Dresser, Nathan

Born: 1805 Connecticut

Died: 1868-12-29 Anna, Illinois

The son of a Connecticut tailor, Dresser moved west sometime in the 1830s with two of his brothers, the Rev. Charles Dresser and Henry Dresser, and settled in Sangamon County, Illinois. In October 1837, he married Nancy E. Bennett in Sangamon County. In the 1840s, Nathan was a clerk of the Menard County Circuit Court and a resident of Petersburg, Illinois. He was involved in Whig politics and was a friend of Abraham Lincoln. He was affiliated with the southern division of the Illinois Central Railroad. In 1850, he was living with Nancy and two children (Alexander and Rebecca) in Naples, Illinois, where he was a lumber merchant. In 1860, he was a land agent living in Anna, Illinois, where he lived the rest of his life.

Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 12 April 1839, 2:3, 4; 7 May 1846, 2:3; Joseph Wallace, Past and Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1904), 2:1277; R. D. Miller, Past and Present of Menard County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 90; Portrait and Biographical Album of Morgan and Scott Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1889), 534-35; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, 1 October 1837, Sangamon County, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Naples, Scott County, IL, 36; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Anna, Union County, IL, 252; Death Notice, The Quincy Whig (IL), 7 January 1869, 2:2.