Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Dent, George (of Putnam Co., IL)

Born: 1807-09-26 West Virginia

George Dent moved from the western part of Virginia to Muskingum County, Ohio, in 1808. He married Comfort Ijams, and in 1831, Dent and his family moved to Putnam County, Illinois. During the Black Hawk War, Dent served as a private in Captain William Haws's company of mounted volunteers. After the war, Dent purchased public land near Magnolia and took up farming, but an accident in 1836 cost him the use of his right hand, forcing him to seek other employment. Over the next decade, he held numerous county offices, including clerk of the county court, clerk of the circuit court, county accessor, and county judge. In 1847, he became clerk of the county commissioners' court and county recorder, and relocated to Hennepin, the county seat, where he lived until after the Civil War. By 1850, he had returned to farming and owned real property valued at $4,100. In 1860, he was clerk of the circuit court and owned real property valued at $20,000 and had a personal estate of $5,000. From 1863 to 1864, he represented Putnam County in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Gravestone, Riverside Cemetery, Hennepin, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Putnam County, 68:212, 704:7, 704:8, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:106; Industrial Chicago: Vol. 6, The Bench and Bar (Chicago: Goodspeed, 1896), 238; John Clayton, comp., Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 225; 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), 1:494; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Putnam County, IL, 364; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Hennepin, Putnam County, IL, 59.