Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Ferriss, James H 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 29, 2008, 1:10 am

Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

JAMES H. FERRISS. Alert, enterprising and discriminating in business, James H. 
Ferriss, president of the News Company of Joliet, has made this a successful 
enterprise when viewed from the standpoints of journalism and of finance. A 
native son of Illinois, he was born in Kendall township, Kendall county, 
November 18, 1849. His parents were William H. and Eliza (Brown) Ferriss, the 
former a native of Clinton county, New York, and the latter of Erie county, 
Pennsylvania. His paternal ancestors were Welsh Quakers and Zebulon Ferriss, 
the founder of the family in America, established his home at Providence, 
Rhode Island, about 1630. The boyhood and youth of James H. Ferriss passed 
uneventfully in the village of Bristol Station in Kendall county, where he 
early became familiar with the business of a cattle grower, and the years 
between 1869 and 1872 were passed upon a Kansas farm. His first connection 
with journalism came through reportorial work on the staff of the Joliet Daily 
Sun, then published by Hayward & Radcliff, and in 1876, in connection with 
Frank H. Hall, he leased the Yorkville (Illinois) News, which they published 
during the campaign of that year in support of the candidacy of Peter Cooper 
for the presidency. In January, 1877, associated with Mr. Hall and others, Mr. 
Ferriss began the publication of the Phoenix, an independent weekly paper at 
Joliet, and in October of the same year, connected with E. W. Nelson, now of 
New York, and H. E. Baldwin, one of his present partners, Mr. Ferriss 
purchased the Morning News, the name of which was afterward changed to the 
Joliet Daily News. With the exception of the years 1881-2, when editing the 
Morning News in Portland, Maine, Mr. Ferriss has been continuously connected 
with the News of Joliet through thirty years and is today president of the 
News Company. On the 30th of June, 1880, James H. Ferriss was married at Falls 
Village, Connecticut, to Miss Olive E. Hunt, a former resident of Bristol 
Station, Illinois. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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