John Mills Pearson
American politician (1832-1910)
John Mills Pearson (October 7, 1832 – June 4, 1910) was an American politician and Mason from Massachusetts. Although originally intending to study at Harvard University, Pearson instead moved to Illinois and became a merchant. He was named a trustee of the University of Illinois in 1870, then served on the Illinois Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners from 1873 to 1877. Pearson was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1878, where he served three terms. Pearson was also a leader in the Illinois Grand Lodge, rising to become its Grand Master.
Biography
John Mills Pearson was born in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on October 7, 1832. He attended preparatory school at the Putnam Free School. Pearson originally intended to study civil engineering at Harvard University, but instead moved in 1847 to Alton, Illinois. There, he was hired as an engineer on the Alton & Sangamon Railroad. However, he disliked the position and instead took a position as a clerk with the Handon Agricultural Works.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18129300. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1832, 1910, 1870 and 1873.
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This entry incorporates text from “John Mills Pearson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.