Page 9 - Robeson Living Summer 2019

descendants of the Lost Colony that amalgamated with the Cro- made and abandoned the nest, when he, the bluebird, moved
atans when Governor John White failed to return with his ship of in and took charge. I don’t know when George III died, but I
supplies 1589, ***Moonshine is illicitly distilled liquor. know when that stump fell; will never forget where it stood nor
the day, which now seems a thousand years gone, when I gazed
John Charles McNeill with wonder at those eggs.”
One of the most loved poets that wrote about the Lumber Riv-
er was John Charles McNeill. For the life of McNeill, I call on McNeill’s boyhood was not a solitary one. He became a leader
the 1991 writings of Richard Walser and the 1949 biographical among the neighborhood boys, “the sunburnt boys,” as he later
sketch by Agatha Boyd Adams printed by UNC Press. named them in his rhymes. He excelled in running, jumping,
rowing and swimming; he knew to the full the cool delight of
diving from “the springboard extended over the old deep swim-
ming hole and watching the mellow bugs on the surface scat-
tered by plunging naked bodies.” He built boats to use on the
river, one called “The Wild Irishman,” another “The Nereid.”
The river and the nearby swamps and woods were as truly his
home as the big farmhouse of his father, and to them he loved to
return in memory and in writing.

Fayetteville artist When John Charles was twelve, the family moved from Eller-
William Fields’ slie to another farm called Riverton on the other side of Wa-
gram. The community bordered the Lumber River. John Charles
portrait of McNeill started his formal schooling at Richmond Academy, later Spring
which hangs in Hill. In September 1894, John Charles McNeill entered Wake
Ellerslie Forest College as a freshman. Here his ability gained quick rec-
ognition; he won the Dixon medal for the best essay his first
year, and was appointed a tutor in English while still a freshman.
McNeill the youngest child of Captain Duncan and Euphenia
Livingston McNeill was born July 24, 1874 at his father’s farm The year after graduation, McNeill went to Mercer University
Ellerslie near Wagram., his father’s farm near Wagram in Rich- at Macon, Georgia, to teach English grammar and composition.
mond (later Scotland) County. John Charles had three sisters and The struggle to guide unwilling freshmen through the intricacies
a brother: Mary Catherine (Mrs. Jasper Lutterbok Memory), Ella of syntax must have been a dull and irksome task for a youthful
(Mrs. Daniel A. Watson), Wayne Leland, and Donna. poet with a head full
of dreams.
His father in addition to farming had been at various times an
editor, lecturer and writer. His mother was described as a woman Teaching did not however yield sufficient satisfaction for him to
of unusual beauty and of forceful character. The deep impression choose it as a profession. In 1900 he put out his shingle in Lum-
which she made on her poet son is evident in the many referenc- berton, over on the east bank of the Lumber River in Robeson
es to mothers and motherhood throughout his writing. County.

His father recalled that John Charles “from boyhood was del- The practice of law in a small North Carolina town did not of-
icate in his appetite. The table might be loaded with luxuries, fer great variety or much of a challenge; nor did John Charles
but he would choose only bread and milk, with butter and dain- McNeill give himself up to it with any notable industry. The
ty fruits, not taking meats.” Perhaps a doctor might discover in spell of the river extended to the very door of his office; the
this limited diet for a growing active boy one of the causes of mysterious and enticing smells of the woods floated among his
the tragic illness of his early manhood. In spite, however of his law books, and wild bird calls summoned him to explore. Cli-
dainty appetite and bookish tastes, he grew up strong and vigor- ents often found the office locked because he had gone fishing.
ous; “tall, slender, and beautiful in form and feature,” his father Naturally his practice did not flourish, but after his own fashion
described him. he was preserving his soul. Fishing expeditions meant also the
storing up of images and observations which could be used later
He had the freedom of the woods, the creeks and river, and the in poems.
endlessly fascinating swamps, with their great variety of bird
and insect and animal life. By his own witness, he was very early While in Lumberton, McNeill bought an interest in a newspa-
filled with that love of the outdoor world which never left him: per, the Argus, for which he wrote occasional editorials. When
requested to do so, he happily wrote a brief county history to be
“The first thing I remember of this world or of any world, for that included in the Dictionary of Robeson County (1900). In 1902
matter is the being lifted up by a big boy in a cadet uniform to he sold his interest in the paper and returned to his native coun-
get a peep of four blue eggs in a hollow. The big boy explained ty, Scotland, where he formed a law partnership with Angus Mc-
how they were bluebird eggs, how the bluebird’s noggin was not Lean in Laurinburg. During this period, he won an election to
hard enough nor his bill enough like a chisel for him to dig out the State Legislature as a representative from Scotland County,
a hole for himself, and how he waited until the sapsucker had and served a term in Raleigh. This political experience left little