John Jackson Quinn was born 2 Mar 1815 to Joseph Arthur Quinn (1779 – 1861) and Mary W. Thornberry Quinn (1793 – 1848).
On October 27, 1838, J. J. Quinn married Miss Julia Ann Rayburn (1815 – 1893). They had 9 children.
J. J. Quinn died 4 Sep 1913 (aged 98) and was buried in Corydon Cemetery.
Obituary:
The weakening thread which held J. J. Quinn to this life, snapped at 1:25 o’clock Thursday afternoon, bringing to an end a life that had stretched over almost a century.
Mr. Quinn was a pioneer in all that the term implies, and was the oldest man in Corydon and Henderson county as well, and one of the oldest in the State. He expected to live to a hundred, but a fall in 1911 left him weakened and probably defeated his ambition.
Surviving children are Mrs. David McKibben and Benjamin Quinn, of Rison, Arkansas; George Quinn, of near Corydon, and “Buck” Quinn, of Little Rock, Arkansas. Mr. Quinn survived his wife, who was Miss Ann Rayburn, about twenty years.
He leaves children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren — 124 descendants in all, scattered to the four corners of the globe. Born in a little log cabin in the year 1815, “little Jackie” roamed the woods and fields of Bullitt county, Kentucky, until he was thirteen years of age. His father was named Arthur Quinn, a man of Irish blood, and his mother, Mary Thornsberry Quinn, was of Scotch descent. He was one of twelve children and was the older of two living, having a brother, Joseph Quinn, living at Dawson Springs. When he was thirteen years of age he helped his father build a log raft on the banks of Salt river, in Eastern Kentucky. In 1828 he, in company with his father, floated down the river to the Ohio, thence to the city of Henderson, which at that time was called “Red Banks.” They remained in camp for a while in what is now the heart of the business section of the city of Henderson, and finally settled between Corydon and Cairo, where Arthur Quinn, “Uncle Jackie’s” father, lived for more than twenty-five years. On October 27, 1838, Mr. Quinn married Miss Julia Ann Rayburn, of Simpson county, and to this union nine children were born, four of whom are living, with a following generation of one hundred and twenty-four grandchildren, etc., still in existence. Probably no man in the State ever lived to see so many grandchildren, and he was the only one that could name and give the ages of each correctly.
In 1854 he went to Arkansas on horseback and made the trip in thirty days. He remained there for several months and came back to Kentucky. In the summer of 1910 he made a visit to Arkansas, remaining several weeks. He made the remark at that time: “This is the first trip I have made to Arkansas in fitfy-six years.”
After he returned from Arkansas in 1854 he located at Poole, Webster county, and engaged in the flour, grist and saw mill business. In 1860 his hand was badly mashed and he never had good use of it afterward. In the same year his mill burned and he retired from the milling business and engaged in farming. He moved to a farm two miles from Corydon, where he lived until a few years ago, when he moved to Corydon and made his home with his granddaughter, Mrs. M. J. Turner.
On account of his hand being crushed a year before the civil war, Mr. Quinn was exempt from service, but he could tell many stories of the happenings during that period, Mr. Quinn was as alert and as active as any man sixty years of age, and attended to many little errands around his home, such as chopping wood, bringing in coal, etc. He shaved himself almost every day, and delighted in taking walks around Corydon.
Mr. Quinn had been a member of the Christian church since early boyhood. He attended the Memorial Christian church at Corydon regularly and was one of the most active workers.
Mr. Quinn had voted in nineteen presidential elections, his first vote being cast for Martin Van Buren and the last for Woodrow Wilson, He had been a life-long Democrat.
References:
Henderson Evening Journal • Thu, Sep 04, 1913
