Neal McCann

McCann was most likely properly "Neal McCann III" as both Neal McCann Sr. And Neal McCann Jr. were tax-paying residents of Fayette County around the time the youngest McCann was born in 1800.{{cite web |publisher=Ancestry.com |title=McCann in Fayette Co. |website=Kentucky, U.S., Tax Lists, 1799–1801 |url=https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3720/}} The McCann farm may have been known as Woodstock.{{Cite web |title=Part of Fayette Co. - 2 |author=D.G. Beers & Co. |year=1877 |website=Atlas of Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine and Woodford Counties, Ky. |location=Philadelphia |via=Library of Congress Digital |lccn=2005627107 |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3953bm.gct00130/ |access-date=2025-03-12 }} McCann's father or grandfather may have been some kind of tailor or haberdasher, as in 1801 he advertised in the newspaper for apprentices to "learn the hat making business, and also, one penny reward each for William Emberson and Samuel Hardister, who ran away last January, if delivered to him in Lexington."{{sfnp|Staples|2014|p=172}}

Little is known of McCann's early life or education. He was politically a Whig, appearing as a delegate at a Whig convention in 1834.{{Cite news |date=1834-05-20 |title=Kentucky Whig Convention |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commonwealth-kentucky-whig-conventio/162815444/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Commonwealth |pages=3}} In 1836 Hugh B. Todd listed McCann as a reference for his boarding school for young ladies in Lexington.{{Cite news |date=1836-01-30 |title=Boarding School - Hugh B. Todd |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/kentucky-gazette-boarding-school-hugh/167792539/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=Kentucky Gazette |pages=3}} By 1839 he had come to be a colonel in the local militia.{{Cite web |title=Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky 1838-39. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2881213&seq=39&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Journal 1843. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112108189850&seq=136&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}} That same year he was a member of the Transylvania Institute.{{Cite web |title=Journal 1839 APX.. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiuo.ark:/13960/t0wq3k173&seq=167&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}} He sold dry goods, including bolts of fabric, at auction in 1840 on behalf of Richard B. Todd.{{Cite news |date=1840-09-10 |title=Dry Goods at Auction |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/kentucky-gazette-dry-goods-at-auction/167792562/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=Kentucky Gazette |pages=3}}

File:Entry_for_William_A_Pullam_and_Eliza_Jane_Mccann,_26_Dec_1835.jpg and his daughter Eliza Jane Mccann]]

In April 1841 McCann announced his candidacy for the Kentucky House of Representatives.{{Cite news |date=1841-04-06 |title=Col. Neal McCann |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commonwealth-col-neal-mccann/167792584/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Commonwealth |pages=3}} The other candidates that year were Cassius M. Clay, G. W. C. Graves, James L. Hickman, Robert S. Todd, Robert Wickliffe Jr., and Owen W. Winn.{{Cite news |date=1841-06-19 |title=Candidates to represent the county of Fayette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/kentucky-gazette-candidates-to-represent/167792600/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=Kentucky Gazette |pages=2}} He was a single-term Kentucky state assembly member, representing Lexington in 1841 alongside Robert S. Todd, who became father-in-law to Abraham Lincoln in 1842.{{sfnp|Ranck|1872|p=179}}

In June 1842 he was one of the organizers of a Grand Barbecue for Henry Clay.{{Cite news |date=1842-06-07 |title=The Great Barbecue |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-commonwealth-the-great-barbecue/167792622/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Commonwealth |pages=3}}

File:"Dry_Goods_at_Auction"_Kentucky_Gazette,_September_10,_1840.jpg, "Dry Goods at Auction" Kentucky Gazette, September 10, 1840]]

