Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 61

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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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, III., 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 580 square miles, and its population (1890), 22,590. The Big Muddy River, with one or two tributa- ries, 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 hecame an apprentice and, passing through various grades of the me-

chanical department, in May, 1877, became General Superintendent of the Road, and, in 1885, General 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 had 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 has since given his attention almost solely to architecture, the result being seen in some of Chicago's most noteworthy buildings.

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 climate, added to the character of the soil, is especially adapted to fruit-growing and stock-raising. The census of 1890 gave the population of the county as 14,810, and of Jerseyville, 3,207. 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.

JERSEYVILLE, a city and county-seat of Jersey County, the point of junction of the Chi- cago & Alton and the St. Louis, Chicago & St. Paul Railways, 19 miles north of Alton and 45 miles north of St. Louis, Mo. The city is in an agricultural district, but has manufactories of flour, plows, carriages and wagons, and watch- making machinery. It contains a handsome court house, completed in 1894, nine churches, a graded public school, besides a separate school for colored children, a convent, railway car- shops, electric lights, artesian wells, and three papers-two weekly and one daily. Population (1880), 2,894; (1890), 3,207.

JO DAVIESS COUNTY, situated in the north- west corner of the State; has an area of 663 square miles; population (1890), 25,101. It was first explored by Le Seuer, who reported the discovery of lead in 1700. Another Frenchman (Bouthil- lier) was the first permanent white settler, locat- ing on the site of the present city of Galena in 1820. About the same time came several Ameri- can families; a trading post was established, and the hamlet was known as Fredericks' Point, so called after one of the pioneers. In 1823 the Government reserved from settlement a tract 10 miles square along the Mississippi, with a view of controlling the mining interest. In 1823 mining privileges were granted upon a royalty of one- sixth, and the first smelting furnace was erected the same year. Immigration increased rapidly

and, inside of three years, the "Point" had a popu- lation of 150, and a post-office was established with a fortnightly mail to and from Vandalia, then the State capital. In 1827 county organiza- tion was effected, the county being named in honor of Gen. Joseph Hamilton Daviess, who was killed in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The original tract, however, has been subdivided until it now constitutes nine counties. The settlers took an active part in both the Winnebago and Black Hawk Wars. In 1846-47 the mineral lands were placed on the market by the Government, and quickly taken by corporations and individuals. The scenery is varied, and the soil (particularly in the east) well suited to the cultivation of grain. The county is well wooded and well watered, and thoroughly drained by the Fever and Apple Rivers. The name Galena was given to the county-seat (originally, as has been said, Fredericks' Point) by Lieutenant Thomas, Gov- ernment Surveyor, in 1827, in which year it was platted. Its general appearance is picturesque. Its early growth was extraordinary, but later (particularly after the growth of Chicago) it received a set-back. In 1841 it claimed 2,000 population and was incorporated; in 1870 it had about 7,000 population, and, in 1890, 5,635. The names of Grant, Rawlins and E. B. Washburne are associated with its history. Other important towns in the county are Warren (population 1,172), East Dubuque (1,069) and Elizabeth (495).

JOHNSON, Caleb C., lawyer and legislator, was born in Whiteside County, Ill., May 23, 1844, educated in the common schools and at the Military Academy at Fulton, Ill. ; served during the Civil War in the Sixty-ninth and One Hun- dred and Fortieth Regiments Illinois Volunteers; in 1877 was admitted to the bar and, two years later, began practice. He has served upon the Board of Township Supervisors of Whiteside County; in 1884 was elected to the House of Representatives of the Thirty-fourth General Assembly, was re-elected in 1886, and again in 1896. He also held the position of Deputy Col- lector of Internal Revenue for his District during the first Cleveland administration, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention of 1888.

. JOHNSON, (Rev.) Herrick, clergyman and educator, was born near Fonda, N. Y., Sept. 21, 1832; graduated at Hamilton College, 1857, and at Auburn Theological Seminary, 1860; held Pres- byterian pastorates in Troy, Pittsburg and Phila- delphia; in 1874 became Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology in Auburn Theological

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Seminary, and, in 1880, accepted a pastorate in Chicago, also becoming Lecturer on Sacred Rhet- oric in McCormick Theological Seminary. In 1883 he resigned his pastorate, devoting his atten- tion thereafter to the duties of his professorship. He was Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly at Springfield, in 1882, and has served as President, for many years, of the Presbyterian Church Board of Aid for Colleges, and of the Board of Trustees of Lake Forest University. Besides many periodical articles, he has published several volumes on religious subjects.

