Scripps,  James  E.— About  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  Scripps  rebuilt
the  famous  dome  and  lantern  of  the  Ely  Cathedral.  One  of  his  sons  emigrated  to
America  m  1791  and  settled  at  Cape  Girardeau,  Mo.  A  son  of  the  latter  who  re-
mained in  England  published  the  London  Daily  Sun  and  the  Literary  Gazette,  the
latter  the  pioneer  publication  of  its  class  in  England.  A  son  of  his  was  a  bookbinder
in  London,  and  was  the  father  of  James  Edmund  Scripps,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.
The  bookbinder  came  to  America  with  his  family  in  1844,  landing  in  Boston  after
six  weeks  on  the  sea  in  a  sailing  vessel.  After  a  long  and  laborious  journey  by  the
Erie  Canal,  the  great  lakes,  by  wagon  and  by  river,  the  family  finally  reached  their
de;,stination  in  southern  Illinois  in  midsummer,  and  settled  on  a  farm  near  Rushville,
in  Schuyler  county.  The  hard  conditions  of  pioneer  life  afforded  young  Scripps  but
little  opportunity  to  add  to  the  infant  school  education  he  had  received  in  England.
The  first  year  in  Illinois,  the  tenth  of  his  life,  was  spent  entirely  in  hard  labor.
