Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/98

 JENNESS

JERMAIN

JENNESS, Benning Wentwortli, senator, was born in Deertield, N.H., July 14, 1800. He was educated at Bradford academy, Mass., and engaged in mercantile business at Strafford, N.H., 1826-56. He held local offices in Strafford ; was a representative in the state legislature, and on the promotion of Senator Levi Woodbury to the U.S. supreme court in November, 1845, Mr. Jenness was appointed by Governor John H. Steele to the vacancy, and served as U.S. senator till June, 1846, when he was defeated for election to fill the vacancy by Joseph Cilley. He was an unsuc- cessful candidate in 1846 for representative in the 30th congress ; was a member of the conven- tion to revise the constitution of New Hampshire in 1850 ; a member of the Democratic national convention that nominated Franklin Pierce in 1852, and was nominated for governor of New Hampshire, but withdrew in favor of Gen. George Starke, in 1861. He then engaged in lumbering and banking in Ohio, and died in Cleveland, Ohio, Nov. 16. 1879.

JENNEY, William Le Baron, architect, was born at Fairhaven, Mass., Sept. 25, 1832; son of William Proctor and Eliza (Le Baron) Jenney : grandson of Levi and Ansel (Gibbs) Jenne}', and a descendant of John Jenney, John Alden and Dr. Francis Le Baron, all of Plymouth colony. He was edvicated at Phillips academy, Andover, Mass. ; at Lawrence Scientific school, Cambridge, and was graduated from the Ecole Centrale des Ai'ts et Manufactures at Paris, with diploma of 1856. He was engineer in charge on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexico, 1857, and studied art and architecture in Paris studios, 1858-59. He was commissioned, in 1861, an additional aide-de- camp, with the rank of captain, in the U.S. army ; was assigned to engineer duty on the staff of Gen. U.S. Grant, serving 1861-63 ; served on the staff of Gen. W. T. Sherman, 1863-66 ; was brevetted major in 1865 ; and resigned May 19, 1866. He established himself as an architect in Chicago, 111., in 1868, and was the landscape engineer for the West Chicago parks, 1870-71. He invented in 1883, the skeleton construction, generally used for tall buildings, of many of which he became the architect.

JENNINGS, Jonathan, governor of Indiana, was born in Hunterdon county, N.J., about 1776. He migrated to the Northwest Territory, and was the first delegate to congress from Indiana Terri- tory, serving in the llth-14th congresses, 1809-16. When the territory was admitted as a state in 1816, Mr. Jennings was elected its first govei'nor, serving by re-elections until 1822. He was ap- pointed Indian commissioner by President Mon- roe in 1818, and was a representative from Indiana in the 17th-21st congresses, 1821-81. He died near Charlestown, Ind., July 26, 1834.

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JENNISON, Silas Hemenway, governor of Vermont, was born in Shoreham, Vt., May 17, 1791 ; son of Levi and Ruth (Hemenway) Jenni- son. His father died in 1792, and he was brought up by his widowed mother, and gained his edu- cation by attending school a few weeks each year when not engaged in labor on the farm, and by reading and study after working hours, assisted by Mr. Stis- sons, a neighbor, to whom he recited his lessons. He became a proficient mathe- matician and sur- veyor. He repre- sented his town in the state legislature, 1826-31 ; was assist- ant justice of the county court, 1829-35 ; lieu- tenant-governor, 1835 ; acting governor, 1835- 36 ; governor, 1836-41 ; judge of probate, 1841-47, and delegate to the state constitutional conven- tion of 1843. During the rebellion in Canada, he issued a proclamation as governor warning the people of Vermont against violating the neu- trality laws, which somewhat deci'eased his popu- larity, but it did not prevent his repeated re- elections, although the Democrats used the proclamation against him. His highest majority was in 1840, when it reached 10,798. He died in Shoreham, Vt., in September, 1849.

JERMAIN, James Barclay, philanthropist, was born in Albany, N.Y., Aug. 13, 1809 ; son of Silvanus P. and Catherine (Barclay) Jermain, and grandson of James and Janet Barclay, of Scotland. His father was a native of Sag Harbor and removed to Albany in 1802. Upon the death of his mother, which occurred in 1810, he was placed in the family of a relative, the Rev. Dr. Nathaniel S. Prime, where he was prei^ared for college, and at the age of fifteen he entered Mid- dlebury college, Vt., and after two years entered the junior class of Amherst college, Mass., where he was graduated in 1831. He then studied law, and began to practice in Albany, N.Y., in 1836. Upon the death of his father in 1869 he erected to his memory the Jermain Presbyterian church in the village of West Troy at a cost of $120,000, and subsequently gave to it an additional sum of $5000. He also contributed liberally to philan- thropic and religious causes, rebuilding at a cost of $50,000 the Home for Aged Men on the Albany & Troy road, of which he was elected honorary president. In 1883 he endowed with $50,000 a chair of natural theology in Williams college as