JAMES NEILD – The Neild family came from the North of England. Thomas Neild, a native of Halifax, Yorkshire, England, a stone cutter by trade, now living in Jamestown, New York, was born on February 9, 1854, and came to America in 1882, locating first at Albion, New York, where he procured work in his trade. He later moved to HoVey, New York, and in 1893 came to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and entered the mill of the American Thread Company, working there for four years. After this he returned for a time to England, but later came back to America and settled in Jamestown, New York, where he has since been engaged in mill work. Soon after his arrival in this country he became an American citizen, joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and became an active member of the Methodist Church. Thomas Neild was married to Anna Rowlinson who, like himself, was of English birth; a native of Windhill, England, born March 9, 1850, and died in 1892. There were five children of the marriage:
- Frank Rowlinson, born in England.
- Sarah, born in England.
- James, of whom further.
- Clara.
- Florence.
Thomas Neild married a second time and there is one son, John, of the second marriage.
James Neild, son of Thomas Neild, was born in Albion, New York, March 3, 1884, educated in the schools of Holley, New York, came to Holyoke, Massachusetts, and went to work for the Farr Alpaca Company. When fifteen years of age he went to England and remained there four years in order to learn the trade of wool grading and sorting. After his return to America he worked in the mills of Jamestown, New York, and Utica, New York, but finally returned to the Farr Alpaca Mills in Holyoke, Massachusetts, where he has been active for eighteen years as a wool sorter. For the past seven years Mr. Neild has made his home in Greenfield, Massachusetts, where he has a farm of some ten acres. He is a member of the Greenfield Club; of the Republican Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons, a companion of the Greenfield Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons, and with his family attends the Second Congregational Church.
Mr. Neild married, June 6, 1905, Sadie Lucinda Smead, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, a daughter of Charles W. and Sarah E. (Scott) Smead. Charles W. Smead was a prosperous farmer and a dealer in, and well-known expert of live stock, who died at the age of seventy-five. He was born in Greenfield, Massachusetts, on June 6, 1841, a son of Warren and Abigail G. (Sage) Smead, and a descendent of William Smead, one of the original settlers of Deerfield, who went to that town from Dedham in 1652. Mrs. Neild is a Daughter of the American Revolution; also a member of the Colonial Daughters of America; and has a sister, Mrs. Harriet M. S. Couillard, of Greenfield, Massachusetts, two uncles, Dwight E. and C. Albert Smead, of Shelburne, and two nephews.