DR. BASIL JAMES, was born in Frederick County, Md., in 1797 came to the West with his father's family in 1807, first stopping at Lawrenceburgh, but for educational purposes the family removed to Cincinnati and remained two years. In 1812 on account of Indian troubles, the family, excepting the father and his eldest son, Pinkney, were taken to Louisville, Ky., for security, where they remained until the fall of 1813, when all the family finally settled in Ohio County. Dr JAMES was identified with Rising Sun from its foundation, his father being one of the founders of that place. He practiced medicine here during all the active years of his life, giving up the profession only a few years before his death on account of age and feebleness. Paralysis came upon him about 1875, and although he recovered to some extent, yet he continued comparatively helpless and died August 8, 1877.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

Col. Pinkney JAMES, Rising Sun, was bred to the law, but not liking the practice, soon abandoned it after being admitted.  The training, and his acquaintance with the law were afterward of great service to him in his active mercantile and manufacturing business life.  The inclination of Col. JAMES' mind was to mechanism, and it might be said of him that he was a natural mechanic.  In an emigrant's guide, published in 1817, mention is made of Rising Sun, in which it is stated that it "has a floating mill anchored abreast of the town."  This mill was constructed by Col. JAMES, the power being derived from the swift current in the river in front of the town.  A few of the older inhabitants will probably remember the saw-mill that once stood on Arnold's Creek, a short distance back of town. That was built by Col. JAMES.  Some time previous to 1830, Col. JAMES built th e flouring-mill at the place now called Milton.  It was for many years known as "James' Mill," and had a reputation for good work that brought customers from many miles distant.  This mill was at first an exclusively water power mill, but its business grew to such proportions that steam machinery had to be placed in it to proved against the contingency of a scarcity of water.  He was one of the proprietors of the steam flouring- mill erected at the  southeast corner of Front and Second Streets.  In 1833 he erected and put in operation the cotton factory near the bank of the river, above Fifth Street.  The business was so successful that in few years he more than doubled its capacity. About 1843 he built the large brick cotton factory on the west side of Market Street, between Fifth and SIxth Streets, and which was destroyed by fire in 1849.  Col. JAMES established the first steamboat packet line between Rising Sun and Cincinnati in 1834, and maintained it uninterruptedly for some ten years.  Several unsuccessful efforts to establish a steam packet between the two places had proved failures.  His first boat was the "Dolphin," which made the round trip daily, except Sunday, between the two places.  The "Dolphin" was built in 1834, at JAMES' Mill, on Laughery Creek, and brought out on the spring flood of that year.  Her architect was Prince Athearn, who had worked as an apprentice on the famed United States frigate "Constitution."  The steamboat "Renown," of which  Col. JAMES was one of the owners, was built at the same place in the winter of 1835-36 under the same superintendence, and floated to the river also on the spring flood.  The "Renown" was a large boat for the period and intended for the Cincinnati and New Orleans or the Cincinnati and St. Louis trade.  In 1838 Col. JAMES built the "Herald,: and extended his trade to Warsaw, Ky., making tri-weekly round trips.  She was a larger and better boat than the "Dolphin."  The "Herald" ran but a few months.  She was burned and sunk some ten miles below Cincinnati, on a downward trip, without any loss of life.  the work of enlarging the "Dolphin" was nearly finished when the "Herald" burned.  It was hurried to completion and she was put in as a Rising Sun and Cincinnati packet.  The next spring, 1839, the "Indiana: was built at Rising Sun, and put in as a packet the succeeding fall, and continued in the trade until 1843, when she was sold to the trade between Maysville and Cincinnati,  In 1838 Col. JAMES established an iron foundry at Rising Sun, under teh management of Mr. N.R. Stedman, recently deceased at Aurora, chiefly for the making of cooking stoves, and which they shipped to all parts of the country.  The foundry also did a considerable business in making cotton-press screws.  During all these years, and with steamboat and manufacturing interests to look after, Col. JAMES was largely and almost all the time engaged in merchandising and shipping.  He was a man of wonderful energy and enterprise and of great industry.  As extensive and varied as was his business, he always held it under his own control and directed the management of it.  Col. JAMES was a public-spirited citizen, and in that respect a public man. He was foremost in every enterprise calculated to improve of benefit the town, but he had an aversion to holding public offices.  He was several times a member of the State Legislature, but accepted the place only when he could serve in the interest of some important local matter, and was generally supported for that purpose by both political parties.  He was several times urged to become a candidate for Congress, but always refused.  He was a man of fine natural ability, well educated, a fluent and forcible speaker, and if he had so chosen, could have been a power at the bar or in the State and national legislative halls.  He was born in Frederick County, Md., May 6, 1794, and died December 25, 1851.  "Col. JAMES was long known as one of our most active business men. The deceased was one of the proprietors of the city in which he died, and was industriously engaged for a lifetime in building up and increasing the trade of Rising Sun.  The community will sustain a loss in the death of this distinguished individual that we  fear will not soon be replaced.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

