English, Revel W.

Born: 1810-10-13 Kentucky

Died: 1894-02-18

Flourished: 1837-1850 Greene County, Illinois

Sometime prior to 1837, English moved to Illinois and settled in Greene County. A Democrat, he was elected to represent Greene and Jersey counties in the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served alongside Abraham Lincoln from 1836 to 1842. English represented Calhoun and Greene counties in the Illinois Senate from early 1842 until his resignation in December of that year, the result of redistricting. In September 1842, English was present on Bloody Island for the aborted duel between Abraham Lincoln and James Shields. On March 19, 1843, he married Ann Smith. In 1850, he was a miller in Greene County, where he lived with his wife, three children, and three laborers, and he owned $2,000 in real estate. Sometime after 1850, he moved to Alton, where he served as the city's postmaster from 1853 to 1860.

Gravestone, Carrollton City Cemetery, Carrollton, IL; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Greene County, 339:186, Illinois State Archives, Springfield; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Greene County, 19 March 1843, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; John Clayton, comp., Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 205, 207, 209, 210; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Greene County, IL, 67; Theodore Calvin Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 297, 319, 342, 352, 382; Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), 1:192; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1855-1865, 20A:91, National Archives Building, Washington, DC.