Grover, Alonzo J.

Born: 1828-08-26 Bethel, Maine

Died: 1891-02-12 Kansas

Flourished: Earlville, Illinois

Alonzo J. Grover was an attorney and Republican. He attended Gould's Academy in Bethel, Maine, in the late 1840s and early 1850s. Grover participated in the school's debate society and gained a reputation as a skilled speaker with strong antislavery views. As of August 1850, Grover lived with his parents and siblings while working as a shoemaker in Albany, Maine. At an indeterminate point in the early 1850s, he commenced studying law. In 1853, he moved to Earlville, Illinois, where he established a legal practice. In January the following year, Grover married Octavia E. Norton. The couple went on to have at least six children. By January 1860, Grover served as a member of the La Salle County Republican Committee. He briefly corresponded with Abraham Lincoln during this time, asking Lincoln's views on the constitutionality of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Grover still resided in Earlville as of June 1863, but later removed to Ottawa, Illinois; Chicago; and finally Muscotah, Kansas.

William B. Lapham, comp., History of Bethel Formerly Sudbury Canada Oxford County, Maine, 1768-1890 (Augusta: Press of the Maine Farmer, 1891), 262; Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Gould's Classical and English Academy (Portland, ME: Foster & Gerrish, [1849]), 8; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Albany, Oxford County, ME, 28; The Earlville Leader (IL), 13 February 1891, 7:3; Alonzo J. Grover to Abraham Lincoln; Abraham Lincoln to Alonzo J. Grover; Alonzo J. Grover to Abraham Lincoln; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865, (Provo, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010); Gravestone, Precinct Cemetery, Earlville, IL.