Source: History of Oakland County, Michigan, By Thaddeus D. Seeley 1912

Neal, John

JOHN A. NEAL, the editor and proprietor of the Orion Review, was born in Ovid, Seneca County, N. Y., March .5, 1859. His father George W. B. Neal, born in the same county in 1822, is still a resident there and was a carpenter and ship builder. Both the grandfather and great grandfather of our subject bore the name of John. The former was born July 4, 1786, in Monmouth County, N. J. and the latter was a Marylander, and enlisted for three years in the Revolutionary War. The father of this soldier, Benjamin Neal, was born in the North of Ireland, where he was known as "'The Neal." He was of Scotch-Irish descent. The great grandmother of our subject was born in Morristown, N. J., in 1756. Her mother was a Bellow, a direct descendant of Capt. John Smith of the Jamestown Colony. The grandmother of our subject bore the maiden name of Saulter. and was born in 1790, near Bound Brook, N. J. Her father's name was Henry, and his wife was Charity Stout. He was a Revolutionary soldier. The gentleman whose name heads this sketch was reared near Sheldrake, in Seneca County, N. Y., until 1867, when his parents removed to Romulus, the same State. In 1874 he entered the State Normal School at Albany, N. Y., which was then in charge of the venerable Dr. Joseph Alden, who is well known as an author of various text-books. Here he spent two years and then taught school in Covert, N. Y., after which he read law with H. V. L. Jones, of Ovid. In the fall of 1878 he came to Michigan and taught two terms of school near Morenci, Lenawee County. He re»d medicine for a time with Dr. Baker of that town, and clerked in a drug store, and for awhile was connected with the Morenci Observer. In the fall of 1881 he came to Orion, and together with Joseph Patterson, now the publisher of the Grayling Democrat and Frank Sutton, the present publisher of the Marine City Reporter, founded the Orion Review. Mr. Sutton sold out his interest the following spring, and during the next winter Mr. Neal purchased Mr. Patterson's interest, and has since managed the paper as editor and sole proprietor. The Review is conducted as an independent paper,bright and spicy. During the past three years, Mr. Neal has been engaged somewhat in grain and produce business and also conducts a thriving real-estate and loan agency. November 12. 1888, Mr. Neal was admitted to practice before the Department of the Interior a Washington, and since that time he has devoted considerable time to the pension business. He has been village Assessor and Justice of the Peace and is a member of the Masonic order and the Knights of Pythias. The marriage of our subject took place, February 22, 1883. His wife bore the maiden name of Addie J. Baker, and was horn April 19, 1863, in Seneca, Lenawee County, this State. She is a daughter of Horace Baker. Her grandparents on both sides were early settlers in Lenawee County, her grandfather Sweeny being a member of the Michigan State Legislature in 1836. Her grandmother Sweeny's maiden name was Neal, and she was a daughter of the John Neal who was grandfather to our subject, Mrs. Neal's grandmother being a sister of Mr. Neal's father. One child only has crowned the union of Mr. and Mrs. Neal, a son, George IL, who was born January 30. 1884.