Capt. Henry JAMES, a pioneer citizen of southeastern Indiana, died at Rising Sun, Dec 2, 1880, in his eighty-fourth year.  He has been long identified with the growth and prosperity of Rising Sun, his father, John JAMES being its founder.  Capt. Henry JAMES  was teh father of Dr. L.A. JAMES of Cincinnati.  Capt. JAMES, until within a few years past, had been identified with some of the prominent and active business interests of that section, having been engaged in merchandising, milling and as owner of steamboats, and having, by his intelligent business management, added largely to the prosperity of the vicinity of his hom.  He and his brother, Col. Pinkney JAMES, now near thirty years deceased, and his brother Dr. B. JAMES, who died some three or four years ago, were well known to the early settlers of Cincinnati, as well as this vicinity, having been educated in the schools there, and later as they entered upon active business, to the merchants of thirty years ago.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885" SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp Maj. James JELLEY, Sr., of Rising Sun, was born July 1, 1768, was married in Fayette County, Penn., and in the year 1813 removed to the site of Rising Sun.  He was a tanner by trade, and for years was engaged in teh tanning business in his adopted village.  He was a member of the convention that framed the State Constitution in 1816.  In 1822 Maj. JELLEY was a representative from Dearborn County in the State Legislature. For many years he was brigade major in the State militia, comprising the counties of Jefferson, Switzerland and Dearborn.  He was the first probate judge of Ohio County, serving from 1844 to 1851.  His wife, Isabella, was one of the original members of the first Presbyterian Church organized in Rising Sun, with which denomination she had been identified sixty years.  Her death occurred November 12, 1855, aged sixty-seven years.  Maj. JELLEY died February 6, 1864, having been a Freemason for upward of half a century.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

Charles S. JELLEY, attorney at law, Aurora, son of Hugh JELLEY and grandson of Maj. Samuel JELLEY, late of Rising Sun, was born in the vicinity of Rising Sun, Ind., May 16, 1849. He attended the public schools of that village from which he was graduated in 1864, and two years later was graduated from Hopkins Grammar School at New Haven, Conn., after which he entered Asbury, now Depauw University, at Greencastle, Ind., where he pursued his studies two years, then went East and entered Yale College, from which institution he was graduated in 1871. He read law at Wilmington, Ohio, and was there admitted to the bar, May 16, 1872, in which place he began the practice of law, and continued until March 1, 1874. He then moved to Aurora, Dearborn County, Ind., where he has since resided and been engaged in active practice. On the 11th of November, 1875 he was married at Wilmington, Ohio, to Miss Lizzie HUGHES, a daughter of Judge HUGHES. Mr. JELLEY is a scholarly young man of fine intellect and promising in his profession. He has served as city attorney of Aurora for seven years.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

