©2010, Transcribed by Janice Rice
EDWARDS, Ninian, Territorial Governor and United States Senator, was born in Montgomery County, Md., March 17, 1775; fora time had the' celebrated William Wirt as a tutor, completing ; his course at Dickinson College. At the age of 19 he emigrated to Kentucky, where, after squandering considerable money, he studied law and, step by step, rose to be Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. In 1809 President Madison appointed him the first Territorial Governor of Illinois. This office he held until the admission of Illinois as a State in 1818, when he was elected United Sates Senator and re-elected on the completion of his first (the short) term. In 1826 he was elected Governor of the State, his successful administration terminating in 1830. In 1832 he became a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Charles Slade. He was able, magnanimous and incorruptible, although charged with aristocratic tendencies which were largely hereditary. Died, at his home at Belleville, on July 20, 1833, of cholera, the disease having been contracted through self-sacrificing efforts to assist sufferers from the epidemic. His demise cast a gloom over the entire State. Two valuable volumes bearing upon State history, comprising his correspondence with many public men of his time, have been published; the first under the title of "History of Illinois and Life of Ninian Edwards," by his son, the late Ninian Wirt Edwards, and the other "The Edwards Papers," edited by the late Elihu B. Washburne, and printed under the auspices of the Chicago Historical Society.— Ninian Wirt (Edwards), son of Gov. Ninian Edwards, was born at Frankfort, Ky., April 15, 1809, the year his father became Territorial Governor of Illinois; spent his boyhood at Kaskaskia, Edwardsville and Belleville, and was educated at Transylvania University, graduating in 1833. He married Elizabeth P. Todd, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was appointed Attorney-General in 1834, but resigned in 1835, when he removed to Springfield. In 1836 he was elected to the Legislature from Sangamon County, as the colleague of Abraham Lincoln, being one of the celebrated "Long Nine," and was influential in securing the removal of the State capital to Springfield. He was re-elected to the House in 1838, to the State Senate in 1844, and again to the House in 1848; was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847. Again, in 1850, he was elected to the House, but resigned on account of his change of politics from Whig to Democratic, and, in the election to fill the vacancy, was defeated by James C. Conkling. He served as Superintendent of Public Instruction by appointment of Governor Matteson, 1854-57, and, in 1861, was appointed by President Lincoln, Captain Commissary of Subsistence, which position he filled until June, 1865, since which time he remained in private life. He is the author of the "Life and Times of Ninian Edwards" (1870), which was prepared at the request of the State Historical Society. Died, at Springfield, Sept. 2, 1889.—Benjamin Stevenson (Edwards), lawyer and jurist, another son of Oov. Ninian Edwards, was born at Edwardsville, 111., June 3, 1818, graduated from Yale College in 1838, and was admitted to the bar the following year. Originally a Whig, he subsequently became a Democrat, was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1862, and, in 1868, was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in opposition to Shelby M. Cullom. In 1869 he was elected Circuit Judge of the Springfield Circuit, but within eighteen months resigned the position, preferring the excitement and emoluments of private practice to the dignity and scanty salary attaching to the bench. As a lawyer and as a citizen he was universally respected. Died, at his home in Springfield, Feb. 4, 1883, at the time of his decease being President of the Illinois State Bar Association.
ARTHUR Gilman was born in Alton, Illinois, June 22, 1837, and died at Atlantic City, New Jersey, December 27, 1909. His father was Winthrop Sargent Gilman, son of Benjamin Ives and Hannah (Robbins) Gilman; grandson of Judge Joseph and Rebecca (Ives) Gilman; great-grandson of the Rev. Nicholas and Mary (Thing) Gilman; great-great-grandson of Judge Nicholas and Sarah (Clark) Gilman; great-great-great-grandson of Councilor John and Elizabeth (Treworgye) Gilman, and great-great-great-great-grandson of Edward and Mary (Clark) Gilman of an ancient Welsh family. The name was Gilmin before the removal of the family to Norfolk, England, when the spelling was changed to Gylmin, Gilmyn, and at last to Gilman. Edward Gilman with his wife and son left Gravesend, England, in the ship Diligent of Ipswich; arrived in Boston, August 10, 1638, and settled in Hingham. Their son, John Gilman, the royal councilor of New Hampshire, 1680-83, and speaker of the House of Representatives, was married June 20, 1657, to Elizabeth, daughter of James and Catherine (Shapleigh) Treworgye. Their son, Judge Nicholas Gilman, held also important offices in New Hampshire. His son, Nicholas Gilman, Jr., was graduated at Harvard in the class of 1724 at the age of seventeen. He was a clergyman, a friend of George Whitefield and Sir William Pepperell, and died in 1748. His son, Judge Joseph Gilman, was chief member of the Board of War of New Hampshire during the Revolutionary War. At its close he joined the officers of the American Army who formed the Ohio Company and founded Marietta in 1788, and was made judge of the Northwestern Territory by President Washington. His