J. D. Cassell, proprietor Cassell’s Restaurant, Mattoon; was born in Montgomery Co., Penn., A. D. 1827; until he was 17 or 18 years of age, he passed his life upon the farm, deriving his education mostly from the common schools; in 1854, he came West to Jennings Co., Ind., where he remained one year; he then went to Crawfordsville, Ind., and was a student in Wabash College a short time; he next engaged in the merchant tailoring business there for two or three years; leaving Crawfordsville, he next located in South Bend, remaining one year; in the fall of 1859, he moved to New Carlisle, Ind., and engaged in teaching school; here he remained three and one-half years, most of the time engaged as a Professor in the Collegiate Institute; in the spring of 1863, he moved to Rolling Prairie, taught one year, and, in the fall of 1864, engaged in the grocery trade; in the spring of 1866, he was appointed and commissioned Postmaster, which position he held eight years; in the fall of 1874, he came to Mattoon and engaged in his present occupation. He was first married in 1858, to Elizabeth France, a native of Ohio; she died, in 1868. His second marriage occurred in 1369, to Nancy J. Bolster of New York State; she died in 1870; he has four children – Annie B., Lydia E., Mary C., Benjamin F.
