Robert Veal

Quick Facts

Significance:

Mississippi Homesteader

Place of Birth:

Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi

Date of Birth:

February 1872

Robert Veal was born February 1872 in Woodville, Wilkinson County, Mississippi. He married Betsy Kain, who was born February 1873 in Woodville. The 1900 US Census listed Robert as a farmer residing on land in Beat 3 lying south of Buffalo Creek with his wife Betsy and three children Sam, Irene, and Martha. Robert’s parents were Benjamin Veal and Nora Hull who were both born enslaved in Woodville.

Robert Veal filed Homestead Application #33417 on September 15,1898 under the Homestead Act of 1862 in the Land Office at Jackson, Mississippi. He paid $12.04 for submission of the application and signed with his “x” mark. His claim was for 81.67 acres of land located on the East half of the Southeast quarter of Section 36 in Township 3-North, Range 1-West, of the Washington Meridian, located in the Upper Buffalo area of Woodville.

Robert built a two-room log house which included a crib (barn) and a cotton house in March 1899, and established residency in the house April 1, 1889. He farmed on twenty-two acres and raised crops for five seasons. The value of the house was around $60.

There were four witnesses to Robert Veal’s claim - J. C. Whetstone, Alex Carter, Willie Gaulden, and Henry Burns, all residents of Woodville, Mississippi. Witness Henry Burns was a Woodville homesteader granted forty acres on September 28, 1904, in the same section and township as Robert Veal.

Robert’s proof of Homestead claim was in the Woodville Republican newspaper for five successive weeks from April 30 to May 28, 1904.

The Land Office approved his final Certificate #18614 on December 24, 1904, and he received his land patent February 13, 1905. Robert Veal did not own any land in Woodville before this first Homestead claim.

Patent Details - BLM GLO Records

~ 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. He is the fourth great-grandson of Robert Veal Sr. who was born in 1805 in Clarksville, Tennessee. Robert’s son Benjamin Veal was the father of Homesteader Robert Veal. He is a member of the Dallas Genealogical Society’s African American Genealogy Interest Group. His blog Almost Disappeared: Unearthing My Family History 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.