USA > Illinois > Williamson County > Historical souvenir of Williamson County, Illinois : being a brief review of the county from date of founding to the present > Part 16
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Before his preceptor, Mr. Binkley, died, he had learned to read and write by attending subscription schools. He was living in Kentucky at the time the War broke out, and as the storm of secession and dis- union swept over Kentucky, it be- came necessary for everybody to takes sides. Judge Young cast his lot with the cause of the Union, and became attached to the Union Army in 1862, but on account of his age, was not mustered into the service until July, 1862, when he was mus- tered as a Private in Co. "L" of the 8th Ky. Cav., Col. James M. Shack- leford commanding the regiment. He served in this regiment until Sep- tember, 1863, when he was sent to Western Kentucky on a recruiting detail, where he recruited a Com- pany of men in Graves, Ballard and Carlisle Counties, and was mustered as First Lieutenant of Co. "E," 30th Ky. Mounted Inf. Vol., Col. F. N. Alexander commanding. At the bat- tle of Saltville, Virginia, October 6, 1864, his Captain was severely wounded and rendered unable for duty. This placed Lieutenant Young in command of the Company, and the Second Lieutenant being absent on detached service, left him the
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only commissionei officer of the Company, which he continued to command until the close of the War, June. 1865, when he was mustered out as Captain commanding the Com- pany, receiving an honorable dis- charge, and settled all of his ac- counts with the Government. He came back to Williamson County in July, 1865, and started to attend a Distriet School at Spillertown, kept by Matthew 1. Wroton, which he at- tended two months, and afterwards attended the following Fall and Win- ter six months. In 1867 and '68, he attended the City University at St. Louis, Mo. In 1868 and '69, he at- tended the Law Department of the University of Chicago, after which he attended the Benton Law Institute conducted by the late Judge Andrew D. Duff. He opened up a law office in the city of Marion for the prac- tice of law, in partnership with Judge L. D. Hartwell, in July, 1870.
Julge Young was married to Miss Martha A. Spiller, daughter of Elijah N. Spiller, September 24, A. D. 1871. They have three children living, two of whom are married, being the wives of Richard
Trevor and W. B. Rochester, two of Marion's most suc- cessful and prominent business men, and Miss Eva, who is still single, and assists her father in his law office, being a very talented and expert stenographer.
Judge Young became interested in politics a short time after he came home from the army, and at that time the Republicans had no party organization in the County, and the returned soldiers were anxious to get Republicans on the ticket to be voted for to fill the respective County offices at the coming November elec- tion. On the 30th day of Septem- ber, 1865, there was a caucus of thirteen Republicans met in the drug store of Isaac M. Lewis, on the south side of the public square in Marion, being the place where Dr. Casey's building is now located, and selected candidates to run on the Republican ticket for the various offices to he voted for at the coming election. This was the first Republican caucus and the first Republican ticket that was ever selected as a ticket by the Republicans of the County. He was a candidate for State's Attorney in 1872, but was defeated. He was elected Justice of the Peace for Ma- rion Precinct in 1873: was elected County Judge in November, 1877, which office he held for five years, until 1882. He was next elected State's Attorney in 1884: was elect- ed Circuit Judge in ISSS. In 1879, he was appointed Colonel and Aid- de-Camp on the Staff of Governor Shelby M. Cullom under the military code of the State for the 22nd Con- gressional District; and was after- war's re-appointed on the Staff of Governor John M. Hamilton with the rank of Colonel.
He organized three Grand Army
Posts in Williamson County in 1866; has been a continuous member of this organization ever since. He is also Division Commander of the I'nion Veterans' Union; was candi- date for Congress before the Repub- lican Convention in 1882. He be- came an Odd Fellow in July, 1869, and has been a continuous member of Williamson Lodge No. 392 ever since; has been a member of the
Grand Lodge of the State for thirty- two years: has held various im- portant positions in the Grand Lodge.
He is now Senior Vice Commander of the Grant Army of the Republic, Department of Illinois, which is the second highest officer in the State.
At this time he is engaged in the practice of law, which has been his study and field of operation for thirty-five years.
MISS EVA YOUNG.
Miss Eva Young, daughter of Col. George W. Young, was born and raised in Marion. Her life has been uneventful, but she has always moved in the very best society, and received her education in the public schools of the city, graduating as Salutatorian in the class of 1896, from the Marion High School. She then turned her attention to the study of stenography and typewrit- ing, attended Barnes' Business Col- lege in St. Louis, and graduated with the highest honors of that institution.
