Dugger, Jefferson L.

Born: 1826-XX-XX Illinois

Died: 1863-07-16 Atlanta, Illinois

Flourished: 1854-10-29 Carlinville, Illinois

Jefferson L. Dugger received appointment as postmaster of Carlinville, Illinois, on February 3, 1849. He resigned in March 1852 to become the editor of the Macoupin Statesmen newspaper, a position he held for eight months. Politically a Whig, Dugger was appointed a delegate to the party's state convention that same year. Several years later, in 1856, Dugger became a delegate to the Anti-Nebraska convention in Bloomington, Illinois, representing Logan County. He again entered the newspaper business in 1858, joining the editorial department of the Atlanta Forum that year and then becoming editor of the Kansas Daily State Register in 1859. Dugger also worked as a merchant in the 1850s for the firm Gill & Company.

In 1858, Abraham Lincoln acted as an attorney for Dugger when he was sued for a breach of contract in the selling of hogs, winning the case. The next year, 1859, Dugger served as a defense attorney along with Lincoln in another lawsuit and formed a partnership with Mark Delahay in the Kansas Territory. In 1861, President Lincoln appointed Dugger to a position in the U.S. Pension Office. He later resigned his position to serve as a captain during the Civil War.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Carlinville, Macoupin County, IL, 176; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, 18:122, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 6 March 1852, 2:2; 7 July 1852, 3:1; 16 November 1852, 3:1; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 24 May 1856, 2:4; 10 April 1858, 3:2; 5 September 1859, 2:2; Lawrence B. Stringer, History of Logan County Illinois (Chicago: Pioneer, 1911), 1:483; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1903), 387; Hickey v. Hamilton & Dugger, 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=136160; Bell v. McPheeter, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=136026; Jefferson L. Dugger to Abraham Lincoln; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1863 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1864), 178-80; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 24 July 1863, 3:2.