John Hough James

John Hough James (1800-1881) was an American lawyer, banker, railroad builder, scientific farmer and stockbreeder, legislator, politician, editor, lecturer and writer. James was a pioneer in the development of western banking and transportation.

James was born in Waterford, Virginia to Levi James and Rachel Hough. Levi was the son of Joseph James, born on board a ship traveling from Wales to America. During his life, Levi was a shopkeeper, a merchant of river commerce, a bank director and a prominent citizen in the developing city of Cincinnati. Rachel Hough was the daughter of John Hough and Lydia Hollingsworth and was descended from the large and prominent family of Samuel Hough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. John Hough James spent his early childhood in Northern Virginia. When he was thirteen, his family moved to the rugged frontier of southern Ohio, landing at Cincinnati November 4, 1813.

In Cincinnati, Levi James became a trustee of Lancaster Seminary school which John Hough and his brother David Allen James attended. Levi and other parents of children needing further education helped form Cincinnati College. John was in the first graduating class, eventually earning a Master’s degree from the school. He married Abigail Bailey, the daughter of Revolutionary War printer Frances Bailey, in 1825 and the couple moved to Urbana, Ohio. They had four children including a son, John Henry James who served as a Union soldier in the Civil War.

James grew to adulthood in the era of railroad expansion and the development of the telegraph. He embraced the sweeping changes that were taking place during his lifetime and he used the accelerating rate of communication and the expanding reach of transportation to strengthen connections between himself and his environment. The primary conduit between James and the world was the process of reading, writing and dialogue. James was already an active letter writer by the time he was a teenager. In school, he was an energetic debater and an admired actor. As a young adult, James circle of correspondents came to include men and women among family, friends and acquaintances. He was central to the formation of a literary group, the “Phoenix Club,” which included his future wife, Abigail. He read, wrote and taught language classes at Cincinnati College.

The significance of James' interaction with his classmates, correspondents, club members, family and friends is that he deeply engaged the literature of his age in the development of his relationships, professional life and personal lifestyle. As a reader he absorbed the accumulated knowledge of renowned thinkers. As a discussant he analyzed the information he read, and as an author he expressed his own conclusions and observations, thus contributing to the ongoing literary conversation. Noted historians and educators, David Thelen and Roy Rosenzweig have said their subjects “built narratives that enabled them to shape the courses of their own and others' lives.”

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