Neal, Charles F.

NEAL

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 1/21/2009 at 15:58:33

NEAL, Charles F.
(the Wild Irishman) He was born in Madison Co., OH on 7 Jun 1856, and named for Gen. Fremont, then a candidate for the Presidency. While he was a small boy his father thought to better his condition by coming to the Far West, which he did. He settled in Benton Co., in this state, where he resided until the breaking-out of the war, when he enlisted, and the family returned to Ohio, where the subject resided and went to school until 11 years of age, when he left the "paternal mansion." Going to Carlyle, IL, he apprenticed himself for three years service to learn the printing trade. After this he read law in his father's office and then traveled as a journeyman printer for four years, always carrying a "card" with him, and being one of the youngest men ever admitted to the Typographical Union in America. He also ran on the river two seasons and traveled several months with a circus and menagerie through the Eastern States. He came to Iowa in 1871, and engaged in the newspaper business, although he had been in the business previous to this in Pennsylvania. The People's Friend, was the first Anti-Monopoly paper stated in Iowa, and Mr. Neal, then the youngest editor in the State, controlled it. Afterward, he started the Plow and Anvil at Marshalltown, in the interest of the National Greenback Party, and was for two years after, city editor of the Daily Times of that place, which position he resigned in order to do more for the political party he had identified himself with. He came to Jasper co., and started the Iowa National, 1 Feb 1878. The paper is edited with care and is a picture of typographical neatness. It is a twenty-eight-column paper and is published every Friday morning at the low rate of $1 per year, thus giving it a large and growing circulation in the town and adjoining counties. Mr. Neal was for several years the youngest editor in Iowa, and commenced the publication business at age 14. ~ "Newton Township Biographies," The History of Jasper County, Iowa, (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878)