Neal, H. A., Hon.

The following data is extracted from Biographical Sketches, Coles County, Illinois - Charleston Township.

Hon. H. A. Neal, attorney at law, Charleston; is a native of' New Hampshire; he was born in Tuftonborough, Carroll Co., Dec. 13, 1846; he was raised on a farm until he was ten years of age, and then his parents removed to Great Falls, N. H.; he attended the public schools of that city until 1863, when the family returned to the farm; in the fall of 1864, he entered the army as a member of Co. K, 18t N. H. Heavy Artillery, and served till the close of the war; on his return, he attended one term in the Academy at Effingham, N. H., and the following winter taught a country school; in the spring of 1866, he went to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and pursued a commercial course of study in Eastman's Business College, where he graduated in September following; he at once came West, and engaged in teaching in Coles Co.; the next year, he became Principal of the Grammar School in. Paris, and, in 1868, went to Watseka, Iroquois Co., Ill., where he had charge of the public schools for three years; the winters of 1871 and 1872, he spent in the law department of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, reading during vacations in the office of Wiley & Parker, in Charleston; he was admitted to the bar in June, 1873, and began practice in Charleston; in 1.875, he entered into partnership with Messrs. Wiley & Parker, the firm becoming Wiley. Parker & Neal; in 1876, Mr. Parker moved to St. Louis, since which time the firm has been Wiley & Neal. He was married June 17, 1873, to Miss Lizzie Jones, of Paris, Ill.; she died in October, 1874, leaving one child - Orra E. In 1876, Mr. Neal was elected on the Republican ticket to the State Legislature, and re-elected to the same office in the fall of 1878.

Source: Biographical Sketches, Coles County, Illinois - Charleston Township

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