Son of Jacob E. Veale and Lydia Rogers Patterson Veale. Jacob Veale was an immigrant from Cornwall, England. Lydia Rogers Patterson was the granddaughter of late 18th-century pioneers in the St. Louis area. Both are buried at the Howell Cemetery south of Milford, Barton County. William Patterson Veale married Ruth Grigg Barnes, who was also a descendant of pioneers, including Daniel Boone. William and Ruth's children included Cora Melcina Veale, Edgar Rogers Veale, Laura Calloway Veale, Arthur Berryman Veale, Nellie Douglas Veale, Hugh Forrest Veale, Lucy Temperance Veale Percy, Willa Mae Veale Chester, Fannie Fern Veale McCrea, Olliver Day Veale, Thomas Finney Veale, and Howard Haley Veale. William Patterson Veale outlived his wife and all but one of his children (Willa) and died one day short of his 97th birthday.
During the Civil War, William served in Company C, in a regiment of Missouri State Militia. He enrolled with Colonel Smith, Norma J. Colman, Lieutenant Col. Flori. Sent 1862 from St. Louis, down Iron Mt. railroad to camp on Merrimac River, DeSoto, helped rebuild bridges burned by Price. Re-enlisted for another month, went home, on return to camp, met rest of regiment and was ordered to go home as Price had left that part of state in fall of 1864. (Source: "A Complete List with brief historical sketches of all Union and Confederate Soldiers living in Barton County, Missouri Fifty Years after the close of the Civil War" compiled by William L. Griffin and published in Lamar 1910.)

GREAT GRANDPA BUCK

I hope that my Great Grandpa Buck
Held me once before he passed.
That was 1942;
I was born in '41 –
An entire year he could have done it.

He needed healthy babies.

His own so often died too young –
Of all his dozen children
Just Willa lived to grieve Buck's end;
Ruth, his only wife, life friend,
Had died at 48.

He lasted 40 more.

So I hope Buck held me once,
Enfolding me in wrinkled arms,
Finding in my warm and restless body
Remembrance that the lives he'd lost
Were not the only ones he'd touched.

I'd have been glad to volunteer.

©2012 John I. Blair