John E. Neely

As printed in 1880

JOHN E. NEELY.

Among the many men who have contributed to the building up of the city of Pana, stands the name of the subject of this sketch. He is a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and was born March 19th, 1828. The Neely family, on the paternal side, are of Scotch and German ancestry, and on the material side Welsh. William Neeh, the father, was a farmer, and lived and died in Chester county, Penna. His death occurred in February, 1878. The mother died in 1852. There were eight children in the family, seven of whom have survived the parents. John E. is the eldest of the family. He received a good education in the common schools of his state. At the age of eighteen he commenced his apprenticeship to the carpenter trade, and worked at the business during his sojourn in his native county.

On the ist of September, 1856, he was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Millard, a native of the same county and state. In the spring of 1858, he came west and settled in Pana. At that time the town had been laid out but a few years, and it was yet in its infancy. Since Mr. Neely has been there he has seen it grow from a small railroad station to a city of four thousand inhabitants. From the low, irregular wooden buildings that then gave the town the appearance of a frontier village, it has passed to a city with regular.streets, flanked on each side with large and commodious brick business houses, and dotted over with elegant and costly private residences. He has perhaps constructed a greater number of houses, and contributed more to this new appearance of things, than any other man in Pana.

In 1860, he added the undertaking business to that of carpenter and builder, and while he contributed much by his work to the comfort of the living, he has also prepared and laid away many of Pana's citizens in the silent city of the dead.

In politics he was formerly an old line whig, and as such he cast his first presidential vote for Gen. Wiufield Scott in 1852. After the abandonment of the whig party, and the formation of the republican, he joined that organization, and is still au admirer of its principles.

His marriage has been blessed with five children, three of whom are living. Their names are Ida M., William B., and Anna E. Neely; Ella died at the age of fourteen years, and William Howard died in infancy.

His estimable wife is a member of the M. E. Church. Mr. Neely is much respected, and the circle of his friends are as wide as his acquaintance.

The subject of the following biographical sketch was born in Wayne county, Ohio, August ist, 1840. His parents, John and Sarah McQuigg, are natives of county Antrim, Ireland. They came to America in 1838, and settled in Wayne county, Ohio, where they still reside. There are nine children in the family, all of whom are living and have reached maturity. James C. is the third son and sixth in the family. He was raised upon his father's farm. His educational advantages in youth w-ere superior to many others reared under similar circumstances. He attended a school in his neighborhood known as the " People's College," which, while organized and supported under the Free School system of the State, in its scholarship was advanced to as high a standard as that of academies. This was owing to the liberality and advanced ideas of some of the leading citizens of that particular locality, who contributed from their private funds to support the school. At that school Mr. McQuigg made rapid advancement, and became proficient in the higher branches of mathematics, and also made considerable progress in Latin and other languages. In his nineteenth year he entered the Fredericksburg Academy, in Wayne county, where he remained until the breaking out of the war. The first call for troops to put down the rebellion was made and young Mc- Quigg was among the first to respond to the call. He entered as a private under the three months call, in the 4th Ohio Regt. Co. A, Col. Gibbon commanding. The regiment was ordered to West Virginia. They returned home, however, a short time before their time expired. On the 16th of August, 1861, he enlisted as a private for three years in Co. G, 16th Regt. Ohio Vols. He remained with his regiment and participated in every battle in which it was engaged, till May, 1863, when he was wounded in one of the assaults on the works before Vicksburg. The wound disabled him for further military duty, and he was honorably discharged from the service. He returned to his home in Ohio, and during the same year entered the Vermillion College, at Hayesville, Ohio, where he remained until the fall of 1865. He entered for the classical course, except Greek, substituting therefore the study of German. His failure to study Greek prevented his graduation. He then went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and entered the law department of the Michigan University, and graduated therefrom in the spring of 1867, with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. He returned home, and on the 8th of May, 1867, in the District Court of Columbus, he was admitted to the bar. He then came west to Illinois and located in Pana, where he formed a law partnership with A. C. Mc- Millan, which continued for six months, after which he resumed the practice alone up to the present. As a lawyer Jlr. McQuigg has been very successful in the practice, and ranks high among the best in Christian county. On the 8th of June, 1869, he was united in marriage to Miss Marian Patton, daughter of Wm. R. Patton. Her parentage is Scotch-Irish. She was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but has been a resident of Illinois since 1851. This union has been blessed by two children, a boy and girl, named Myron W., and Florence McQuigg, aged respectively ten and four years.

Mr. McQuigg is an active member of the republican party, although not a partisan, only so far as to exercise the right of suffrage, and in keeping prominent the principles of that political organization. In all local or county elections he takes an active part. In 1876 he was the candidate on the republican ticket for the office of State's Attorney, and although his party was in a hopeless minorit)' in the county, yet so vigorous was his campaign, and such was his popularity, that he was defeated by only eighty-three votes, while the balance of the republican ticket was beaten seven hundred and eighty-six votes. This fact testifies in the strongest manner possible his standing as a man and lawyer in the county. In his manners he is a pleasant and agreeable gentleman. His character as a citizen is above reproach.

