Abraham Jonas (politician)

Abraham Jonas (born September 12, 1801, in Exeter, England; died June 8, 1864) was the first permanent Jewish resident in Quincy, Illinois.

[1] He was a member of the Illinois and Kentucky state legislatures, a leading lawyer, Freemason, and a valued friend of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham's brother, Joseph Jonas, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, becoming the first Jew to settle west of the Allegheny Mountains.

There he married Louisa Block from a pioneering Jewish American family and operated a general store.

Within two years he moved to Quincy, Illinois opening a carriage business and studying law in Orville Browning's office.

[1] He decided to establish a law partnership with Henry Asbury, turning over the family business to his brothers Edward and Samuel who had joined him in Quincy in 1840 or 1841.

It was his law partner Henry Asbury who suggested Lincoln's candidacy in front of a group of local Republicans.

Lincoln personally ordered the release of his son Charles Jonas from a prisoner of war camp to be at his father's bedside before he died.