Klein, Sr., Joseph

Born: 1779 New York

Died: 1858-10-13 Sangamon County, Illinois

In 1836, Joseph Klein was the commissioner for the Sangamon Fire Insurance Company. He was a member of the Springfield Board of Trustees (1837-40) and was one of Springfield's first alderman, elected in April 1840, In 1850, Klein made his living in Sangamon County as a stock dealer and owned real estate worth $10,500. Klein was a founder of the Springfield, Athens and Havana Plank Road Company in March 1853. The purpose of the company was to construct a plank road from Springfield to Athens, Illinois.

Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 26 March 1836, 2:7; 24 April 1840, 2:5; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 9 March 1853, 2:3; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 14 October 1858, 2:4; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 87; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 565-66; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 45.