James  J.  Travis


          CAPT.  JAMES  W.  TRAVIS,  farmer, was born in Decatur County, Ind., January 22, 1841.  He came with his parents to Cumberland County, Ill., where he was reared on a farm.  In 1861, he enlisted in Company H, Thirty-Eighth Illinois Infantry, and served in the war four years and eight months.  At the battle of Liberty Gap, Tenn., after many ineffectual attempts had been made, and several lives lost, in trying to supply an engaged regiment with ammunition, he with one comrade successfully carried it through an open field, under a galling fire directed at them, and distributed it among the soldiers; thus saving the day.  He was a member of the "Legion of Honor," and elected by his company to the successive ranks of Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain.  As an officer, soldier and companion, he was brave, intrepid, social, and was highly esteemed by both officers and men, and still enjoys the confidence and respects of his few surviving comrades, who are now his neighbors associates.  After the war he engaged in farming, which business he is still following.  He has a fine farm of 120 acres of prairie land, and a large, fine residence.  His possessions are entirely the result of his own industry and good management.  On April 26, 1866, he married  Miss Frances A. Rue, of Jasper County.   They have five children, viz.:  Albert A.,  William C.,  James C.,  Bertha M.  and an infant.
History of Cumberland, Jasper and Richland Counties, Illinois, 1884, pg 296, "Cumberland County".
Copied by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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