Harlan, Justin

Born: 1800-12-06 Ohio

Died: 1879-03-12 Kentucky

Harlan taught school and studied law in John McLean's law office in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1825, he moved to Darwin, Illinois, where he practiced law and served as a justice of the peace. He served in the Black Hawk War during 1832. Harlan moved to Marshall, Illinois, in 1840. From 1835 to 1841 and again from 1848 to 1861, Harlan served as judge of the Fourth Judicial Circuit, where he presided over several of Abraham Lincoln's cases. Harlan also acted as a delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1847 as a Whig.

Arthur Charles Cole, ed., The Constitutional Debates of 1847, vol. 14 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, Constitutional Series (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1919), 962; Harry Woods, comp., Blue Book of the State of Illinois, 1913-1914 (Danville: Illinois Printing, 1914), 214; For Harlan's cases involving Lincoln, search "Harlan, Justin," 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.