Dale, Michael G.

Flourished: 1838-1853 Bond County, Illinois

Dale attended school in Pennsylvania, graduating from Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg in 1835. He studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1837. In 1838, Dale moved to Greenville, Illinois, where he opened a law practice. The following year, voters elected him probate judge for Bond County. In 1847, Dale served as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention, working to incorporate into the new constitution provisions for reducing the State's debt and improving its credit. In 1849, he married Margaret M. Ewing, with whom he had seven children. In 1853, Dale resigned as probate judge to accept appointment as register of the United States Land Office in Edwardsville. When this office moved to Springfield in 1857, voters elected Dale probate judge of Madison County, an office he held for many years. Dale was a stockholder in the Mississippi and Atlantic Railroad, and retained Abraham Lincoln to defend him in two lawsuits against the railroad and its stockholders. Dale supported the Democratic Party.

Gazetteer of Madison County (Alton, IL: James T. Hair, 1866), 271; History of Madison County, Illinois (Edwardsville, IL: W. R. Brink, 1882), 360-61; Fox v. Dale, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137614; Whiting v. Dale, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137605.