| Notes |
- Promoted to Full Qtr Master Serg on 19 Oct 1861.
Enlisted in Company B, Iowa 8th Infantry Regiment on 12 Sep 1861.
Promoted to Full Private on 01 Mar 1862.
Mustered out on 20 Jun 1862.
John Whitaker Jayne, the founder of Lone Tree, was born on 28 Jan 1820 in Deposit, Broome Co, NY, the son of Benaiah Jayne and Mary B. Whitaker.
He was the grandson of John Whitaker, for whom he was named and Catherine Weaver. When John Whitaker was just shy of his fifth birthday, he was one of the few survivors of the fatal Wyoming Valley (PA) Indian massacre of July 3, 1778, making their escape with great difficulty and suffering through the wilderness back to Orange County New York.
Mr. Jayne married Miss Deborah Early on 25 Sep 1841 in Scott, Wayne Co, PA. John and Deborah had one son, Whitaker Early Jayne on 25 Jun 1842. The young Mrs. Jayne, died two months later on 25 Aug 1842 in Scott, Wayne Co, PA.
He then married Miss Catherine Gardinier in Sep 1842, the daughter of Jacob A. Gardinier and Sarah Alexander South.
In 1854 he emigrated with his family to Iowa, first settling in Scott County and then in 1856 moving to Montpelier, Muscatine County, where they appeared in the State Census of 1856 and then to Fulton, Muscatine County, IA in the 1860 Federal Census.
John served his country in the War of the Rebellion, fighting bravely for the Union forces. He enlisted on 15 Aug 1861 as a Private in Co B, 8th Iowa Infantry in Muscatine Co, IA and was mustered in to service on 12 Sep 1861. He was promoted to Full Quarter Master Sergeant on 19 Oct 1861 and at his request was reduced back to the rank of Full Private on 01 Mar 1862. He was captured along with the entire unit at the battle of Shiloh, Hardin Co, TN (see Regimental History below). John received a disability discharge on 20 Jun 1862.
After his return from the service, he was elected clerk of courts in Muscatine County and served for six years. In 1870 he moved to Fremont, P.O. Palestine, Johnson County, IA and began farming. He purchased 1,200 acres in this area from his brother William H. Jayne. It was on this land that he platted the original town of Lone Tree. This part of town extended north from the school house to the railroad tracks and west from DeVoe Street. It was one of the few small towns of that time that was planned before it was platted.
Mr. Jayne had strong anti-liquor feelings. There was a stipulation in the original platting of Lone Tree that the buyer could never sell any intoxicating drinks on the property. It was further provided that, if on the new premises, the new owner or any of his heirs or assignees violated the contract, Mr. Jayne would bring action and recover the property. After Mr. Jayne's death, some property owners disregarded the original stipulation made by this Baptist pioneer.
John and Catherine had five children: David, Henry, William, Deborah and Sarah.
In 1889, John retired from farming. He was appointed postmaster of Lone Tree and served four years. He also was mayor for several years. After his term as postmaster, he took up the business of fire insurance. At the age of 86 he was the oldest insurance agent in Iowa. In the year of 1906, he wrote $375,000 worth of insurance. He successfully followed the insurance business until 23 Jul 1908, when he was injured by a runaway team and died from these injuries on 26 Jul 1908, aged 88 Years 05 Months 29 Days.
_____
HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY, IOWA
Volume II, Biographical, 1911, page 92
... John Whitaker Jayne was born in Broome county, New York, and became a logger and rafter on the Delaware river, being thus employed until 1854, when he emigrated to Iowa and took up farming in Scott county, where he remained in 1854 and 1855. The following year he removed to Muscatine county, where he carried on agricultural pursuits until the opening year of the civil war. In response to the country's call for aid he enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Infantry and served in the battle of Shiloh, during which he was captured. Later in the summer , however, he was exchanged and, returning to his northern home, was elected to the office of clerk of Muscatine county, assuming his duties on the 1st of January, 1863, and serving in that capacity until 1869. He then began farming, also dealing in land and cattle, continuing in the conduct of a profitable business until 1896. In that year he took up his abode in Lone Tree, Iowa, where he conducted an insurance office until meeting an accidental death in July, 1908, when nearly eighty-nine years of age. In early manhood John W. Jayne had married Miss Catharine Gardinier, ... and was a daughter of Jacob A. Gardinier, one of the heroes of the Revolutionary war, ... He and his wife lived seven years beyond their golden wedding and reared a large family, which included Catharine Gardinier, who became the wife of John W. Jayne, her death occurring in 1897, when she was eighty-five years of age. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jayne were devout members of the Baptist church, and the integrity and fidelity of their lives won for them the high esteem of all whom they came in contact. Their family numbered five children: David, now living in Lone Tree, Iowa; Henry, of this review; William, who died at the age of twenty-seven years; Deborah, who died in infancy; and Sarah, the wife of Rev. A. C. Kelly, of Chicago.
_____
REGIMENTAL HISTORY
EIGHTH INFANTRY IOWA
Source: THE UNION ARMY, VOL. 4
This regiment was organized in the latter part of the summer of 1861, and was mustered in Sept.
Soon after its organization it went to St. Louis, from which place it moved to Syracuse, where it joined Fremont's army in pursuit of Price's forces and operated in southwestern Missouri, losing heavily through sickness. It returned to
Sedalia in November and remained there until ordered to join Grant's forces in Tennessee the following spring.
The regiment participated in the battle of Shiloh, fighting 10 hours on the first day, repelling attack after attack, and, with the battery which it was supporting, inflicting terrible punishment upon the enemy. It was the last to leave the advanced line of the army, being surrounded as it attempted to withdraw and compelled to surrender. Out of 650 men engaged, it lost 64 killed, 100 wounded, and 47 missing. The 8th, 12th and 14th Ia. formed four-fifths of the little force that held back ten times its numbers at the close of the first day at Shiloh, giving Buell time to bring up his forces and snatch victory from defeat.
Entirely cut off, they fought until they could fight no longer, and threw down their arms only to see many of their number shot down in cold blood after they had surrendered as prisoners of war. The officers above the rank of lieutenant were sent to Selma, thence to Talladega, returned to Selma soon afterward, three months later to Atlanta, thence to Madison until Nov. 7, when they were sent to Libby prison, Richmond, and were paroled a week later at Aiken's landing. The lieutenants and enlisted men were sent to various prisons in Alabama and suffered the miseries and privations so common to southern prisons.
(Research):pension app filed 26 Feb 1892 IA; Clerk of District Court for Johnson Co IA; m1 Deborah Early son Whittaker (served same unit); m2 Catherine Gilliland
Obituary: Iowa Journal of History, Volume 7, By State Historical Society of Iowa.
JOHN W JAYNE John W Jayne one of the oldest residents of Johnson County a member of The State Historical Society of Iowa passed away at his home in Lone Tree on July 26 1908 Mr Jayne was in Pennsylvania on January 28 1820 and came to Iowa during the fifties first settling in Muscatine County When the war out he enlisted in Company B of the 8th Iowa Infantry and served during the early years of the war Most of his life since that time was spent on his farm or in business at Lone Tree He a member of the first Republican State Convention held in Iowa and although he never held any important office he always an active interest in politics He collected a large private and was a man who read widely Mr Jayne retained his and mental vigor to a remarkable extent even to the date his death
|
1820 - 1908 (88 years)
[5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14]