Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724

USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 61

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JACKSON COUNTY, organized in 1816, and named in honor of Andrew Jackson; area, 580 square miles; population (1910), 35,143. It lies in the southwest portion of the State, the Mis- sissippi River forming its principal western

boundary. The bottom lands along the river are wonderfully fertile, but liable to overflow. It is crossed by a range of hills regarded as a branch of the Ozark range. Toward the east the soil is warm, and well adapted to fruit-growing. One of the richest beds of bituminous coal in the State crops out at various points, varying in depth from a few inches to four or five hundred feet below the surface. Valuable timber and good building stone are found and there are numerous saline springs. Wheat, tobacco and fruit are principal crops. Early pioneers, with the date of their arrival, were as follows: 1814, W. Boon; 1815, Joseph Duncan (afterwards Governor); 1817, Oliver Cross, Mrs. William Kimmel, S. Lewis, E. Harrold, George Butcher and W. Eakin; 1818, the Bysleys, Mark Bradley, James Hughes and John Barron. Brownsville was the first county- seat and an important town, but owing to a dis- astrous fire in 1843, the government was removed to Murphysboro, where Dr. Logan (father of Gen. John A. Logan) donated a tract of land for county-buildings. John A. Logan was born here. The principal towns (with their respective popu- lation, as shown by the United States Census of 1890), were: Murphysboro, 3,880; Carbondale, 2,382; and Grand Tower, 634.

JACKSONVILLE, the county-seat of Morgan County, and an important railroad center; popu- lation (1890) about 13,000. The town was laid out in 1825, and named in honor of Gen. Andrew Jackson. The first court house was erected in 1826, and among early lawyers were Josiah Lam- born, John J. Hardin, Stephen A. Douglas, and later Richard Yates, afterwards the "War Gov- ernor" of Illinois. It is the seat of several im- portant State institutions, notably the Central Hospital for the Insane, and Institutions for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind- besides private educational institutions, including Illinois College, Illinois Conference Female Col- lege (Methodist), Jacksonville Female Academy, a Business College and others. The city has several banks, a large woolen mill, carriage fac- tories, brick yards, planing mills, and two news- paper establishments, each publishing daily and weekly editions. It justly ranks as one of the most attractive and interesting cities of the State, noted for the hospitality and intelligence of its citizens. Although immigrants from Kentucky and other Southern States predominated in its early settlement, the location there of Illinois College and the Jacksonville Female Academy, about 1830, brought to it many settlers of New England birth, so that it early came to be

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INSTITUTION FOR DEAF AND DUMB. JACKSONVILLE.

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Main Building and Girls' Cottage. INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND, JACKSONVILLE.

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regarded as more distinctively New England in the character of its population than any other town in Southern Illinois. Pop. (1910), 15,326.

JACKSONVILLE FEMALE ACADEMY, an institution for the education of young ladies, at Jacksonville, the oldest of its class in the State. The initial steps for its organization were taken in 1830, the year after the establishment of Illinois College. It may be said to have been an offshoot of the latter, these two constituting the originals of that remarkable group of educational and State Institutions which now exist in that city. Instruction began to be given in the Academy in May, 1833, under the principalship of Miss Sarah C. Crocker, and, in 1835, it was formally incorpo- rated by act of the Legislature, being the first educational institution to receive a charter from that body; though Illinois, McKendree and Shurtleff Colleges were incorporated at a later period of the same session. Among its founders. appear the names of Gov. Joseph Duncan, Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, Rev. Julian M. Sturtevant (for fifty years the President or a Professor of Illi- nois College), John P. Wilkinson, Rev. John M. Ellis, David B. Ayers and Dr. Ero Chandler, all of whom, except the last, were prominently identified with the early history of Illinois Col- lege. The list of the alumnæ embraces over five hundred names. On January 1, 1903, Jacksonville Female Academy was merged with Illinois College, and while retaining its buildings and grounds, it is now known as Academy Hall.

JACKSONVILLE, LOUISVILLE & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY. (See Jacksonville & St. Louis Rail- way. )

JACKSONVILLE, NORTHWESTERN & SOUTHEASTERN RAILROAD. (See Jackson- ville & St. Louis Railway.)

