My Genealogy Hound

Judge Thomas B. Neff, farmer and stock raiser, was born in Hardy County, Va., September 7, 1826, and is a son of Adam and Harriet (Bramell) Neff, also natives of that State. In 1837 the family moved from Virginia to Ohio, locating in Pickaway County, but after a residence there of three years they returned to Virginia, settling in Wood County. In the spring of 1844 they went to Des Moines County, Iowa, where the father died about 1880, aged seventy-five. Thomas B. grew to manhood in Des Moines County, but his education was mostly obtained after reaching years of maturity. In 1850 he left Des Moines County and in company with twenty-eight men and seven teams went overland to California, the journey taking from March until September 5, 1850. He engaged in mining about three months, but becoming sick in San Francisco he returned home, passing through Central America, Lake Nicaragua, across to Graytown, Cuba, New Orleans and St. Louis. He arrived home in April, 1851, and then engaged in farming in Iowa for five years. He was united in marriage, while in Des Moines County, in 1848, to Mary J. Wood, a native of that county, who died in June, 1849. In 1853 he wedded Eleanor Holland, a native of Iowa, who died in Putnam County, Mo., in 1863. To his second union four children were born: Fanny (wife of Ephraim Norman, of Kansas), Elizabeth A. (wife of E. S. Idleman, of Kansas), Mary J. (wife of George B. Johnson, of Nebraska), and Ines L. (wife of Albert Noel, of Kansas). The Judge was married, in Putnam County, Mo., in November, 1863, to Mahala Timmons, who was born and reared in Ohio. To this union three children have been born: Lola A., who died in 1874, aged seven, and two who died in infancy. Judge Neff came to Putnam County in 1856, locating in the section where he now resides. Although he began life with nothing, he has by good management, industry and economy amassed a comfortable competency. He at first entered a tract of 160 acres in Sherman Township, but now owns 440 acres all in one tract, all fenced, and about 300 in meadow, pasture and plow land. He lives in a commodious one-and-one-half story residence, and has a good barn, sheds, cribs, etc. The Judge is a Republican in politics, and served as township trustee from 1874 to 1876. In 1880 he was again elected to that office, and served a couple of terms in succession. He was nominated judge at large in the fall of 1882, and elected presiding judge of the county court, and presided over the sittings of that court for a term of four years. The judge is an enterprising and public- spirited citizen, and always takes great interest in the welfare of his county and party. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge, at Unionville. During the rebellion he served as second lieutenant in Company A, Forty-fifth Missouri Cavalry, Missouri State Militia, going out in the fall of 1862, and again in September, 1864, hunting “bushwhackers.”