Logan County, Illinois - Richard J. Oglesby, 1911

On Elkhart Hill, not far from the actual site of the first white settlement in Logan County, there now rests the remains of all that is mortal of a man, who, in his day, was one of the leading characters of the state and nation. Soldier, statesman and civilian; three times governor, once United States senator, and all the time the plain, every day American citizen, it has been considered fitting to devote this final chapter, in this history of Logan County, to his record and his career, with especial reference to where the same runs parallel with the story of the county.

Richard James Oglesby was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, on the 25th day of July, 1824. He was of Scotch extraction, and bore in many traits of his character the impress of the sterling virtues of that race. His parents, Jacob and Isabella Oglesby, were sturdy pioneers. In 1833, by a visitation of cholera, father, mother, brother and sister fell victims to that dreadful scourge. At that time Richard Oglesby was but nine years old, one of six children, left without a home, dependent upon the kindness of relatives and friends for protection and care. He was taken by his uncle, Willis Oglesby, who, in 1836, moved to Decatur, but at the age of fourteen, his uncle sent him to live with his two sisters, Mrs. Prather and Mrs. Peddicord, who also resided in Decatur. Three years of his life were spent in the business of farming and, at the end of that time, he concluded to return to his native heath and learn the trade of a carpenter. Prior to going to Kentucky, for that purpose, he had acquired some education in the common branches in the early schools of Decatur, taking advantage of every opportunity offered him in that line. After remaining in Kentucky about a year, he returned to Decatur. In 1844, he commenced the study of law with Silas W. Robbins, of Springfield, and upon his admission to the bar, located in Moultrie County, for the practice of his profession.

Soon after locating in Moultrie County, the Mexican War broke out, and young Oglesby was among the first to volunteer for service in that contest. Although but twenty-one years of age, he was made First Lieutenant of Company C, Fourth Illinois, commanded by Col. E. D. Baker. The regiment marched more than 700 miles through the interior of Mex- ico, participating in the battles of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. In the latter battle, he commanded the company. On his return he settled at Decatur, but his practice of the law was again interrupted by his joining the band of "forty-niners," who, in the summer of 1849, went by overland route to California in search of gold. Two years later he returned to Decatur and in both 1848 and 1852, he became conspicuous by his ability as a political campaigner and stump speaker. In April of 1856, he made a journey to Europe, Egypt, Arabia and the Holy Land and came back with a store of valuable information gleaned in his travels.

The winter of 1857-58 was the formative period of those elements which marked with such peculiar significance the campaign of the latter year, when Lincoln and Douglas contested in forensic struggles over the political issues of that day. He became a candidate in 1858, of the Whig contingency for the office of congressman from the Congressional District extending from Logan and Macon Counties on the northwest to Clark County on the southeast. The district was largely Democratic and he was defeated, but he succeeded in reducing perceptibly the Democratic vote. He carried Logan County in that campaign by a vote of 1,315 to 1,174 for James C. Robinson. In 1860, he was elected to the State Senate, and received more votes for that office in the Senatorial district than did Mr. Lincoln for President, in the same district. His incumbency of this office was cut short by the breaking out of the Civil War.

Under the call of the President, Illinois was required to furnish six regiments. The troops were rendezvoused at Springfield and were formed into regiments during the brief session of the Legislature. On the last day of the session, the Eighth Regiment held an election and unanimously chose Senator Oglesby for Colonel of the regiment. In the fall of 1861, he was placed in command of Cairo, then the southernmost position occupied by the Union army. He served about a year as Colonel, and led the right of General Grant's army in his advance upon Fort Donelson, which finally yielded with its 14,000 prisoners, after a severe three days' struggle, on Feb. 14, 1862, being the first substantial Union victory up to that time. In 1862, Colonel Oglesby was appointed Brigadier General by President Lincoln for gallantry at the battle of Fort Donelson. In the autumn of 1862, the great battle of Corinth was fought on October 3rd and 4th. General Oglesby commanded a brigade in that fight, and on the afternoon of the first day, fell upon the field, as was then thought, mortally wounded. He passed six months of intense suffering and danger before he was able to leave his home, and for the rest of his life carried in his body the enemy's bullet, which brought him at that time so near the gates of death. In consideration of his meritorious services, in 1863, he was promoted to the rank of Major General of Volunteers, by President Lincoln. Though still suffering from his wound, he returned to active duty in April, but was compelled because of his physical condition to tender his resignation in July, 1863, which was not accepted ; but he was granted a leave of absence and returned home. After a short time he was detailed as president of a general court martial, which sat in Washington from December, 1863, to May, 1864. ;