In 1847 McCann advertised for the recovery of an enslaved man "named Ned, about 25 years old."{{sfnp|Townsend|2014|p=128}} McCann donated $20 to the American Colonization Society in 1848.{{Cite journal |title=Notes |journal=The African Repository and Colonial Journal |volume=24 |issue=6 |year=1848 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=ia.ark:/13960/t7gr0jp7m&seq=48&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |via=HathiTrust |language=en}} In 1849 he was one of the commissioners for a planned Chilesburg and Athens Turnpike Road to Lexington.{{Cite web |title=Acts passed at the ... session of the General Assembly for the Commonwealth of Kentucky yr.1849. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.a0001914100&seq=655&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}}

At the time of the 1850 census he was the legal owner of four Black (as opposed to Mulatto) male slaves, aged 55, 52, 65, and 40.Ancestry.com. 1850 U.S. Federal Census - Slave Schedules Also in his household in 1850 was his widowed son-in-law, the slave trader William A. Pullum,{{cite web |work=Kentucky, County Marriages, 1786–1965 |via=FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2D6-3QCK |title=Entry for William A Pullam and Eliza Jane Mccann, 26 Dec 1835}} and his two young Pullum grandsons, and another "trader" named George W. Hall.{{cite web |work=United States Census, 1850 |publisher=FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M659-G55 |title=Entry for Neal McCann and Elizabeth McCann, 1850}} McCann was a slave trader as well but very little is known about his business.{{sfnp|Coleman|1940|p=166}}{{sfnp|Turner|1960|p=296}}{{efn|In 1853, when Harriet Beecher Stowe published the polemical non-fiction A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, she included a letter from Lewis Hayden, who had been enslaved in Lexington until 1845. He wrote, "I never knew a slave-trader that did not seem to think, in his heart, that the trade was a bad one. I knew a great many of them, such as Neal, McAnn, Cobb, Stone, Pulliam, and Davis, &c. They were like Haley,—they meant to repent when they got through." There appears to be little scholarship on this list but Cobb may be Lexington slave trader David Cobb, Stone may be Lexington slave trader Ned Stone, and "Neal, McAnn" could be Neal McCann.{{sfnp|Stowe|1853|pages=378–379}}}}

In 1854 McCann was a commissioner of the Kentucky, Cumberland Gap, and Southern Railroad Company,{{Cite web |title=Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky v.2 (1853/1854). |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858018299093&seq=85&q1=McCann |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}} in 1858 McCann was a director of the Lexington and Danville Railroad.{{Cite web |title=Low's railway directory for 1858; containing a correct list of all the officers and directors of the railroads in the United States and Canadas, together ... |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044081904187&seq=67&q1=McCann&start=1 |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=HathiTrust |language=en}} In 1859 McCann purchased $5,100 in yearling mules from Thompson B. Field.{{Cite news |date=1859-09-05 |title=Yearling Mules |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tri-weekly-commonwealth-yearling-mules/167792867/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=Tri-Weekly Commonwealth |pages=2}} In 1860 Neal McCann appeared to be a model of diversified farming in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.{{sfnp|Hopkins|2014|p=36}} He reported that he owned a Fayette County farm of 1100 acres with "40 horses, 140 asses and mules, 21 milch cows, 6 oxen, 60 other cattle, 40 sheep, and 50 swine. His crops consisted of 1,400 bushels of wheat, 250 bushels of rye, 3,500 bushels of corn, 1,800 bushels of oats, 35 pounds of wool, 2,000 pounds of butter, 25 tons of hay, and 15 tons of hemp."{{sfnp|Hopkins|2014|p=36}} In 1861 he was the judge for mules on day two of the Bourbon County Agricultural Society.{{Cite news |date=1861-06-14 |title=Second Day — Mule Judges |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-western-citizen-second-day-mule-ju/167792913/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=The Western Citizen |pages=3}}

During Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's horse-stealing raids in 1862, after burning a railroad bridge near Lexington, Morgan and his troops "next went toward Winchester, stealing all the good horses as they passed, and stayed at the farm of Neal McCann, who has a son and nephew with them."{{Cite news |date=1862-08-02 |title=Morgan's Kentucky Raid |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-rock-island-argus-morgans-kentucky/167792929/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=The Rock Island Argus |pages=2}} In July 1864, the Tri-Weekly Commonwealth of Frankfort, Kentucky reported, "We understand that Neal McCann of Fayette county and four of Jno. H. Morgan's marauders, who he was hiding on his premises were arrested and placed in prison at Lexington, on the 29th June."{{Cite news |date=1864-07-01 |title=Arrested |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/tri-weekly-commonwealth-arrested/162796566/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |work=Tri-Weekly Commonwealth |pages=2}}

McCann died in Lexington, Kentucky in January 1866.{{Cite news |date=1866-02-16 |title=DEATHS |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/columbia-herald-statesman-deaths/167793006/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=Columbia Herald-Statesman |pages=2}}

In 1849 a man named Joseph Lyon was killed on or near McCann's property. At the time of his disappearance he was described as a "young man who has been living for a number of years in the family of Col. Neal McCann."{{Cite news |date=1849-09-18 |title=Mysterious Affair |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-frankfort-commonwealth-mysterious-af/162796302/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Frankfort Commonwealth |pages=2}} He disappeared on Sunday, September 9, 1849.{{Cite news |date=1849-09-22 |title=Horrid Murder in Fayette |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-louisville-daily-courier-horrid-murd/162796429/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Louisville Daily Courier |pages=3}} McCann and Lyon's brother Thomas Lyon offered a reward and the newspaper reported "fears are entertained that he has been murdered." According to the New Orleans Crescent, the reward was $1,000, and Lyons "had been an inmate of the family for 15 years. He retired to his room with a newly lighted candle at about 8 o'clock, P. M., and has never been seen since that time. The bed was found still made up, the candle had not burned long, his hat had not been taken, and his horse was found lame, having lost saddle and bridle, six miles off. It is suspected that he was murdered."{{Cite news |date=1849-09-27 |title=Large Reward |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-orleans-crescent-large-reward/167922115/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=The New Orleans Crescent |pages=1}}

Lyon's body was found on September 19 in an advanced state of decomposition "on the premises of Mr. Thomas Hays, and about four or five hundred yards from Col. McCann's house." It was thought that he had been attacked in order to rob him of a "considerable sum of money" and "several negroes" had been arrested on suspicion of involvement. On October 11, friends of McCann published a card that discredited "rumors that he was connected with the murder of Joseph Lyon,"{{Cite news |date=1849-10-11 |title=The neighbors of Col. Neal McCann |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-louisville-daily-courier-the-neighbo/167792670/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Louisville Daily Courier |pages=3}} stating that he was "altogether incapable of this or any other crime."{{Cite news |date=1849-10-16 |title=We regret to learn... |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-frankfort-commonwealth-we-regret-to/167792694/ |access-date=2025-03-13 |work=The Frankfort Commonwealth |pages=3}} On October 31 the Natchez Mississippi Free Trader reported that two enslaved men who had been arrested had confessed to the crime. According to the reporting of the Free Trader, Lyon was targeted because he was thought to be carrying $1,800 in cash for purchasing cattle somewhere on Green River, but he returned to without the cattle and returned the money to McCann. Supposedly the slaves had killed Lyon for the money (which he turned out not to have), put his body on his horse, and led it about "two miles and buried the body in a cornfield."{{Cite news |date=1849-10-31 |title=A Mysterious Murder Explained |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-semi-weekly-mississippi-free-trader/167792397/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=The Semi-Weekly Mississippi Free Trader |pages=1}}

Four enslaved men, Dudley, Henry, Anthony, and Gabriel, were convicted and sentenced to death for the murders, in part based on the testimony of Lewis, who had been legally enslaved by McCann.{{Cite news |date=1851-07-31 |title=Execution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-courier-journal-execution/167940386/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |work=The Courier-Journal |pages=3}}