JACKSONVILLE & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY. Originally chartered as the Illinois Farmers' Rail- road, and constructed from Jacksonville to Waverly in 1870 ; later changed to the Jacksonville, Northwestern & Southeastern and track extended to Virden (31 miles); in 1879 passed into the hands of a new company under the title of the Jacksonville Southeastern, and was extended as follows: to Litchfield (1880), 23 miles; to Smith- boro (1882), 29 miles; to Centralia (1883), 29 miles -total, 112 miles. In 1887 a section between Centralia and Driver's (161/2 miles) was con- structed by the Jacksonville Southeastern, and operated under lease by the successor to that line, but, in 1893, was separated from it under the name of the Louisville & St. Louis Railway. By the use of five iniles of trackage on the Louis-

ville & Nashville Railroad, connection was obtained between Driver's and Mount Vernon. The same year (1887) the Jacksonville Southeast- ern obtained control of the Litchfield, Carrollton & Western Railroad, from Litchfield to Columbi- ana on the Illinois River, and the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis, embracing lines from Peoria to St. Louis, via Springfield and Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Southeastern was reorganized in 1890 under the name of the Jacksonville, Louisville & St. Louis Railway, and, in 1893, was placed in the hands of a receiver. The Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Divisions were subsequently separated from the Jacksonville line and placed in charge of a separate receiver. Foreclosure proceedings began in 1894 and, during 1896, the road was sold under foreclosure and reorganized under its pres- ent title. (See Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Rail- road of Illinois.) The capital stock of the Jacksonville & St. Louis Railway (June 30, 1897) was $1,500,000; funded debt, $2,300,000-total, $3,800,000.

JAMES, Colin D., clergyman, was born in Ran- dolph County, now in West Virginia, Jan. 15, 1808; died at Bonita, Kan., Jan. 30, 1888. He was the son of Rev. Dr. William B. James, a pioneer preacher in the Ohio Valley, who removed to Ohio in 1812, settling first in Jefferson County in that State, and later (1814) at Mansfield. Subse- quently the family took up its residence at Helt's Prairie in Vigo (now Vermilion) County, Ind. Before 1830 Colin D. James came to Illinois, and, in 1834, became a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, remaining in active ministerial work until 1871, after which he accepted a super- annuated relation. During his connection with the church in Illinois he served as station preacher or Presiding Elder at the following points: Rock Island (1834); Platteville (1836); Apple River (1837) ; Paris (1838, '42 and '43); Eugene (1839) ; Georgetown (1840); Shelbyville (1841); Grafton (1844 and '45); Sparta District (1845-47) ; Lebanon District (1848-49); Alton District (1850) ; Bloom- ington District (1851-52); and later at Jackson- ville, Winchester, Greenfield, Island Grove, Oldtown, Heyworth, Normal, Atlanta, McLean and Shirley. During 1861-62 he acted as agent for the Illinois Female College at Jacksonville, and, in 1871, for the erection of a Metho- dist church at Normal. He was twice married. His first wife (Eliza A. Plasters of Living- ston) died in 1849. The following year he mar- ried Amanda K. Casad, daughter of Dr. Anthony W. Casad. He removed from Normal to Evans- ton in 1876, and from the latter place to

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Kansas in 1879. Of his surviving children, Edmund J. is (1898) Professor in the University of Chicago; John N. is in charge of the mag- netic laboratory in the National Observatory at Washington, D. C .; Benjamin B. is Professor in the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minn., and George F. is instructor in the Cambridge Preparatory School of Chicago.

