Neal Herman Tracy was born to John and Jessie Tracy in June of 1896. John and Jessie Tracy were pioneer settlers in Barnes County, the off-spring of two of the very first settlers, Michael Tracy and Alonzo Batchelder, Civil War Veterans.
Neal Tracy was named after two family friends, Major Neal Black and Herman Winterer, both prominent citizens of Barnes County.
A prominent athlete in grade school, high school and at the Valley City Normal School, Neal won letters in track, football and basketball.
At the entry of the United States in World War One, Neal entered the first Regional Officers Training School at Fort Snelling and was graduated in August of 1917. In December, he married Helen L. Herred of Washburn, North Dakota.
He served as an officer with a colored battalion at Camp Dodge, Iowa and then was sent overseas to France in 1918. He took part in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and following the end of the war, his battalion was a part of the restoration forces in France.
Returning from the army, he worked for the First National Bank, where his father was the president. In World War 2 he was a group leader in a bomb loading plant in Nebraska. Following his wartime position, he spent thirteen years as Fieldman for the Greater North Dakota Association. Following two strokes, he could no longer travel and during his semi-retirement he acted as the Barnes County Veterans Service Officer until a few months before his death in August of 1972.
Helen Herred taught in Washburn, North Dakota in the late 20's and from 1932 until retirement in 1972 was head librarian at the Valley City Public Library. During those years she served two terms as the president of the North Dakota Library Association, president of the local P.E.O. Chapter and was prominent in the American Legion Auxiliary and her church groups.
Two children were born to this union, one dying at birth. The surviving son, Dr. Neal Herred Tracy, lives in Chapel Hill,-North Carolina and is Associate Dean of the School of Education, University of North Carolina.
Mrs. Helen Tracy lives in Valley City in one of the stately old homes built just before the turn of the century.
Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 252