Epler, Cyrus

Born: 1823-11-12 Indiana

Died: 1909-07-09 Jacksonville, Illinois

Flourished: 1850 to 1909 Jacksonville, Illinois

Cyrus Epler, attorney and public official, was born in Charleston, Indiana, and came to Morgan County, Illinois, with his family in 1831. He lived on the family farm until about 1841, then studied in the preparatory department of Illinois College before attending the college itself, from which he graduated in 1847. Epler commenced the study law in Jacksonville the following year. He traveled to California in 1849 to take part in the gold rush, and after two years returned to Jacksonville and resumed the study of law. At least a portion of his legal studies were conducted in the Jacksonville law office of William Brown and Richard Yates. He was admitted to the bar in Jacksonville in 1852 and was elected states attorney for the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois later that year. Epler served as vice president of the Illinois College Alumni Association in 1852 and 1853, and as the organization’s president in 1859. Politically, Epler was a Democrat, and he was elected to represent Morgan County in the Illinois House of Representatives in 1856 and 1858. He declined to be a candidate to fill Thomas L. Harris’ seat in the U.S. House of Representatives when Harris died soon after his election in 1858. Epler ran for Illinois Senate in 1862, declaring himself to be the candidate for Morgan and Sangamon counties, a district which was defunct after an 1861 redistrict. Epler registered for the draft in the Tenth Illinois Congressional District, but there is no further evidence that he served in the Civil War. He married Cornelia A. Nettleton in 1852 and was survived by seven children. Epler was a Freemason.

Effie Epler, “Judge Cyrus Epler 1823-1909,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 12 (July 1919), 310-15; Charles M. Eames, comp., Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (Jacksonville, IL: Daily Journal Steam Job Printing, 1885), 130, 266, 317; John M. Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:355-56; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 219, 221, 222, 224; Daily Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 8 November 1856, 2:4; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 3 November 1862, 3:2; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 3 November 1858, 2:4; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 26; Daily Illinois State Register (Springfield), 4 November 1862, 2:1; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010); Illinois State Register (Springfield), 10 July 1909, 2:6; The Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 10 July 1909, 1:5.