On May 25, 1864, he was nominated on the first ballot by the Republican State Convention as a candidate for Governor of Illinois, and was elected by a majority of over 30,000. He succeeded Gov. Yates in January, 1865, and was Governor until January, 1869, performing the duties of the office to the general satisfaction of the people. It was in the first year of his incumbency as Governor, that the corner stone of Lincoln University was laid, he delivering the address on that occasion. In 1872, he was again nominated for Governor, and again elected, this time by a majority of over 40,000. At the ensuing session of the Legislature, he was the caucus nominee of his party for United States Senator from Illinois, and was elected to that exalted position on the first ballot. He served in the United States Senate until March 4, 1879, after which he retired from public life.

At that time he was a resident of Decatur, but in 1882 he moved to Lincoln and occupied the residence at the northwest corner of what is now known as Latham Park. It was while a resident here that in 1884, he was nominated a third time for Governor of the state and a third time elected, entering upon his third term in January, 1885. At the close of his third term, he determined to retire permanently from public lifé. In 1873, he had married Mrs. Emma Gillett Keyes, eldest daughter of John D. Gillett, and later upon the death of Mr. Gillett, Mrs. Oglesby inherited a considerable estate, which included valuable lands in and around Elkhart Hill. Governor and Mrs. Oglesby, after the Governor's retirement to private life, first built a residence upon the exact spot where in 1819, James Latham had settled, the first white settler in what is now Logan County. This was on the northwest slope of the ridge of Elkhart Grove. In 1835, the Lathams had built a house on this site, to take the place of the old double log cabin of pioneer days. In 1890, when the Oglesbys built on this site only the old chimney and fire place of the old house of 1835 remained. This chimney and fire place was used as a nucleus for the Oglesby house and the residence when completed was known as Oglehurst. On March 2, 1891, this building caught fire and burned to the ground. With the house, the contents were also destroyed, nothing being saved from the wreck. A large amount of furniture, china, jewelry, paintings, books and valuable property was thus lost, the loss aggregating in all about $20,000. Among other property destroyed were various war trophies and various presents made the Governor at different times, the loss of which deeply affected him, and which was a source of regret to him as long as he lived. In 1891, the Oglesbys erected a larger and more imposing structure than the one destroyed by fire, the new structure being erected farther up on the crest of the hill, to the south and east, about onequarter of a mile from the old location.

Concerning Governor Oglesby's law practice, an exceedingly characteristic letter on that subject from Gov. Oglesby, written to Goy. John M. Palmer in 1898, and dated at Elkhart, is published in Palmer's work on the "Bench and Bar of Illinois." The letter reads: "Now you know very well, I never was much of a lawyer, hardly enough of one to get in your book; still I was a lawyer and practiced on and off for fifteen years. The last case I tried was in November, 1860, at Decatur. After my services as a soldier in our Civil War, I did not return to the practice of the law. I was born in Oldham County, Kentucky, July 25, 1824, and am now nearly seventy-seven; am alive yet, but I have quit kicking. I was admitted to the bar in N ovember, 1845, after reading law for eighteen months (I never studied law), went at once over to Sullivan, in Moultrie County, and put up my sign; remained there until the close of the spring term in May, 1846; returned to Decatur, and at once volunteered for the Mexican War; served a year and returned to Decatur again, and at once went back to the practice of law, and stuck to it until the spring of 1849, when I went to California. From California I again returned to Decatur, in 1851, with more money than I had made practicing law at that time. I went to the practice again and stuck to it until the spring of 1856, when I went to Europe and the Holy Land. On my return from Europe, in December, 1857, I again went to the practice and stuck to it until the war of 1861. Then I went to war, and when I returned from it, in 1864, before I got started into the practice of law, I slipped in to be Governor, and that finished my fooling with the law - a noble profession, but one that will not be trifled with, My experience at the bar was not sufficiently interesting to deserve special notice. I believe that I only had two fights during the whole time; I demurred, but was overruled, and in neither did I have any costs to pay. And now, in old age, I look back and wonder if I ever was a lawyer. What a strange thing, anyway, this whole matter of life is. I wish some good lawyer would explain it to the world, to the profession, and to me."