She has instructed several pupils in the art of shorthand and type- writing, and has filled the position of shorthand reporter for the Circuit Court for several years past, and is now one of the appointed official stenographers for the Circuit and County Courts. She has been in the law office of her father as an assist- ant for the past six years. She is also a Notary Public, and has been selected on numerous occasions by the different members of the Marion Bar, to take depositions of witnesses in important law suits pending be- fore the Courts.
She has the reputation of being the most rapid and correct stenographer in this end of the State. Her gen- eral knowledge and liberal educa- tion, together with her genial dis- position and pleasant manners, make her a general favorite with the Courts and attorneys, and have won for her a large circle of friends and acquaintances.
WILLIAM OSCAR POTTER. Master in Chancery.
One of the most successful and promising young members of the Williamson County bar is a native of this County, where he was born February 17, 1871. He was a mem- ber of the Charter Graduating Class
of the Crab Orchard Academy, where he graduated March 3, 1892. He read law at Galatia, Ill., in the office of A. E. Somers, and was admitted to the bar August 29th, 1894.
He first opened an office and be- gan the practice of law in Johnson City on March 13th, 1897, where he remained for five years. He was ap- pointed Master in Chance wy in 1891, and reappointed on the 2nd of Jan- uary of the present year. He is prominent as an Odd Fellow and was Grand Representative in 1900. He is also a member of the Masonic Fraternity and the nights of Pythias, having received his first degree in each
He is a Republican in politics, and has been Chairman of the Central Committee through the three suc- cessive presidential campaigns of 1898, 1900 and 1902.
June 30, 1897. he was united in marriage with Miss Susan Myrtle Spiller, the eighth daughter of W. J. and Susan E. Spiller, and is the father of two boys and one girl.
HON. GEORGE W. SMITH, M. C.
Was born in Putnam County, O., August 18th. 1846. He was raised on a farm in Wayne County, Illinois, to which his father removed in 1850. He learned the trade of blacksmith- ing. He attended the common schools and graduated from the lit- erary department of Mckendree Col- lege of Lebanon, Ill., in 1868. He first read law in Fairfield, the county seat of Wayne Co., after which he entered the law department of the University at Bloomington, Ind .. from which he graduated in 1870.
He was admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Illinois the same year, since which time he has resided in Murphysboro in the active prac- tice of his profession. In 1880 he was the Republican elector for his Congressional district (then the eighteenth) and cast the vote of the district for Garfield and Arthur. He was elected to the 51st. 52nd, 53rd, 54th, 56th, 57th, 58th Congresses, and re-elected to the 59th, receiving 22,527 votes to 14,668 for Charles L. Otrict, democrat; 2,306 for Chas, F. Krish, prohibition, and 1023 for Daniel Boone, socialist. He was married at Murphysboro, Ill., on December 29, 1884, to Miss M. Alice Dailey.
HON. O. H. BURNETT, State Senator.
Is a native of Williamson County, Illinois, where he first saw the light on the seventeenth day of January, 1872. After the usual amount of training in our excellent publie schools, he graduated from the Northern Indiana State Normal Uni- versity and later from old Yale, in
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the class of 1899. He was immedi- ately admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in his native town the same year.
In the Fall of 1899 the law part- nership of Burnett & Slater was formed with Judge W. F. Slater as senior counsel, which still continues. From June, 1892, to July, 1896, he served as Cashier in the Marion State and Savings Bank. In 1900 he was elected to the State Senate by a ma- jority of 600 votes in a Democratic district with a normal majority of 400. In 1904 he was again a candi- date for the State Senate and was renominated by acclamation.
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His marriage to Miss Lizzie Har- gon, of Canton, Mississippi, took place April 16, 1895, of whom he has one child, a boy, John, now seven years old. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church; Monitor Lodge, No. 236, Knights of Pythias; the Elks, No. 800, and the Modern Woodmen.
HON. THOS. H. SHERIDAN.
Thos. H. Sheridan was born in Pope County, Illinois, on the 16th day of December, 1861. At the age of five he was left fatherless. His father and mother had come to Illi- nois from Boston in the early fifties, and located in Chicago, where they remained until about 1859, when they located in Pope County, about six miles north of Golconda. His father's name was Manus Sheridan and his mother's Jane. The 160 acres of land granted to his father in the fifties has never been con- veyed, but the title still remains in the heirs. The mother of this subject lived until 1891, and unto her is due the credit of the proper training of this man.
