Goodwin, Philo A.

Born: 1808-XX-XX Connecticut

Died: 1873-06-12

Flourished: Quincy, Illinois

Philo A. Goodwin was a lawyer, judge, and Democrat. He served as an attorney in Hartford, Connecticut from 1833 to 1840. By 1841, he had moved to Illinois, settling in Adams County. In 1842, he was a justice of the peace for the Adams County Circuit Court, where he encountered Abraham Lincoln. In 1847, he won election, as a Democrat, as probate judge. Two years later, he won election as county judge for Adams County. In 1850, Goodwin was living in Quincy’s South Ward and owned $2,000 in real property. In 1858, he formed a law partnership with Hope S. Davis, establishing the firm of Goodwin & Davis. In 1860, Goodwin worked as an attorney in Quincy, owning $6,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $1,500.

Goodwin married his first wife Lavinia Hervey in 1832, and the couple lost a daughter, Sarah Davis Goodwin, in 1835. Goodwin married Elizabeth H. Eastlund in 1855, in Rock Island County.

J. Hammond Trumbull, ed., The Memorial History of Hartford County Connecticut 1633-1884 (Boston: Edward L. Osgood, 1886), 1:131; William H. Collins and Cicero F. Perry, Past and Present of the City of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 112, 131, 200, 272, 273, 313, 355; Schuyler et al. v. Bruce, 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=137786; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), South Ward, Quincy, Adams County, IL, 240; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 3, Quincy, Adams County, IL, 160; U.S., Newspaper Extractions from the Northeast, 1704-1930 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2014); Connecticut, U.S., Hale Collection of Cemetery Inscriptions and Newspaper Notices, 1629-1934 (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2012); Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Rock Island County, 19 November 1855, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; The Quincy Whig (IL), 13 June 1873, 4:5.