The Hayward family on the paternal side is a very old one in the history of Massachusetts. They are the descendants of the Pilgrim fathers who fled from religious persecution in the old world to make their home in the new, where they could hold communion and worship their God according to the dictates of their own conscience. They landed in Massachusetts in the year 1838. John S. Hayward, the father, was born in Plymouth. In his younger years he was an accountant in one of the large business houses of Boston, where he gained the entire confidence of his employers, which, in after years, was of an incalculable advantage to him in a financial point of view, as it enabled him to purchase, upon long time, large stocks of goods of more than treble the value of all hi.s, then, limited wealth. This confidence thus reposed in him was never violated, and it assisted him in laying the foundation of his future wealth. In 1832 he came west, on a tour of observation. He returned east, and in. 1834 removed his family west, and settled in Hillsboro, Montgomery county, where he remained until his death, in May, 1869. He engaged in a merchandizing business until 1852, when he.sold out and gave his exclusive attention to real estate transactions, in which he had, prior to that time, been heavily engaged. In order to give the reader a proper idea of the extent of his real estate transactions, it is only necessary to mention that he was the owner at one time of 8.5,000 acres, and was perhaps at the time the largest landed proprietor in America.

In 1840 he married Harriet F. Comstock. She was a native of Hartford, Connecticut. She died in 1874. There were seven children by this marriage, two of whom have survived the parents, William E., and John A., the subject of this sketch. The former a prominent business man and capitalist of Pana.

Col. J. A. Hayward was born in Hillsboro, Montgomery county, Illinois, October 12th, 1848. In his youth he was an invalid, and therefore lost the opportunity of receiving such an education as his circumstances in life would permit. His entire schooling was received in Hillsboro Academy, and ended with his seventeenth year. This defect in his early training, and lost opportunities in youth has been, to a certain extent, remedied in his mature years by his habits of close observation, love of reading, and retentive memory. His mental endowments are naturally of a bright and high order, and his quick mind receives impressions with an aptitude and retentiveness that belongs to the higher grade of intellect. Although not enjoying the usual facilities for acquiring an education, his knowledge of men and things, and information of events, past and present, is superior to many who make far greater pretensions.

In 1867 he removed to Pana and engaged in the hardware trade, at which he continued with success until 1870, when he entered the brokerage business, and soon after engaged in private banking in connection with Henry X. Schuyler, Esq. The partnership continued until 1875, when he retired from the bank in order to give his attention to his farms and other business which had become large, and required careful personal supervision. He also took charge of the St. James' Hotel, a valuable business property belonging to him. We may add that under Col. Hay ward's judicious

EISrORY OF CHRIST I AN and vigorous management the "St. James" has gained an enviable reputation as a first-class hotel. An exterior and interior view of this splendid hastehy can be seen on another page of this work. Perhaps, however, that which has given Col. Hayward's name the widest notoriety is his connection with the show business — " Col. Hayward's Jlinstrels," " Col. Hayward's Circus and Show Combination " are well known in the amusement world. His connection with the show business commenced about 1871, and since that time he has catered with excellent taste to the amusement of the people of the West. His love fur the drama and desire to please the people of Pana, induced him to arrange and fit up a superb Opera House, and furnish it throughout with elegant furniture, and every convenience for the accommodation of the public, and also arranged the stage and made it of such proportions that the standard opera, dramas and spectacular plays could be produced here as well as upon the stages in metropolitan cities. An interior view of this elegant opera house can be seen on another page. In politics Col. Hayward is a stanch and reliable republican. His first presidential vote was cast for Gen. U. S. Grant, and all subsequent elections have found him true to his first impressions and teachings in the school of politics. He is fearless in the defen.se of his ideas, as was sufficiently attested in the election that followed the enfranchisement of the negro, under the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The conferring of the privilege of franchise, and the exercise of the right of suffrage by the n€gro, was exceedingly unpopular with a large majority of the citizens of Pana and vicinity, so much so, that an organized force was present at the polls to prevent it, but notwithstanding this force. Col. Hayward demanded that they should be allowed to vote, and should be protected in the exercise of their rights, and defied the mob to prevent the colored citizens of Pana from depositing their ballots in the box. In the face of the mob, and under his protection, the first ballot ever cast in Pana by a negro was safely deposited in the ballot box, and counted the same as any other American citizen. His bold stand for the right under such circumstances made him hosts of friends, and demonstrated his nerve and pluck, and love of fair play. In order that the republican party might have a more eff"active organization in this section of the State, he, in January, 1880, purchased the Argus, a democratic newspaper, and converted it into an exponent of republican principles. He fitted U]) the office at considerable expense, with new type, steam presses, material, and the modern improvements, and also introduced measures which infused into it a spirit of enterprise that rapidly brought it up, until now it is recognized as the ablest and most influential newspaper in this Congressional District.

In 1875 the organization of the Illinois National Guards began. Col. Hayward was solicited to organize a company, which he did, and was elected captain. The State then organized the companies into regiments. Upon this organization Mr. Hayward was elected Colonel of the 5th Kegiment National Guards, a position he filled with honor to himself and credit to the State.

He is an honorable member of the ancient order of Free Masonry, and has acceptably filled various offices in that order. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F.

On the 3d of October, 1871, he was united in marriage to Miss Flora M. Rood. She was born in Springfield, Mass., but was a resident of Illinois since 1853; her father, E. D. Rood, is now a resident of Milwaukee, Wis. This marriage has been blessed with four children, three of whom are living, all girls, and exceedingly bright and beautiful children; their names are: Annie, Lora, and lone Hayward. In conclusion. Col. Hayward is a kind-hearted man, full of generous impulses, and ever ready to lend a helping hand, and help others over the rough and rugged places that best life's pathway. He is a genial, pleasant man of good address and ea.sy conversational powers, and bears about him the impress of a gentleman. In all his dealings he is honorable and honest. This is his reputation wherever known.

As printed in History of Christian County, Illinois (1880). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.