Broadwell, Norman M.

Born: 1825-08-01 Morgan County, Illinois

Died: 1893-02-28 Springfield, Illinois

Norman M. Broadwell moved to Springfield, Illinois, in 1850 and studied law in the office of Lincoln and Herndon. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1851 and opened his own law office in Pekin, Illinois but, in 1854, he moved back to Springfield, where he remained for the rest of his life. He had several law partners in Springfield, including Shelby M. Cullom and John A. McClernand. Broadwell supported the Democratic Party. In 1856, he married Virginia Iles, a member of Springfield's founding family. By 1860, Broadwell was a prominent Springfield attorney and had accumulated $10,000 worth of real estate and $1,000 of personal property. In 1860, he won election to the Illinois General Assembly. In 1862, Broadwell was elected county judge, to fill a vacancy caused by the death of George Power.

John J. Duff, A. Lincoln: Prairie Lawyer (New York: Bramhall House, 1960), 287; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:193; Portrait and Biographical Album of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1891), 217-18; Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County (Chicago: S.J. Clarke, 1904), 2:930-34; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Springfield, Sangamon County, IL, 150. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.