Family Stories of Sue Real Mullins

P. O. Box 67

Crockett, TX 75835
 

The Murder of Joseph Neal^©

Jane McGuffin, born in Ireland in 1811. From Ireland Jane and her mother Elizabeth McGuffin (born 1775) went to Canada and from there they traveled by covered wagon down to Louisiana in 1823. Jane was 12 years old.
 

Later Jane met and married Joseph West Neal. Joseph was born in Alabama. He had been married to another unknown woman and had five children, Joe born about 1825, Jesse born about 1826, Willis Benjamin born about 1829, Thomas Franklin born about 1831 and George Washington born about 1833. Joseph and Jane married and had three more children, Menerva Evalina and William. Jane was pregnant with their third child, Susan Frances Neal when Joseph was murdered, Tuesday, December 9, 1845.
 

Joseph and Jane Neal owned a commissary in Many Louisiana. On December 9, 1845, two outlaws came in to rob Joseph. He refused to give the robbers his money and reached for his rifle that was standing behind the counter. The robbers shot and killed Joseph in front of his wife and children. They took his money and hightailed it out of town. Susan’s two brothers, Joe Neal and Jesse Neal started practicing their fast gun draw and got to be really good. Soon they went to work at a sawmill. They worked there for a few months, just long enough to earn a few dollars. One day, Joe and Jesse Neal collected their pay, went home and got the money they had been saving. They gave their brothers, Willis and George some of the money to give to their mother and told them to let their mother know they were going after the men that had killed their father. The boys lit out on the cold trail of the two outlaws. They crossed over into Texas checking the saloons in all the little towns and settlements and any known outlaw hideouts along the way. They finally found the two men in a saloon standing at the bar. When the two men looked into the mirror over the bar they saw the boys standing behind them. They turned and drew their guns but the young Neal boys were faster on the draw. They shot and killed the two men that had killed their father, then got on their horses and rode out of town. The law was hot on their tails. The Sheriff and his posse trailed the boys back to the family farm in Many, Louisiana. The boys had come back to tell the family that the two killers were dead and that they were ok. The boys grabbed some food and cartridges. From the family farm you could see someone coming before they could see you. When the Neal boys spotted the posse riding toward the family farm the boys lit out for the neighboring farm. The posse searched the family farm and neighboring farms but could not find them anywhere. When the posse got to the neighboring farm the boys had doubled back passing, and hiding from, the posse. The posse finally split up. Half of them camped on the edge of town, and sneaked back into town on foot, hoping to catch a glimpse of the two Neal boys. One of the men from the posse sat in a chair beside the front door of the Neal Commissary and another deputy sat across the street in front of the saloon owned by David Recknor.
 

The other half of the posse camped on the edge of the family farm watching for the boys to return home. In the dark of night the two boys sneaked back to the family farm, kissed their family goodbye, managed to turn the posse’s horses loose and headed out of town. After about six months the law finally gave up and went back to Texas. The trail was now too cold to follow. As far as the law was concerned the two boys had vanished from the face of the earth. The two Neal boys were never heard from again except for the few messages they managed to get to their family. Finally the messages stopped coming. The boys had headed for “No Man’s Land”. The area between Sabine in Texas and the Arroyo Hondo in Louisiana was called the “Neutral Ground” or “No Man’s Land”. It had no laws, no government and no one to enforce any kind of control over the people living in this zone. This made a perfect place for criminals and low life to gather. It was soon filled with desperados of the worst kind. Men who robbed and murdered without fear of any type of punishment. The United States and Spain finally put an end to this condition by agreeing upon the present day boundary between Louisiana and Texas. But it took time to bring law and order to this part of the country.
 

In about 1848 Jane McGuffin Neal married David Recknor, owner of the town saloon. They had three more children.
 

Although Joseph Neal himself never lived in Montgomery County, his descendants like, Jesse Malachi Real I & II, Allen Zachariah {A.Z.} Real, Hugh McGuffin, John Neal and their descendants did and do live in Montgomery County, Texas.
 

Other members of the Neal related families moved to San Augustine, Liberty, Polk, Montgomery, Trinity and Leon Counties, Texas.