JOHNSON, Hosmer A., M.D., LL.D., physi- cian, was born near Buffalo, N. Y., Oct. 6, 1822; at twelve removed to a farm in Lapeer County, Mich. In spite of limited school privileges, at eighteen he secured a teachers' certificate, and, by teaching in the winter and attending an academy in the summer, prepared for college, entering the University of Michigan in 1846 and graduating in 1849. In 1850 he became a student of medicine at Rush Medical College in Chicago, graduating in 1852, and the same year becoming Secretary of the Cook County Medical Society, and, the year following, associate editor of "The Illinois Medical and Surgical Journal." For three years he was a member of the faculty of Rush, But, in 1858, resigned to become one of the founders of a new medical school, which has now become a part of Northwestern University. During the Civil War, Dr. Johnson was Chair- man of the State Board of Medical Examiners; later serving upon the Board of Health of Chi- cago, and upon the National Board of Health. He was also attending physician of Cook County Hospital and consulting physician of the Chicago Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary. At the time of the great fire of 1871, he was one of the Direct- ors of the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. His connections with local, State and National Soci- eties and organizations (medical, scientific, social and otherwise) were very numerous. He trav- eled extensively, both in this country and in Europe, during his visits to the latter devoting much time to the study of foreign sanitary con- ditions, and making further attainments in medi- cine and surgery. In 1883 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Northwestern Uni- versity. During his later years, Dr. Johnson was engaged almost wholly in consultations. Died, Feb. 26, 1891.

JOHNSON COUNTY, lies in the southern por- tion of the State, and is one of the smallest counties, having an area of only 340 square miles, and a population (1890) of 15,013-named for Col.

Richard M. Johnson. Its organization dates back to 1812. A dividing ridge (forming a sort of water shed) extends from east to west, the waters of the Cache and Bay Rivers running south, and those of the Big Muddy and Saline toward the north. A minor coal seam of variable thickness (perhaps a spur from the regular coal- measures) crops out here and there. Sandstone and limestone are abundant, and, under cliffs along the bluffs, saltpeter has been obtained in small quantities. Weak copperas springs are numerous. The soil is rich, the principal crops being wheat, corn and tobacco. Cotton is raised for home consumption and fruit-culture receives some attention, Vienna is the county-seat, with a population, in 1890, of 828.

JOHNSTON, Noah, pioneer and banker, was born in Hardy County, Va., Dec. 20, 1799, and, at the age of 12 years, emigrated with his father to Woodford County, Ky. In 1824 he removed to Indiana, and, a few years later, to Jefferson County, Ill., where he began farming. He sub- sequently engaged in merchandising, but proving unfortunate, turned his attention to politics, serving first as County Commissioner and then as County Clerk. In 1838 he was elected to the State Senate for the counties of Hamilton and Jefferson, serving four years; was Enrolling and Engrossing Clerk of the Senate during the session of 1844-45, and, in 1846, elected Representative in the Fifteenth General Assembly. The following year he was made Paymaster in the United States Army, serving through the Mexican War; in 1852 served with Abraham Lincoln and Judge Hugh T. Dickey of Chicago, on a Commission appointed to investigate claims against the State for the construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, aud, in 1854, was appointed Clerk of the Supreme Court for the Third Division, being elected to the same position in 1861. Other posi- tions held by him included those of Deputy United States Marshal under the administration of Presi- dent Polk, Commissioner to superintend the con- struction of the Supreme Court Building at Mount Vernon, and Postmaster of that city. He was also elected Representative again in 1866. The later years of his life were spent as President of the Mount Vernon National Bank. Died, No- vember, 1891, in his 92d year.

JOLIET, the county-seat of Will County, situated in the Des Plaines River Valley, 36 miles southwest of Chicago, on the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and the intersecting point of five lines of railway. The city lies chiefly in the valley, though partly built on bluffs on either side of

ILLINOIS STATE PENITENTIARY, JOLIET.

