Martha Davis McNeel
Birth 28 Jan 1743
Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Death 1830 (aged 86–87)
Pocahontas County, West Virginia, USA
Burial McNeel Cemetery
Hillsboro, Pocahontas County, West Virginia, USA
Martha Davis was a daughter of Thomas Davis and Anne Meredith. She is said to have been born 28 January 1743, in St. Mary, Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Wales and had twin sister, by the name of Sarah. Her father, Thomas Davis was born in Carmarthen, Wales, 1718. He married Anne Meredith 3 June 1742, in Radnor, Wales, who was born about 1721. They came to America some time after 1753. We know they had three more children: Mary born in 1745; Ann 1747; and Elijah 1753. Thomas died in Bridgewater, Rockingham, Virginia, in 1778 and Anne in Hampshire County, West Virginia--date unknown.
About 1765 Martha married John McNeel, Jr., the son of Lt. John McNeel and Elizabeth VanMeter, who was born in 1745, in Frederick County, Virginia, although much of his youth was spent in Cumberland, Maryland, where Martha and John were probably married. She was a Calvinistic Methodist, who set an example of the highest Christian character; and bought with her as part of her dowry, a Bible printed in the Welsh dialect. ".. This is the first Bible that there is any record of having ever been brought to the water of the Greenbrier." This leather bound 5 1/2 inch by 7 1/2 inch Welsh Bible years later had the fly leaf filled with family records. However, the only legible entry decades later was "Martha Davis daughter of Thomas and Anne Davis, born Jan 28, 1743, about eight o'clock in the morning..."
Martha and John are said to have had the following children: Abram born 11 May 1767; Nancy, 21 June 1769; Unnamed McNeel October 1774; Isaac, 23 October 1775; Martha, about 1778 & Miriam Phoebe, May 1778; Unnamed Infant McNeel, 1780. There is a pathetic tradition that while Mr. McNeel was absent to Point Pleasant a child was born and died before his return. Martha, with her own hands prepared the coffin and the grave and buried it.
She is said to have performed the first burial rights at the McNeel Cemetery, where she was laid to rest in her eighty-eighth year.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/27528473/martha_mcneel
