Will County ILGenWeb Biographies..... 
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File contributed for use by:
Dori Leekly & Margie Glenn

Author: History of Will County IL, 1878

James H. FERRISS, P. O. Joliet; of Nelson, Ferriss & Co., proprietors of the Joliet 
Morning News; was born near Oswego, Kendall Co., IL. He is a son of Wm. H. FERRISS, 
formerly of Clinton Co., N. Y. His mother was Eliza M. BROWN, formerly of Erie Co., 
Penn. The subject of this sketch became a resident of Bristol Station, IL, where he 
received a common school education; at the age of 10 years he entered a store - half 
saloon and half grocery - and tended bar till he was 14 years of age, when he was 
seized with a spiritual, or no-spirit-at-all turn, and joined the Good Templars. He 
afterward attended a commercial college, run a butcher shop, lived three years as a 
Kansas squatter, followed the livestock trade, and was one of the proprietors of the 
Yorkville News during the Peter COOPER campaign. He also reported for the Joliet Sun, 
in an obscure capacity, in 1874, and with three others launched the Phoenix newspaper 
enterprise, in Will Co., on Jan. 1, 1877. In October, the same year, he, with his 
present associates, purchased the Morning News, and since then has pursued a steady 
and consistent course. During all his eventful career, he has never been married, 
had any bones broken, or had his life insured, but lives on in hopefulness, etc.


Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.