A brief history of Peoria - University Library

68...PE0RIA
Williamson county, 111., February 17, 1862 ; moved
where he has since resided ;
to Murphysboro
was educated here in the public schools
and at the Christian Brothers College, St. Louis, and at the Normal
School at Carbondale, graduating- from here in June, 1884, After
completing a law course at the Michigan Universit3% began an edi-
torial career in connection with the Murphysboro Independent.
Mr. Gill was elected to the House of Representatives in 1888 and
1890, and in 1892 was nominated and elected Lieutenant Governor of
the State.
Mr. Gill has at all times in his life been the champion of the
laboring masses and his eflforts in their behalf have won for him the
love, honor and esteem of all thinking men and women.
GOVERNOR JOHN P. ALTGELD
No. 29.
John P. Altgeld, Governor of Illinois, was born in Germany ia
December, 1847. When he was three months old his parents settled
near Mansfield, Ohio, where he was reared upon a farm. He was
early trained to hard work and attended the public schools at intervals
during the winter. When sixteen years of age he entered the
Union army and carried a musket in the James River campaign, and
at nineteen began to teach school. At twenty-one he went further
west. The spring of 1869 found him working in St. Louis and
studying law at night. After spending a few months there he went
into Southern Kansas. In the fall of 1869 he settled at Savannah,.
in Northwestern Missouri, and began reading law with Judge William
Herron and the Hon. David Ray, teaching school in the winter.
He was admitted to the bar there and served as City Attorney. He
drafted a new code of ordinances for the city, but before the expiration
of two years resigned the office to attend to private practice. Ia
1874 he was elected State's Attornej^ for Andrew County, Missouri.
Having served about one year he resigned and moved to Chicago.
After having gained a start, business came very rapidly and he
was soon employed in some of the most difficult cases.
In the fall of 1877 he was married to Miss Emma Ford, a woman
of beauty, culture and refinement, who is now his constant cojnpanion.
She was the daughter of John H. Ford, k prosperous farmer
living near Mansfield, Ohio.
For some years he eschewed politics, but in 1884 he ran for Congress
in Chicago. Although he was defeated he made so vigorous
and thorough a campaign that it attracted the attention of the
politicians throughout the State. He was elected Judge of the Superior
Court of Chicago in 1886 and was for a time Chief Justice of that
Court. After serving on the bench about five years, he resigned to
devote himself to private interests.
In 1884 he published a small volume entitled " Our Penal Machinery
and Its Victims," which is regarded as one of the best
works ever published on the subject of our penal system. In 1890
a volume entitled " Live (Questions " appeared from his pen, being a
discussion of some of the problems of the day. In 1894 he published
Volume II. of " Live Questions."
He was nominated for Governor of Illinois on the Democratic
ticket in the spring of 1892, and was elected by upwards of 25,000
majority.