John Pierce St. John

John Pierce St.John. 'Kansas Governor'. He served in the Indian Wars from 1853 to 1854, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1860. During the Civil War he served as Captain of Company C, 68th Illinois Volunteer Infantry and as Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the 143rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry. Member of the Kansas State Senate in 1873 and served as the eighth Governor of Kansas from 1879 to 1883. He was a Prohibitionist Party candidate for President during the 1884 Presidential Campaign.

Married 1st with MARY JANE BREWSTER on Mar. 28, 1852. Child Henry Clay St.John born Feb. 11, 1853. Divorced 1859. Married 2nd with SUSAN JANE "Jenny" PARKER, dau. of Nathaniel Parker and Elizabeth "Betsy" Lockhart. Children William St. John, John P. St. John Jr. and Lula St. John.

John Pierce St.John, son of Samuel St. John and Sophiah Snell, was born at Brookville, Franklin Co., Indiana on Feb. 25, 1933. His education consisted primarily of attendance to local public schools, and whatever means he had at his disposal.

In 1848 John moved 150 miles with his parents, sister Judith Emily, and norther Matthew to Olnet, Richland Co., Illinois. Hardship forced John to quit school at first to help with the farming. Eventually, he took a job as a store clerk for six dollars per monthe.

John P. St. John married MARY JANE BREWSTER on Mar. 28, 1852 in Olney, Illinois. Their son, Henry Clay St. John was born Feb. 11, 1853.

Sometime in 1852, he took a job driving an oxen team, and he crossed the plains to California, where he worked as a miner and lumberjack as well as a clerk. He also made extra money by selling deer he killed to the local miners. During 1853 and 1854, he also fought in the Modoc Indian Wars in northern California and southern Oregon. He was through his participation in this conflict that John experienced battle for the first time. He also suffered battle wounds on two separate occasions during the conflict, and carried a flint arrowhead tip in his leg for the rest of his life.

During these harsh experiences, he rediscovered his passion for law, saved enough money to buy a set of law books from a Sacramento attorney, and studied at night. He also visited the Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, parts of South America, as well as Mexico and Central America. Once young St. John explored all these areas, he was ready to return home and study law full time.

In 1859, he returned to Illinois. Sometime immediately following his return he and Mary Jane Brewster divorced. At this time, he completed his law studies at Charleston under the tutelage of the law offices of Starkweather and McLain. He gained admittance to the Illinois Bar in 1860. It was in Charleston that he met and married SUSAN JANE PARKER on Mar. 28, 1860. Susan was the daughter of Nathaniel "Old Uncle Max" and Elizabeth "Betsy" Parker. William St. John, born in 1861 and the couple's first child, died during infancy. John and Susan celebrated the birth of their next son, John St. John Jr. on February 9, 1862.

John Pierce St.John enlisted for military service on June 23, 1862 as a captain. He served with the Illinois 68th Infantry Regiment, Company C, from Camp Butler, Illinois. The company traveled to Wheeling, West Virginia, and then went up to Washington, D.C., where they served the remained of their enlistment in the Alexander, Virginia area.

On February 8, 1865, the couple welcomed their second child, Lula. In April of the same year, the family moved from Charleston, Illinois to Independence, Missouri where John practiced law for four years in partnership with Susan's brother Martin Van Buren Parker. However, John's ardent Republicanism and defeatist sentiment in this Southern-leaning part of Missouri did not mix. After Ulysses S. Grant won the Presidency, the family moved to Olathe, Kansas.

John St. John practiced law in Olathe. He also worked as an investor, speculating in mines and other economic ventures. Business and law partners of St. Johns included his brother-in-law Martin Parker and I.O. Pickering among others. For several years, St. John operated his law firm independently and practiced on his own.

He entered the political arena when he championed a movement in 1872 to displace U.S. Senator Samuel E. Pomeroy, a former friend, in favor of his opponent John J. Ingalls. In 1872, citizens of the Ninth District elected St. John to the State Senate, where he represented them from 1873 to 1874. In 1876, the Prohibition Party solicited him to run for governor on their ticket. He refused this nomination this time. However, in 1878 and 1880, he won the gubernatorial election and represented the Republican Party as Governor of the State of Kansas.

John St. John was a Republican until 1884. He then officially joined the Prohibitionist Party and was reluctantly their candidate for President of the United States in that year. Mobs burned him in effergy, he received death threats, was openly mocked in the press, and his earlier marriage and divorce was publicized in a less than flattering manner. Republicans felt he was a traitor to his former party. However, after accepting the nomination and running, the election as decided by only 26,000 votes; not in his favor.

Over the next few years he traveled some 350,000 miles and made over 4500 speeches on behalf of Prohibition, womens sufferage, "free silver," and direct election of U.S. senators by citizens. He was hailed everywhere as the " father of Prohibition" in the United States.

Henry Clay St. John, his eldest son from his first marriage died in 1889. His daughter Lula married Henry L. Page of Fort Scott, Kansas sometime between 1880 and 1900 and died on Apr. 8, 1903, possibly due to complications associated with childbirth. From 1880 to 1916 John Pierce St. John Jr. moved around the county, living in Missouri, Texas, Washington and eventually returning to Kansas. John Jr. married Rose J. Enloe of Missouri after 1900. Their first child, a daughter named Lula, in memory of John Jr's sister, was born in 1905. Their second child, Ruth E. was born in 1907, while they were living in Texas. In 1916 John Pierce St.John Jr. was working for the State penitentiary in Lansing, Michigan.

At some point John St. John began suffering from Bright's Disease. Following a speech on Prohibition in Jetmore, Kansas on June 26, 1916 he suffered from heatstroke and exhaustion. After several weeks recovering he traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota to attend the National Prohibition Party Convention but the stress of the trip reversed his recovery and he was bedridden thereafter. He died at his home in Olathe on Aug. 31, 1916. His wife and son John Jr. survived him.

• 1870 census: John P. StJohn (36, b Ind) and wife Susan J. (31, b Ill); in Olathe, Kansas w ch. John (8, b Ill) and Lute (5, b Ill). He is a lawyer
• 1880 census: John P. (50) and Jane (41) at res. of R.D. Coldren in Topeka, Kansas w ch John (18, b KS) and Lutie (15, b KS). He is Governor.
• 1880 census: John P. (47) and S.J. (41); in Olathe, Kansas w ch. Johnnie (18, b Ill) and Lutie (15, b Ill). He is Governor.
• 1900 census: John StJohn (67, b Ind) and wife Susan J. (62, b Ill) in Olathe, Kansas. He is lawyer/Regent agricultural college
• 1910 census: John P. StJohn (77) and wife Jennie (60, b Ill); in Olathe, Kansas.
• Find a grave
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pierce_St._John
• http://www.kshs.org/p/john-pierce-st-john-papers-1859-1917/14120
• http://williamstjohn.net/
• http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_kans...
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/civilwar_veterans_tombstones/2313436799/
• http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/v2/ch53p1.html
• http://www.kslib.info/government-information/kansas-information/kan...
• http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/st-john-john-pierce.html