Gordon, William (of Morgan Co., IL)

Born: 1802-10-02 County Donegal, Ireland

Died: 1839-11-06 Morgan County, Illinois

Flourished: Morgan County, Illinois

Gordon emigrated to the United States with two brothers around 1820, and settled in Madison County, Illinois, where he began clerking in a store. He married Nancy Berry on October 14, 1823, and they had six children, including John P. Gordon. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Morgan County, Illinois, where they settled near what became Lynnville in 1831. William Gordon served as the first postmaster, as a justice of the peace, and ran a merchandising business in Lynnville. He served in the Black Hawk War, both in 1831 as a private and quartermaster and again in 1832 as the captain of his own company. From 1834 to 1836, Gordon represented Morgan County in the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served alongside Abraham Lincoln.

Ellen M. Whitney, comp., The Black Hawk War, 1831-1832: Illinois Volunteers, vol. 35 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1970), 1:56, 66, 356, 368-69; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 204; History of Morgan County, Illinois (Chicago: Donnelley, Loyd, 1878), 432; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Madison County, 14 October 1823, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Ernest G. Hildner and Helen Patterson Hinde, eds., Family History of Morgan County (Dallas, TX: Taylor, 1977), 124.