Lamb, Joshua G.

Born: 1799-XX-XX Pennsylvania

Died: 1885-04-06

Flourished: Alton, Illinois

Lamb moved to Alton, Illinois, sometime prior to 1840. In May 1840, he married Ameilia Bergen. Lamb became a prominent merchant and politician in Alton. In 1840 or 1841, Godfrey, Gilman & Co. employed Lamb as its agent in a scheme with the Alton branch of the State Bank of Illinois and some Galena lead miners to make Alton the center of the lead trade, supplanting St. Louis. From 1848 to 1849, he was an alderman for the third ward. In 1850, he was employed as a merchant and owned real estate valued at $10,000. From 1856 to 1858, he was an alderman for the fourth ward. He was treasurer of the city from 1858 to 1860. In 1861, Lamb became postmaster of Alton. In 1859, he won election as elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Alton.

George William Dowrie, "The Development of Banking in Illinois, 1817-1863," University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences 2 (December 1913), 92 (450), 93 (451); W. T. Norton, ed., Centennial History of Madison County, Illinois and Its People 1812-1912 (Chicago: Lewis, 1912), 1:480; Gazetteer of Madison County (Alton, IL: James T. Hair, 1866), 79, 88, 89; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Alton, Madison County, IL, 364; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Sangamon County, 27 May 1840, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Gravestone, Oak Ridge Cemetery, Springfield, IL; A. T. Norton, History of the Presbyterian Church of the State of Illinois (St. Louis, MO: W. S. Bryan, 1879), 173.