Volumes could be written of Gov. Oglesby's eccentric speeches and habits. The writer especially recalls that when, at the age of twenty-four, he was making his first race for the Legislature, he met Gov. Oglesby at the Chicago & Alton depot in Lincoln, one day, the writer embarking and Gov. Oglesby disembarking. On the Governor asking the writer if he was "going somewhere to make a Democratic speech" and on being told that such was the intention, the Governor dryly remarked: "Well, young man, how the devil do you suppose that you Democrats could run this government? Why, blamed if it ain't all we can do to run it." While Gov. Oglesby could be very correct in his English, still there were times when he enjoyed dropping back into the old vernacular of pioneer days. The writer heard him at a Farmers' Institute in Lincoln, at one time, when surrounded by his old-time friends, descant upon the fertile soil of Central Illinois, comparing it to the soil of Kentucky, upon which he was born. "Why," said he, "down in old Kaintuck, where I was born, God bless her, the soil is yaller - not just yaller, but the yallerest kind of yaller," and then he proceeded to advise his farmer auditors to keep the boys on the farm and away from the cities where he said they would grow up to become "liars, rogues, thieves and dudes," as if "dudes" was the climax of all earthly perversity.

His ability to handle excellent English, however, as well as the poetic fancy which reposed beneath the rugged exterior of his soul was evidenced by his celebrated address delivered at'a banquet of the Fellowship Club of Chicago, Sept. 9, 1894, on the occasion of a Harvest Home festival. The following extracts are illustrative of the entire address:

"See the glorious corn! Look on its ripening, waving field! See how it wears a crown, prouder than monarch ever wore, sometimes jauntily and sometimes after the storm the dignified survivors of the tempest seem to view a field of slaughter and to pity a fallen foe. And see the pendent caskets of the cornfield, filled with the wine of life and the silken fringes that set a form for fashion and for art. And now the evening comes! The scudding clouds conceal the half and reveal the whole of the moonlit beauty of the night. Then the gentle winds make heavenly harmony on a thousand harps that hang upon the borders and the edges and the middle of the field of ripening corn, until my heart beats responsive to the rising and falling of the long melodious refrain. Glorious corn, that more than all the sisters of the field wear tropic garments. Nor on the shores of Nilus or of Ind does nature dress her forms more splendidly. * * * Aye, the corn, the royal corn, within whose yellow heart there is of health and strength for all the nations. Corn triumphant, that with the aid of man hath made victorious procession across the tufted plain and laid foundation for the social excellence that is and is to be. Transmuted by the alchemy of God, it sustains the warrior in battle, the poet in song and strengthens everywhere the thousand arms that work the purposes of life. Majestic, fruitful, wondrous plant! Thou greatest among the manifestations of the wisdom and love of-God that may be seen in the fields, upon the hillsides or in the valleys."

Gov. Oglesby's political speeches were unique. He was ofttimes bitter, in his denunciations of his political opponents, and yet so well understood was he, by his old friends, that his closest intimates, who happened to differ from him in political persuasion, would sit and smile as he "lampooned" them with such attributes as "rascals," "copperheads" and "rogues." It was "Uncle Dick" and "it was just his way." In later years he mellowed somewhat in his political notions, although a rockribbed partisan to his death. As a sample of his political speeches, the following extract from one delivered in. 1890, at Latham's Park in Lincoln, is characteristic: ''I do not feel toward Democrats as I used to at all. I used to dislike them. I used to be pretty mad at them. They gave us a heap of trouble at the beginning and they haven't quit worrying us yet. But there are lots of clever fellows among them - lots of them. There are plenty of them around where I live - rather too plenty for comfort. They are good neighbors, good farmers and good citizens, and it is amazing to see how well they behave themselves, with such abominable politics. They sow and reap with us, they cut and shuck the corn with us, they attend our markets, enjoy our society and even have the impudence to ask us to let them hold office. And every once in a while they slip in on us, too. They are good fellows, all right, but their politics is dead wrong."

The last set speech made by him was made at the Old Settlers' meet-_ ing at Mt. Pulaski in 1898, and it was prophetic. First he began to joke, as was his custom. He said: "I came to Illinois sixty-two years ago, a buxom, frolicsome, young ass. Why, I never heard of a night shirt until I was thirty years old. And when I got one, I was ashamed to put it on. It was hard enough in those days to get a day shirt." Then turning to an old friend he said, with a grin: "Jim, I don't believe you know what a night shirt is yet,' and the audience roared. Then growing eloquent, he referred to the career of Abraham Lincoln and said: "How 'grandly he walked this land, the friend of all humanity. His heart beat in harmony with the poor and no man will be able to fathom the mystery of his character." Then came the prophecy: "N eighbors, I'm glad to be with you to-day, but I think this is the last Old Settlers' meeting I will ever attend. The end of the career of every human being is inevitable. © It comes alike to old and young and yet it is not a day to be dreaded, but should be faced without fear." It was his last Old Settlers' meeting, for in about six months, Richard J. Oglesby was no more.