JAMES, Edmund Janes, was born, May 21, 1855, at Jacksonville, Morgan County, Ill., the fourth son of Rev. Colin Dew James of the Illi- nois Conference, grandson on his mother's side of Rev. Dr. Anthony Wayne Casad and great- grandson of Samuel Stites (all of whose sketches appear elsewhere in this volume); was educated in the Model Department of the Illinois State Normal School at Bloomington (Normal), from which he graduated in June, 1873, and entered the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill., in November of the same year. On May 1, 1874, he was appointed Recorder on the United States Lake Survey, where he continued during one season engaged in work on the lower part of Lake Ontario and the upper St. Lawrence. He entered Harvard College, Nov. 2, 1874, but went to Europe in August, 1875, entering the University of Halle, Oct. 16, 1875, where he graduated, August 4, 1877, with the degrees of A.M. and Ph. D. On his return to the United States he was elected Principal of the Public High School in Evanston, Ill., Jan. 1, 1878, but resigned in June, 1879, to accept a position in the Illinois State Normal School at Bloomington as Professor of Latin and Greek, and Principal of the High School Department in connection with the Model School. Resigning this position at Christmas time, 1882, he went to Europe for study ; accepted a position in the University of Pennsylvania as Professor of Public Administration, in Septem- ber, 1883, where he remained for over thirteen years. While here he was, for a time, Secretary of the Graduate Faculty and organized the in- struction in this Department. He was also Director of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, the first attempt to organize a college course in the field of commerce and industry. During this time he officiated as editor of "The Political Economy and Public Law Series" issued by the University of Pennsylvania. Resigning his position in the University of Pennsylvania on Feb. 1, 1896, he accepted that of Professor of Pub- lic Administration and Director of the University Extension Division in the University of Chicago, where he has since continued. Professor James has been identified with the progress of economic

studies in the United States since the early eighties. He was one of the organizers and one of the first Vice-Presidents of the American Economic Association. On Dec. 14, 1889, he founded the American Academy of Political and Social Science with headquarters at Philadelphia, became its first President, and has continued such to the present time. He was also, for some years, editor of its publications. The Academy has now become the largest Association in the world devoted to the cultivation of economic and social subjects. He was one of the originators of, and one of the most frequent contributors to, "Lalor's Cyclopædia of Political Science"; was also the pioneer in the movement to introduce into the United States the scheme of public instruction known as University Extension; was the first President of the American Society for the Exten- sion of University Teaching, under whose auspices the first effective extension work was done in this country, and has been Director of the Extension Division in the University of Chicago since Febru- ary, 1896. He has been especially identified with the development of higher commercial education in the United States. From his position as Director of the Wharton School of Finance and Economy he has affected the course of instruc- tion in this Department in a most marked way. He was invited by the American Bankers' Association, in the year 1892, to make a careful study of the subject of Commercial Education in Europe, and his report to this association on the Education of Business Men in Europe, republished by the University of Chicago in the year 1898, has become a standard authority on this subject. Owing largely to his efforts, departments similar to the Wharton School of Finance and Economy have been established under the title of College of Commerce, College of Commerce and Politics, and Collegiate Course in Commerce, in the Uni- versities of California and Chicago, and Columbia University. He has been identified with the progress of college education in general, espe- cially in its relation to secondary and elementary education, and was one of the early advocates of the establishment of departments of education in our colleges and universities, the policy of which is now adopted by nearly all the leading institu- tions. He was, for a time, State Examiner of High Schools in Illinois, and was founder of "The Illinois School Journal," long one of the most influential educational periodicals in the State, now changed in naine to "School and Home." He has been especially active in the establish- ment of public kindergartens in different cities,

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and has been repeatedly offered the headship of important institutions, among them being the University of Iowa, the University of Illinois, and the University of Cincinnati. He has served as Vice-President of the National Municipal League; of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Economic Association, and of the Board of Trus- tees of the Illinois State Historical Library ; is a member of the American Philosophical Society, of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, of the National Council of Education, and of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. He was a member of the Committee of Thirteen of the National Teachers' Association on college entrance requirements; is a member of various patriotic and historical societies, including the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of the Colonial Wars, the Holland and the Huguenot Society. He is the author of more than one hun- dred papers and monographs on various economic, educational, legal and administrative subjects. Professor James was married, August 22, 1879, to Anna Margarethe Lange, of Halle, Prussia, daughter of the Rev. Wilhelm Roderich Lange, and granddaughter of the famous Professor Ger- lach of the University of Halle.

JAMESON, John Alexander, lawyer and jur- ist, was born at Irasburgh, Vt., Jan. 25, 1824; graduated from the University of Vermont in 1846. After several years spent in teaching, he began the study of law, and graduated from the Dane Law School (of Harvard College) in 1853. Coming west the same year he located at Free- port, Ill., but removed to Chicago in 1856. In 1865 he was elected to the bench of the Superior Court of Chicago, remaining in office until 1883. During a portion of this period he acted as lec- turer in the Union College of Law at Chicago, and as editor of "The American Law Register." His literary labors were unceasing, his most notable work being entitled "Constitutional Con- ventions; their History, Power and Modes of Proceeding." He was also a fine classical scholar, speaking and reading German, French, Spanish and Italian, and was deeply interested in charitable and reformatory work. Died, sud- denly, in Chicago, June 16, 1890.

