Lincoln-Beauregard County Louisiana Archives Biographies.....O'Neal, Robert J September 27, 1887 - 



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Mike Miller http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00004.html#0000912 September 24, 2006, 3:38 pm

Author: Henry E Chambers

Robert Jonathan O'Neal.  Locating at Dc Ridder in 1915, Robert Jonathan O'Neal 
has played a prominent part in the official and professional life of that 
community.  His abilities have won him a large general practice as an attorney.

Mr. O'Neal was born on a farm near Choudrant in Lincoln Parish, September 27, 
1887.  In the same locality was born his grandfather, Jonathan O'Neal, who 
followed planting until the war between the states, when he enlisted in the 
Confederate army and died while in service. Robert Dickinson O'Neal, father of 
the De Ridder attorney, was born in the same locality, December 9, 1854, and 
has given his active life to farming and planting.  He has served on the police 
jury, as a deacon and elder in the Presbyterian Church.  His wife, Maude 
(Kelley) O'Neal, was also born in Lincoln Parish.

Robert Jonathan O'Neal attended public schools in his native parish, the State 
Normal School at Natchitoches, and as a means of preparing himself for the law 
spent four years as a teacher, two years in the rural schools of Winn Parish 
and two years in Vernon Parish.  At Leesville in Vernon Parish, he studied law 
with Hon. James K. Monk, was admitted to the bar April 10, 1911, and remained 
at Leesville, associated with Mr. Monk in practice until 1915.  While there he 
served as city clerk and city attorney.

Since locating at De Ridder in 1915, Mr. O'Neal has had a general practice 
involving much of the important litigation in the courts of this district.  He 
has also served three terms as city clerk and city attorney.  He is connected 
with the Beauregard Motor Company of De Ridder, handling the Star and Durant 
automobiles.

During the World war, Mr. O'Neal was secretary of the Defense Counsel, chairman 
of the Four Minute Speakers Bureau, and was chairman of several of the Liberty 
Loan Drives.  From 1918 to 1920 he represented Ward Three as a member of the 
Beauregard Parish Police Jury. Fraternally he is affiliated with De Ridder 
Lodge No. 271, Free and Accepted Masons, and is financial secretary of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church and treasurer of the Sunday school.  He married Emma 
Lou Brown, June 30, 1912, at Homer, Louisiana, where she was born and reared, 
daughter of Merrill Brown, a farmer and saw mill operator who is now 
superintendent of roads of Claiborne Parish.  Mrs. O'Neal is one of the very 
active members of the Methodist Church at De Ridder.  They have two daughters,  
Marjorie and  Martha Louise.

Additional Comments:
A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 280, by Henry E. Chambers.  Published by 
The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925. 



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