Monroe, John

Born: 1811-09-24 Glasgow, Kentucky

Died: 1877-07-29 Coles County, Illinois

Flourished: Coles County, Illinois

John Monroe studied medicine in Kentucky before moving to Shelbyville, Illinois in 1833. He soon relocated to Charleston, where he entered the dry-goods business. In 1840, he married Martha Ferrish, with whom he had six children. In 1850, Monroe was a merchant in Charleston, and owned $4,100 in real estate. After Martha's death in 1854, Monroe remarried to Hannah Chambers, with whom he had five children. Monroe retained his interest in the dry-goods business in Charleston until 1858, when he moved to Lafayette Township in Coles County, where he purchased a 1,700-acre farm. During the Illinois elections of 1858, he ran for a seat in the Illinois House of Representatives as a pro-Stephen A. Douglas Democrat, but ultimately lost to Republican William W. Craddock. In 1860, Monroe was farming and had accumulated $28,000 in real estate, with a personal estate of $6,000. Politically, Monroe was a Democrat. In 1863, he won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving one term.

The History of Coles County, Illinois (Chicago: Wm. Le Baron, Jr., 1879), 527-28; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Charleston, Coles County, IL, 11; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 13 November 1858, 2:3; Augustus H. Chapman to Abraham Lincoln; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Charleston, Coles County, IL, 191; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 225.