Brayman, Mason

Born: 1813-05-23 Buffalo, New York

Died: 1895-02-27 Kansas City, Missouri

In 1836, Brayman was admitted to the bar in New York. He moved to Michigan where he practiced law and served briefly as the city attorney for Monroe, Michigan. In 1842, Brayman moved to Illinois, was admitted to the state bar, and continued the practice of law. In 1845, Brayman compiled the Illinois Revised Statutes, and that same year, Governor Thomas Ford gave him a special commission to investigate the difficulties between Mormons in Nauvoo, Illinois and their hostile neighbors. Brayman served as general solicitor for the Illinois Central Railroad from 1851 to 1855. With the outbreak of Civil War, Brayman volunteered for military service and eventually attained the rank of major-general of volunteers.

William Bristol Shaw, "Brayman, Mason," Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1964), 1:2:611-12; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:231-32, 2:628-30. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.