Lamb, James L.

Born: 1800-11-07 Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Died: 1873-12-03 Springfield, Illinois

Flourished: 1831-1873 Springfield, Illinois

Born into a Quaker family, Lamb left home at twelve years of age to work as a clerk in Cincinnati. In 1820, he moved to Kaskaskia, Illinois, where he became a merchant and also engaged in a meat packing and shipping business in partnership with Thomas Mather and Stacy B. Opdycke. In 1824, Lamb married Susan Cranmer in Cincinnati, returning to Kaskaskia afterward. In 1831, the Lambs moved to Springfield, Illinois, where James continued in the mercantile and pork packing businesses for the rest of his life. Politically, Lamb was a Whig. He also served as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield.

John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 435-37; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 686; Whig City Meeting.