My Genealogy Hound

Capt. J. G. Stern’s first trip south was an unwelcome one, but he remained for some time, boarding at Libby Prison and Belle-Isle. After his exchange he was again taken prisoner at the siege of Petersburg. Preferring death to that of prison life, he took the desperate chances and left his captors on the field of battle; this being done in daylight on the run. He was given a parting salute by a volley of musketry. The patriotic enthusiasm with which it was given was shown by a bullet hole through his equipage and one through his coat. Although given such a hearty farewell he stopped not until he reached his regiment, the Eighty-fourth Pennsylvania Infantry. He participated in a number of battles, among the principal ones were Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness, Appomattox Court House, through the siege of Petersburg, and was present at the surrender of Gen. Lee. He was born April 17, 1844, in the State of Pennsylvania. At the close of the war he followed his parents to the State of Illinois, where he completed his education, which was very limited up to that time. During the latter years of his residence in that State he was employed in teaching school. In 1872 he went south a second time and located in Arkansas, Phillips County, at the mouth of St. Francis River, where he worked as a laborer in a saw-mill. He soon engaged in business on his own account, getting out logs and staves. A few years later he accepted a position as agent for the Helena Lumber Company, and purchased a half interest in a boat running on the St. Francis and Mississippi Rivers, of which he was captain and pilot. Selling out his interest in the boat about seven years ago, he came to Madison, where he is now engaged in the timber and shingle business. He leased a shingle-mill about five years ago with a capacity of from 8,000,000 to 10,000,000 shingles per year. He owns a number of thousand of acres of timber land, located near his mill and to which he is connected by a tramway, operated by steam-power and leading into the woods for several miles. His parents are both living in the State of Illinois, his father at the age of seventy-one, and his mother one year younger. They were the parents of nine children, six of whom are living.