With this subject two sisters and three brothers grew to maturity, two of the brothers having been drowned and one seeking his fortune in the far east. The two sisters still sur- vive, one being the wife of William King, a prosperous and well-to-do merchant of Rosebud, Ill., and the other living with her.
Thos. H. was educated in the schools of Golconda, and during the early years of his life had a most desperate struggle for existence, for after the drowning of his two broth- ers, 1876, he became the only sup- port of his mother's family. He worked in a printing office and did all kinds of work. In the winter of 1879-80 he taught his first school, and in a very few years commanded the best salary of any teacher in the county. For six years he taught school in the county and in 1884 was elected County Superintendent of Schools, and was again elected in 1886, which position he held until in 1890 he was elected to the State Senate in the old 49th district, which
represented Pope, Massac, Hardin, Gallatin and Saline Counties, having defeated in the nominating conven- tion Capt. W'm. G. Sloan, of Harris- burg, and Simon S. Barger, of Eddy- ville, and in the general election, Dr. John Blanchard.
While in the State Senate he served on many important commit- tees, and his record in the 37th and 38th General Assemblies is as good as the best.
In 1883 Mr. Sheridan, after two years' study, was admitted to the bar, and from that time until now he has been an active practioner before the courts of Southern Illinois. Perhaps no lawyer in this part of the state of his years has had a more extensive practice before the courts than he, and certainly no lawyer of his age has met with great- er success in the higher courts. In Johnson County, where he has lived the past twelve years, he is on one side of all important legal battles, an1 although but recently he has opened an office in Marion, where he spends half the time, he is rapidly moving to the front, as in the term of court just closed in Williamson County no lawyer at the bar was en- gaged in a greater number of con- tested suits than he.
His law practice is not confined to Johnson and Williamson counties, but in Pope, Massac, Union, Pulaski and in numerous other counties his services are in demand. He is a polished and earnest speaker and has few equals as a cross-examiner of witnesses.
In politics he is always ready to defend the principles and policies of his party, and next to Blaine he thinks Roosevelt is the greatest American since Lincoln.
Senator Sheridan was married November 24, 1891, to Miss Fannie Throgmorton, of Vienna, Ill., she being the only child of Josiah and Abigail Throgmorton of that city. They have two children, Gail and Joe, Gail a girl of eleven and Joe a boy of nine.
For a number of years our subject has been interested in real estate, and now owns several hundred acres of Johnson County's best farm lands in and about Vienna, and is the larg- est shipper of timothy hay in the County. He is also a breeder of Short Horn cattle, and takes great pride in his herd of red, white and roans. While Marion does not yet quite claim him as a citizen, it is quite probable if his business con- tinues to grow that he will soon be one of us. He is now an active mem- her in the B. P. O. of Elks, the Knights of Pythias and Modern Woodmen of America.
He is not a member of any church, but regularly attends where he thinks he will hear a good sermon. As a speaker and lecturer his ser-
vices are in demand. It is said of him in his home county that he has not one bad habit and that he never swore an oath in his life, nor does he chew or smoke tobacco nor drink intoxicants.
EDWARD EVERETT DENISON Attorney at Law.
at Marion, Illinois, Was born August 28th, 1874. He received his early schooling in the public schools of Marion and then spent five years in Baylor University at Waco, Tex., from which he graduated in 1895 with two degrees, those of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Literature. A year later he took the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Yale University with the class of 1896, and received at graduation the Phi Beta Kappa appointment by the faculty. He then entered business life and spent a year as cashier of the old bank of Marion.
Prefering the law to a business career, he entered Columbian Law School in Washington D. C., from which he graduated in 1899 with two degrees, L. L. B. and L. L. M. The following October he was ad- mitted to the bar, and in June, 1900, formed a partnership with W. W. Duncan, and at once entered upon the practice of his profession in his native town. This relation contin- ued until the election of Judge Dun- can to the bench of the Circuit Court in June of 1903. when it was dissolved and Mr. Denison has since practiced alone.
While attending Columbian Law School Mr. Denison became identi- fied with the Phi Dilta Phi Legal Fraternity, of which he has since become Vice President of the Na- tional Council. This Fraternity now embraces the entire territory of the United States and Canada. Mr.
Denison is a member of the Knights of Pythias, belonging to Monitor Lodge No. 236, also an active mem- ber of the Board of Education and of the Missionary Baptist Church.
HON. LORENZO D. HARTWELL, States Attorney.
