EZRA S. NEFF
Is the third of the fourteen children of Jacob Neff and his wife Mary
Neff, nee Copenhaver, and was born near Abingdon, July 17, 1849. His
father, born in Wythe county, but raised in Smyth county, is a son of
Peter Neff, of Smyth county. His mother is a daughter of Christly
Copenhaver, of Smyth county, where he settled from Pennsylvania.
Jacob Neff served, during the war, in Capt. John Barr's artillery company,
stationed at Richmond, and was there at the time of the evacuation.
He had one son, Andrew M., in active service, Company F, 37th
Virginia regiment, which he entered at the age of sixteen years; twice
slightly wounded.
In Smyth county, Virginia, February 21, 1883, Ezra S. Neff married
Ellen Virginia Umbarger, who was born in that county, near Holston
Mills. They have two children, Mary Pauline and William Newton, and
have buried three sons: Joseph Andrew L., George Arthur, and Jacob
Anson. Mrs. Neff's father, Lafayette Umbarger of Smyth county, a
soldier of the late war, is a son of George Umbarger, who came to Smyth
from Wythe county. Her mother is Paulina, daughter of John Scott,
of Rye Valley, Smyth county.
Ezra S. Neff is a merchant at St. Clair Bottom. He was five or six
years postmaster, St. Clairs P. O., and registrar of the St. Clair district
for three years.
