Springfield-Greene
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JESSE D. JAQUITH. The respect which should always be accorded the brave sons of the North who left their homes and the peaceful pursuits of civil life to give their services, and their lives if need be, to preserve the integrity of the American Union is due Jesse D. Jaquith. He proved his love and loyalty to the government on the long and tiresome marches in all kinds of situations, exposed to summer's withering heat and winter's freezing cold, on the lonely picket line a target for the unseen foe, on the tented field and amid the flame and smoke of battle, where the rattle of the musketry mingled with the terrible concussion of bursting shells and the diapason of the cannons' roar made up the sublime but awful chorus of death.
Mr. Jaquith was born January 8, 1845, near Paris, Edgar county, Illinois. He is a son of Jesse W. Jaquith, a native of New Hampshire, where he spent his earlier years. He studied pharmacy, and having cast his lot with the people of the Middle West, became owner and operator of a drug store at Urbana, Illinois, and he was the first postmaster of that town. Active and influential in public affairs, he was elected a judge of the county court of Champaign county, Illinois. He received a good education in his native state, there learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed for a number of years, also engaged in farming in New Hampshire. It was in 1839 that he removed to Edgar county, Illinois, among the early pioneers, and there he continued his trade for some time before locating in Champaign county and turning his attention to the drug business. Finally leaving Urbana he came to Holden, Missouri, where he engaged in the shoe business. There he spent the rest of his life, dying in 1881 at the age of seventy years, and was buried at Holden. Politically he was a Democrat. He belonged to the Masonic Order and to the Methodist Episcopal church. His wife Catherine A. Wilson was a native of Kentucky and a daughter of John and Maggie (Buckner) Wilson. To this union the following children were born: Lottie, now deceased, was the wife of John Allen, a farmer; Jesse D., of this sketch; John located in San Francisco and engaged in the machine business; Richard, now deceased, was a shoemaker by trade; Mate (Matilda) married John Cass, a commercial traveler, and they live at Holden, Missouri. Willard Jaquith, grandfather of these children, was born in New Hampshire, from which state he emigrated to Detroit, Michigan, in an early day. He was a farmer in his earlier life.
Jesse. D. Jaquith grew to manhood in Illinois and received his education in the public schools of Urbana, leaving his text books at the age of seventeen to enlist in the Federal army, in 1862, in Company G, Seventy-sixth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, at Kankakee. He saw much hard service and took part in numerous battles and skirmishes, including the great siege of Vicksburg and the many engagements incident thereto, also the battles of Jackson and Mobile, and although he was in many close places he was never wounded, neither had he occasion to answer to sick call. For meritorious conduct he was promoted from time to time until he became quartermaster sergeant, and was mustered out as such in July, 1865, at Chicago. He was in the armies of Grant and Sherman. After the war he returned to Urbana, Illinois, and learned the trade of tinsmith, first working for J. M. Davies. Later he came to Warrensburg, Missouri, and worked with J. L. Bettis, finishing his apprenticeship there, then he worked as journeyman tinsmith at Warrensburg until 1870, in which year he returned to Urbana and continued at his trade until 1877, then went to Kansas City and secured employment with the Union Pacific Railroad, working in the company's shops at Armstrong, Kansas, just across the river from Kansas City, Missouri. He was a journeyman tinsmith. He resided at Wyandotte, Kansas, and remained with that road three years. When the towns of Kansas City, Kansas, Wyandotte and Armourdale were consolidated into Kansas City, Kansas, he was the first clerk of the board of education.
Mr. Jaquith came to Springfield on February 18, 1887, and took a position with the Kansas City, Ft. Scott & Memphis railroad as tinsmith foreman in their local shops, which are now known as the South Side Frisco shops, having come under the control of the Frisco System in 1900, and this position our subject held till 1915, his long retention in the same being evidence of his faithfulness and skill and his ability to handle men so as to obtain the best results. However, he was foreman tinsmith at the new shops on the North Side for three years. He has been with these roads continuously for a period of twenty-eight years.
Mr. Jaquith was a member of the city council of Springfield for four years. Before leaving Urbana, Illinois, he was a member of the board of education for two years and was also city clerk there for two years. As a public servant his record has been a most satisfactory and commendable one. Politically he has always been a stanch Democrat. He is a member of the Baptist church. Back in the seventies he was a member of the Knights of Pythias.
Mr. Jaquith was married in 1865, at Warrensburg, Missouri, to Rilla E. Dulin, who was born, reared, and educated in Illinois. To this union two children have been born, namely: Ira, who is a machinist by trade and employed at the new shops in Springfield, married Carrie Burton, and they have two sons and two daughters; Charles was for some time a soldier in the Seventeenth United States Infantry, regular army, saw service in the Philippines, where he was mustered
out.
[1297-1299]
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