Mansfield Crow and Arthur Neill

This is a story about some real and ordinary people who lived over a hundred years ago. It has tragedy and mystery. About a man who committed a terrible crime and what became of him.

First a little background. I am a genealogist and I spend a lot of time in museums, libraries, cemeteries, and courthouses. Genealogy is not only about family trees but about the people who lived and died a long time ago. Sometimes you find a case that really grabs you and you can’t let go of it.

It is a great hobby: you get to make a lot of friends, sometimes you meet them. Many genealogists are amateurs and work as volunteers. Sometimes you make pen pals and you write to them occasionally and sometimes you get personally involved in some history.

Almost every county in the US has a website and it is kept by volunteers. Someone from California may want to know about his ancestor who lived in Monroe county. We check the local records and give them the information. There are many records. Birth records, Marriage records, death records, cemetery records, census records, land records, as well as county and family histories. There are county directories and newspaper indexes, school and college yearbooks. You would be surprised how much public information there is about a person.

You get to meet lots of interesting people and make lots of pen pals. Several times I have met people who decided to come here. One family from Minnesota came here and I gave them records and maps of where there ancestors lived and they took their children on a tour of the places. They went from Bloomfield to Worthington, and Ellettsville. They visited cemeteries out in the sticks and abandoned towns.

Sometimes you make a contact and sometimes you get to know them. You write several times and as time goes by you lose touch with them.

This is a story of one of my studies. I got an email from Celtic lady who was studying a man named Mansfield Crow. She was descended from Arthur Neill a man who he murdered and she wanted to find out as much as she could. We had much in common: she worked for the Army and was close to retirement, I worked for the navy and recently retired. We both had grandchildren and had exchanged photos. We corresponded frequently and then less and less and finally about once or twice a year. She from Kansas and worked in Germany and was looking forwarded to retirement. Mansfield was born in Kentucky and moved to Dresden Indiana which is no longer in existence. It was on the southeast part of Greene county and it was a small town with stores and a church. We believe that there was bad blood between the Neill and Crow families. Also we think that Neill had done Mansfield’s sister wrong. We do know that one Sunday morning in 1858 Mansfield shot Arthur Neill in front of the church and his wife and children. Mansfield was arrested and sentenced to life in prison. In the 1860 census he is in prison for murder.

Now things are starting to get bizarre. There was a general pardon after the war and Mansfield was included. I think that there was a shortage of men after the war and they decided that Mansfield was not a danger. After his release he moved back to Greene county and married a Mary Eddington. They had two children and then Mansfield disappeared. In the 1870 census Mansfield shows up in Sullivan county and he has a young wife Luzina Coles 18 years old. Mansfield was forty at the time but he must have been charming like many wild guys. I couldn’t find out anything else about them. I have a friend in Sullivan county and they are trying to find something but so far there has been nothing.

So it looks like Mansfield was going to settle down but it was not to be. In the 1880 census he is living in Coles county Illinois Illinois and he has a new 18 year old wife. Now this really looks suspicious.

Was he a serial killer and what happened to his second wife? That is what Celtic Lady and I are trying to find out. I contacted the librarian in Coles county and she was fascinated and she looked everywhere and there was no trace of them. Did he murder his wife and find another. Maybe he just died. He would have been over 60. I seems like he just disappeared. There are several of us looking into this mystery but we have never found anything else. That’s where it is today.

Mary is an interesting person. She married George Eddington and he died. She married a second time and was divorced. Then she married Mansfield and had two daughters Ida and Charolette. Then she married a farmer in Dubois county and he died. She moved back to Greene County and used the name Eddington and was buried with his name. She must have loved George all along.

The Neills moved to Sullivan County and changed the spelling of their name to Neal. I know some Neals from there but they are not related.

A year ago I sent Celtic lady a Christmas note and it was returned undeliverable. I hope she is ok. She was a good writer and I hope she put it together and submitted it to a historical society. It would be a shame to see all this go to waste. George Mckee

Last updated 22.10.2009