Bridges, Edwin T.

Born: 1831-XX-XX New York

Died: 1900-XX-12 Quincy, Illinois

Edwin T. Bridges was a newspaper publisher and editor, public servant, Whig, and, later, a Republican. From 1852 to 1855, he published the La Salle Watchman, a Whig organ that appeared weekly, then semi-weekly. In November 1855, he sold the paper to E. C. Webster. In January 1855, representatives in the Illinois House of Representatives elected him as that body’s secretary pro tempore. The representatives later elected him clerk. He served as clerk of the Illinois House until January 1857, when he was ousted. He served as one of Whiteside County’s delegates to the 1858 Illinois Republican Convention. By September 1860, he was working as an editor for the Chicago Evening Journal. A year later, he was a messenger in the U.S. House of Representatives. In March 1863 he mustered into the U.S. Army's Volunteer's Commissary Department at the rank of captain. He was promoted to major in March 1865 and mustered out in July 1866. He died at the Illinois Soldier’s and Sailor’s Home.

Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 219; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield, IL), 2 January 1855, 2:4; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield, IL), 6 January 1857, 2:2-3; 17 June 1858, 2:4; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield, IL), 17 September 1860, 2:3; James A. Rose, comp., Blue Book of the State of Illinois (Springfield: Illinois State Journal, 1906), 327-28; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1861 (Washington, DC: Government Printing, 1861), 214; U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2009); U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Washington, Washington County, DC, 274; Illinois, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999, (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com, 2015).