His last public appearance was at the Presbyterian church in Lincoln, on the night of December 1, 1899, on the occasion of a lecture of Gen. John B. Gordon, of Georgia. The scene was nationally historic. The lecture was given under the auspices of the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. The veterans of the post occupied front seats in the audience room. Gov. Oglesby presided, although quite feeble. It was to be his last public appearance on earth, and somehow or other everybody seemed to intuitively divine it. It gave pathos to the scene. Both distinguished men sat upon the platform, none others. One was a representative of the North, the other of the South. Both were national characters. Both had been Governors of their respective states, Illinois and Georgia. Both had represented their respective states in the United States Senate at the same time, but on opposite sides of the aisle. One was a leading Major General in the Federal army, the other a leading Major General in the Confederate cause. Two more representative men of the two sections could not have been found. Here they met as friends, and as they shook hands before the large audience, it seems as if no greater demonstration of the indissolubility of the Union could have been asked. Gov. Oglesby rose to his feet, tremblingly and unsteady. His voice shook with emotion, but the audience was so quiet that every intonation of his voice could be heard. He referred to their old association in the Senate, then to the fact that the Union had been preserved and that now there was no more North, no South, only one common country. Feelingly he introduced General Gordon. Feelingly Gordon responded. Tears stole down the cheeks of each, handkerchiefs came from the pockets of the auditors and there was scarcely a dry eye in the house. All realized that Gov. Oglesby's days were numbered. No more historic scene was ever witnessed on American soil. Both participants have gone to their last reward.

Governor Oglesby died April 24, 1899, at his home on Elkhart Hill. Four days later his funeral was held from the house. It is estimated that over 4,000 visitors were in attendance, including his son, Robert T. Lincoln, Gov. Tanner and all the state officers, three ex-Governors, namely, Joseph Fifer, John M. Palmer and Shelby M. Cullom, the two latter being United States Senators; also Congressmen Cannon, Lowden, Marsh, Henderson and Warner; also Judges Kohlsaat, Longnecker, Carter and Holdom; Gen. John C. Black, ex-Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson, William Penn Nixon, Melville E. Stone, a large representation of members of the Legislature and scores of prominent public men from all over the state. The funeral oration was delivered by Bishop Seymour, of Springfield, who was assisted in the ritualistic work by Archdeacon F. W. Taylor. A boy choir of thirty voices from St. Paul's Pro-Cathedral furnished music. The funeral cortege from the house to St. John's Chapel, located opposite "Oglehurst" in the grove, included four companies of State Militia, the Fifth Regiment band, Goodman's band of Decatur, and the Decatur and Lincoln posts, G. A. R. The casket was deposited on a bier in the chapel in the center of the structure under a canopy of white crepe. Interment took place May 8, 1899, in the Oglesby lot in Elkhart Cemetery, in a vault of solid concrete twenty-four feet high, one-half underground and eighteen inches thick.

No better conclusion to this sketch of a distinguished citizen of Logan County could be given, than to quote from the funeral oration of Bishop Seymour over the remains of Governor Oglesby. Bishop Seymour said:

"Where is there to be found a man who united in himself the sympathies and affections of so many and various conditions of social life? Children loved him, for he played and romped with them like a child. Youths and maidens loved him, because he ministered to their pleasures and shared heartily in their amusements. The farmer loved him, since he had held the plow. The pioneer loved him, for he had endured the hardships of early days. The jurist felt drawn to him, since he had practiced law. The soldier revered him, because he had risen from the ranks to lofty positions as a reward of bravery, and bore on his body the scars of wounds received in the red rain of battle. The civilian respected him, because his avocations were from choice, among the peaceful pursuits of unobtrusive life. The politician honored him, because his career was clean and upright and he was fair and just to friends and foes. Finally the people loved him, because he was one of them, by birth and early association, and made himself one of them, whether in office or out, whether in the humblest or most exalted position in life. He grasped the poor man's hand as warmly when he was governor or senator, as when in private life. In tender affection, universal throughout this great state, the people got near him and brought him in turn near to them, by calling him 'Uncle Dick.' "'