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

Author: History of Will County, Illinois; Chicago: Wm LeBaron Jr & Co, 186 Dearborn Street, 1878.

J. D. PAIGE, proprietor of Paige's Bottling House, Joliet; was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., 
March 27, 1837; in 1844, he accompanied his parents to Jefferson Co., Wis.; in 1857, he left 
home and came on foot to Joliet, with $1 in his pocket; he went at once to work, and has been 
at work ever since; he has now one of the largest and best-appointed houses in his line of 
business in the West ; besides which he has established branches of his business in Grand 
Rapids, Mich., Marshalltown, Iowa., and Braidwood, IL.; he was appointed Fire Marshal of 
Joliet in May, 1877, and has given much study and his best efforts to the Department; during 
his administration the Department has been changed from a voluntary to a paid organization, 
the Gamewell fire-alarm telegraph has been introduced, the horses are now owned by the 
Department, (instead of being hired wherever opportunity occurred, as was previously done), 
and are kept at all times in the engine-houses, with harness on, ready to be hitched up at 
ten seconds' notice; many other improvements have been added, and the proficiency to which 
the Joliet Fire Department has attained under the administration of Mr. Paige is evident 
from the fact that at the National Firemen's Tournament in Chicago, in September, 1878, 
the Joliet Steamer Company No. 1 carried off first honors in extinguishing burning buildings, 
with a prize of $350 cash and an elegant silver set, and also took two other prizes, one of
$100 and the other $75; Mr. Paige is at present Township Assessor, to which office he was 
elected in April, 1878.