John R. Neal

John Randolph Neal was an American politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Tennessee's 3rd congressional district. He was born on November 26, 1836 near Clinton, Tennessee in Anderson County. He attended the common schools and Hiwasse College in Monroe County, Tennessee. He graduated from Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia in 1858. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1859, and commenced practice in Athens, Tennessee.

During the Civil War, he enlisted in the Confederate Army and was elected captain of a Cavalry troop, which afterward became a part of the Seventeenth Battalion, Tennessee Cavalry. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel of the battalion. He taught school for several years, settled at Rhea Springs, Tennessee, and continued the practice of law. He was a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1874. He served in the Tennessee Senate in 1878 and 1879, and served as its presiding officer in 1879.

He was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Congresses. He served from March 4, 1885 to March 3, 1889, but declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1888 on account of ill health. He died at Rhea Springs, Tennessee in Rhea County on March 16, 1889. He was interred in the W.F. Brown family cemetery in Post Oak Springs, Tennessee.