Doolittle, Irwin B.

Born: 1814-XX-XX Ohio

Died: 1851-03-12 Pekin, Illinois

Irwin B. Doolittle lived in Tazewell County, Illinois as early as 1832, when he purchased eighty acres of public land in the county. Between 1836 and 1848, he purchased several hundred acres of public land in Tazewell County, and also purchased a canal in La Salle County. Doolittle married Mary Ann Coldron in February 1842. That same month, Doolittle was elected postmaster of the U.S. Post Office in Pekin, Illinois, a position he held until December 1844. In May 1844, he was a delegate for the Tazewell Whig Convention. Doolittle was involved in numerous cases in the Tazewell County Circuit Court with Abraham Lincoln. Mary Ann Doolittle died in May 1849, and, in May 1850, Doolittle married Ann Marie Coldron. In 1850, Irwin B. Doolittle and his family lived with his brother William B. Doolittle in Tazewell County. The brothers were both farmers and each owned real estate valued at approximately $7,000.

Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Tazewell County, 68:127, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; For an exhaustive list of all Doolittle's land purchases, search "Doolittle I," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, 9 February 1842, 13 May 1850, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1832-1844, 12B:587, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1845 (Washington, DC: J. & G. S. Gideon, 1845), 394*; Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 30 May 1844, 1:7; For cases involving Lincoln, search Participant, "Doolittle, Irwin B.," 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; Mary Ann Doolittle, Gravestone, Haynes Cemetery, Pekin, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Tazewell County, IL, 108; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 17 March 1851, 3:1.