Dement, John

Born: 1804-04-25 Sumner County, Tennessee

Died: 1883-01-16 Dixon, Illinois

Dement moved with his parents to Franklin County, Illinois, in 1817. He served as sheriff of Franklin County from 1826 to 1828. Dement won election to the Illinois House of Representatives and represented Franklin County from 1828 to 1832. Like Abraham Lincoln, Dement commanded a company of volunteer militia during the Black Hawk War; Dement was promoted to major before the conflict ended. He served as treasurer of Illinois from February 1, 1831 until his resignation on December 3, 1836. Dement then returned to the General Assembly and represented Effingham and Fayette counties from 1836 to 1837, when he resigned his seat to take a job at the Dixon Land Office. Having had much experience as a farmer, Dement engineered and manufactured a steel plow that by the 1860s, triumphed over that of the John Deere company in state agricultural fairs. In 1860, Dement still lived in Dixon and owned $100,000 in real estate and was the head of a household that included three servants from Ireland.

John M. Clayton, comp., Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 99, 201, 202, 205; Gravestone, Oakwood Cemetery, Dixon, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Lee County, IL, 78-79; Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:206-8, 262-63, 286; John P. Reynolds, ed., Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society 5 (1861-1864), 240, 252-53, 272, 301-2.