JOHN FASSETT FOLLETT, lawyer, Cincinnati, is the son of a new England farmer, the youngest but one of a family of nine children, and was born in Franklin County, Vermont.  Of the nine children six were boys, all of whom have become exceedingly strong and able men.  Three have honored the law - Charles, Martin D., and John F.; Charles having been elected for two terms Judge of the Common Pleas Court, and Martin D. having been elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, in October, 1883.  One, Alfred, has chosen the field of medicine; while the other two, George and Austin W., have  been unusually successful in mercantile pursuits in New York City.  In 1837, when the subject of this sketch was less than five years of age, his father removed to Ohio, and settled in Licking County.  His ealry education was received in the log school houses, and such academies as the county of Licking then afforded.  Ambitious for a higher and broader culture than was afforded by these primitive institutions, he determined to procure for himself a classical education, and entered Marietta College in 1851, and graduated with the highest honors of his class in 1855.  After leaving college he taught school for two years - the first in the Asylum for the Blind, at Columbus; and the second as the principal of the Columbus High School.  the income derived from teaching enabled him to liquidate the debt which he had contracted in obtaining a collegiate education.  In July, 1858, he was admitted to the bar, at Newark, Ohio, and at once entered into a partnership with his brother, the Hon. Charles Follett, which continued until the fall of 1868, when he removed to Cincinnati, where he has since resided.  In 1865, he was elected as a Representative to the Fifty-seventh General Assembly, from Licking County, and was re-elected in 1867.  Upon the organization of the Fifty-eighth General Assembly, in January, 1868, he was nominated by the Democrats in caucus, and afterward was elected, Speaker of the House of Representatives, the duties of which office he discharged with signal ability.  Before the opening of the adjourned session, in the fall of 1868, he had removed to Cincinnati, to engage in the practice of the law, and consequently resigned the Speakership as well as his office as Representative.   Destined to be a leader, he has risen rapidly in his profession, and, upon going to Cincinnati, took rank immediately with the foremost men of that unusually able bar, amongst whom it is doubtful if he has a superior as an advocate.  His practice has been very large and lucrative, and he has been identified as counsel in much of the most important litigation in both the State and federal courts in Southwestern Ohio.  Thoroughly devoted to his profession, he has steadfastly declined to be led away from the law by the allurements of public office until his fame as a lawyer was firmly established.  In 1880, he was nominated by acclamation, by the Democratic State Convention, as one of the Electors at large for Ohio, on the Hancock and English President ticket.  In 1881, although he was very prominently mentioned for Governor, no canvass was made in his interest, and, preferring to let the nomination seek him, rather than to seek it, he was not the selection of the convention.  In 1882, he was made the temporary chairman of the Democratic State Convention.  In the fall of 1882, he was nominated by acclamation, by the Hamilton County Democratic Convention, to represent the First District of Ohio in Congress.  His opponent was the Hon. Benjamin Butterworth, a candidate for a third term, and probably the best campaigner in the State of Ohio, and whom, after a most gallant and hotly contested canvass, he defeated by a majority of 819.  In politics he has been a life-long Democrat, one of the old school, whom shadows and reverses have not changed.  Gifted and eloquent as a speaker, he has few, if any, equals on the stump in Ohio.  For years he was cheerfully devoted weeks to every campaign, and his services are in constant demand at the Executive Committee rooms of his party.  Thee is scarcely a county in the State where his voice has not been heard, and where he does not number his friends by the score.  Of wonderfully popular manners, and of brilliant parts, he will command such attention in the nation's councils as to endear him to every true Democrat in Ohio.  At the commencement of 1879 his Alma Mater, in recognition of his scholarly attainments and public services, conferred upon him the the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
Source: A Biographical Cyclopaedia and Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Men, with an Historical Sketch of the State of Ohio.- Illustrated  with Portraits on Steel, Published by John C. Yorston & Company - 1879  - Page 562