Last updated: December 12, 2022
Person
Charles Henry Veal
Quick Facts
Significance:
Louisiana Homesteader
Place of Birth:
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Date of Birth:
February 1865
Place of Death:
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Date of Death:
October 23, 1933
Place of Burial:
West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana
Charles Henry Veal was born December 1865 in St. Francisville, West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana. He married Clara McDaniel, who was born in 1875 in St. Francisville. They had four children - Mamie, Rose, Charles Jr., and Andrew.
Charles filed Homestead Application #011606 under the Homestead Act of 1862 at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He submitted three applications before receiving approval for his land. The original application was filed March 5, 1927, a second homestead entry was filed on December 9, 1927, and the final application was filed on January 26, 1929.
Charles made a final payment of $2.95 for submission of the final application and signed his name for the grant for Lots 1, 2 and 3, Section 27, Township 1-South, Range 4-West, St. Helena Meridian, Louisiana, containing 32.08 acres.
In the final Affidavit Charles, a native-born citizen of the United States, stated he made actual settlement upon and cultivated and resided upon the land from January 1, 1900, when he first established residence upon the land, to January 26, 1929. Of the thirty-two acres, he cultivated twenty acres and the remaining twelve acres yielded 12,000 feet of saw timber. In 1924 his farm yielded twenty acres cotton (2 bales), corn (200 bushels), peas (60 bushels) and potatoes (40 bushels).
He constructed his home in 1900 on the Southeast corner of the land and it contained a barn, outhouse, wire fencing, hog pastures and pecan trees. The cost of materials was $1000 and with $100 nominal labor costs, the total value was $1100.
Charles signed his final affidavit in West Feliciana Parish December 10, 1929. There were two witnesses to his claim: James Peyton of Plettenberg, Louisiana, signed his affidavit in West Feliciana Parish December 10, 1929. The other witness Henry Williams of Solitude, Louisiana, departed from the State of Louisiana, and with his whereabouts unknown to both, and since it was impossible to get a correction of his testimony as proof witness for claimant, his affidavit was signed by Charles Henry Veal and James Peyton.
His proof of Homestead claim notice was advertised in the True Democrat, a weekly newspaper printed in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana.
The United States Department of the Interior General Land Office issued the Final Homestead Patent No. 1034646 on February 12, 1930.
~ Contributor Alvin Blakes
Alvin Blakes is a descendant of the Veal Family of Wilkinson County Mississippi. The Veals were enslaved and brought from Clarksville Tennessee to the Holly Grove Plantation in Centreville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi in 1809. Many of the early Veal Family members were dispersed and taken to work in Pointe Coupee Parish, Rapides Parish and West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana where Charles Henry Veal lived.
He is a member of the Dallas Genealogical Society’s African American Genealogy Interest Group. His blog Almost Disappeared: Unearthing My Family History (almostdisappeared.com) shares the stories and genealogical resources he has found over the last 30 years while tracing his family’s history upon their arrival into Wilkinson County, Mississippi, starting in the late 1700s.