John Love was a successful tin and hardware merchant and one of Jacksonville’s first trustees. He served on committees responsible for securing plans to build the town recorder’s office and fire station and inspecting and adopting the 1862 town plat. But Love’s political interests were not limited to Jacksonville. He played an active role in the regional Democratic Party and served as a Jackson County Commissioner from 1860 through 1866.
Love was also instrumental in establishing the Jacksonville cemetery, and his mother, Margaret Swan Love, was the first person buried there—even before the cemetery officially opened. Around 1867, he built the house at 175 North 3rd Street for his growing family. Their stay, however, was brief. Within months John succumbed to tuberculosis; a year and a half later, his wife Ann Sophia and one of their daughters died in the smallpox epidemic of 1869.