 148.
4 Editor, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 511.
5 Editor, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, Her Pioneers and People, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Company, 1917), Pg 198.
6 Editor, Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania, Including the Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1898), Pg 793, 1176.
7 O. S. Marshall, The Marshall Family (Kittanning, PA: Steam Press of Reichert Bros., 1884), Pg 147.
8 Editor, History of Indiana County, Pennsylvania (Newark, OH: J. A. Caldwell, 1880), Pg 485.
9 O. S. Marshall, The Marshall Family (Kittanning, PA: Steam Press of Reichert Bros., 1884), Pg 133.
10
O. S. Marshall, The Marshall Family (Kittanning, PA: Steam Press of Reichert Bros., 1884), Pg 149.
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