son, Benjamin Ives Gilman, grandson of Benjamin Ives, of Beverly, Massachusetts, was a member of the Ohio Convention of 1803 that framed the state constitution, afterwards removing to Philadelphia and New York. His son, Winthrop Sargent Gilman, went from New York to Alton, Illinois, at the age of twenty-one, and established himself in business. On the occasion of the " Lovejoy Riot," in 1837, he was by the side of the anti-slavery martyr when he was shot. It was he who received the printing-press that caused the tragedy. He was in business in St. Louis, Missouri, 1843-49. In 1849 he returned to New York City, where he was prominent in business and banking circles, and in the Presbyterian Church. He married Abia Swift, daughter of the Rev. Thomas and Martha (Swift) Lippincott, descended from the family that came to Boston in 1640. Their son, Arthur Gilman, was, as a child, of delicate health, fond of reading and writing, and by reason of his lack of physical vigor was given no youthful tasks which involved severe labor. He often spent his summers in the Berkshire Hills, Massachusetts. In 1857 he began his business life as a banker as partner in the firm of Halsted & Gilman. His father subsequently joined the firm, which became Gilman, Son & Company. He was married, April 12, 1860, to Amy Cooke, daughter of Samuel Ball, of Lee, Massachusetts, and four children were born of the marriage. After some years of active life in the busiest of financial centers his failing health warned his physician to advise rest for recuperation and he selected the neighborhood of the home of his wife and purchased an estate near Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, which he named "Glynllyn." Here he gave himself to agriculture and at the same time engaged in literary studies and interested himself in the condition of public education in Berkshire County. He was twice chosen a member of the local school committee, and he spent much time visiting schools and colleges in various parts of the country, lecturing on education in its numerous phases, and studying the various methods of imparting instruction.
He visited England in 1865, to gain data in preparing his genealogical history of the Gilman family, and he extended his visit to Paris and Rome. In 1867 Williams College honored him by conferring upon him the degree of A.M. His health had so far improved in 1870 that he accepted an offer from Houghton, Mifflin & Company, of the Riverside Press, where his first book on English literature had been published, to interest himself in that concern, and he removed to Cambridge and devoted himself more to authorship. He was for a time editor of the publications of the American Tract Society and wrote much for periodicals. At the time of the Centennial Celebration at Philadelphia, 1876, Mr. Gilman's attention was turned towards the education of women. His first wife died in 1875, and he was married again in Cambridge, July 11, 1876, to Stella, daughter of David and Stella (Houghton) Scott, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a woman of high attainments and widely interested in philanthropic movements. He had long been devoted to the consideration of problems connected with the higher education of young women, having in immediate view the wants of his own daughters. This want led him to formulate a plan intended to make it possible for young women to profit by the courses of instruction given to men in Harvard College. After mature consideration and discussion with intimate friends, the plan was communicated to President Eliot. Many members of the faculty of Harvard approved the plan at once, and President Eliot gave counsel without which the first steps could not have been taken. A body of seven influential ladies took charge of the work, and a few years later the "Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women " was incorporated. Mr. Gilman was secretary, executive officer and director. The project was at once nicknamed "The Harvard Annex," and later became Radcliffe College, of which Mr. Gilman was the first regent. The plan, as at first outlined, comprehended as the final issue of the experiment the establishment of organic relations with Harvard University, and Mr. Gilman so set forth the plan to President Eliot at its inception, also saying that when the time arrived he would withdraw from its further management. In 1886 the needs of Mr. Gilman's younger daughters led to the establishment of a school for girls, first known as "The Cambridge School for Girls," but which gradually took the name of its founder and became officially as well as locally known as "The Gilman School for Girls." Mr. Gilman resigned as regent of Radcliffe College in 1896, but he retained his position as a member of the Radcliffe corporation, and was always recognized as an important factor in its growth. At the time of his resignation the students and friends of the college established the "Arthur Gilman Book Fund of Radcliffe College Library," the books, history and literature to be selected by Mr. Gilman. His release from the personal oversight of Radcliffe left him free to give his entire time to the directorship of the Gilman School for Girls. In September, 1896, Helen Keller, the blind, deaf girl entered the school as a candidate for college preparation, with Miss Sullivan as interpreter of the instruction of the teachers. Mr. Gilman carefully trained himself for this work, and gave the preliminary Harvard examinations to Miss Keller, by means of the manual alphabet. His pupil passed them with eminent