Don Carlos, William C.

Born: 1834-XX-XX Indiana

Died: 1903-05-15

William C. Don Carlos was a farmer, civil servant, bookkeeper, and Mason. In 1850 he was living and farming with his parents and siblings in Vermilion County, Illinois. In June 1853, he married Mary Jane Alspaw, with whom he had at least one child. In December 1855, while still living in Vermilion County, he purchased 160 acres of public land in Iroquois County, Illinois. He served as a clerk in the U.S. General Land Office in Danville, Illinois from at least the spring of 1856 until the U.S. Secretary of the Interior discontinued the Danville office on May 12, 1856 and moved it to Springfield, Illinois, where Don Carlos continued to serve as clerk for some time. By 1860, however, he and his wife lived in Missouri, where he worked as a bookkeeper and owned $200 in real and personal property. In May 1861 he received appointment as postmaster for Allendale, Missouri. He died by suicide at a hospital in Mangum in the Oklahoma Territory.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Vermilion County, IL, 320; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Vermilion County, 9 June 1853, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Iroquois County, 238:168, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 12 May 1856, 2:4; Letter, Document ID: 59008; Letter, Document ID: 59006; Letter, Document ID: 4610, Davenport v. Sconce & DonCarlos, 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=137241; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Allenville, Gentry County, MO, 265; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1858-1867, 22:46, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; The Wichita Daily Eagle (KS), 20 May 1903, 2:4.