Born and educated in Williamson County, Mr. Hartwell has been active in its affairs for nearly half a cen- tury. He was a son of L. D. Hart- well, who emigrated from Virginia with his family in 1839, and settled five miles north of Marion, where he died in 1865. He raised eight boys and four girls, of whom six boys served in the Union Army in the War of the Rebellion, and four sons and three daughters still sur- vive. At the very beginning of the war in 1861, Lorenzo was one of the family of six to go to the front and enlisted in Company F, 31st Ill. Vol. Inf. He served with distinction for
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four years, and until the close of the war, when he was mustered out and again entered public school. He studied law under Judge Duff, at Benton, was admitted to the bar in 1869, and has been very successful in the practice of his profession ever since.
In 1866 he entered politics and first served eight years as a Justice of the Peace. This was followed by four years as City Attorney, then Master in Chancery of Williamson County two years, County Judge eight years, and is now serving a term of four years as States Attorney. During this time he has also served two years as Postmaster of Marion. During his present term of States Attorney he has broken the record for efficiency as a public officer by turning in to the public school fund and county treasury two thousnad two hundred dollars, besides paying the expenses of his office; has sent 42 criminals to the penitentiary; 10 to the reform school and 2 to the gallows.
Mr. Hartwell has been married twice. His first marriage took place April 30, 1871, by which he had one son, Edward E. Hartwell. His second marriage took place August 18, 1878, to Miss Cora E. Simmons, of whom he has had six children, three surviving. His eldest son is the present City Attorney, D. L. Hartwell. He is an active member and trustee in Dr. Thompson's church, the Methodist Episcopal, and also active in Fraternal work, being a member of Fellowship Lodge, No. 89, A. F. & A. M. at Marion: char- ter member of Monitor Lodge, No. 236, Knights of Pythias, and McKin- ley Rgt., No. U. V. IT.
D. T. HARTWELL, City Attorney.
Was born in Marion, Ill., July 8, 1879. He graduated from the High School in the class of 1896, and af- terwards attended the Northern Ind- iana Normal University Val-
at paraiso for the years 1896 and '97. After leaving school he studied law under his father, L. D. Hartwell, for two years, meanwhile establishing an insurance agency, which he is still running. In December, 1899, he took the Federal examination at St. Louis for a first-class clerkship and secured the best record made at that time. Soon after he received an ap- pointment in the Census Bureau at Washington D. C. by the Hon. Geo. W. Smith. While there he attended the Columbian University Law
School and graduated in 1902, the fifth in a class of 112. The follow- ing October he took the Illinois State Bar examination, and out of four- teen applicants in Southern Illinois was the only one who passed. In April of the last year he was elected
City Attorney, which office he still holds. He is a member of Monitor Lodge No. 236, K. of P., and of the B. & P. O. of Elks, No. 800.
HON. W. F. SLATER, Ex-County Judge.
Judge Slater is a native product of Williamson County, Illinois, and if the complete mastery over unusual difficulties and apparently insur- mountable obstacles in his youth en- titles a man to the appellation of "self-made," this belongs par excel- lence to the Judge. Born in Lake Creek Precinct March 24, 1869, he was left an orphan when but three months old. Under the fostering care of his widowed mother he grew to manhood on the farm and fol- lowed the plow till 26 years old. He then, October 2nd, 1895, chose his life's partner in the person of Miss Zulu Reid, one of the talented daughi- ters of William Reid, of Spillertown. The fruit of this union has been two sons and one daughter, all of whom are living.
Five years before his marriage he began the study of law with his hand upon the plow. Poverty and grinding toil had prevented his se- curing more than the bare rudiments of learning in our common schools, and he never had the advantage of a single term at High School or Academy, much less the finish of a collegiate course. Yet such was his thirst for knowledge and strength of will that he mastered all difficulties and was admitted to the bar in 1892. In March, 1898, he was appointed County Judge by Governor Tanner, to fill an unexpired term, and at the following election in November was elected to succeed himself for a full term of four years.
In 1899 was formed the successful law partnership of Burnett and Sla- ter, which still remains. He is an enthusiastic Republican in politics, and is chairman of the 50th District Republican Senatorial Committee.
Judge Slater is a man of the peo- ple, has ambition and an immense store of reserved power, both mental- ly and physically, and a brilliant fu- ture awaits him.
