J. Charles Juneau, a member of the Dirty Dozen, was nine days younger than Carl Sandburg. He was  born on January 15, 1878, in Aurora, Illinois. His parents, Frank and Elinora Juneau, were French-Canadian Catholics. Frank was a machinist with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. He worked in Galesburg and Aurora at different times.

Charles Juneau, who was known to his friends as “Frenchy,” had the stocky build and black hair of his father. He would pull a lock of his hair over his forehead and put his hand inside his vest. He would then ask, “If I'm not Napoleon, who am I?” He had worked as a metal polisher in a stove foundry in Aurora. After it closed Frenchy came to Galesburg to live with his parents. He held a variety of jobs which he didn't like. He wasn't interested in books and music as Sandburg was. On the other hand, he was a sociable fellow.

Carl Sandburg remembered in his autobiography, Always the Young Strangers, that Frenchy Juneau was good company. The boys would go to Main Street, buy a half dozen cream puffs for ten cents. Then they walked around the Public Square and along Main Street until the puffs were gone. It was a pleasant way to spend an evening.

They went to hear William Jennings Bryan speak at the railroad station. They were so impressed they caught a ride on the cowcatcher of a locomotive, going to Monmouth, to hear Bryan again. It was a cold October night .On the cowcatcher  trip back to Galesburg, they became thoroughly chilled. Frenchy bought a pint of blackberry brandy to warm them.

Sandburg later decided Bryan wasn't as thoughtful as he seemed at first. He had been swayed by the persuasive power of Bryan's oratory.

They also went to hear Robert Ingersoll, a famous Republican orator of the time. A large tent had been erected on the Knox College campus to accommodate the crowd. Sandburg and Juneau stood just outside the tent and munched their cream puffs while listening.

Juneau went back to Aurora and married Aimee Boyer on October 28, 1903. They had seven children: two boys and five girls. He worked at several jobs related to machine and metal polishing. His wife died in 1949. Charles Juneau died October 26, 1965. He was buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Aurora, with his wife and a son who had died in 1944. The other children, along with sixteen grandchildren and twenty great-grandchildren, survived him.

Carl Sandburg carried fond memories of Frenchy Juneau with him for the rest of his life, especially in his later years, when he was writing his autobiography. Interestingly, Sandburg had lived in Aurora in the winter of 1903-04. He was selling stereographic views door-to-door and trying his hand at writing. There is no record that he attempted to look up his boyhood friend. It may well be that he did not know Frenchy was living in the city. If he had, they might have gotten together to eat a cream puff or two.