Dr. Boal comes of excellent parentage, being a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Crain) Boal. Natives of Dauphin County, Pa. The father was a merchant who, having removed to Cincinnati in 1811, conducted his business there until 1816, when he was called from time to eternity. His widow subsequently removed to Dayton, where she became the wife of John H. Williams, to whom she bore a daughter, Eliza J. This daughter became the wife of Judge Charles Sherman, of Cleveland, a brother of Gen. W. T. and Senator John Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Charles Sherman were the parents of two daughters, who became the wives of Don Cameron and Gen. Miles respectively.

The subject of this sketch is the eldest of his father’s children and was born in Dauphin County, Pa., November 15, 1806. He had one brother, William C., who died near St. Charles, Mo., in 1859, and two sisters—Mrs. Martha McEwen, now living in Montezuma, Ind., and Mrs. Mary Snyder, whose home is in Lacon, this State. His father dying when Robert was but a lad, the latter was taken in charge by an uncle, Robert Boal, for whom he had been named. The uncle was a resident of Cincinnati, where our subject received his rudimental education in the common schools and prosecuted his studies up to the junior year in the Cincinnati College. Desiring to make the profession of medicine his own, he then began its study with Dr. Wright, of Reading, Ohio. After a year and a half spent in the office of that gentleman, he returned to Cincinnati and entered that of Profs. Whitman & Cobb, both of whom filled chairs in the Ohio Medical College, at Cincinnati. He finally entered the institution from which he was graduated in 1828, immediately thereafter beginning practice at Reading, Ohio.

Dr. Boal remained in the village mentioned four years, after which he opened an office in Cincinnati, remaining there until 1836. For three or four years of the time he was Demonstrator of Anatomy in his Alma Mater. In 1836 he came to the Prairie State, locating at Lacon, where he continued to reside until 1865, at which time he changed his location to Peoria. In 1844 he was elected State Senator on the Whig ticket and for four years gave his attention to the interests of his constituency and the State at large. In 1854 he was sent to the House, re-elected in 1856, and at the close of the session, in 1857, was appointed by Gov. Bissell, Trustee of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Jacksonville. To that position he was reappointed by Richard Yates, in 1861, and the appointment was continued by Govs. Oglesby, Palmer and Beveridge, the entire term of his service being seventeen years, during the latter part of which he was President of the Board.

In 1862 Dr. Boal was appointed Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for the Fifth District, in which capacity he served until the close of the war. Since that time he has been ardently pursuing the duties pertaining to his profession, for which he is so well qualified and in which he takes great delight. He is President of the Peoria Medical Society and a member of the American Medical Association. In 1882 he was made President of the State Society, holding the office one term. He can justly claim to be one of the makers of the Republican party, to which he has adhered without a shadow of turning since its organization, he being a delegate to the Convention at Bloomington, in 1856, that formed the party in Illinois. When a member of the legislature he and the late Judge Stephen T. Logan voted persistently for Abraham Lincoln, until entreated by their favorite to cast their ballots for Trumbull and thus prevent the election of Matteson. They did as they were requested, and, thanks to the magnanimity of Lincoln, Trumbull was elected.

The marriage of Dr. Boal and Miss Christiana W. St. Clair was celebrated in 1831, and was followed by a happy wedded life of more than half a century. Mrs. Boal crossed the river of death in June, 1883, leaving to her dear ones that best of all legacies—a record of kindly deeds springing from a noble character. She was the mother of two sons and one daughter. The first-born, Charles T., now resides in Chicago, engaged in the wholesale stove and iron business, his establishment being known as the Charles T. Boal Stove Company. The younger son, James St. Clair, died in Chicago in 1888. He was a lawyer by profession, and for the last ten years of his life First Assistant United States Attorney in the Garden City. The daughter, Clara B., is now living in Lacon; she is the widow of Col. G. L. fort, who represented what was then the Eighth Congressional District of Illinois, for eight years, and who died January 13,1883.

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