In Memory of John H. Neil.

The subject of this sketch was born in Buchanan county, Mo., Oct. 20, 1842. In 1858 the family crossed the plains and settled near Brownsville, Linn Co., Oregon, and in the fall of 1854 removed to Jackson county and located at the same place the family now reside, a few miles south of Ashland. During the mining excitement of 1863, John went north and remained about a year in the Salmon river country. In 1863 he returned and resided in our valley, generally engaged in agricultural operations, until the beginning of the Modoc war, when he enlisted and went to the front as one of the first of the Rogue River volunteers. Being closely associated with him during the stormy early days of the war, which culminated in the disastrous fight of Jan. 17, 1873, in the Lava Beds, I learned to love the man for his candid, generous nature and for the courage which distinguished him as a soldier. When I think of that struggle I am reminded of several incidents which displayed the nobility of John's nature; but let one suffice: On the dread 17th, a poor trooper, deserted by his company, lay among the sharp rocks of the Lava Beds, mortally wounded. When we found him his agony was intense, aggravated no doubt by the dread of falling into the hands of the Modoc fiends, to be made the subject of nameless tortures in his last moments. We were then fighting the savages near the stronghold and we could carry neither the dead nor wounded with us. This man must be conveyed across the lava walls behind our position to a place of comparative safety on the lake shore, where a surgeon could attend him. Sergeant Neil and two other men volunteered to undertake this hazardous act and, crossing the ragged walls under fire of the Modocs, conveyed the wounded man to the lake shore and soon returned, unscathed, to their place in the line of battle.

After the war was over John returned to the old home near Ashland, where he remained most of the time until his death, which occurred April 7, 1879. When the news came to us in the Lake country, that John H. Neil was dead, we could hardly realize that such could be true; that one whose nature was all brightness and hilarity could be so soon have faded and passed away from earth forever. But "there is no appeal from the law which dooms us to the dust" and we must all soon enter the shadows which fall about the tomb. "We do not want to enter the dark valley, though its passage lead to Paradise;" but, when we little expect, we are garnered as the sheaves of the harvest. A generous friend and genial companion, an honest man and good citizen, has gone from among us and a lasting shadow has fallen across the threshold of the old home; but John has only preceded us a little time to that mysterious realm where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death. June 30, 1879. O. C. A. ref: Jacksonville (Oregon) Democratic Times 11 Jul 1879