JOLIET

joliet, a city and the county-seat of will county, illinois, u.s.a., in the township of joliet, in the n.e. part of the state, on the des plaines river, 40 m. s.w. of chicago. pop. (1890), 23,264; (1900), 29,353, of whom 8536 were foreign-born, 1889 being german, 1579 austrian, 1206 irish and 951 swedish; (1910 census) 34,670. in addition there is a large population in the immediate suburbs: that of the township including the city was 27,438 in 1890, and 50,640 in 1910. joliet is served by the atchison, topeka & santa fe, the chicago & alton, the chicago, rock island & pacific, the michigan central, the illinois, iowa & minnesota, and the elgin, joliet & eastern railways, by interurban electric lines, and is on the illinois & michigan canal and the chicago sanitary (ship) canal. the city is situated in a narrow valley, on both sides of the river. it is the seat of the northern illinois penitentiary, and has a public library (in front of which is a statue, by s. asbjornsen, of louis joliet), the township high school, two hospitals, two catholic academies and a club-house, erected by the illinois steel company for the use of its employees. there are two municipal parks, west park and highland park; dellwood park is an amusement resort, owned by the chicago & joliet electric railway company. in the vicinity are large deposits of calcareous building stone, cement and fireclay, and there are coal mines 20 m. distant. mineral resources and water-power have facilitated the development of manufactures. the factory product in 1905 was valued at $33,788,700 (20.3% more than in 1900), a large part of which was represented by iron and steel goods. there are large industrial establishments just outside the city limits. the first settlement on the site of joliet (1833) was called juliet, in honour of the daughter of james b. campbell, one of the settlers. the present name was adopted in 1845, in memory of louis joliet (1645-1700), the french canadian explorer of the mississippi, and in 1852 a city charter was secured. jolly (from o. fr. _jolif_; fr. _joli_, the french word is obscure in origin; it may be from late lat. _gaudivus_, from _gaudere_, to rejoice, the change of _d_ to _l_ being paralleled by _cigada_ and _cigale_, or from o. norse _jol_, eng. "yule," the northern festival of midwinter), and adjective meaning gay, cheerful, jovial, high-spirited. the colloquial use of the term as an intensive adverb, meaning extremely, very, was in early usage quite literary; thus john trapp (1601-1669), _commentaries on the new testament, matthew_ (1647), writes, "all was jolly quiet at ephesus before st paul came hither." in the royal navy "jolly" used as a substantive, is the slang name for a marine. to "jolly" is a slang synonym for "chaff." the word "jolly-boat," the name of a ship's small broad boat, usually clinker-built, is of doubtful etymology. it occurs in english in the 18th century, and is usually connected with dan. or swed. _jolle_, dutch _jol_, a small ship's boat; these words are properly represented in english by "yawl" originally a ship's small boat, now chiefly used of a rig of sailing vessels, with a cutter-rigged foremast and a small mizzen stepped far aft, with a spanker sail (see rigging). a connexion has been suggested with a word of much earlier appearance in english, _jolywat_, or _gellywatte_. this occurs at the end of the 15th century and is used of a smaller type of ship's boat. this is supposed to be a corruption of the french _galiote_ or dutch _galjoot_, galliot (see galley). the galliot was, however, a large vessel. joly de lotbiniere, sir henri gustave (1829-1908), canadian politician, was born at epernay in france on the 5th of december 1829. his father, gaspard pierre gustave joly, the owner of famous vineyards at epernay, was of huguenot descent, and married julie christine, grand-daughter of eustache gaspard michel chartier de lotbiniere, marquis de lotbiniere (one of montcalm's engineers at quebec); he thus became seigneur de lotbiniere. henri gustave adopted the name of de lotbiniere in 1888, under a statute of the province of quebec. he was educated in paris, and called to the bar of lower canada in 1858. on the 6th of may 1856 he married margaretta josepha (d. 1904), daughter of hammond gowen, of quebec. at the general election of 1861 he was elected to the house of assembly of the province of canada as liberal member for the county of lotbiniere, and from 1867 to 1874 he represented the same county in the house of commons, ottawa, and in the legislative assembly, quebec. joly was opposed to confederation and supported dorion in the stand which he took on this question. in 1878 he was called by luc letellier de st just, lieutenant-governor of quebec, to form an administration, which was defeated in 1879, and until 1883 he was leader of the opposition. during his brief administration he adopted a policy of retrenchment, and endeavoured to abolish the legislative council. in 1885, as a protest against the attitude of his party towards louis riel, who was tried and executed for high treason, he retired from public life. early in the year 1895 he was induced again to take an active part in the campaign of his party, and at the general election of 1896 he was returned as member for the county of portneuf. he had already in 1895 been created k.c.m.g. on the formation of sir wilfrid laurier's administration he accepted the office of controller of inland revenue, and a year later he became a privy councillor, as minister of inland revenue. from 1900 to 1906 he was lieutenant-governor of the province of british columbia. he twice declined a seat in the senate, but rendered eminent service to canada by promoting the interest of agriculture, horticulture and of forestry. he died on the 17th of november 1908. (a. g. d.)