MSS 142 Janney Family Papers

              K I S T O R Y
Biographical Sketch
John Jay Janney ( April 25, 1812- December 11, 1907) was born near
Goose Creek Meeting House, Loudon County, Virginia-- now Lincoln,
Virginia. The son of Quaker parents, he grew up in t h a t f a i t h .
A s a boy he attended a F r i e n d ' s school a t the Goose Creek Meeting
House from h i s s i x t h u n t i l h i s nineteenth year, and worked several
summers on the farm. A t the age of twenty, he enrolled a t the day
school a t Alexandria. For s i x months he devoted himself t o
" Euclid's Elements," and " algebraic equations of the t h i r d degree,"
a f t e r which he gave up h i s formal s t u d i e s .
" Dissatisfied with s l a v e r y and its i n f l u e n c e , " Janney l e f t h i s
native Virginia while s t i l l only twenty years old. S e t t l i n g in
Springboro, Warren County, Ohio, he spent f i f t e e n years ( 1833-
1848) there teaching, surveying land, and for a short period
merchandising. I n a d d i t i o n , he served f o r twelve years as town-ship
c l e r k .
Appointed a s s i s t a n t clerk i n the Ohio House of Representatives in
1844, Janney m e t and made friends with many of the s t a t e ' s leading
men 6uring h i s four year tenure. In 1847 Samuel Galloway, Secretary
of S t a t e and Commissioner of Common Schools, appointed Janney to be
his chief clerk and the following year Janney moved h i s family to
Columbus. Under Galloway, Janney wrote an opinion granting Negroes
admission to the public schools. A t the end of Galloway's term in
1851, his successor, Henry W. King, asked Janney to stay on. Janney,
however, had been elected, without h i s knowledge, Secretary o f the
Board of Control of the S t a t e Bank of Ohio-- a position he accepted
and held from 1851- 1865. Thereafter, he served for one year as the
a s s i s t a n t postmaster in Columbus; afterwards he became the f i r s t
secretary and t r e a s u r e r of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad
Company-- a position he held u n t i l 1881.
A Quaker with strong anti- slavery sentiments, Janney was f i r s t a
Whig and then a Republican. He was f o r a number of y e a r s s e c r e t a r y ,
t r e a s u r e r and chairman of the Whig and Republican c i t y and county
committees. In the campaign of 1863 and 1864 he was on the repub-l
i c a n s t a t e committee. During t h e C i v i l War he was also secretary
and t r e a s u r e r of the State Union Executive Committee.
Janney also held a number of a d d i t i o n a l p o s t s during a half century
of public service in Ohio. In Columbus, he was on the Board of
Education ( 1852- 1855), City Council ( 1868- 71 or 7 2 ) , and Board of
Health ( 1887), f o r example. He served the s t a t e as a d i r e c t o r of
the Ohio P e n i t e n t i a r y , a s a member of the Board of Police Commission-e
r s , and as a member of the S t a t e Board of Health, a l l during the
decade of the 1860s. Janney also found t i m e t o teach a Sunday
School c l a s s a t the Ohio Penitentiary ( 1850- 1865), and t o a c t a s t h e
t r e a s u r e r of the Prisoners Aid Society-- forerunner of the Board of
S t a t e C h a r i t i e s . This energetic Quaker took stands against not only
slavery, but l i q u o r , tobacco, and war; while f r e e public schools,
suffrage and l i b r a r i e s a11 had h i s support. Married on September
29, 1835, t o Rebecca Anne Smith, M r s . Janney, l i k e her husband, was
active in s o c i a l reform movements. They were t h e p a r e n t s of four
children, Anne ( M r s . C. Gaylord ~ e m i n g ) , S i b b i l l a ( Mrs. William L.
James), Frances ( M r s . Samuel C. ~ erby), and a son, Thomas J. Janney.
OBI0 BiSTORiCAL SOCiETY
1' 382 VelmE Avenue. Columbus. Ohio 43211- 2447 ~ h 6: I4 . Lg7.23oo jx: 6 11,247.241~
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