success. Mr. Gilman was a charter and honorary member of the American Historical Association; charter member of the Authors' Club of Boston and of the Episcopalian and St. Botolph Clubs, Boston, of the New England Agricultural Society and of the Colonial Club of Cambridge; corresponding member of the Wisconsin Historical Society and of the New York Biographical and Genealogical Society; a founder and secretary of the Longfellow Memorial Association and of the Lowell Memorial Society. He also served as secretary of the Cambridge Humane Society for many years; served on the board of visitors of the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge, of which he was secretary, and on the board of visitors of Wellesley College. Harvard University conferred on Mr. Gilman the honorary degree of A.M. at the Commencement of 1904. Previous to that time he had been for twenty-five years the only member of the governing bodies of Radcliffe College not holding a degree from Harvard. The day after Commencement he was elected an honorary member of the Harvard chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. He was affiliated with the Republican party from its inception, but voted for Mr. Cleveland for President. He was a contributor to " The Atlantic," " The Century" and other magazines. One of his articles which received much notice appeared in " The Atlantic " in August, 1904, under the title, " Rhoda's Teacher and her School." In it he embodied some of his ideas concerning the education of girls. Mr. Gilman edited the " Genealogy of the Family of Gilman in England and America." He edited and contributed to "Boston, Past and Present" (1873); "Library of Religious Poetry" (1880); "The Kingdom of Home" (1881); "Magna Charta Stories" (1882); the "Poetical Works of Geoffrey Chaucer" (3 vols., 1896) for the series of "British Poets" which had been edited many years before by Professor Child of Harvard University, but from which he had excluded Chaucer on the ground that no suitable text existed. The Chaucer Society had since partially supplied the deficiency, and Professor Child gave assistance in the work of Mr. Gilman.
He compiled an "Index to the Complete Edition of the Works of Samual Taylor Coleridge" (1884); and is the author of "First Steps in English Literature" (1870), which passed through many editions; "Kings, Queens, and Barbarians" (1870); "First Steps in General History" (1874); "The Cambridge of 1776" (1876); "Shakespeare's Morals" (1879); "History of the American People" (1883); "Tales of the Pathfinders" (1884); "The Story of Rome" (1885); "Short Stories from the Dictionary " (1886); " Story of the Saracens " (1896); "The Discovery and Exploration of America" (1897); "The Making of the American Nation" (1887); "The Story of Boston" (1889, new ed. 1895); "The Cambridge of 1896" (1896); Dryden's "Palemon and Arcite" (1898). He collaborated with Baring-Gould, Church, Stanley-Lane-Poole, Mahaffy, and Rawlinson in Putnam's "Stories of the Nations" series, — The Story of Germany, with Baring-Gould (1896); The Story of Carthage, with Professor Church (1886); The Story of the Moors in Spain, with Stanley-Lane-Poole (1886); The Story of the Turks, with Stanley-Lane-Poole (1888); The Empire of Alexander, with Professor Mahaffy (1887), and Egypt, with Rawlinson. For the series he wrote "The Story of Rome" and "The Story of the Saracens."
BLAKEMAN, Curtiss, sea-captain, and pioneer settler, came from New England to Madison County, Ill, in 1819, and settled in what was afterwards known as the "Marine Settlement," of which he was one of the founders. This settlement, of which the present town of Marine (first called Madison) was the outcome, took its name from the fact that several of the early settlers, like Captain Blakeman, were sea-faring men. Captain Blakeman became a prominent citizen and represented Madison County in the lower branch of the Third and Fourth General Assemblies (1822 and 1824), in the former being one of the opponents of the pro-slavery amendment of the Constitution. A son of his, of the same name, was a Representative in the Thirteenth, Fifteenth and Sixteenth General Assemblies from Madison County.
BULKLEY, (Rev.) Justus, educator, was born at Leicester, Livingston County, N. Y., July 23, 1819, taken to Allegany County, N. Y., at 3 years of age, where he remained until 17, attending school in a log school-house in the winter and working on a farm in the summer. His family then removed to Illinois, finally locating at Barry, Pike County. In 1842 he -entered the preparatory department of Shurtleft College at Upper Alton, graduating there in 1847. He was immediately made Principal of the preparatory department, remaining two years, when he was ordained to the Baptist ministry and became pastor of a church at Jerseyville. Four years later he was appointed Professor of Mathematics in Shurtleff College, but remained only two years, when he accepted the pastorship of x a church at Carrollton, which he continued to fill nine years, when, in 1864, he was called to a church at Upper Alton. At the expiration of one year he was again called to a professorship in Shurtleff College, this time taking the chair of Church History and Church Polity, which he continued to fill for a period of thirty-four years; also serving for a time as Acting President during a vacancy in that office. During this period he was frequently called upon to preside as Moderator at General Associations of the Baptist Church, and he became widely known, not only in that denomination, but elsewhere. Died at Upper Alton, Jan., 16, 1899.
