John Marshall Hamilton

John Marshall Hamilton, Governor 1883-5, was born May 28, 1847, in a log house upon a farm about two miles from Richwood, Union County, Ohio. His father was Samuel Hamilton, the eldest son of Rev. Wm. Hamilton, who, together with his brother, the Rev. Samuel Hamilton,...

Shelby M. Cullom

Shelby M. Cullom, Governor 1877-83, is the sixth child of the late Richard N. Cullom, and was born Nov. 22, 1829, in Wayne Co., Ky., where his father then resided, and whence both the Illinois and Tennessee branches of the family originated. In the following year the...

John Lowrie Beveridge

John Lowrie Beveridge, Governor 1873-6, was born in the town of Greenwich, Washington Co., N. Y., July 6, 1824. His parents were George and Ann Beveridge. His father’s parents, Andrew and Isabel Beveridge, before their marriage emigrated from Scotland just...

John McCauley Palmer

John McAuley Palmer, Governor 1869-72, was born on Eagle Creek, Scott Co., Ky., Sept. 13, 1817. During his infancy, his father, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, removed to Christian Co., Ky., where lands were cheap. Here the future Governor of the great...

Richard J. Oglesby

Richard J. Oglesby, Governor 1865-8, and re-elected in 1872 and 1884, was born July 25, 1824, in Oldham Co., Ky.,—the State which might be considered the “mother of Illinois Governors.” Bereft of his parents at the tender age of eight years, his early...

Richard Yates

Richard Yates, the “War Governor,” 1861-4, was born Jan. 18, 1818, on the banks of the Ohio River, at Warsaw, Gallatin Co., Ky. His father moved in 1831 to Illinois, and after stopping for a time in Springfield, settled at Island Grove, Sangamon County....

John Wood

John Wood, Governor 1860-1, and the first settler of Quincy, Ill., was born in the town of Sempronius (now Moravia), Cayuga Co., N. Y., Dec. 20, 1798. He was the second child and only son of Dr. Daniel Wood. His mother nee Catherine Crause, was of German parentage,...

William H. Bissell

William H. Bissell, Governor 1857-60, was born april 25, 1811, in the State of New York, near Painted Post, Yates County. His parents were obscure, honest, God-fearing people, who reared their children under the daily example of industry and frugality, according to...

Joel A. Matteson

Joel A. Matteson, Governor 1853-6, was born Aug. 8, 1808, in Jefferson County, New York, to which place his father had removed from Vermont three years before. His father was a farmer in fair circumstances, but a common English education was all that his only son...

Augustus C. French

Augustus C. French, Governor of Illinois from 1846 to 1852, was born in the town of Hill, in the State of New Hampshire, Aug. 2, 1808. He was a descendant in the fourth generation of Nathaniel French, who emigrated from England in 1687 and settled in Saybury, Mass. In...