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McNeill, John Sears, Barton, M.P.P. for Digby, Nova Scotia, was born at St. Mary’s Bay (now called Barton), in the county of Digby, N.S., on the 15th June, 1829. His parents were John McNeill and Freelove Sabean. His great grandfather, Neil McNeill, emigrated from the north of Ireland to New York, where he married a Miss Sears, an American lady, and engaged in mercantile business. After the close of the revolutionary war he and his family came, with other U. E. loyalists, and settled in Long Island, then in the county of Annapolis, now in the county of Digby. John Sears McNeill attended the public school in his native place, but only at intervals, where he learned the rudiments of reading, writing, arithmetic, and English grammar. He spent his youthful days on a farm, and had, when a mere lad, to work in the fields with the farm labourers and do his share of hard work. On his sixteenth birthday he gave up farming, and entered the store of George Bragg, of Digby, as a clerk, and in this situation he continued for three years, when he returned to Barton, and commenced business on his own account. His capital was very small, but he determined to succeed, and consequently worked hard to increase his means. After a few years, having succeeded remarkably well, he resolved to extend his operations, and in the fall of 1867 opened another store at Maitland, Yarmouth county, in connection with Cyrus Perry, to whom he sold out his share in the business a few years afterwards. In 1871, in connection with several other gentlemen, he engaged extensively in the tanning business, but this venture not proving a success, in a few years it was abandoned. In 1875, in company with some others, he engaged in the manufacture of shingles and lumber at Berwick and Factorydale, in the county of King, N.S., but this, from lack of personal oversight, proved unremunerative, and was given up. In the fall of 1878 he handed over his business at home to his eldest son, and since that time has devoted all his energies to public affairs. Mr. McNeill was appointed a justice of the peace in May, 1864, and a commissioner of schools in 1867. On the 17th January, 1873, he was made a member of the Board of Health. He was clerk and treasurer of Poor District No. 2, Weymouth, from its creation into a separate district in 1851 until 1865, and re-appointed in 1868, and still holds the position (1887); and he has also been county treasurer for the years 1881, 1883, and 1884. He took the temperance pledge in 1842, when he was only thirteen years of age, and became a member of the Total Abstinence Society. On the introduction of the order of the Sons of Temperance into Nova Scotia, he joined Union Division, No. 6, Digby, on the 30th January, 1848, and continued in this division several years, when he transferred his membership to General Inglis Division, on its institution at Barton, in March, 1859. He has held nearly all the offices in the gift of his division. In 1860 he was initiated into the Grand Division of Nova Scotia, at its session held at Yarmouth, in 1860, and ever since then has been a faithful member of the order. Mr. McNeill’s father was a staunch Conservative, and his son received his political training in that school of politics. During the election contests held in 1851 and 1855 he worked and voted with that party; but in 1859 he gave his vote to the Liberals. He was opposed to the confederation of the provinces, and disapproved of the manner in which Nova Scotia was forced into the union, contending that a vote of the people should have been taken before the compact was entered into. In 1867 he was urged to allow himself to be nominated as a candidate for the Nova Scotia legislature, but declined the honour. He, however, presented himself for parliamentary honours at the general election in June, 1882, and was elected to a seat in the legislature of his native province, and was again returned to the same house in 1886. Mr. McNeill was brought up in the Episcopal church, and adhered to that church until 1862, when he united with the Methodist church, and has remained in that communion ever since. In politics Mr. McNeill is a Liberal and a Repealer, but, above both, a lover of his country, and a gentleman who has done a good deal to foster its industries and improve the social condition of its people. He was married, first at Barton, on 25th December, 1852, to Ann Eliza, daughter of William Thomas. This estimable lady died 1st October, 1869. His second marriage was solemnised at Bloomfield, Digby county, 24th January, 1870, when he united with Alice Maria, second daughter of Edwin Jones. His family consists of two sons and two daughters living, all of whom are married, except the youngest son, who is attending college at Sackville, New Brunswick.