"Anton Neis, Another of Fort Smith's Old Pioneer Citizens, Passes Away"


Submitted by Deborah Musgrove


Elevator, Fort Smith, Ar
August 15, 1890

By an unfortunate oversight we failed last week to mention the death of Anton Neis, one of our oldest citizens, who passed away on the 2d of the present month, after a lingering illness. Mr. Neis was born in Bavaria, near Alsace, France, in 1818 making him 72 years of age at the time of his death. He came to Fort Smith in 1844, when the place was a mere village and frontier military post, and this has been his home since that time. In 1845 he married Miss Catherine Goetz*[her maiden name was Catherine Sengel), and together, by their industry, they built up quite a little fortune and reared a family of five children. Mrs. Neis died in 1876, and four of the five children survive their father. Mrs. B.L. E. Bonneville, Mrs. Charles Robinson, Anton and Albert Neis.