Cell House.

Women's Prison.

ILLINOIS STATE PENITENTIARY, JOLIET.

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the river. A good quality of calcareous building stone underlies the entire region, and is exten- sively quarried. Gravel, cement and fire-clay are also easily obtained and in considerable quantities. Within twenty miles are productive coal mines. The Northern Illinois Penitentiary stands just outside the city limits on the north. Joliet is an important manufacturing center, the census of 1890 crediting the city with 201 estab- lishments (representing forty-three industries) with $9,078,727 capital; employing 3,037 hands; paying $1,844, 138 for wages and $8,624,285 for raw material, and turning out an annual product valued at $12,180,367. The leading industries are the manufacture of steel rails, foundry and machine shop products, engines, agricultural implements, bicycles, stoves and clocks, besides quarrying and stone-cutting. The canal supplies valuable water-power. The city boasts many handsome public buildings and private residences. Population (1880), 11,657; (1890), 23,264, (includ- ing suburbs), 34,473. The Fifty-fifth Congress made an appropriation for the erection of a Government building in Joliet for post-office purposes.

JOLIET, AURORA & NORTHERN RAIL- WAY. (See Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway.)

JOLIET, Louis, a French explorer, born at Quebec, Canada, Sept. 21, 1645, educated at the Jesuits' College, and early engaged in the fur- trade. In 1669 he was sent to investigate the copper mines on Lake Superior, but his most important service began in 1673, when Frontenac commissioned him to explore. Starting from the missionary station of St. Ignace, with Father Marquette, he went up the Fox River within the present State of Wisconsin and down the Wis- consin to the Mississippi, which he descended as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. He was the first to discover that the Mississippi flows to the Gulf rather than to the Pacific. He returned to Green Bay via the Illinois River, and (as believed) the sites of the present cities of Joliet and Chicago. Although later appointed royal hydrographer and given the island of Anticosti, he never revisited the Mississippi. Some historians assert that this was largely due to the influential jeal- ousy of La Salle. Died, in Canada, in May, 1700.

JOLIET & BLUE ISLAND RAILWAY, con- stituting a part of and operated by the Calumet & Blue Island-a belt line, 21 miles in length, of standard gauge and laid with 60-1b. steel rails. The company provides terminal facilities at Joliet, although originally projected to merely run from that city to a connection with the Calumet &

Blue Island Railway. The capital stock author- ized and paid in is $100,000. The company's general offices are in Chicago.

JOLIET & NORTHERN INDIANA RAIL- ROAD, a road running from Lake, Ind., to Joliet, Ill., 45 miles (of which 29 miles are in Illinois), and leased in perpetuity, from Sept. 7, 1854 (the date of completion), to the Michigan Central Rail- road Company, which owns nearly all its stock. Its capital stock is $300,000, and its funded deht, $80,000. Other forms of indebtedness swell the total amount of capital invested (1895) to $1,- 143,201. Total earnings and income in Illinois in 1894, 889,017; total expenditures, $62,370. (See Michigan Central Railroad.)

JONES, Alfred M., politician and legislator, was born in New Hampshire, Feb. 5, 1837, brought to McHenry County, Ill., at 10 years of age, and, at 16, began life in the pineries and engaged in rafting on the Mississippi. Then, after two winters in school at Rockford, and a short season in teaching, he spent a year in the book and jewelry business at Warren, Jo Daviess County. The following year (1858) he made a trip to Pike's Peak, but meeting disappointment in his expec- tations in regard to mining, returned almost immediately. The next few years were spent in various occupations, including law and real estate business, until 1872, when he was elected to the Twenty-eighth General Assembly, and re-elected two years later. Other positions successively held by him were those of Commis- sioner of the Joliet Penitentiary, Collector of Internal Revenue for the Sterling District, and United States Marshal for the Northern District of Illinois. He was, for fourteen years, a member of the Republican State Central Committee, dur- ing twelve years of that period being its chair- man. Since 1885, Mr. Jones has been manager of the Bethesda Mineral Springs at Waukesha, Wis., but has found time to make his mark in Wisconsin politics also.

