Casey, Samuel K.

Born: 1817-06-27 Smith County, Tennessee

Died: 1871-05-31 Mount Vernon, Illinois

Flourished: Shawneetown, Illinois

Samuel K. Casey was a lawyer, county judge, federal government official, prison warden, and son of Zadok Casey. As a youth, he moved with his parents from his native Tennessee to the Illinois Territory, settling in Jefferson County. Casey received his education at McKendree College, where he was among the founders of the Philosophian Literary Society in 1837. Casey moved to Franklin County, Illinois and won election as county judge. He married Julia Emily McCreery in 1839, and the couple had three children. In 1850, Casey was working as a lawyer in Franklin County and owned $2,500 in real estate. Julia Emily died in 1852, and Casey remarried in 1855 to Anna Mollie Hensley. Casey served as receiver for the U.S. General Land Office in Shawneetown, Illinois in 1853 and 1854. That same year, he was also receiver for Jeffersonville, Indiana. By 1860, Casey and his family were living in Joliet, where Casey was employed as warden of the state penitentiary. He owned $3,000 in real estate and $700 in personal estate value.

Paul and Chester Farthing, eds., Philo History: Chronicles and Biographies of the Philosophian Literary Society of McKendree College (Lebanon, IL: Philosophian Literary Society of McKendree College, 1911), 59; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Franklin County, 1 September 1839, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Franklin County, IL, 21; Indiana, U.S., Marriages, 1810-2001, 17 November 1855 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1853 (Washington, DC: Robert Armstrong, 1853), 139; H.R. Ex. Doc. No. 10, 33rd Cong., 2nd Sess. (1854), 10, 12, 216; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Joliet, Will County, IL, 413; Bloomington Pantagraph (IL), 2 June 1871, 2:2; Gravestone (Julia Emily), Liberty Methodist Church Cemetery, Franklin County, IL; Gravestone, West Salem Cemetery, Jefferson County, IL.