Submitted and ^© 2004 Sue Real Mullins

The Trip to Texas^©

Susan’s family had sold the farm, commissary and the saloon. They had been waiting on the wagon train. Jane and her new family reluctantly gave up their wait for her two boys to return home. They loaded everything their covered wagons could carry, including wagons loaded with barrels of whiskey that David would later trade for land in Keechi, Leon County, Texas. Susan Francis Neal, her mother Jane McGuffin Neal, her stepfather David Recknor, her brothers and her sister Menerva Evalina Neal were headed to Texas. Many people died on the wagon train. Drownings at river crossings, dysentery, cholera, injury, pneumonia and “the fever” were common killers on the trail. The men often suffered accidental gunshot wounds. Pregnant women died in childbirth.
 

Richard and Lucrecia Real’s son Thomas died of “the fever” on the trip to Texas. When and where is unknown.
 

The wagon train started its trip in the springtime so hopefully they would be at the end of their journey by fall. The trip was devastatingly hard. They awoke at four a.m. so they could be rolling by seven a.m. They paused for ten minutes each hour to rest the livestock. At eleven a.m. they stopped for what was called a “nooning”. They had a meal, greased the wheels and checked the wagons, did other chores, perhaps got some much needed rest and by two p.m. were back on the trail again. They kept rolling as long as they could, sometimes well into the night. Faced with scorching heat, violent storms and scarce water these brave frontier settlers still managed to covered an average of fifteen miles a day. At night the wagons were pulled into a circle that would provide some defense in case of an Indian attack. The Indians were wild and hostile. They attacked the wagon train. They stole horses, burned wagons, killed the men and kidnapped the women and children. Someone always sat guard at night.
 

The Indians came and asked for food and chattered words Edward Real and the others could not understand.
 

The wagon train stopped on the banks of the treacherous, swirling river and the weary settlers wondered how they would ever cross that huge gap of water with no bridge and high steep banks blocking their way. Winter was closing in and bad weather would soon be upon them. The settlers were not willing to go out of their way to find a more suitable crossing. They had come too far to turn back now. Could they find a way to cross the river? These families were strong, determined, pioneer stock. Soon the men, women and children were all working side by side. They cut down and trimmed trees. Susan Frances Neal and Lucrecia Lewis could handle an axe and saw as well as any man. Dirt was removed from the steep banks and fashioned into slopes on which they could lower the wagons down to the lower banks with ropes. The trees were made into rafts and placed near the water’s edge. Someone had to swim the treacherous river currents to the other side with a rope and tie it to a tree or some other suitable anchor. When all the work was done, the wagons were loaded onto the rafts and, using the ropes, were pulled across the river with great difficulty. Sometimes if the river was calm, or there were no trees nearby, they removed the wheels from the wagons and floated them to the opposite bank. When the wagons got stuck in the mud they hitched two, sometimes more, teams of mules or oxen to the wagon and the men, women and children all had to help push it through the mud. The larger wagon was about 10x4x2 feet and pulled by a team of six mules or oxen. The wagons were awkward, heavy and rough riding. They were filled with all their worldly processions and a food supply that had to last for the whole trip. The food supply consisted of 150 pounds of flour for each adult, 5 pounds of baking soda, 10 pounds of jerky, 40 pounds of bacon, 40 pounds of dried fruit, 40 pounds of sugar, 40 pounds of coffee, along with rice, yeast, vinegar and molasses.
 

Between the laughing and the crying, the living and the dying, the singing and the sighing, the wagon wheels rolled on.
 

