Neal, Jay F.

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

Jay F. Neal, dealer in groceries and provisions, Charleston; was born in Tuftonborough, Carroll Co., N. H., June 24, 1835; he is a son of Nathaniel Neal, a farmer of that town; his early life was passed in farm labor among the granite hills, but at the age of 19 years he went to Great Falls, and engaged in teaching just across the river in New Berwick Me.; he continued teaching during a portion of the year for twelve years. He graduated at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary at Tilton, N. H., in 1859, and entered the Sophomore class of the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. At the end of a year, however, his health becoming impaired, and an opportunity presenting itself to engage in teaching in the South, he left college, and, going to Bourbon Co., Ky., taught in the Millersburg high school until 1861. He then came to Charleston and taught two years in the public schools, after which he engaged in clerking for Henry Weiss in the hardware business, and afterward as bookkeeper for the Charleston Woolen-Mill, engaging in his present business in 1870. He was married by the Rev. W. B. Anderson on the 25th of March, 1863, to Miss Sarah E. Blakeman, of Charleston Tp., a daughter of Even Blakeman, now of Oswego Co., N. Y. They have one child - Mary E.

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

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