HON. JOHN A. MALLORY, Judge of County Court of Mason, Havana; was born in the city of Lexington, Ky., Nov. 17, 1830; but, when 5 years of age, his parents removed to Illinois and located in Jacksonville; his father, Ambrose Mallory, who was a native of Virginia, was among the early settlers of Jacksonville, and it was in this city that the subject of this sketch received his education. At the age of 17, he engaged in the printing business, first with the Pike County Free Press, of Griggsville, Ill., and in 1848, with the Morgan Journal, Jacksonville, which paper he edited for six months. He was afterward connected with the Eagle and Enquirer, of Memphis, Tenn., tor one year. A man of fine literary tastes, a poet and an editor, he has given to the world of letters many bright gems of more exalted merit than he himself cares to admit. He was the successful competitor for a silver cup, valued at $50, offered in the city of Memphis, for the best poem on the New Year, in 1860. As a New Year's poem, it is pronounced almost unequaled. He came to Havana in 1858; afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1868. On the breaking out of the late war, though a Southern man by birth, he deemed it his duty to unite with the Union army; and, accordingly, he enlisted in Co. B, 85th I. V. I., as Second Lieutenant, in which regiment he served until February, 1863, when he resigned. In 1865, he was elected Police Justice to fill a vacancy, and, afterward, elected for a full term. He was elected County Judge in 1869, and re-elected in 1873, by the largest majority any officer ever received in Mason Co. He was again re-elected in 1877, and still holds the office. His official record is without blot or blemish, and his decisions are made according to the law and testimony.



Maintained by Mason County Coordinator Donna Mayer