Ferree, James I.

Born: 1822 Ohio

Died: 1891 California

Flourished: Carmi, Illinois

James I. Ferree was a Methodist minister, orator, and United States Army chaplain. In the 1840s, Ferree was Methodist minister in the Kentucky Conference, Hardensburg District. He married Samantha Williams in December 1849 in Crawford County, Illinois. He represented White County at the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention and was unsuccessfully candidate for superintendent of public instruction. Abraham Lincoln believed that Feree would be a good candidate for the Illinois General Assembly, but no records confirm that Ferree ever ran or served for the legislature. Ferree was a delegate to the 1860 Illinois Republican Convention, and he delivered numerous speeches in support of Lincoln during the presidential campaign of 1860. In April 1861, Ferree enlisted as a chaplain in the Ninth Illinois Infantry, serving in that capacity until he resigned in December 1861. Ferree returned to the military as a hospital chaplain in July 1862. He was acting superintendent of contrabands at a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia, and was appointed superintendent of Virginia's Freedmen's Bureau in July 1865. He mustered out of military service in March 1866.

Minutes of the Annual Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the Years 1839-1845 (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1840), 3:293; William Page Johnson, II, "The Freedmen's Bureau and School at Fairfax Court House," The Fair Facs Gazette 13 (Fall 2016), 24; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Crawford County, 20 December 1849, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:1, 4, 5; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 12 May 1860, 2:3; 2 August 1860, 2:3; 7 August 1860, 2:2; 9 August 1860, 2:4; 14 August 1860, 2:6; Abraham Lincoln to Sydney Spring; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), 1:417; Gravestone, Veterans Memorial Grove Cemetery, Yountville, CA.