b. July 24, 1819, in Rockingham County, Virginia; d. December 21, 1905, in Clinton, Illinois. When Warner was eighteen, he was a clerk in a dry goods store in Alexandria, Indiana. The store went out of business in 1839, and Warner began to study medicine. In November 1840, Warner married Cynthia Ann Gardner, and in the spring of 1841 they moved to DeWitt County, Illinois, where they had four children. Warner practiced medicine in DeWitt County until 1852, when he retired from that profession. In 1848, he was elected clerk of the circuit court and was a member of the Illinois legislature during the winter of 1854-55. From 1852 to 1861 Warner was a real estate dealer and a merchant. In 1867, he started the banking firm of John Warner and Company along with Henry Magill, J. R. Warner, and Lawrence Weldon. Warner was a Republican from the first organization of the party and attended the 1856 meeting in Bloomington, Illinois, that formed the state Republican party. In April 1861, he volunteered for service in the Civil War. After raising a company in DeWitt County, Warner helped to organize the Forty-first Illinois Regiment and was then elected major of that regiment. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel after the battle of Shiloh but had to resign from service in September 1862, due to illness.