JARROT, Nicholas, early French settler of St. Clair County, was born in France, received a liberal education and, on account of the disturbed condition there in the latter part of the last cen- tury, left his native country about 1790. After spending some time at Baltimore and New Orleans, he arrived at Cahokia, Ill., in 1794, and

became a permanent settler there. He early be- came a Major of militia and engaged in trade with the Indians, frequently visiting Prairie du Chien, St. Anthony's Falls (now Minneapolis) and the Illinois River in his trading expeditions, and, on one or two occasions, incurring great risk of life from hostile savages. He acquired a large property, especially in lands, built mills and erected one of the earliest and finest brick houses in that part of the country. He also served as Justice of the Peace and Judge of the County Court of St. Clair County. Died, in 1823 .- Vital (Jarrot), son of the preceding, inherited a large landed fortune from his father, and was an enterprising and public-spirited citizen of St. Clair County during the last generation. He served as Representative from St. Clair County in the Eleventh, Twentieth, Twenty-first and Twenty-second General Assemblies, in the first being an associate of Abraham Lincoln and always his firm friend and admirer. At the organization of the Twenty-second General Assembly (1857), he received the support of the Republican members for Speaker of the House in opposition to Col. W. R. Morrison, who was elected. He sacrificed a large share of his prop- erty in a public-spirited effort to build up a rolling mill at East St. Louis, being reduced thereby from affluence to poverty. President Lincoln appointed him an Indian Agent, which took him to the Black Hills region, where he died, some years after, from toil and exposure, at the age of 73 years.

JASPER COUNTY, in the eastern part of Southern Illinois, having an area of 484 square miles, and a population (in 1910) of 18,157. It was organized in 1831 and named for Sergeant Jasper of Revolutionary fame. The county was placed un- der township organization in 1860. The first Board of County Commissioners consisted of B. Rey- nolds, W. Richards and George Mattingley. The Embarras River crosses the county. The general surface is level, although gently undulating in some portions. Manufacturing is carried on in a small way; but the people are principally inter- ested in agriculture, the chief products consisting of wheat, potatoes, sorghum, fruit and tobacco. Wool-growing is an important industry. Newton is the county-seat, with a population (in 1890) of 1,428.

JAYNE, (Dr.) Gershom, early physician, was born in Orange County, N. Y., October, 1791 ; served as Surgeon in the War of 1812, and came to Illinois in 1819, settling in Springfield in 1821; was one of the Commissioners appointed to construct the

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first State Penitentiary (1827), and one of the first Commissioners of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. His oldest daughter (Julia Maria) became the wife of Senator Trumbull. Dr. Jayne died at Springfield, in 1867 .- Dr. William (Jayne), son of the preceding, was born in Springfield, Ill., Oct. 8, 1826; educated by private tutors and at Illinois College, being a member of the class of 1847, later receiving the degree of A.M. He was one of the founders of the Phi Alpha Society while in that institution; graduated from the Medical Depart- ment of Missouri State University; in 1860 was elected State Senator for Sangamon County, and, the following year, was appointed by President Lincoln Governor of the Territory of Dakota, later serving as Delegate in Congress from that Territory. In 1869 he was appointed Pension „ Agent for Illinois, also served for four terms as Mayor of his native city, and is now Vice-Presi- dent of the First National Bank, Springfield.

JEFFERSON COUNTY, a south-central county, cut off from Edwards and White Counties in 1819, when it was separately organized, being named in honor of Thomas Jefferson. Its area is 466 square miles, and its population (1910), 29,111. The Big Muddy River, with one or two tributaries, flows through the county in a southerly direc- tion. Along the banks of streams a variety of hardwood timber is found. The railroad facilities are advantageous. The surface Is level and the soil rich, Cereals and fruit are easily produced. A fine bed of limestone (seven to fifteen feet thick) crosses the middle of the county. It has been quarried and found well adapted to building purposes. The county possesses an abundance of running water, much of which is slightly im- pregnated with salt. The upper coal measure underlies the entire county, but the seam is scarcely more than two feet thick at any point. The chief industry is agriculture, though lumber is manufactured to some extent. Mount Vernon, the county-seat, was incorporated asa city in 1872. Its population in 1890 was 3,233. It has several manufactories and is the seat of the Appellate Court for the Southern Judicial District of the State.

