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Biography - FRANK T. NEFF

Frank Thomas Neff, cashier of the First National Bank of Marseilles, LaSalle county, is one of the representative citizens and business men of this section. Imbued with the spirit of progress and patriotism, he seeks to uphold every worthy or creditable movement for the advancement of his city and community, and has been unsparing of his time, means and influence toward this end.

Daniel Neff, the great-grandfather of the above, was a resident of Plattsburg, New York, where he died late in the eighteenth century His wife. Silence Neff, afterward married a Mr. Cook, and removed to Franklin county, Indiana, where she died August 20, 1828.

Ebenezer Neff, the grandfather, was born at Plattsburg. New York, August 4, 1790, and December 28, 1808, he was married to Susana Buck, in New York, and ten children were born to them. Susana (Buck) Neff died July 25, 1823. He then married Margaret Douglass, February 15, 1824, in Franklin county, Indiana. To this union eight children were born. Ebenezer Neff came to Mission township. LaSalle county, Illinois, in May, 1835, at which place they resided until their death. He departed this life May 31, 1867, and his wife, Margaret, died December 9, 1871.

Daniel Buck Neff was the second child of Ebenezer and Susana (Buck) Neff, and his birth occurred in Franklin county, Indiana, May 29, 1811. In 1836 he removed to LaSalle county, Illinois, and a short time thereafter took up his residence near Newark, Kendall county, this state, where he continued to reside, carrying on a farm, until his death, January 26, 1865. The wife and mother, whose maiden name was Maria Thomas, was born in Kentucky November 22, 1814. She was married to Mr. Neff in Indiana, in the year 1832, and at the time of her death, July 21, 1880, resided in Newark, Kendall county, Illinois.

Frank T. Neff was born on the farm at the old home of the family, in Kendall county, Illinois, November 24, 1854, and was the youngest of the five children born to Daniel and Maria Neff. He obtained his elementary education in the district schools, later was a student in the public schools of Newark, Illinois, and pursued the higher branches of learning for three years at Fowler Institute. Having completed this course of mental training, he was engaged in the mercantile business for a time at Newark, Illinois, and during the years 1874 and 1875 was a student of the Chicago College of Pharmacy, afterward embarking in the drug business in Rantoul, Champaign county, Illinois, in which he was engaged until February, 1877, when he removed to Marseilles, continuing in the drug business until in October, 1883. On January 8, 1884, he was elected a director and cashier of the First National Bank of this place, - a position which he has most creditably filled for fifteen years. He is one of the largest stockholders in this flourishing institution, which ranks high among the leading banks of the county and state, and no small credit is due him for the wise and efficient management of its finances.

The exceptional ability of Mr. Neff as a careful financier has been recognized by those competent of judging his merits in this particular. He was city treasurer of Marseilles for several years, and is now serving as township treasurer of schools, and holds many other offices of trust. Politically he is a staunch Republican. In the Masonic fraternity he has attained the Knight Templar degree, and is identified with Marseilles Lodge, No. 417, A. F. & A. M., Shabbona Chapter, No. 37, R. A. M., of Ottawa, and Ottawa Commandery, No. 10, K. T., of Ottawa, Illinois.

He was married to Corintha Brundage, at Marseilles, February 19, 1879, she being the daughter of the late Milton Brundage, of Marseilles. Her mother, Ann E., is now the wife of G. E. Wheeler, residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Extracted by Norma Hass from Biographical and Genealogical Record of LaSalle County, Illinois published in 1900, volume 1, pages 92-94.


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