Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Grover, William N.

Born: 1818-XX-XX New Jersey

William N. Grover was an attorney, justice of the peace, militia officer, Whig, and U.S. attorney. He practiced law in Warsaw, Illinois and, in 1843, voters elected him justice of the peace. He also served in as captain of the Warsaw Cadet company of the Warsaw Independent Battalion, a unit of the Illinois State Militia. He was in command on June 27, 1844 when the Warsaw Cadets allegedly stormed the jail in Carthage, Illinois as part of a mob and attacked and killed Mormon leader Joseph Smith and and his brother Hyrum Smith. Grover was one of five men put on trial for the murders but was ultimately acquitted. Shortly after, in July 1845, he married Cornelia Leonard. In 1850, he formed the law firm Hill, Grover & Hill with brothers Britton A. Hill and David W. Hill. They dissolved this firm in 1858, and Grover relocated to Saint Louis, Missouri. By 1860, he was working as an attorney in St. Louis and owned over $15,000 in real and personal property. In 1863, he received appointment as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. He remained in this position until at least 1865.

Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy: The Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1975), 20, 55-56, 217; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Hancock County, IL, 318; Indiana, U.S., Marriage Index, 1806-1861, 21 July 1845, Posey County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2015); William Hyde and Howard L. Conard, eds., Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (St. Louis: Southern History, 1899), 3:245; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 9 July 1852, 2:2; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Ward 5, St. Louis, St. Louis County, MO, 208; Register of Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1865 (Washington, DC: Government Printing, 1866), 296; Illinois, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999, 2 September 1899, Hancock County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2015).