Rev. James JONES of Rising Sun, a philanthropist patriot, a Christian, and last bu not least, a devout and effective minister of the Gospel, was born in Herefordshire, England March 22, 1790, adn came with his parents to the United States in 1803, and settled in the city of Baltimore.  In 1807, the family moved to Milford, Ohio.  In 1810 under the preaching of Rev. Jesse Justice, he united with the Methodist Episcopal  Church at a camp meeting near Milford; in 1811 he was licensed to exhort and six years later (1817) licensed to preach.  He removed the same year to Rising Sun, Ind., where he found a small class of fourteen members which had been orgnized by Rev. John Strange.  In 1820 he was received into the Ohio Conference, and appointed to Whitewater Circuit. The next year he was sent to Madison Circuit.  The two succeeding years he traveld Oxfor Circuit.  His next appointment was on the Lawrenceburgh Circuit, and then was stationed at the Rising Sun charge.  For eight years following his ministry at Rising Sun, he was out of the work, and was occupied as a carpenter, that being his trade.  He went to New Orleans during the winters, worked at his trade and preached on the deck of flat-boats, on the wharves, levies and in churches.  During all this nime he never lost the itinerant fire, and, in October, 1834, he joined the Indiana Conference, adn was appointed to Vevay Circuit for two years. In 1836-37, he traveled Lawrenceburgh Circuit, with an increase of nearly 700 members; next work was Brookville Circuit, in 1838-39; and next was the Vevay Circuit again; next was Wilmington Circuit two years; in 1844 was appointed to Rising Sun district, and in 1845 was stationed at Jeffersonville; in 1846-47, to Patriot Circuit, and in 1848 to Elizabethtown Circuit, where in a protracted meeting he received his first paralytic stoke, from which he never fully recovered.  In 1849 he was sent to Vernon Circuit; and in 1850, he received his last station at North Madison, and closed his twenty second year of active labor in the church; from 1851 he sustained a superannuated relation to the conference till the day of his death which odccurred in Rising Sun, November 7, 1856.  Mr. JONES served in the war of 1812 under Harrison.  "He manifest by his conduct in life, that he meant to fulfill all of the characteristics of a good man, and he did accomplish them all to the letter.  He possessed all of the qualities of head and heart eminently calculated to fit him for usefulness in the age in which he lived, and the circumstances that surrounded him."

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

John H. JONES, of Rising Sun, is a son of Rev. James JONES, and is a native of Milford, Ohio, born August 20, 1814.  In 1817 his parents settled in the village of Rising Sun, the family being composed of the parents and two or three children, of whom our subject was the eldest.  The latter when very small, obtained employment in the little woolen factory of the village operated by John and Harvey Aikens.  He received but a limited education owing to the circumstances surrounding him.  In 1828 Mr. JONES began clerking for Mr. Shadrach Hathaway, a merchant of the village, who, after  a trial of four weeks, bargained with the father of our subject for the latter's services for one year, agreeing to pay for the same  $25, and one quarter's schooling in the seminary.  This was accepted and ended Mr. JONES school days.  For the succeeding seven years Mr. J. remained with Mr. Hathaway, and subsequently clerked for Moses Turner.  Next he bought some stock in the steamboat "Alpha, " built in the village, and was he clerk for a period. He subsequently clerked for different persons in Rising Sun, and in 1846, in connection with Capt. D.J.Rab, went into the grocery and general produce trade, which firm did an extensive business for about five years, when they sold to the Espeys.  On year later, Mr. JONES again engaged in the same vocation and continued until after the late war.  Since that time he has given up the more active and heavy pursuits, and been employed in agencies and a general real estate line.  Mr. JONES has been the kind husband of four wifes, the first being Miss Precepta C. BAILEY, of Cincinnati; the second was Miss Jane MURRAY; the third, Mrs. Sarah GUARD, and the present one was Ruth GULLITT. He is the father of seven children, only two of whom survive.  Mr. JONES has long been identified with the interests of Rising Sun and ever active in taking part  in all movements looking to the development of the place.  He has long been active in trying to get a railroad to the city, and is yet untiring and hopeful.  He has served the people in various offices to their satisfaction and to his own credit; has been one of the leading spirits in church work, having since youth identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church.  He is a respected and esteemed citizen.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp

Oscar JONES, dealer in staple and fancy groceries, Rising Sun, was born in the same square on which his store is located, in 1854.  He grew up in his native town and obtained a limited education in its public schools.  In his fourteenth year he began operations in flat-boating, trading in produce, and in this business he continued about nine years.  He then established himself in the grocery business, purchasing his first stock for Mr. Hewitt.  He has gradually increased his stock and trade, and now ranks among the most prosperous grocers of Rising Sun.  Mr. JONES was married, May 18, 1875, to Mary E. HAMILTON, of Ohio County, and daughter of John E. HAMILTON.  He is a member of the I.O.O.F and encampment, having been twice to the grand lodge, and with Mrs. JONES, is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

"HISTORY OF DEARBORN AND OHIO COUNTIES, INDIANA-1885"

SUBMITTED BY: Jackie DeCamp