JONES, John Rice, first English lawyer in Illi- nois, was born in Wales, Feb. 11, 1739; educated at Oxford in medicine and law, and, after prac- ticing the latter in London for a short time, came to America in 1784, spending two years in Phila- delphia, where he made the acquaintance of Dr. Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin; in 1786, having reached the Falls of the Ohio, he joined Col. George Rogers Clark's expedition against the Indians on the Wabaslı. This having partially failed through the discontent and desertion of the troops, he remained at Vincennes four years, part of the time as Commissary-

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General of the garrison there. In 1790 he went to Kaskaskia, but eleven years later returned to Vin- cennes, being commissioned the same year by Gov. William Henry Harrison, Attorney-General of Indiana Territory, and, in 1805, becoming a member of the first Legislative Council. He was Secretary of the convention at Vincennes, in December, 1802, which memorialized Congress to suspend, for ten years, the article in the Ordi- nance of 1787 forbidding slavery in the Northwest Territory. In 1808 he removed a second time to Kaskaskia, remaining two years, when he located within the present limits of the State of Missouri (then the Territory of Louisiana), residing suc- cessively at St. Genevieve, St. Louis and Potosi, at the latter place acquiring large interests in mineral lands. He became prominent in Mis- souri politics, served as a member of the Conven- tion which framed the first State Constitution, was a prominent candidate for United States Senator before the first Legislature, and finally elected by the same a Justice of the Supreme Court, dying in office at St. Louis, Feb. 1, 1824. He appears to have enjoyed an extensive practice among the early residents, as shown by the fact that, the year of his return to Kaskaskia, he paid taxes on more than 16,000 acres of land in Monroe County, to say nothing of his possessions about Vincennes and his subsequent acquisitions in Missouri. He also prepared the first revision of laws for Indiana Territory when Illinois com- posed a part of it .- Rice (Jones), son of the pre- ceding by a first marriage, was born in Wales, Sept. 28, 1781; came to America with his par- ents, and was educated at Transylvania University and the University of Pennsylvania, taking a medical degree at the latter, but later studying law at Litchfield, Conn., and locating at Kaskas- kia in 1806. Described as a young man of brilliant talents, he took a prominent part in politics and, at a special election held in September, 1808, was elected to the Indiana Territorial Legislature, by the party known as "Divisionists"-i. e., in favor of the division of the Territory-which proved successful in the organization of Illinois Territory the following year. Bitterness engendered in this contest led to a challenge from Shadrach Bond (afterwards first Governor of the State), which Jones accepted; but the affair was ami- cably adjusted on the field without an exchange of shots. One Dr. James Dunlap, who had been Bond's second, expressed dissatisfaction with the settlement; a bitter factional fight was main- tained between the friends of the respective parties, ending in the assassination of Jones, who

was shot by Dunlap on the street in Kaskaskia, Dec. 7, 1808-Jones dying in a few minutes, while Dunlap fled, ending his days in Texas .- Gen. John Rice (Jones), Jr., another son, was born at Kaskaskia, Jan. 8, 1792, served under Capt. Henry Dodge in the War of 1812, and, in 1831, went to Texas, where he bore a conspicuous part in securing the independence of that State from Mexico, dying there in 1845-the year of its annexation to the United States. - George Wallace (Jones), fourth son of John Rice Jones (1st), was born at Vincennes, Indiana Territory, April 12, 1804; graduated at Transylvania Uni- versity, in 1825; served as Clerk of the United States District Court in Missouri in 1826, and as Aid to Gen. Dodge in the Black Hawk War; in 1834 was elected Delegate in Congress from Michigan Territory (then including the present States of Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa), later serving two terms as Delegate from Iowa Terri- tory, and, on its admission as a State, being elected one of the first United States Senators and re- elected in 1852; in 1859, was appointed by Presi- dent Buchanan Minister to Bogota, Colombia, but recalled in 1861 on account of a letter to Jefferson Davis expressing sympathy with the cause of the South, and was imprisoned for two months in Fort Lafayette. In 1838 he was the sec- ond of Senator Cilley in the famous Cilley-Graves duel near Washington, which resulted in the death of the former. After his retirement from office, General Jones' residence was at Dubuque, Iowa, where he died, July 22, 1896, in the 93d year of his age.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 61

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388