Jessamine-Green-Mercer County KyArchives Biographies.....Willis, John A. 1820 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 6, 2007, 10:24 pm

Author: Bennett H. Young

John A. Willis.

   John A. Willis, son of Capt W. T. Willis, while not a native of Jessamine,
has resided within its borders for fifty-five years. He was born in Green county
on the 5th day of August, 1820; attended a seminary at Greensburg, and
afterwards at Munfordsville, and in 1839 attended St. Mary's College, near
Lebanon. He joined the Presbyterian church in Greensburg in 1840, came with his
father to Mercer county and studied law and obtained his license in 1843, and
moved with his father to Nicholasville in 1844. He enlisted in his father's
company, and was appointed a corporal. He followed the Second Kentucky Regiment
in all its battles and inarches, and was mustered out at New Orleans in 1847.
While the regiment was stationed at Comargo, Mr. Willis was stricken with fever,
and all thought that it was impossible for him to live. After the death of McKee
and Clay and Captain Willis, the regiment were anxious to be mustered out of the
service, and, at the expiration of twelve months, the time for which they were
enlisted, they were brought to New Orleans and disbanded.

   Mr. Willis, after taking a full course in the Commercial College, in
Cincinnati, returned to Nicholasville and taught in Keene. After two years'
service in the county schools, he became assistant in Bethel Academy, in
Nicholasville. After this time he was appointed Master Commissioner of the
Jessamine Circuit Court by Judge William C. Goodloe, upon the unanimous petition
of the entire bar, embracing both Whigs and Democrats. The place was given to
Mr. Willis without any solicitation on his part, and he retained it for sixteen
years. After the close of the civil war he was elected twice as County Clerk,
both times without opposition. A one-armed Confederate soldier was nominated
against him in the last race, but withdrew.

   Upon retiring from the Clerk's office in 1871 with such citizens as Mr.
George Brown, Dr. Brown Young, G. S. Shanklin, Samuel Muir, Charles Farra,
Hervey Scott, and William H. Hoover, he organized the First National Bank of
Nicholasville, and acted as its cashier from 1871 until 1881, when he was
elected president, and held this position: until 1896. He was elected elder in
the Nicholasville Presbyterian church at the same time with Robert Young, in the
year 1859. In 1860 he was elected clerk of the session, shortly before the death
of Maj. D. B. Price, and has been such clerk for thirty-two years.

   Patriotic, honest, faithful, just, conservative and kindly, Mr. Willis has
been a leading citizen of Jessamine county since his return from service in the
Mexican War, to which he gave his father and one year of hard and trying service.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY,
FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898.
By BENNETT H. YOUNG,
PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL
CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF
BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC.

S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR.

Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot  be
measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care.

LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898.


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