PRICKETT, Abraham, pioneer merchant, was born near Lexington, Ky., came to Madison County, III, in 1808; was employed for a time in the drug business in St. Louis, then opened a store at Edwardsville, where, in 1813, he received from the first County Court of Madison County, a license to retail merchandise. In 1818, he served as one of the three Delegates from Madison County to the Convention which framed the first State Constitution, and, the same year, was elected a Representative in the First General Assembly; was also Postmaster of the town of Edwardsville for a number of years. In 1825 he removed to Adams County and laid out an addition to the city of Quincy; was also engaged there in trade with the Indians. In 1836, while engaged on a Government contract for the removal of snags and other obstructions to the navigation of Red River, he died at Natchitoches, La. —George TV. (Prickett) a son of the preceding, and afterwards a citizen of Chicago, is said to have been the first white child born in Edwardsville.—Isaac (Prickett), a brother of Abraham, came to St. Louis in 1815, and to Edwardsville in 1818, where he was engaged in mercantile business with his brother and, later, on his own account. He held the offices of Postmaster, Public Administrator, Quartermaster-General of State Militia, Inspector of the State Penitentiary, and, from 1838 to '42, was Receiver of Public Moneys at Edwardsville, dying in 1844.
PRICKETT, David, pioneer lawyer, was born in Franklin County, Ga., Sept. 21, 1800; in early childhood was taken by his parents to Kentucky and from there to Edwardsville, Ill. He graduated from Transylvania University, and, in 1821, began the practice of law; was the first Supreme Court Reporter of Illinois, Judge of the Madison County Probate Court, Representative in the General Assembly (1826-28), Aid-de-Camp to General Whiteside in the Black Hawk War, State's Attorney for Springfield Judicial Circuit (1837), Treasurer of the Board of Canal Commissioners (1840), Director of the State Bank of Illinois (1842), Clerk of the House of Representatives for ten sessions and Assistant Clerk of the same at the time of his death, March 1, 1847.
WEST, Edward M., merchant and banker, was born in Virginia, May 2, 1814; came with his father to Illinois in 1818; in 1829 became a clerk in the Recorder's office at Edwardsville, also served as deputy postmaster, and, in 1833, took a position in the United States Land Office there. Two years later he engaged in mercantile business, which he prosecuted over thirty years— meanwhile filling the office of County Treasurer, ex-officio Superintendent of Schools, and Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1847. In 1867, in conjunction with W. R. Prickett, he established a bank at Edwardsville, with which he was connected until his death, Oct. 31, 1887. Mr. West officiated frequently as a "local preacher" of the Methodist Church, in which capacity he showed much ability as a public speaker.
WHITESIDE, William, pioneer and soldier of the Revolution, emigrated from the
frontier of North Carolina to Kentucky, and thence, in 1793, to the present
limits of Monroe County, Ill., erecting a fort between Cahokia and Kaskaskia,
which became widely known as "Whiteside Station." He served as a Justice of the
Peace, and was active in organizing the militia during the War of 1812-14, dying
at the old Station in 1815.—John (Whiteside), a brother of the preceding, and
also a Revolutionary soldier, came to Illinois at the same time, as also did
William B. and Samuel, sons of the two brothers, respectively. All of them
became famous as Indian fighters. The two latter served as Captains of companies
of "Rangers" in the War of 1812, Samuel taking part in the battle of Rock Island
in 1814, and contributing greatly to the success of the day. During the Black
Hawk War (1832) he attained the rank of Brigadier-General Whiteside County was
named in his honor. He made one of the earliest improvements in Ridge Prairie, a
rich section of Madison County, and represented that county in the First General
Assembly. William B. served as Sheriff of Madison County for a number of years.
— John D. (Whiteside), another member of this historic family, became very
prominent, serving in the lower House of the Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and
Fourteenth General Assemblies, and in the Senate of the Tenth, from Monroe
County; was a Presidential Elector in 1836, State Treasurer (1837-41) and a
member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1847. General Whiteside, as he
was known, was the second of James Shields in the famous Shields and Lincoln
duel (so-called) in 1842, and, as such, carried the challenge of the former to
Mr. Lincoln. (See Duels.)
Sources: Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume 1 1918 & A Gazetter of Madison County
©2010, Transcribed by Janice Rice