The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-06-19
FIGHTING PARSON DEAD
INCIDENTS FROM THE CAREER OF
COL. JAMES r. Jacques.
Former Resident of PoseyvilIe, POsey
County, Indiana, Who Gained Fame
During the Civil War.

whose death is reported in a dispatch from
st. Paul, was well known in southern Indi-
ana. Last June he visited Jacksonville, ILL.,.
and the correspondent of the Chicago
Times Herald then wrote of him: Parson
j. f. Jacques has come to town from Posey-
vile, Posey county, Indiana. He has been
honored both as the one man born in Po-
SEVILLE who ever left the place and the one
one man who has undisputed claims of be-
ing the original Grant and the original Gar
field man. He is more than eighty years old
years which took him a mere boy from
the backwoods village with name like a
joke and made him the center figure in
many of the most important events of this
century. He contributed as much as any
other man to the renown of Illinois in the
war, and had he not deserted the peaceful
habits in Poseyville it might have been
that Grant would not have been started
Alright oc that Garfield would never have
been a general. His life is full of the sort of
stories that patriots would put into readers
for examples to youth and ambition.
Jaques was barefooted boy in the very
early days of the century. His parents dug
a sparse living from the rocks and clods of
Posey county. They could afford no luxury
for the lad, and he shared in their struggle
hewing wood for the market with his ak.
There was corn to plant in the spring and
hay to harvest in the fall. This cut his days
at school to the bound months of win
ter, when it was no small task to travel
through the drifts to the schoohouse. He
finished the course, and the glimpse he had
of the heights of knowledge created a reso-
luton to see more of the promised land. He
cast longing eyes in the direction of the old
a 4 hnf n Wy Inh n
good Methodist parents turned their boys
His parents had no means, but young
Jaques had strong right arm and he set
out to win education with ii. He arrived
at the university and was the laughing
stock. He was tall, lank, lean and .awk-
ward. His face was brown, he wore jeans,
and he was joked as coming from Posey-
vile. He whipped several DULLES for both
ering him. This gave, him consideration
him.
FROM LAW TO THE PULPIT.
He was graduated from the university in
1S45, ready for the law. His mother picked
him out for the ministry and her pleading
changed his mind. He had opened law Of
flee, but it was abandoned, he applied for
pulpit in the Methodist Church. Peter
Cartwright Was then power in the denomi-
nation. He looked with disfavor upon the
fact that the young applicant was a college
man. Dr. Cartwright was opposed to letting
him become member of the Illinois Con-
ference because he was college man. He
was the only college man in the conference,
ard to show the objection he had to col
legians DR.. Cartwright sent him to a forty
mile parish in Egypt. He did not know
ministers under him had been brought up in
the college of the brush and woods and it
was as necessary in those days for
preacher to handle the rifle and the
it for him to know theology 1t seemed
to the, presiding elder that the young man
needed to have some of the educational
kinks taken out of him. and Jacques found
himself preaching in the widest of the
southern Widlernesses. This was the sort
of treatment which the elder thought would
wipe out the ambition of the young man
and keep his high ideals well in bounds.
Jacques was man of common sense, de-
spite his university training. He was a man
among men. There was no one too common
not to have some traits that appealed to
reports from the young man who had been
exiled in the woods. He possessed wonder
full magnetism, in addition to the ability to
estimate men and live the kind of life that
appeals to the best manhood He made a
hit at the beginning of his career in the
him if he ''knowed" how to to chop. He said
he could chop with the best of them, and
wanted them to give him a chance at the
pioneers in the lower part of the State liked,
and he was at once branded as 'somethin'
of a young Teller after all" He appeared
at the log rolling, armed with a trusty ak
he had brought from Poseyville. He chopped
all the farmers into the shade. His reputa-
ant proof that the college education had not
spoiled him, and there followed flood of
letters to the bishop which forever settled
his standing in the Methodist clergy. He
had won the hearts of the supplemented
and this led Bishop Morris to recall the
young man from his brush heap and put
him in charge of prominent pulpit at
Springfield. This was another important
point in his life-the point which made his
name later one of distinction among the
n Ia md oil hn col.
diers that went out from Illinois to fight.
CAREER IN ILLINOIS.
Rev. Mr.. Jaques went to Springfield in
the early years, when Springfield was the
haunt of statesmen and not politicians. He
ran the Methodist Church as it had never
been run before. He occasionally had men
of prominence at his table. Once he enter
tanned three men from Kentucky, who were
praisng the Kentucky schools for girls.
The preacher wondered that no such school
at that time had been started in illinois.
The thought came an inspiration and he
worked out the plan which at once led to
the founding of the Woman'S College at
Jacksonville. He told his project to a man
VINO had six daughters, and the six daugh-
Iers were entered at once as the first pupils.
lie preached all the next year, in addition
to his work for the school, and then the
bishop took him from the pulpit and made
him the president of the college He was
still living in Springfield, but, taking his
FAMILY In an OK cart he was finally well
coined In Jacksonville-the master of the
first Methodist institution in the State His
schoolrooms were in the basement of the
church. Young women came to him from
all over Illinois, travelling across the prairies
IN wagons. The enterprise grew year by
year. and after eight years of hard toll Mr.
jacques saw his hope realized in the erection
of the then immense building for the use
of the college. He was afterWard presi-
dent of Quincy College.
Governor Yates seems to have been the
nrst man accurately to judge the real merit
OF this man. He sent for Mr.. Jaques at
the breaking out of the war and wanted
him to go to Springfield. The preacher
obeyed the call and became the companion
and adviser of the Governor Later he
went to the front with the Sixth Cavalry
put he came back at the request of the
governor to work as a recruiting officer
His eloquence was magical. He talked over
the state and in short time had three
Thousand men at Camp Butler. There was
enlistment after enlis tment made on the
promise from the parson that he would
command the regiment and go into the fight
with it. This led to the formation of The
Seventy third, he being at it's head He
started his men ON the march almost before
his commission was dry. He was sent with
his command directly to Perryville Colonel
Jacques mad taken a position at this point
which was thought to be advantageous.
and, while holding it, Sheridan dashed IN to
him. P ~
How long can you hold that place-
twenty minutes?" he asked
i can hold it indefinitely, sir" was the
proud reply.