Source: History of Bureau County, Illinois
H.C. Bradsby, Editor
Illustrated
Chicago: World Publishing Company  1885
Reprinted by: Higginson Book Co., Salem, MA

Transcribed by: Denise McLoughlin
Tampico Area Historical Society
www.tampicohistoricalsociety.citymax.com

Page 569

J. B. KNOWLTON, Fairfield, was born May 11, 1843 in Boom County, N.Y. He is a son of William and Mary A. (Barney) Knowlton. The former was a native of Pennsylvania. He died 1844, aged thirty-two years, in Milwaukee, while on his way to Stark County, Ill., to which place the mother went with her father, John Barney, M.D., a native of Canada, and her five-children, viz.: Mrs. Hannah A. Smith, of Iowa; John, of Missouri; Mrs. Sarah M. Wright (deceased), Jacob B. (our subject), and Louis Knowlton (deceased). Mrs. Mary A. Knowlton died August, 1849, in LaSalle County, Ill., of the cholera. The grandfather of our subject was of Scotch and German descent, and died in Luzerne County, Penn.

The subject of this biography, Jacob B. Knowlton, was reared in Stark County, except four years, which he spent in Iowa. He came to Bureau County to live in 1857, and in July, 1861 he enlisted in the Twelfth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company I, as private, and was promoted to Sergeant. He participated in the battles of Forts Henry and Donelson, at which latter place he was wounded in the foot. He also participated in the battle of Shiloh, siege of Corinth, battles of Booneville and Corinth. He was also in the campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, and fought in all the battles except the last, being shot in the head, and remained in the Marietta Hospital till he recovered sufficiently to come home. He returned to his regiment by rail in time to ride right into the battle of Allatoona Pass, after which he was appointed Orderly by John M. Corse as one of his body-guard, and was with Gen. Sherman in his famous "march to the sea," participating in the engagements Lynch Creek and Bentonville.

After the war Mr. Knowlton returned to Bureau County and engaged in farming, and now has a farm of 200 acres in Fairfield Township, where he resides.

He was married here February 7,  1866, to Miss Mary M. Cooper, born December 3, 1842, in LaGrange County, Ind, daughter of George and Lucinda (Spencer) Cooper, the former a native of Vermont and the latter of New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Knowlton four children were born, viz.: William S., born August 25, 1867; George C. (deceased), aged eleven years, ; Herbert B., April 3, 1872, and Clara E., January 16, 1575. Mrs. Knowlton is a member of the Church of God. Mr. Knowlton is a member of the A.F.A.A.M. fraternity. Politically he is in favor of the Greenback principles. He has held township offices, and is now a Justice of the Peace.