Logan County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read), 1911

Chapter with an unread heading (no. 1 of those read)

RICHARD J. OGLESBY. a Sketch of His Life; War Record; Political Career; Removal to Logan County ; As a Lawyer ; Characteristic Incidents ; Corn Address ; Political Addresses; Last Appearance; Gordon and Oglesby; Death at Elkhart; Funerals Eulogy -.c3.:0..0'anec og comaitreie> yeh tenet ale aelrlane 623

The Editor

Lawrence B. Stringer was born February 24, 1866, and came, with his parents, from New. Jersey to Illinois, when ten years of age. He received his primary education in the public schools, was graduated from Lincoln University, now Lincoln College of the James Millikin University, with the degree of A. B., later was graduated from the Chicago College of Law, took the post-graduate course at the same institution, received the degree of LL.B. from Lake Forest University, was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law at Lincoln, Ill. He was married December 18, 1890, to Miss Helen Pegram, daughter of W. A. Pegram, of Lincoln, Il.

He was elected Representative in the Illinois General Assembly, in an adverse political district when 23 years of age and was re-elected to the same position two years later by an increased majority. While a member of that body, he was Chairman of the Committee on Education and fathered several measures along educational lines, among them being the present Compulsory Education Law, now upon the statute book of the state. Asa member of the Committee on Elections, he assisted in drafting and having passed the present Australian Ballot Law. He was also the author of several measures for the protection of coal miners of the state.

In 1900 he was elected to the Illinois State Senate, was his party's candidate for president of that body and by virtue thereof minority leader. He was also temporary and permanent chajrman of the Illinois Democratic State Convention in 1892.

In 1904, at the age of 38 years, he was nominated for Governor of Illinois by the Democratic State Convention held that year, and despite the discouraging conditions which confronted his party, conducted a vigorous campaign and at the election received nearly 10,000 more votes in the state than did his party's candidate for president. In this election, while Mr. Roosevelt, Republican candidate for President, carried Logan County by a plurality of 621, Judge Stringer's plurality, in the county, as Democratic candidate for Governor was 442, - a difference of 1,063 votes.

This campaign will be remembered in the history of the state as one in which there was a complete absence of the usual vituperation and personal abuse, and at its close, Judge Stringer was tendered an appointment as Presiding Judge of the Illinois State Court of Claims, by Governor Deneen, his political opponent in the campaign, which position Judge Stringer accepted and still retains.

Under the primary election law in force in 1909, voters were given an opportunity to express upon their primary ballot their preference for a candidate for United States Senator to succeed Senator Hopkins. Judge Stringer's name was placed upon the Democratic ballot at the primaries held that year, with the result that he carried every voting precinct in the state over his opponent, a majority of them by a unanimous vote. In the session of the Legislature following, a deadlock of over four months ensued, and was finally broken by the election of William Lorimer to that office.

Judge Stringer has an extended reputation as a public speaker, having filled engagements upon the public rostrum in various capacities for the past twenty-five years. For three years past he has been engaged in Chatauqua lecture work, under the auspices of one of the leading Lyceum Bureaus of the country and has addressed audiences in various states of the union. He is a member of the Illinois State Historical Society, and has given especial study and attention to the early history of Illinois, a subject upon which he has both lectured and written and concerning which he is regarded in the light of an authority. His knowledge upon this subject, largely secured by individual research, his experience in public life in the state, as well as his special taste and inclination for literary work, particularly along historical lines, render him peculiarly fitted and adapted to write a history of the county which is his home. :