Volusia County FlArchives Biographies.....Jolley, John Martin 1830 - 1908 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 3, 2008, 6:21 pm Author: B. F. Johnson John Martin Jolley When our hardy ancestors of the Old World created for themselves new homes and fortunes across the western sea, they also established new governmental conditions and material environments which gave their descendants a favorable field in which to do great things. The descendents of those early settlers are men who form the foundation of our nation, men whose will and energy, whose intelligence and bravery have wrested from the wilderness the greatest country in all the world, and who have fought and died to preserve not only this country's financial and commercial prominence, but her ethical and moral supremacy as well. Our present day and time may not demand so much personal hardihood but as one traces a clear line of fresh water throughout a sea of turbulent salt, so can we find among us now men of force and power, of high standing and far-reaching influence, who dwell with loving and loyal pride on an ancestry which they trace directly to the early pioneer settlers of America. Of all these settlers, there were none who did more for the material improvement of the communities into which they entered than did those who came from Germany and Holland, and it is to this element that John Martin Jolley, of Dayton, Fla., owed his own birthright. On both his paternal and maternal side, Mr. Jolley's forbears were Hollanders, his great-grandfather having emigrated from that country and settled in the United States, choosing New Jersey as his home. The grandparents of Mr. Jolley, however, moved to Washington, Pa., while his parents sought a home for themselves in what was then the Ohio wilderness. His father, Absalom Jolley and his mother, who was Phoebe Post, made the journey from Washington, Pa., in 1819 and settled near the town of Mansfield. This journey was made through an almost impassable wilderness, and the spot chosen by Absalom Jolley was a heavily timbered piece of land some five miles from Mansfield, which was at that time merely a settlement, consisting of a block house and a few cabins. It is now one of the most prosperous towns in north central Ohio, having a population of some 25,000. On the farm hewed out of the wilderness, Jno. Martin Jolley was born, April 24, 1830. It is somewhat difficult for the modern man to quite understand what it meant for those early settlers in Ohio; almost a repetition of the hardships and trials of the very first American settlers, but as has been said, it was from families such as these that our true American spirit has sprung, and it was in homes built in the wilderness though guarded by parental love and care that our noblest citizens were born. Many men, like Martin Jolley, recall with glowing pleasure the memories of their early days on the primitive, but prosperous farm. Himself the youngest of nine children, Mr. Jolley was early versed in all the simple pleasures and homely duties of farm life; he attended the district school two miles from his home, and despite its rough walls of log, its puncheon floor and desks of slab with rude seats of the same material and lacking backs of any sort, it was in such an institution that Mr. Jolley received the impetus toward a life of persistent endeavor which resulted in rare success and which must be ever a source of glowing pride to his descendants. It so happened that the teachers in these country schools were students from Oberlin College, who sought to increase their meager incomes by teaching. One of these, Matthias Day, Jr., who was later in life the founder of Daytona, Fla., was destined to wield a potent influence on the boy, John Jolley. Mr. Day was himself young, enthusiastic and energetic and the country boy early learned to rely on the judgment and intelligence of his preceptor. Like a wise teacher, Mr. Day learned the special trend of his pupils' minds, and when he found that in young Jolley he had an eager, receptive and unusually active intellect, with a deep leaning toward the art of music, the teacher sowed well in the fertile field. Mr. Jolley declared that the great love of music which had been a solace and a joy to him all his life was first implanted in him by Matthias Day. Mr. Day was a Junior at Oberlin College, and his successor in the Mansfield District School was Charles Conklin, another Oberlin student, but this time a Senior, and one who inspired in the mind of John Jolley a wish to enter college himself. In his sixteenth year, therefore, the pupil returned with the teacher meaning to work his way through the same institution which had furnished him with two such beloved preceptors. Unfortunately his failing health, and possibly the deprivations incident to his financial condition, prevented Mr. Jolley from completing his college course. Nothing daunted, however, by this fact, at the age of eighteen he began his business career which lasted almost without interval for fifty years. Before leaving college, Mr. Jolley had himself taught several terms in district schools, but his first clerical position of importance was that of Deputy Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas, which position he held for two years. After filling this position for some two years, he took a business course in Gundry's Commercial College at Cincinnati. In 1852 he moved to Mansfield, near his boyhood's home, and assumed entire charge of the Auditor's Office of his native county of Richland. From this time on for many years the history of Mr. Jolly's business life was a series of brilliant successes. In 1855 be became bookkeeper for the prosperous firm of E. Sturgess, Senior and Company, where a private banking business with a capital of some $50,000 was conducted. Remaining as bookkeeper and later as paying teller with this firm until 1865, he was elected, by unanimous vote, to the responsible position of cashier of the Richland National Bank, which was established under the national banking act with a capital of $100,-000. Under wise and careful management, the business of this bank grew rapidly, and when the bank of E. Sturgess, Senior and Company was merged with it, its capital was increased to $150,000 and a large surplus was accumulated, while the yearly business of the bank amounted to many millions. Early in the seventies, when the country was recovering from the financial stress engendered by the war between the States, Mansfield, Ohio, received one of those sudden impetuses toward prosperity which has since been termed a "boom." Naturally, Mr. Jolley, who had so long watched the really solid and substantial growth of his native town, felt hopeful of the very highest possible future for the city; he was attracted by unfortunate real estate investments which might indeed have proven all he hoped for had not the country been visited by one of the most disastrous panics in its history—the the panic of 1873. The financial depression incident to this panic was felt most keenly in the general depression of real estate values, and the investments of Mr. Jolley together with those of myriads of other careful buyers throughout the country, proved utterly valueless, and his entire fortune accumulated by many years of conscientious service was completely swept away. To many men this would have been a source of boundless depression, but to Mr. Jolley, it simply revived the hardy pluck and perseverance which had descended to him from his pioneer ancestors. Nothing daunted, he began at the age of forty-four to again lay the cornerstone of renewed financial success. In April, 1874, just three months after the full force of the panic had been felt, Mr. Jolley became bookkeeper and cashier for the firm of H. M. Weaver and Company of Mansfield. This firm did an annual busines of some $100,000 or $150,000, and there was a most excellent opportunity for a worthy man to regain his foothold in the business world. Recognizing at once the superior qualities in his assistant, Mr. Weaver became not only an employer, but a firm friend of Mr. Jolley, and during the fifteen years of their business connection, this friendship never wavered. On the part of Mr. Jolley there was also an element of strong personal gratitude to Mr. Weaver for his timely aid, and this sentiment the passing years in no wise dimmed. In 1889 failing health again interrupted Mr. Jolley's career as it had done when he was a lad at college. This time, however, he felt that he needed a warmer climate, and he resigned his position in Mansfield to seek the health giving atmosphere of Daytona, Fla. For many years Mr. Jolley had written for the papers of his native city; poems, songs and essays on many topics had flowed from his unusually facile pen so it was but natural that in seeking a new home, he also sought a new field of endeavor. He found this in the Halifax Journal, which paper he purchased and of which he became editor, holding this position with the most distinguished success until his death. Politically Mr. Jolley was a Democrat until the division of that party upon the Kansas-Nebraska question in 1856. At that time he joined what was known as the free-soil element, and assisted in forming the Republican party, supporting the candidacy of John C. Fremont. From that time he was an active member of this political party, furthering its interests and promulgating its doctrines in every possible way. He naturally found great need for a Republican paper in Florida, and he devoted his own publication to a stronger support of the Republican party than the State had ever before known. The services to the party and the loyalty to the principles it enunicated which animated the work of Mr. Jolley could not pass unnoticed and in June, 1891, he was appointed postmaster of Daytona by President Harrison, which office he held until 1896. In November, 1898, he was again appointed to this office by President McKinley, and he continued to serve the people in his city as postmaster, having completed before his death his fifteenth year, and been reappointed for his fifth term. The mere record of Mr. Jolley's business career speaks for itself as to the high character of the work he did; thirty-five years in the service of but two different business enterprises with a most successful record in each place means that the work done was of a character above criticism. But active as his business life was Mr. Jolley performed many other duties which naturally fell to the lot of a citizen of his standing and influence. In 1865 he was elected to the office of County Treasurer of his native county on the Republican ticket although there was a Democratic majority of over 1100 in this same county. Mr. Jolley's personal record was of the kind that over-balanced party prejudices. But the sterner calls of an active business life did not absorb the full time and attention of this man; his abiding-love of music and his real talent for all things connected with the art kept alive his interest in musical matters. He wrote both melody and words for many songs, duets, quartettes, etc., and wishing to increase the interest in musical matters in his own city, he founded the Philharmonic Society of Mansfield, and was for years its able president. He was also president of the first May State musical festival, and during his residence in Ohio and in Florida, was chorister of his church. The family life of Mr. Jolley was almost as full of interest as his business career. Early in his youth he married Miss Mary J. Beach, a neighbor and schoolmate, who, however, lived but a short while. In 1873 Mr. Jolley again married; this time to Miss Fannie Nye, a daughter of Dr. H. S. Nye of Zanesville, Ohio. Again, death robbed him of his beloved helpmate for only five brief years of married life was granted to him. Of this union, however, two children were born; one, a son, died early in childhood, the other a daughter, Miss Mary Irene Jolley, who was her father's constant and beloved companion. Being essentially a man to whom home ties appealed, and who relied on the beautiful influences of home life, Mr. Jolley married again, in September, 1882, and his wife, who was Miss Eleanora B. Coulter is still living. She was the daughter of Dr. J. P. Coulter, a distinguished soldier in the Civil War, and Colonel of the famous Union Brigade which was formed solely of the soldiers left from various commands whose ranks had been too depleted to admit of any one remaining a command in itself. While the record of Mr. Jolley's life may be said to have been in some measure typical of the life of our most useful citizens, yet there are few men who could boast so much of actual accomplishment, so varied an area of work, and at the same time so many difficulties overcome and so many trials bravely faced with results so undeniably brilliant as those which were shown in the life of John Martin Jolley of Daytona. He died at his home in Daytona in December, 1908, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/volusia/photos/bios/jolley36gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/volusia/bios/jolley36gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 14.0 Kb