JAYNES, Ezra E., b 1834: 1905 Bio, Mesa County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/mesa/bios/jaynesee.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 30, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- Ezra E. Jaynes For years actively engaged in general business and mercantile life, giving valuable service to the cause of education in several sections of the country as a school teacher, and during the Civil war being at the front through a considerable portion of the momentous contest and receiving a number of wounds, Ezra E. Jaynes has performed with fidelity and zeal most of the duties of citizenship which ordinarily fall to the lot of an energetic and patriotic man, and has well earned the rest which he has enjoyed for the last twelve years of his life. He was born in St. Albans township, Franklin county, Vermont, on June 25, 1834, and is the son of Chester and Eliza (Dee) Jaynes, of the same nativity as himself. The Jaynes family are of English origin and the Dees of French, but domesticated for a long time in Wales. Both lines came to this country in early colonial times, and have been conspicuous in the service of the land of their adoption in all phases of its history in peace and war. The immediate parents of Mr. Jaynes passed their lives and ended their days on the Vermont homestead. The father was a captain of the war of 1838, and the maternal grandfather was General Washington Dee, of the continental army in the Revolution. The family comprised nine children, four of whom are living, Ezra E. being the third child born and now the only living son. He grew to the age of seventeen in his native state, and being graduated at the academy at Georgia there at that age at once moved to Delaware county, Ohio, where he taught school two years. He was then clerk for Williams, Andrews & Company, of that county, part of the time working in a bank and part in the paper mills belonging to the company. Early in 1854 he moved to Chicago, and after clerking six months in the general store of A.L. Kenzie there, took up his residence in St. Croix county, Wisconsin, where he again taught school two terms as assistant in the high school at Hudson. He then clerked nearly two years in a general store at Hudson, after which he opened a store of his own at New Richmond, Wisconsin, where he also became postmaster and remained until the beginning of the Civil war. At that time he sold out and on April 19, 1861, enlisted in the Union army as a member of Company F, First Wisconsin Infantry. Prior to this he had belonged to the Home Guards. The company took a vote on joining the Federal army on April 18th, and the next day went to Madison and were mustered into the service in a body. Mr. Jaynes served to the close of the war, at the end of three months re-enlisting in Company F, Eighth Vermont Regiment. They were assigned to General Butler's brigade and sent to Ship island, off the coast of Mississippi. The command was embarked at New York city on January 17, 1862, with three thousand five hundred men on board, one thousand of them cavalry. They were on the water thirty-one days, which Mr. Jaynes says was the longest period of that length he ever experienced. During the trip six deaths occurred on the steamer, the bodies being thrown overboard. The passage was rough and stormy all the way through. Later the regiment was transferred to New Orleans and took part in the bombardment of the forts there. After that Mr. Jaynes was on detached duty for some time, and brigade postmaster with an office in the New Orleans custom house. He was then assigned to recruiting service and recruited some eight hundred men for the service. After that he returned to his regiment and did service in the field. During this period he was on the Opelousas Railroad and aided in fighting for every foot of the advance from Algiers to Alexandra. He marched with his command to Alexandra although he had been slightly wounded just before reaching the salt works, having a portion of his right knee cap shot away. During this march they drove General Dick Taylor's army before them. They went down the river to Baton Rouge and marched up the country to Port Hudson, having considerable fighting on the way. Port Hudson was invested on May 27, 1863, and the fighting continued about a month. On June 14th, Mr. Jaynes was short through the right shoulder, the ball coming out at the side. This occurred early on Sunday morning, and he was left in the field as dead until Sunday night, when he received assistance, having in the meantime nearly bled to death. He was then taken fourteen miles over a corduroy road and sent on a boat to New Orleans, reaching a hospital there on June 24th, ten days after being wounded without having his wound dressed. This was in a frightful condition, very sore and full of maggots, and it was wholly due to his remarkable vitality that he lived and had a wonderful recovery. He left the hospital on November 24th on a furlough to Vermont, and without money or sufficient clothing. At the end of ninety days thereafter, although his wounds were not entirely healed, he took a boat at New York and rejoined his regiment at New Orleans. About four weeks later in a skirmish of the Opelousas Railroad he was shot through the right thigh, receiving a flesh wounded. [sic] Soon afterward he was detailed as hospital steward and a little while later was transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps. In May, 1864, he went with his regiment to New York and from there was sent to Virginia, where he had his last engagement in front of Petersburg. Here he was again shot through the right thigh about two inches above his former wound in that limb. He was then again transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps, from which he was mustered out of the service at Brattleboro, Vermont, on March 24, 1865. After making a short visit to his old Vermont home he moved to Will county, Illinois, where he rented two hundred and forty acres of land and engaged in farming. Four years later he bought one hundred and sixty acres of unbroken prairie in that county, and proceeded to improve it, making a fine farm out of it and enriching it with good buildings. In 1891 he rented this to a tenant, and having twelve thousand dollars in cash, came to Colorado and purchased ten acres of land on Fruit Ridge in Mesa county. This was fenced and had one acre of orchard trees. He planted more and made other improvements until the place is now one of the finest and most productive in the valley. It belongs to his son, who bought it some years ago at one thousand dollars per acre. He also sold his Illinois farm in 1896. Since 1902 Mr. Jaynes the elder has lived retired at Grand Junction, making judicious investments of his savings in real estate in the valley, where he owns more than one thousand acres of excellent land. He was married on March 12, 1870, to Miss Mary A. Klingler, a native of Pennsylvania, daughter of Elias and Sarah (Moyer) Klingler, also natives of that state, who settled in Will county, Illinois, in 1867. The Klinglers are of German descent but have been in the United States several generations. Mr. Jaynes' father died in Will county, Illinois, in 1902, at the age of eighty-two, leaving an estate worth over fifty thousand dollars. The mother is still living there and is now past eighty. Mr. and Mrs. Jaynes have five children, Lester E., Oscar W., Chester E., Edith E. (wife of W.H. Borschell), and Alfred T. Oscar W. is principal of the schools at Monee, Illinois. The other children are all residents of Mesa county, this state. Mr. Jaynes is an ardent Republican in politics, and an active and esteemed member of the Grand Army of the Republic. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. 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