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DEFRATIS, JOHN, an honored veteran of the Civil War and a valuable citizen of Springfield, has spent most of his life in that city, having come there with his parents as a small child. By his honest, upright life and his habits of industry he has been successful in a financial sense and has won the esteem and confidence of all who have had business or social dealings with him. Mr. DeFratis was born on the Island of Madeira, about 1846. The father was a retail merchant there as a young man, but not many years after his marriage brought his family to the United States, coming direct to Springfield. Further mention of the family is to be found in connection with the sketch of Joseph DeFratis, a brother o John, which appears in this work.

John DeFratis acquired his education in the public schools of Springfield, receiving but limited opportunity for attending school, and as a boy began to earn his own living. While still young he engaged in driving a team in the city. He enlisted in Company B, One Hundred Forty-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, for ninety days, and served one year altogether.

Mr. DeFratis was married in Springfield, to Miss Mary Gardner, and four children have blessed this union. He erected a one-room house, in which the family lived for a time, and by subsequent additions from time to time, as he was able to make them, has now completed a very comfortable home on East Miller Street. Mr. DeFratis is a member of the Republican party and greatly interested in everything pertaining to the public welfare.