Ivory Quinby
| Ivory Quinby | |
|---|---|
= Ivory Quinby
|
|
| Born |
July 14, 1817 Buxton, Maine, United States |
| Died | October 23, 1869 Monmouth, Illinois, United States |
| Cause of death | Tuberculosis |
| Alma mater | Colby College |
| Occupation | Judge, lawyer, Mayor of Monmouth, mercantile owner, owner of the Peoria and Oquawka Railroad Company, banker, city planner |
| Known for | Benefactor and founding father of Monmouth College, helping make Monmouth a transportation center |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Allen, Mary Pearce |
| Children | 8 |
Ivory Quinby (14 July 1817 – 23 October 1869) was an American businessman who was notably one of the earliest benefactors of Monmouth College, and also helped establish Monmouth, Illinois as a transportation center.
Ivory Quinby I was born on July 14, 1817, in Buxton, Maine. He was named after his mother’s former husband, Ivory Fenderson, who had died four years earlier. His parents were Asa and Mehitable (née Milliken) Quinby. He had a brother and sister, named Rodney and Elizabeth. He came from a very old New England family, who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1638. At fifteen, he was enrolled at Waterville College. After graduating on August 3, 1836 with honors, Quinby moved to Parsonsfield, Maine, to live with his uncle Hosea Quinby, where he was employed by Parsonsfield Seminary, a Free Will Baptist academy, as an assistant teacher. Quinby left to study law in Saco under Judge Shepley. By the time he was twenty, he had decided to travel to Illinois, with all of his money, with was about $125.00. He arrived in Quincy, Illinois, in 1837, and met two men named John Mitchell and O.H. Browning, who advised that he move to Monmouth, Illinois, for the purpose of buying up land patents. The U.S. Government at the time granted land patents to veterans of the War of 1812, who rarely kept them. Instead, they sold the property to people like Quinby and a colleague of his, Elijah Winslow, who then resold the land to settlers. Quinby and Mitchell walked fifteen miles from Oquawka, Illinois to Monmouth, and established a law firm. With his remaining savings, Quinby bought 8,000 acres in Warren County.
In 1839, Mehitable, Rodney and Elizabeth Quinby moved to Monmouth, where Rodney studied law under both his brother and Abner Clark Harding, who was a partner in the firm Harding & Quinby. In 1849, Quinby was elected to a probate court as a Judge, where he served a single term from 1849 - 1853. During this time, Quinby was elected to the Board of Trustees of Monmouth, which governed the town before the more common single mayoral system was instated. On May 14, 1851, an election was held at the Monmouth courthouse. Charles Armsby, Hiram Baldwin, Chancy Hardin, James Thompson and Ivory Quinby were all elected to the Board. On March 28 of that year, Quinby was elected President of the Board. Board of Trustees meetings were held in the offices of Harding & Quinby at the time. While serving as President, Quinby and the Board strengthened ordinances against drinking and disorderly conduct. When his term came to a close, Quinby was paid $5.00 for his time as President. In 1857, Quinby was elected Mayor for a second time, running on the Democratic ticket. He won over his opponents, G.W. Savage and Samuel Wood, by 120 votes. As Mayor, Quinby worked with Chancy Hardin, who had become an alderman, serving with James Neil, Theodore Cornell and Horatio Henry. On June 2, 1863, Quinby was elected to the Board of Health, again with Hardin and a health officer, Dr. J.R. Webster. Quinby also was one of the founders of the Monmouth Public Library, which he began in 1867 as a reading room, which could be utilized without charge. This eventually became the permanent library. Since he owned acres of land around Monmouth, Quinby donated a section to the city, for the purpose of expansion, which he gifted in 1865. In 1867, after being elected Mayor again, Quinby oversaw the placement of sidewalks in Monmouth. One parcel was set aside, and turned into a park, which takes up an entire block. It has remained a park, into the present day.
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