Farmer, educator.
Born in the Free Church Manse of Holm Parish, Orkney, Scotland on 4 December 1878, the sixth of sixteen children of Rev. Daniel “Dan” McNeill and Jessie Jane Dewar, he attended two years of medical school at Glasgow University (1897-1898). In 1899, he decided that medicine was not his calling. He joined the British Army and served in South Africa during the Boer War. Upon returning to Scotland, he decided to take up farming. Farmland in Scotland being expensive and limited, he moved to Canada and arrived in Winnipeg in March 1903.
He found employment on the James Tully farm in the Poplar Heights School District. By Fall 1903, he had saved enough money for a down payment on a small farm a few miles from the Tully farm. While working for the Tullys, he and a Tully daughter, Sarah Elizabeth “Bessie” Tully (1883-1964) became affectionate and were married on 16 November 1904. They had ten children: Jessie Milward McNeill (1906-1970), Mary Margaret McNeill (1907-1993), Margaret Dewar McNeill (1908-2002), James Daniel McNeill (1909-1999), Ethel Charlotte McNeill (1911-2000), John Tully McNeill (1913-1982), William Patrick McNeill (1917-1991), Charles Henry McNeill (1918-2004), Leila Jean McNeill (1920-2010), and Bessie Lorraine McNeill (1922-2015).
In Fall 1905, the Meadow Lea School District found itself without a teacher. Although not a teacher, he had two years of university education and was therefore deemed to be one of the more qualified people in the area to fill the teaching position. Thus began his teaching career. He was given a non-professional certificate to teach that was renewed annually until 1909, during which time he taught and attended the Central Normal School. In 1909, he was issued a second-class teacher’s certificate which enabled him to continue teaching. In 1919, the McNeills sold their farm and teaching became his sole occupation. In 1943, he obtained a first-class teacher’s certificate as well as a principal’s certificate for a one-room high school.
He taught at Meadow Lea School (1905-1916), Warren School (1919-1921), Stonewall School (1920-1921), Winnipeg Beach School (1921-1923, Principal), Griswold School (1923-1926, Principal), Reaburn School (1928-1942, 1944-1946), and Hoey West School (1942-1944). In retirement, he lived in the Poplar Heights district and was an Elder of Meadow Lea United Church.
He died at Portage la Prairie on 2 June 1956 and was buried in the Meadow Lea Cemetery.
Birth and marriage registrations, Manitoba Vital Statistics.
Birth registration [Sarah Elizabeth Tully], Nova Scotia Vital Statistics.
1921 and 1926 Canada censuses, Library and Archives Canada.
“Early teacher, D. F. McNeill dies,” Winnipeg Free Press, 5 June 1956, page 15.
Geographic Names of Manitoba, Manitoba Conservation, 2000.
This page was prepared by Nathan Kramer and Fred McNeill.
Page revised: 14 July 2024
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