Mathers, John
Born: 1813 Ireland, United Kingdon
Died: 1880-05-29 Jacksonville, Illinois
Flourished: 1832 to 1880 Jacksonville, Illinois
John Mathers, businessman, Methodist Episcopal minister, and brickmaker, emigrated to the United States with his family as a child, living first in Lexington, Kentucky for about three years before settling in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1832. He received his early education in common schools, then attended Illinois College. Mathers worked as a clerk and later in business for himself, and at about age twenty-five was licensed to preach in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He preached in a variety of Illinois Methodist circuits, then was finally posted to preach in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1848 he retired from the ministry due to poor health and returned to a career in business and real estate in Jacksonville. About 1845 Mathers had founded the Jacksonville Brick Works, and at the time of the 1860 census he was described a brickmaker, and owned real estate valued at $25,000 and personal property worth $5,000. About 1854 Mathers was one of seven Jacksonville residents who founded an organization with the aim of preventing the spread of slavery to United States territories. In 1844 he married Juliett M. Tucker and the pair had five children.
Portrait and Biographical Album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Ills. (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1889), 381-82; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Morgan County, ed. by William F. Short (Chicago: Munsell, 1906), 2:669, 677, 698; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Morgan County, 25 January 1844, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 185; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 88; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 30 May 1880, 7:7; The True Republican (Sycamore, IL), 5 June 1880, 2:4; Gravestone, Jacksonville East Cemetery, Jacksonville, IL.