Routt-Pueblo-Fremont County CO Archives Biographies.....McNeil, John 1853 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/cofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 1, 2009, 4:30 pm Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918) JOHN McNEIL. John McNeil has figured prominently in connection with the development of the fuel and mining interests of Colorado and is now extensively engaged in the operation of coal property in Routt county under the name of the McNeil Coal Company and also near Grand Junction, Colorado, as president of the Grand Junction Mining & Fuel Company. He was born in Coatdyke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, March 2, 1853. At the tender age of ten years he began his career in coal mining, toiling for over ten hours each day in a coal pit and devoting his evenings to study in a night school. In this manner, being a diligent student, he acquired a very fair knowledge of the essential English branches. Later he attended mining classes and obtained a technical knowledge of ventilation and coal mine gases and became an underground foreman of a colliery at Slamannan, Stirlingshire, at the age of twenty-one years. On the 31st of December, 1872, at Slamannan, Mr. McNeil was married to Miss Janet Allan Page and in August, 1876, with his wife and two baby boys, John, Jr., and David Page, emigrated to America. He went to Ohio and a few weeks later removed to Collinsville, Illinois, where he worked as a miner and contractor in shaft sinking in the Collinsville coal field. In the fall of 1878, with a baby girl added to his family, he came to Colorado and entered the employ of the Colorado Coal & Iron Company in the coal mines at Coal Creek, Fremont county. In 1880 he was engaged by the Canon City Coal Company, then owned by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company, as superintendent in sinking and timbering Nos. 3 and 4 shafts. In 1882-3, in order to finish his education, he attended the Collegiate Institute at Canon City and in the class of 1884 was graduated as a mining engineer. Prior to his graduation, however, the legislature had created the office of state inspector of coal mines and Mr. McNeil was appointed to that position by Governor James B. Grant. As a test of fitness for the place, he with six other candidates passed a competitive examination before a state board of examiners appointed for that purpose, and having received the highest grade in this contest, captured the prize. He entered upon the duties of his office July 1, 1883. With the consent of Governor Grant and by constant study during his leisure hours, Mr. McNeil was enabled and permitted to keep up with his class, and returning to the Collegiate Institute during the period of final examinations, he was graduated with honors on commencement day at the head of his class. Mr. McNeil was the first state inspector of coal mines in Colorado and held the office continuously from its inception until August, 1893, during the administrations of Governors Grant, Eaton, Adams, Cooper and Routt and also for six months under Governor Waite, the populist governor. He then resigned his position with eighteen months of his last appointment to run. By virtue of his office and the duties involved, Mr. McNeil was practically the general superintendent ex-officio of all the coal mines within the state for more than ten years. His annual reports exhibited both the wisdom and the importance of his supervision. They were thoroughly well prepared, terse and comprehensive, setting forth in detail, so that anyone who reads may readily understand the exact status of the coal mines of the state during that period. Immediately after resigning the position of state inspector of mines Mr. McNeil, desiring to be a "free lance" in his profession, opened an office as a consulting mining engineer and from that date to the present his record has been exceptionally good. From the start he has been retained by the Union Pacific Coal Company and other large coal mining interests, and for many years he has enjoyed the distinction of being consulting engineer for the Phelps-Dodge Corporation of 99 John street, New York, of their coal properties, now producing approximately five thousand tons of coal and eight hundred tons of coke per day at Dawson, New Mexico. To furnish employment for his four sons, John, Jr., David Page, Alexander McGregor and George Washington, in a business in which he was so very competent to guide them, Mr. McNeil purchased, from time to time, tracts of coal land, now comprising more than twelve hundred acres, at Cameo (in the vicinity of Grand Junction), Mesa county, during the past fifteen years, and opened thereon a coal mine with modern equipment, which produced during 1917 one hundred and forty thousand tons of bituminous coal. Three years ago Mr. McNeil and his sons formed The McNeil Coal Company and purchased valuable coal lands in Routt county and thereon opened a modern coal mine, from which was shipped over the Moffat Road during the past year (1917) seventy-two thousand tons of bituminous coal. The mine is located on the Bear river at MacGregor, ten miles west of Steamboat Springs. Mr. McNeil and his four sons are equally interested in the holdings of their respective coal companies. Mr. McNeil is married for the third time. The wife of his youth died in November, 1888. A year later he married Miss. Elizabeth C. Buchanan, a daughter of the late J. M. Buchanan, who, prior to his death, ten years ago, was in business with Mr. McNeil. Mrs. Elizabeth McNeil died June 21, 1910, and on the 22d of November, 1916, he married Miss Nellie T. Buchanan, a sister of his former wife. Mr. McNeil has seven children. His son, George W., has the distinction of having been appointed to war work by President Wilson on the board of appeals of exemption boards for the forty southern counties of Colorado, with headquarters at Pueblo. This is the final court of appeals in draft matters. John, Jr., is general superintendent of the mining interests of the family. Alexander M. is secretary-treasurer and is in charge of the general office in Denver, while David P., a machinist by trade, has charge of the machinery at the mines and George W. has charge of the mercantile company stores at the mines. Mr. McNeil, though now in his sixty-sixth year, still enjoys excellent health with the vigor of younger years. He has been a resident of Denver since July, 1883, or for thirty-five years. In coal mining matters Mr. McNeil has examined more coal properties and purchased greater areas of coal lands probably than any other man in America. Not only has he acted for himself in this matter but also for many others and especially for the Union Pacific Railroad under the Harriman administration, who alone expended millions of dollars on coal lands through Mr. McNeil. He reported on coal properties from the Gulf of Mexico to the extreme northwestern coast and from California to Alabama and also on extensive coal fields in British Columbia, Canada. There is no feature of coal mining with which he is not thoroughly familiar and by reason of his prominence in the mining circles of the state he has contributed largely to the furtherance of its material interests and its development. At the meeting of The Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute of Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, held in the Broadmoor Hotel at Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 3-6, 1918, Mr. McNeil was unanimously elected president of the Institute. Colorado numbers him among her most representative and honored citizens. Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF COLORADO ILLUSTRATED VOLUME II CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY 1918 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/photos/bios/mcneil200nbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/routt/bios/mcneil200nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cofiles/ File size: 8.1 Kb