JEFFERY, Edward Turner, Railway President and Manager, born in Liverpool, Eng., April 6, 1843, his father being an engineer in the British navy; about 1850 came with his widowed mother to Wheeling, Va., and, in 1856, to Chicago, where he secured employment as office-boy in the machinery department of the Illinois Central Railroad. Here he finally became an apprentice and, passing through various grades of the me-

chanical department,in May, 1877, became General Superintendent of the Road, and, in 1885, Genera! Manager of the entire line. In 1889 he withdrew from the Illinois Central and, for several years past, has been President and General Manager of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, with head- quarters at Denver, Colo. Mr. Jeffery's career as a railway man has been one of the most conspicu- ous and successful in the history of American railroads.

JENKINS, Alexander M., Lieutenant-Governor (1834-36), came to Illinois in his youth and located in Jackson County, being for a time a resident of Brownsville, the first county-seat of Jackson County, where he was engaged in trade. Later he studied law and became eminent in his pro- fession in Southern Illinois. In 1830 Mr. Jenkins was elected Representative in the Seventh General Assembly, was re-elected in 1832, serving during his second term as Speaker of the House, and took part the latter year in the Black Hawk War as Captain of a company. In 1834 Mr. Jenkins was elected Lieutenant-Governor at the same time with Governor Duncan, though on an opposing ticket, but resigned, in 1836, to become President of the first Illinois Central Railroad Company, which was chartered that year. The charter of the road was surrendered in 1837, when the State liad in contemplation the policy of building a system of roads at its own cost, For a time he was Receiver of Public Moneys in the Land Office at Edwardsville, and, in 1847, was elected to the State Constitutional Convention of that year. Other positions held by him included that of Jus- tice of the Circuit Court for the Third Judicial Circuit, to which he was elected in 1859, and re-elected in 1861, but died in office, February 13, 1864. Mr. Jenkins was an uncle of Gen. John A. Logan, who read law with him after his return from the Mexican War.

JENNEY, William Le Baron, engineer and architect, born at Fairhaven, Mass., Sept. 25, 1832; was educated at Phillips Academy, An- dover, graduating in 1849; at 17 took a trip around the world, and, after a year spent in the Scientific Department of Harvard College, took a course in the Ecole Centrale des Artes et Manu- factures in Paris, graduating in 1856. He then served for a year as engineer on the Tehuantepec Railroad, and, in 1861, was made an Aid on the staff of General Grant, being transferred the next year to the staff of General Sherman, with whom he remained three years, participating in many of the most important battles of the war in the West. Later, he was engaged in the preparation

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of maps of General Sherman's campaigns, which were published in the "Memoirs" of the latter. In 1868 he located in Chicago, and afterward gave his attention almost solely to architecture, the result being seen in some of Chicago's most note- worthy buildings. Died June 15, 1907.

JERSEY COUNTY, situated in the western portion of the middle division of the State, bordering on the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. Originally a part of Greene County, it was sepa- rately organized in 1839, with an area of 360 square miles. There were a few settlers in the county as early as 1816-17. Jerseyville, the county-seat, was platted in 1834, a majority of the early resi- dents being natives of, or at least emigrants from, New Jersey. The mild clinate, added to the character of the soil, is especially adapted to fruit-growing and stock-raising. The census of 1900 gave the population of the county as 14,612 and of Jerseyville, 3,517. Grafton, near the junction of the Mississippi with the Illinois, had a population of 927. The last mentioned town is noted for its stone quarries, which employ a number of men. Pop. (1910), 13,954.

JERSEYVILLE, a city and county-seat of Jer- sey County, the point of junction of the Chicago & Alton and the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Railways, 19 miles north of Alton and 45 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. The city is in an agri. cultural district, but has manufactories of flour, plows, carriages and wagons, shoe factory and watch-making machinery. It contains a hand. some courthouse, completed in 1894, nine churches, a graded public school, besides a sep- arate school for colored children, a convent, library, telephone system, electric lights, artesian wells, and one paper, daily and weekly. Pop. (1900), 3,517; (1910), 4,113.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 61

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 724

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724