File:Neal McCann House — Fayette County, Kentucky.jpg

Construction on what became known as the McCann House on the south side of Todds Road, southeast of Lexington, started around 1797.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2014|p=34}} The original house had three rooms, later used as dining room, parlor, and hall. A detached brick-built kitchen was constructed in the first quarter of the 1800s, and stood about 30 feet back from the house.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2014|p=34}} The two buildings were likely connected into one larger house in the 1840s.{{sfnp|Lancaster|2014|p=34}} The McCann House has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.{{sfnp|DeCamp|1982|p=13}}

• List of Kentucky slave traders
• History of slavery in Kentucky
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fayette County, Kentucky
• Timeline of Lexington, Kentucky

{{notelist}}

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{{refbegin|indent=yes}}

• {{cite book |last=Astor |year=2012 |title=Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri |series=Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War |first=Aaron |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |location=Baton Rouge |isbn=9780807142998 |lccn=2011039199 |oclc=804853731 |id={{Project MUSE|16540|type=book }}}}
• {{Cite book |last=Coleman |first=J. Winston |author-link=J. Winston Coleman |url=http://archive.org/details/slaverytimesinke00cole |title=Slavery Times in Kentucky |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |year=1940 |location=Chapel Hill, N.C. |lccn=40031785

|oclc=387590 |language=en-us }}

• {{cite web |last=DeCamp |date=April 1982 |first=Richard |others=Lexington–Fayette County Historic Commission |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/3e80d604-3b5b-4762-9b7f-343e32812ee4 |title=McCann House |website=National Register of Historic Places |publisher=U.S. National Park Service }}
• {{cite book |title=A History of the Hemp Industry in Kentucky |last=Hopkins |first=James F. |year=2014 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |location=Lexington |isbn=9780813148618 |id={{Project MUSE|37023|type=book}} |orig-year=1951 }}
• {{cite book |last=Lancaster |year=2014 |first=Clay |title=Antebellum Architecture of Kentucky |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |isbn=9780813161686 |location=Lexington |lccn=91002419 |oclc=900464435 |id={{Project MUSE|41020|type=book}} |orig-year=1991}}
• {{Cite book |last=Ranck |year=1872 |first=George Washington |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002183856 |title=History of Lexington, Kentucky: its early annals and recent progress, including biographical sketches and personal reminiscences of the pioneer settlers, notices of prominent citizens, etc., etc. |series=Heritage classic |location=Cincinnati |publisher=Robert Clarke |lccn=rc01002646 |ol=13797766W}} {{free access}}
• {{cite book |last=Staples |first=Charles R. |title=The History of Pioneer Lexington, 1779–1806 |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2014 |isbn=9780813159614 |location=Lexington |oclc=605162963 |id={{Project MUSE|37694|type=book}} |orig-date=1939}}
• {{cite book| last=Stowe |first= Harriet Beecher |author-link=Harriet Beecher Stowe |year=1853 | title=A key to Uncle Tom's cabin: presenting the original facts and documents upon which the story is founded | publisher=J. P. Jewett & Co. | location=Boston | ol=21879838M | lccn=02004230 | oclc=317690900}} {{free access}}
• {{cite book |last=Townsend |first=William H. |title=Lincoln and the Bluegrass: Slavery and Civil War in Kentucky |publisher=The University Press of Kentucky |year=2014 |isbn=9780813148755 |location=Lexington |lccn=55010383 |oclc=18982234 |id={{Project MUSE|37140|type=book}} |orig-year=1955}}
• {{Cite journal |last=Turner |first=Wallace B. |date=1960 |title=Kentucky Slavery in the Last Ante Bellum Decade |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23374678 |journal=The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society |volume=58 |issue=4 |pages=291–307 |jstor=23374678 |issn=0023-0243}}

{{refend}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, Neal}}

Category:1800 births

Category:1866 deaths

Category:19th-century American slave traders

Category:History of slavery in Kentucky

Category:Businesspeople from Lexington, Kentucky

Category:Politicians from Lexington, Kentucky

Category:19th-century members of the Kentucky General Assembly

Category:Kentucky Whigs