John N. Raley is a native of Belmont county, Ohio, and was born April 11, 1829; his parents were natives of Virginia. He was educated at the Mount Pleasant Seminary, of Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and lived upon a farm until he was twenty-two years old, then began clerking on a steamboat on the Illinois River, where he was engaged for two years. He was next employed in keeping books for grain merchants on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, in Illinois, and after a few years there moved to the State of Iowa and engaged in farming for two years. In 1857 he began the study of medicine under the direction of Dr. Schatz, of Elsah, Jersey county, Illinois, and graduated in 1861, at the Eclectic Schools of Cincinnati, Ohio. During 1860 and a part of 1861 he was associated with Dr. H. R. Emmons, late of this county, at Maysville, Arkansas, and was there when the war broke out.
After he finished his education he resumed practice in Bond county, Illinois, and in 1863 came to this county and settled at Salem, where he had an extensive practice. Early in 1864 he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Tenth Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry and served. in that capacity until the regiment was mustered out, June 30, 1865. He then resumed practice in this county, and settled in Jameson soon after it was started and has been favored with a large practice, not only in the town, but in that whole vicinity.
Dr. Raley was united in marriage, November 2, 1862, in Bond county, Illinois, to Miss M. E. Rex. She was born April 18, 1840, in Rutherford county, Tennessee.