Hon. John K. Deal, of Carroll, the present State Senator from the Forty-eighth District, was elected to his position in the fall of 1886. He is one of the few who came to Carroll when the town first started. When the county records were removed from the old county seat, Carrolton, in 1868, Mr. Deal was county superintendent of schools, and changed his location with the change of county seat. He was born in the town of Groveland, Livingston County, New York, in 1843. His father, George Deal, removed with his family to Allen County, Indiana, settling on a farm, where he passed the remainder of his days. Our subject served about two years in the army during the great Rebellion, enlisting in July, 1862, as a member of Company C, Eighty-eighth Indiana Infantry, and making an honorable record as a soldier. Soon after the close of his service he entered Fort Wayne College, and attended and taught school for several years. He came to Carroll County in the spring of 1867, and engaged in teaching the school at Carrollton. In the fall of that year, he was elected county superintendent of schools, and served in that capacity, very satisfactorily, two years. While holding that office he conducted the first teachers’ institute ever held in Carroll County. In the fall of 1868 he was elected clerk of the courts, and served four years. He then engaged in a general law, banking and real estate business, in the firm name of Griffith & Deal. After the fire in 1879 he sold out his banking interest, but continued in the real estate business. He was elected State Senator by the Republican party, and his popularity is evidenced by the fact that he ran 500 votes ahead of his ticket in Carroll County. Mr. Deal cast his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. He has always affiliated with the Republican party. He was married in Medina County, Ohio, to Miss Julia Gilley, a sister of William Gilley, of Carroll. They have two children—Lauren K. and Winniefred, both born in Carroll.

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