Jeffrey, Francis M.

Born: 1832-09-21 Indiana

Died: 1918-06-13 Clinton, Illinois

Flourished: 1837 to 1865 DeWitt County, Illinois

Francis M. Jeffrey was a tanner, farmer, carpenter, and U.S. Army soldier. Born in Fayette County, Indiana, Jeffrey moved with his parents from his native Indiana to DeWitt County, Illinois, in 1837. In May 1853, he was a member of the jury that found Moses Loe, a client of Abraham Lincoln, guilty of manslaughter in the stabbing death of James Gray. Jeffrey worked with his father in the tanning business and on the family farm until 1856, when he became a carpenter. He remained a carpenter until the commencement of the Civil War. In August 1861, Jeffrey enlisted for three years in Company F of the Thirty-Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry which had been organized at Camp Butler, Illinois. He participated with his unit in battles at Fredericktown, Champion Hills, Perryville, Stones River, Liberty Gap, the first and second battles at Cornith, and during the Atlanta Campaign, Missionary Ridge, Chickamauga, and Jonesboro. Jeffrey's suffered wounds at Perryville, Stone's River, and Liberty Gap. He received promotion from private to first sergeant in July 1862, and mustered out with his unit in September 1864. He returned to DeWitt County and resumed his carpentry business.

Jeffrey married twice. He wed Sarah Jane McEntire in December 1851 in DeWitt County, Illinois. The couple had two children before Sarah's death in March 1857. Francis married Harriett A. Kidd in July 1865. Francis and Harriet had eight children.

Clinton Daily Public(IL), 10 October 1918, 2:5; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, DeWitt County, 25 December 1851, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Indiana, U.S., Marriage Certificates, 1960-2012, 22 July 1865, Miami County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016; People v. Loe, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=135583; History of DeWitt County, Illinois (Philadelphia: W. R. Brink, 1882), 86, 305; History of DeWitt County, Illinois, with Biographical Sketches of Prominent Representative Citizens of the County (Chicago: Pioneer, 1910), 175-76; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, Evergreen Cemetery, Waynesville, IL.