Sacramento County
Biographies
JOHN NEAL
JOHN NEAL, hop-raiser, Sutter
Township, was born in Kennebee County, Maine,
February 13, 1813, a son of Nathaniel and Betsy (Baker) Neal, the former a
native of New Hampshire, and the latter of Maine.
Both the parents died in Maine,
at the age of eighty years. As a remarkable coincidence, both the parents
of Mrs. Neal also died at the age of eighty years, and all four of these
parents mentioned died within five years of each other. Mr. Neal, our
subject, was born in the township of New
Portland, "away up the woods," where he
passed his boyhood. When he was fifteen years of age, the family removed
to New Sharon. Before he was twenty-one he went upon the Penobscot River
and became engaged in building mills and bridges, and a "river driving,"
that is, driving logs from the camp down to the boom above Oldtown,
where a crew of 100 to 300 men were employed in separating the logs and forming
them into rafts. Every owner of logs had to pay a
certain amount for "boomage." After an
engagement in this line for six years, in somewhat different capacities, he, in
1838, came to Illinois; and he was a resident of Dixon, that State, when
General William Henry Harrison was elected President; but Mr. Neal was at that
time a Democrat, and does not boast now, as some do, of voting for that General
when he did not; he, however, did vote for his grandson for his present
position as President of the United States. Mr. Neal took Government land
in Lee County, Illinois, and followed agricultural pursuits thereon until 1848;
then he resided four years in Rock County, Wisconsin; then selling out, he left
there May 3, 1852, for California, starting with oxen, thinking they would
stand the journey better, but, finding a party who desired a greater speed of
travel, he exchanged his oxen for horses. They took the old Fort Hall
route, and after a quiet and comfortable journey arrived in this county
October 8. Mr. Neal claims to
be a Yankee; at any rate he has the Yankee genius—the ability to turn his hand
to almost anything. He has made wagons, followed farming and hop-raising,
etc., and like every body else has had his "ups and downs." He
is a genial, whole-souled gentleman, and,
notwithstanding his advanced age, is still in good health and active, able to
make a full hand at manual labor. He has made his home on his present
place ever since he purchased it in 1854; it is now all in hops. He had at
one time eighty acres in this crop, and one year he raised eighty tons of hops,
about twelve or fourteen years ago, and that was especially remarkable for that
time. In his political views he has been a Republican ever since
1852. He married his present wife in 1843. They have had two
children; Charles, who died in his fourth year, and Edwin, who died in infancy. They
have also two adopted children,—William and Benjamin.
Transcribed 9-3-07
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 623-624.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.