HON. JOSEPH W. HARTWELL
Was born in Williamson County, Illinois, March 12, 1839. He was reared on a farm and received the rudiments of a common school edu- cation on the subscription plan, com- mon at that time. He was married November 5th, 1858, and settled on a small piece of land in Lake Creek precinct, about six miles northeast of Marion, where he resided until Aug- ust 10, 1862, when he enlisted in the Union Army as private in Co. F, 31st Regiment Ill. Vol. Inf. He lost his left arm at the battle before Atlanta,
Georgia, July 21, 1864, and was dis- charged from the army March 6, 1865.
On his return to Williamson Co. he read law and was licensed to practice December 19, 1866, having been a continuous member of the bar thirty-seven years and a resident of Marion except a few years on a farm. He died Tuesday, September S, 1903, in this city, and memorial services were held by the members of the Marion bar, in his honor, at the courthouse Tuesday, October 13, 1903. Memorial Committee-Geo. W. Young, Ed. M. Spiller, W. F. Slater, J. C. B. Smith
HON. J. H. BURNETT
Was born in Williamson County September 29, 1844. He was raised to farm life and his early education was such as farmer boys usually ob- tain. He is Republican and active in politics all his life. In 1886 the voters of Williamson County made him Sheriff. In 1895 he was elected Mayor of Marion, serving one term. He has served on the Board of Edu- cation several times, and on the 1st of May, 1891, was appointed by President Mckinley Special Agent of Internal Revenue, with headquarters at St. Louis, and is still discharging the duties of that office. He is a member of the Missionary Baptist Church of Marion.
His wife was Miss Mary A. Davis, who was also a native of this County. Eight children were born of this union, of whom all are living but one. In the order of their birth they are: Mrs. Delia Capron, Marion; Mrs. Eliza Spiller, Marion; O. H. Burnett, State Senator; one dangh- ter, Minnie, died October 5, 1876: Mrs. Lillian Haeberle, Colorado Springs; Mrs. Amy McIntosh, Ma- rion: Miss Estella Burnett, Miss Bertha Burnett.
HON. W. H. WARDER, Attorney at Law-Office in White Block, South Side Square.
Hon. W. H. Warder was born in Johnson County, this state, and came to Marion in 1880. He has been for 23 years an active and successful practitioner at the bar of this and other Southern Illinois counties. Politically a Democrat, he served in the Forty-First and Forty-Second General Assemblies as Representa- tive from this district, with distinc- tion. He is public spirited and a recognized factor in the development of Marion and Williamson county interests.
ED. M. SPILLER, Attorney at Law.
Ed. M. Spiller was born September 28, 1865, at Carbondale, Jackson
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County, Illinois. After a thorough training in the Marion schools, he took a scientific course at the North- ern Indiana Normal School and graduated at Valparaiso in 1888, with the Degree of Bachelor of Sci- ence. After teaching one term of school at Carterville, he began the study of law under Jndge Duncan and was admitted to the bar in Feb- ruary, 1892. He entered at once in- to a law partnership with R. R. Fowler, and began at once the prac- tice of his profession. After three years of Incrative practice, this firm was dissolved and that of Hartwell & Spiller formed in its stead. This in turn lasted three years and was succeeded by that of Spiller and White, which still continues. Either as associate or principal, Mr. Spiller has been called into some of the most important criminal cases of the county, among which are the Riot Cases at Carterville, which were taken to Johnson County on a change of venue and consumed three months in the trial. Some of the most bril- liant attorneys of the state were in this case on one side or the other. The people vs. Joseph McCahe, the Marshal of Herrin; the people vs. Roy McCawan: and the people vs. Ed Clements and Ivery Williams, are some of the cases of importance in which he has had a part. Mr. Spiller was married October 22, 1890, to Miss Nannie A. Edwards, the daugh- ter of C. M. Edwards, of Marion. He is a member of Monitor Lodge 236 K. of P., and Marion Camp Modern Woodmen. In politics Mr. Spiller is a Democrat, but although defeated in the race for States Attorney in 1892, he ran 115 votes ahead of his ticket in the county. He has held the office of City Attorney two terms.
GEORGE C. CAMPBELL, City Clerk.
Was born, reared and educated in Williamson County. He has never had any interests, personal, business or political, outside of his county, and may be considered a typical Wil- liamson County man. He first saw the light in Marion on August 12, 1868, but his father, Geo. C. Camp- bell, dying in 1872, he was left an orphan at the age of six years, but with a good patrimony to back him up. His schooling was of the sort obtainable at our common schools, supplemented with a course at the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbon- dale, Ill.
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