Jesse Malachi Real #2 and The Breathing Pipes^©

John Luther Real

Jane McGuffin Neal Recknor

The Meeting of Jesse Malachie Real #1 and Susan Francis Neal

Jesse Malachi Real #1 and The Pony Express

The Family of Jesse Malachi Real #1 and Susan Frances Neal

True to her word, in the year about 1865, Susan was 19 years old and Jesse was 18 years old, Susan Frances Neal married Jesse Malachi Real. They had six living children, Marion Francis, Josephine Evaline, Susan Frances, John Luther, Emma Ann and Jesse Malachi Real, #2. They lived in Keechi, Leon County, Texas where their family grew up. They lived on a farm. Susan cooked on a fire in the fireplace. Their house had a mud roof and a dirt floor. In a few months they bought a cook stove and also a sewing machine. They were the first family to own a sewing machine in that part of the country. Susan had a spinning wheel she spun thread on to knit socks and stockings. She wove the thread into cloth for making clothes. The thread was made from the cotton they raised. Her work seemed to never end. Her days were long and hard. It was not uncommon for her to still be working after her family was asleep in bed. Her duties, as was all the frontier women, was to have children to work the land. She also produced the family's food and clothing. She planted, plowed, harvested and cooked the food for her family. She planted, raised, picked, cleaned the cotton and spun it into thread to make the cloth to sew the clothes to clothe her family. She pressed the cottonseed to make cooking oil, margarine and soap. After the oil was removed she ground the seed to make seed meal to feed the cows, horses and sheep. She had to be teacher and nurse for her children, her husband and often for the children of neighboring families when the men and other women shared the work of the homestead. The family raised all their food and had fruit trees. They preserved fruit and put it in large churns and crocks. It would keep for months without spoiling. Susan Frances Neal Real was said to have started labor pains while plowing in the field. She walked back to the house, had her baby, (Jesse Malachi Real, #2) washed up, took her baby and went back to the field to finish her plowing. Jesse Malachi Real, #1, was a man of many talents. He and his son Jesse, #2 were considered to be the best fiddlers in the family. His life and adventures included being an expert horseman, a pony express rider, and a farmer. He also owned numerous sawmills, J. M. Real Lumber Company, with his son Jesse Malachi Real #2. With his father Richard, he was a wildcatter in the oilfields of East Texas. He was a deeply religious Baptist man. And from what I've been told he was a faithful loving husband and father. Maybe that's why Susan was so willing to pack up and follow him anywhere. Edward Real, Richard Real and Jesse Malachi Real #1 bought and donated land to build and helped to build the first church in Keechi, Leon County, Texas. It was the Mt. Zion Baptist Church of Keechi. They along with Jesse's wife Susan Frances Neal Real and David Recknor were original charter members of the church. Soon Jesse Malachi Real, #1 and Susan Frances Neal Real decided to move their family, including his parents, Richard and Lucrecia, from Leon County Texas. So, in about 1881 they loaded all their worldly possessions, sewing machine and cook stove, into their covered wagon, tied the milk cow to the back of the wagon and set out on the trail again. There was still a lot of country to be seen. Source: The Real Family Album written by Sue Real Mullins.
^©2004 by Sue Real Mullins, P.O. Box 67, Crockett, TX 75835.

The Death of Jesse Malachi Real #2 

Johnnie Malachi Real and The Real Shoes

Johnnie Malachi Real;s Move to Colorado

It was like a wagon train. Grandpa Jesse, #1 and the other ancestors would have been proud of him. There was Johnnie Malachi, his wife Vera, their daughters, Arvenia, Betty Jean, Brenda Joyce and Barbara Lou along with 22 logging trucks loaded with equipment, 14 cars, 10 pickups, 50 drivers / mill hands and families of the mill hands. Some of the logging trucks were new but most were old and needed engine repair. They went up the mountains, over the mountains and down the mountains. They finally made it to the top of the mountain near the Denver area after two weeks of traveling time, break downs and car sickness. It was the end of summer and the mountains were beautiful. They knew this was going to be a great two years. They got the trucks unloaded and the mill set up. It was time to get to work cutting, sawing and planing the timber. I don’t know if it was the light headedness from the high altitude, the colds, the fever, the cold blisters, the frost bite, the shortness of breathe, the double and triple layers of clothing or if everyone was just plain homesick. After four months of Colorado mountain winter weather, Malachi sold his complete sawmill where it stood. He was back in Montgomery County, Texas three days later. That was the last of the sawmill business for any of the Real’s. Source: The Real Family Album written by Sue Real Mullins.
^© 2004 by Sue Real Mullins, P. O. Box 67, Crockett, TX 75835.

Johnnie Malachie Real and The Hungry Horse

Allen Zachariah  (A. Z.) Real, Johnnie Malachi Real, John Kite and the Buzzard Eggs