James L. ALEXANDER, farmer, P. O. Lockport; was born in New Marlboro, Mass., Aug. 22, 1805. He was married to Betsy HEALY, of Elbridge, Onondaga Co., N. Y., May 17, 1834; after marriage, he lived three years in Sodus, Wayne Co., N. Y., where he engaged in farming; in 1837, he came West and settled near Lockport, taking contracts on the I. & M. Canal on the section at Kankakee, and subsequently on Secs. 62 and 45; after the completion of the canal, he purchased a farm in the present limits of Dupage Twp., and occupied it in 1841; in 1860, he moved to the farm now owned and operated, by his widow and son, James H.; he died Dec. 29, 1876; has two children living – James H. and Sarah E. (now wife of C. W. RATHBURN, of Joliet). The home farm contains 382 acres, worth $70 per acre. Never having sought political preferment, he held no offices higher than those of School Trustee and School Director. He was a well-read, thorough-going business man; perhaps no man in the communities in which he lived enjoyed the respect and confidence of his neighbors to a fuller extent than did Mr. ALEXANDER; starting in life a poor boy, he, by manly exertions, accumulated a competency for his family, and, at his death, no man could truthfully say that he had accumulated one cent in a dishonest manner.
Source: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.