John Lawlor Jolley (July 14, 1840-December 14, 1926) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from South Dakota. He was born in Montreal, Canada in 1840, where he attended the common schools. He graduated from Eastman Business College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He moved to Wisconsin in 1857, and enlisted as a private in Company C, Twenty-third Regiment, of the Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered out as a second lieutenant on July 4, 1865.
He took up the study of the law and was admitted to the bar in 1866. Vermillion of the Dakota Territory.is where he first established his practice. He was a member of the territorial council in 1875 and 1881. In 1887 and 1895, he was elected mayor of Vermillion. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1884.
In 1889, he was a delegate to the state constitutional convention. He was also selected for the South Dakota State Senate in 1889. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Rankin Gamble in 1891. He chose not to seek a second term. He resumed the practice of law, and died in Vermillion in 1926.
Jolley Elementary School, in Vermillion, SD, is named after Mr. Jolley.