Stark, James

Born: 1815-12-04 Scotland, United Kingdom

Died: 1892-02-22 Augusta, Illinois

Flourished: 1842 to 1892 Augusta, Illinois

James Stark, merchant and minister, was born in Auchtermuchty, Scotland, and immigrated to Illinois with his uncle about 1835. He lived first in Jacksonville, then settled permanently in Augusta in 1842, where he started one of the first stores in Hancock County. In addition to working as a merchant Stark was a minister in the Disciples of Christ, having been ordained in 1837. Stark was elected in 1846 as a Whig to represent Hancock County in the Illinois House of Representatives for a single term. Following the dissolution of the Whig Party, Stark opposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act and ultimately became a Republican. He was a delegate from Hancock County at the 1858 and 1860 Illinois Republican conventions and served as a presidential elector for Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860. At the time of the 1860 census Stark owned real estate valued at $3,000 and possessed $15,500 in personal property. He married Mary J. York in 1837 and the pair had children.

Nathaniel S. Haynes, History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois 1819-1914 (Cincinnati: Standard, 1915), 609-10; Portrait and Biographical Record of Hancock, McDonough and Henderson Counties Illinois (Chicago: Lake City, 1894), 324; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Morgan County, 18 August 1837, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Morgan County, IL, 436; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 417; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 215; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Hancock County, IL, 330; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 17 June 1858, 2:3; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 12 May 1860, 2:3, 5; 14 May 1860, 2:1; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Hancock County, IL, 529; Wayne C. Temple, “Delegates to the Illinois State Republican Nominating Convention in 1860,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 92 (Autumn 1999), 292; Warsaw City Bulletin (IL), 24 April 1856, 2:4; 15 May 1856, 2:4; The Warsaw Bulletin (IL), 26 February 1892, 2:4; 4 March 1892, 2:2; The Quincy Journal (IL), 27 February 1892, 7:2.