Francis, Josiah

Born: 1804-01-17 Wethersfield, Connecticut

Died: 1867-10-08 Springfield, Illinois

Born in Connecticut, Josiah Francis arrived in Springfield, Illinois, in the summer of 1831. That year, he established the Sangamo Journal with his brother Simeon Francis but left the paper in 1835. That same year, he married Margery Constant and, in 1836, Francis began a mercantile business in Athens. In 1840, voters elected him as a Whig to represent Sangamon County in the Illinois General Assembly. From 1850 to 1854, he served as the sheriff of Sangamon County, and in 1853, he served one term as mayor of Springfield. He was Quartermaster-General of Illinois under Governor Richard Yates but resigned just before the Civil War.

Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, ed., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Sangamon County: Volume II, Part Two (Chicago: Munsell, 1912), 1240; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 217; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 315-16; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 344.