Biography of John B. Neal - Mercer Co. WV The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 542 JOHN B. NEAL, manager of the Matoaka Wholesale Gro- cery Company, not only has a fundamental knowledge of the grocery business itself, but also the grocery trade of a large section of Southern West Virginia. He is a very capable business man, also an active leader in the general wel- fare of Matoaka and has spent practically all his life in Mercer County. He was born near Wills on New River in that county March 13, 1865, son of William and Martha (Smith) Neal. His father died in 1911, at the age of eighty-one, and his mother in 1915, aged seventy-seven. William Neal was a native of Monroe County, West Virginia, and prior to the Civil war moved to Mercer County. He became a Confed- erate soldier and was stationed with the reserves at the bat- tle of Gettysburg. About 1870 he moved from Wills to Eock. His career was that of a farmer, arid he was a mem- ber of the Methodist Church, while his wife was a Bap- tist. She was a daughter of Ben Smith and a niece of Capt. William Smith, the founder of Princeton. William Neal and wife had five children: George, who for many years was a teacher in Mercer County and died in 1899; Newton, who lived on the old home place at Eock and died in 1913; Clementine, wife of William Smith, of Athens; and Henry, who lives at Montcalm in Mercer County. John B. Neal, oldest of the three living children, ac- quired his early education at Rock and later attended the Princeton High School. At the age of fourteen he was given his first term of school to teach, and every successive winter until he was twenty-one he taught, and usually at- tended school to advance his own education during the sum- mer. His earnings as a teacher he turned over to his fa- ther, and when he left home at the age of twenty-one his father gave him only eleven dollars to bridge over the gap leading to his first employment. He soon joined an engi- neer corps surveying and locating mines in Mercer, Mc- Dowell and Raleigh counties for the Flat Top Coal Corpora- tion, later the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company. In 1891 Mr. Neal opened a general stock of merchandise at Rock, and was in business there for nine years. Follow- ing that he became a traveling salesman for the Flat Top Grocery Company of Bluefield, and for thirteen years he represented this company in the territory of Mercer, Wyom- ing and Raleigh counties. When the Matoaka Wholesale Grocery Company was organized in the spring of 1921 he became its manager, a post of duty for which his long ex- perience made him especially well qualified. Mr. Neal is also vice president of the First National Bank of Matoaka, and is a director of the Princeton National Bank, having helped organize both institutions. He is a director of the Brand Shoe Company, a wholesale house at Roanoke, Vir- ginia, and is interested in a number of coal operations. In 1895 he married Miss Ida Bailey, daughter of Allen C. Bailey, of Rock. Their family consists of four living children: Bernard, an employe of the Matoaka Wholesale Grocery Company; Perry, a carpenter living at Rock; Ger- trude, attending the Concord State Normal at Athens; Ma- son, a schoolboy; while Howard died while serving in the United States Army before the World war. Mr. Neal has been a master of the Lodge of Masons at Rock, is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and is a democratic voter. Submitted by Valerie Crook **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ****************************************************************