![]() ![]() Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway was completed from Batesville to Cotter (Baxter County) following the north bank of the White River by fall 1903, and daily passenger service from Newport (Jackson County) to Batesville to Cotter was available, with the train going through O’Neal. The community of O’Neal was caught in the middle of two of the main confrontations between Union and Confederate troops in Independence County: the February 19, 1864, Skirmish at Waugh’s Farm and the May 25, 1864, Skirmish at Buck Horn across the river.Īfter the Civil War, railroads began to replace steamboats as freight haulers and providers of passenger travel. During the Skirmish at Knight’s Cove on June 19, 1862, the Grigsby ferry was purposely sunk by the Confederate commander William Chitwood in collusion with the owner Charlie Grigsby, but the ferry was quickly rebuilt by the Union forces under Lieutenant Ferdinand Hansen. Crossing the ferry was part of the alternate route for the military road to Mount Olive (Izard County) and Yellville (Marion County) and on to Kansas City, Missouri. As a result of its strategic location on the upper White River, the community played a key role in the skirmishes in the county. The Union was determined to gain control of the White River valley and O’Neal because of the ferry. According to the Hess family, troops were deployed out of Hess Ferry, which was used as a Confederate recruiting station. O’Neal has considerable Civil War history. The Hess Ferry was located just upstream from the Grigsby Ferry. The ferry that crossed the White River to the O’Neal bottoms was owned and operated by Charles Bingham Grigsby and was called the Grigsby Ferry, but later became known as the O’Neal Ferry, named for the community. Across the river from John O’Neal’s farm lay Hess Town (today Marcella), named after the founder Sam Hess, who had settled in Ruddell Township from Kentucky. Steamboat travel on the upper White River, north-northwest of Jacksonport (Jackson County), began in 1831. She died in 1851 at the age of twenty-seven. The only grave that has been identified in the abandoned and neglected O’Neal Cemetery is that of Phoebe O’Neal, one of Abijah’s daughters, who married Lytle Buford Creswell of the pioneering Creswell family of Izard County. John and Nancy O’Neal and their younger children moved to their inherited land in Texas in late 1846 most of the older married children soon followed. In 1845, Nancy Harbour O’Neal inherited 545 acres of land in Washington County, Texas, from her father. Four marriages between the O’Neal and Elms family bound them together. Elms was also one of the early settlers from Kentucky. The O’Neal family established close ties with the Thomas Elms family from across the river in Locust Grove (Independence County). The O’Neal family was living on the White River bottomland by 1830. Since Abijah first lived on the land that became O’Neal and was still living there at the time of his death in 1868, the family believes that the community is named for him. O’Neal was founded and first settled during territorial days by John O’Neal, his wife, Nancy Harbour O’Neal, from Kentucky, and by Abijah O’Neal believed to be John’s brother. ![]() O’Neal is about twelve miles west of Batesville (Independence County), the county seat. The rich bottomland around O’Neal is still farmed on both sides of the river. O’Neal lies on both the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the White River, south of Lock and Dam No. ![]() In territorial days, O’Neal was in Ruddell Township, but it later became part of Washington Township. Going west on Highway 106 through Bethesda (Independence County), the O’Neal Road leads to O’Neal, which is about four miles from Bethesda. The O’Neal Cemetery is all that remains of a once vibrant river and railroad community located across the White River from Marcella (Stone County). ![]()
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