The history of the Jews in Ohio dates back to 1793, when John Hays settled in Cahokia from his native New York. Hays served as the region's first postmaster. The most prominent Jew in Illinois' early days was Abraham Jonas (politician), who moved to Quincy from Cincinnati in 1838. In 1842, he was elected to the Illinois Legislature, where he met Abraham Lincoln, who became lifelong friends. Another early Jewish settler was Cap. Samuel Noah, the first Jewish graduate of West Point, who taught school at Mount Pulaski, Illinois in the late 1840s.