Person

Amanda Neal

Quick Facts
Significance:
Kansas homsteader
Place of Birth:
Warren County, Tennessee
Date of Birth:
December 1841
Place of Death:
Lyons, Rice County, Kansas
Date of Death:
November 23, 1906
Place of Burial:
Lyons, Rice County Kansas
Cemetery Name:
Lyons Municipal Cemetery

Amanda E. Neal was a homesteader who, after the death of her husband, was left with a timber culture claim to tend to. Her story is one of family, diligence, and the value of persevering, no matter what life threw at her.

Amanda Neal was born and raised in Warren County Tennessee. She had three children with Charles "Charley" Neal before they were married on September 4, 1865: Mary Vaughan (1862), William Neal (1863), and Charles Neal Jr. (1865). After they married, they lived various places throughout Tennessee, having nine more children: Alexander Neal (1867), America Neal (1869), Maggie F. Neal (1870), Luthera “Lulu” Neal (1872), John P. Neal (1874), Flora J. Neal (1877), Susan Neal (1880), Ruth Alice Neal (1881), and Jennie Neal (1885).

Amanda and her husband Charles Neal moved to Hodgeman County, Kansas in the 1880s to homestead. After successfully proving up their homestead, Charles filed for a timber culture claim on February 17, 1891 at the Dodge City Kansas Land Office. A timber culture claim was a free land claim similar to a homestead, but it aimed to populate the prairie with more trees. Instead of requiring claimants to build structures or farm like the original Homestead Act of 1862, the Timber Culture Act of 1873 required claimants to plant forty acres of healthy trees within an 8-12 year period. At the time of the Neals claim, the act had been amended so claimants only had to cultivate ten acres.

The Timber Culture Act of 1873 was a land act that many homesteaders utilized to gain an additional plot of land. Most claimants failed to meet the requirements and ended up losing the land. Despite the odds, the Neal’s timber culture claim fared well. The entire Neal family helped plant and tend to over 2,700 honey locust, black locust, ash, and box elder trees, with around 1,030 of them surviving when they prooved up their claim.

Despite their success in agriculture, death seemed to follow the Neals during this period. Many of their children died of accidents or diseases. Their son, John P. Neal, was the first to pass on. He died in a swimming accident on July 24, 1894, trying to rescue another young boy. This terrible accident shook the entire community. The next to pass on was Ruth Alice Neal on August 7, 1899. Shortly after, Susan Neal died of an unspecified illness in May of 1900. A month later on July 5, 1900, their youngest daughter, Jennie, died at age 15 of a long-term illness. Even more tragedy struck when Charles Neal, at the age of 64, died while attending Jennie's funeral on on July 6, 1900. He left no will behind.

After losing six of her family members in the past six years, Amanda Neal, at 59 years old, had the responsibility of the timber culture claim fall on her shoulders. According to Jetmore’s newspaper The Western Herald, the community rallied around the Neal family in the following months, helping them tend to and harvest their crops. With the help of her daughters Luthera and Flora, Amanda tended to the already cultivated ten acres of trees for the next three years, keeping them healthy and thriving so her family’s dream of earning a patent would not be lost.  

On November 14, 1903, Amanda and her neighbors Orange Board and Charles Emery testified as witnesses to Amanda’s proof at the Dodge City, Kansas land office. Her patent, #3285, was issued on April 8, 1904. Amanda moved off her land shortly after receiving the patent to live near her oldest daughter, Mary Vaughn, in Lyons, Kansas. She lived there comfortably for a few years before dying in the Vaughn household on November 23, 1906.

Throughout various points in Amanda’s life, the easiest option would have been to give up. Death and heartache seemed to follow her and her family wherever they went. Yet, she persevered in the face of adversity, earning something few homesteaders did: a timber culture patent.

Learn more about Black Homesteading in America.
 

Sources:

Homestead National Historical Park

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Last updated: November 2, 2021