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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