Jesse W. Fell (1808-1887), a Bloomington, Illinois businessman, founded Illinois State University, originally Illinois State Normal University. He called upon his attorney friend Abraham Lincoln to draw up the bond of guarantee for the Board of Education on May 5, 1857. Fell would later nominate Lincoln for the United States Senate.

Life

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Fell was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and moved to Bloomington in 1831. After opening up the town's first law offices, he turned the practice over to a young lawyer, David Davis (senator), in 1836, and became a land claims adjuster.

Fell then founded the city's first newspaper, The Bloomington Observer and McLean County Advocate, on January 14, 1837. He married Hester Brown in January 1838, and in 1840, the couple moved to Adams County near Quincy to start a fruit nursery.

Six years later, Fell returned to Bloomington and began acquiring land and working as an agent for the Alton & Springfield Railroad to secure the right of way through McLean County.

He also got back into the publishing business, joining with Charles Merriman to resurrect a failing newspaper, The Whig, which was rechristened The Intelligencer in 1851. It took the name The Pantagraph in 1853.

Fell also is credited with developing much of the town of Normal, known in the 1850s as North Bloomington.

Death

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Fell died at his home in Normal on Feb. 25, 1887.

Miscellaneous

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Illinois State University has an aboreteum covering its main quadrangle named for Fell, the Fell Arboretum.

1808 births | 1887 deaths | Bloomington-Normal, Illinois | People from Illinois