Dummer, Henry E.

Born: 1808-04-09 Hallowell, Maine

Died: 1878-08-12 Mackinac Island, Michigan

Henry E. Dummer graduated from Bowdoin College and studied law at Harvard College. In 1832, he moved to Springfield, Illinois. That same year, Dummer became John T. Stuart's law partner. They remained partners until 1837, when Abraham Lincoln became Stuart's partner, and Dummer moved to Jacksonville. In 1838, he relocated to Beardstown, where he maintained a successful law practice. Dummer served as a delegate to the Illinois constitutional convention of 1847. He was active in Whig politics, and served as Beardstown's alderman and city attorney. After the dissolution of the Whig Party, he joined the Republicans. He owned $1,500 in real estate in 1850. In 1864, he was elected as a delegate at large for the state at the Baltimore convention that re-nominated President Lincoln. That same year, Dummer returned to Jacksonville and joined the law firm of Dummer, Brown, and Kirby and continued practicing law until 1878.

Arthur Charles Cole, ed., The Constitutional Debates of 1847, vol. 14 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Constitutional Series (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1919), 2:958; Jacksonville Journal (IL), 14 August 1878, 2:2; Paul M. Angle, One Hundred Fifty Years of Law (Springfield, IL: Brown, Hay, and Stephens, 1978), 12-16; History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 87; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:166; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Cass County, IL, 78. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL.