Bainbridge, Allen

Born: 1808-03-14 Tennessee

Died: 1873-10-28 Missouri

Flourished: Franklin County, Illinois

A Democrat from Tennessee, Bainbridge and his brother John were early settlers to Franklin County, Illinois. They settled in an area that would become known as Bainbridge, so named for the Bainbridge brothers. Allen and John opened a mercantile and saloon in Marion, which later became a prosperous farming, milling, merchandising, tobacco, distillery, and hotel enterprise. Appointed the first postmaster of Bainbridge, Williamson County, in 1837, and elected to one term in the state legislature that same year, Bainbridge worked with Willis Allen to divide Franklin County into Franklin and Williamson counties. Bainbridge was colonel of the Williamson County Militia and led musters until its disbandment in 1845. In 1860, he was a fruit and grape grower in Union County, Illinois, and owned $26,000 in real estate and had a personal estate valued at $3,000. Bainbridge moved to De Soto, Missouri in 1861 where he gained national fame as a peach and apple farmer.

Milo Erwin, History of Williamson County, Illinois (Marion, IL, n. p., 1876) 237, 241, 245, 249; Thomas Mechan, ed., The Gardener's Monthly and Horticultural Advertiser 10 (1868), 127, 299-300; Glenn Sneed, Ghost Towns of Southern Illinois (Royalton, IL, Glenn J, Sneed, 1977), 243; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Union County, IL, 58.