Hardin, Charles

Born: 1818-XX-XX Kentucky

Died: 1863-01-30 Jacksonville, IL

Flourished: 1832 to 1863 Jacksonville, IL

Charles Hardin, circuit court clerk, lived in Frankfort, Kentucky in his youth. He studied in the preparatory department of Illinois College during the 1832-1833 academic year then spent three years in the collegiate department, apparently leaving Illinois College following his junior year of studies in the 1835-1836 school year. In 1838 Hardin was indicted for his role in the kidnapping and forcible return to Kentucky of Robert Logan, an enslaved man Hardin’s family had brought to Illinois and who had self-emancipated. Hardin’s indictment was quashed due to his age. Although he reportedly trained as a physician, Hardin spent a long career as clerk of the Morgan County Circuit Court, from at least 1848 until his death. During his years in the position, he was clerk of record on several of Abraham Lincoln’s cases in Morgan County. Hardin was the younger brother of Lincoln’s friend, John J. Hardin, and a distant cousin of Mary Lincoln. In politics, he was a Republican. Hardin married Elizabeth W. Luckett in 1843 and the pair had several children.

Catalogue of the Officers and Students in Illinois College, 1832-33. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), 4; Catalogue of the Officers and Students in Illinois College, 1833-34. (n.p.: n.p., n.d.), 3; Catalogue of the Officers and Students in Illinois College. 1834-35. (Jacksonville, IL: Calvin Goudy, 1834), 4; Catalogue of the Officers and Students in Illinois College: 1835-6. (Jacksonville, IL: E. T. & C. Goudy, 1836), 5; Patricia B. Burnette, “Two Slaves in Jacksonville,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 107 (Fall/Winter, 2014), 265-80; Kentucky, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1783-1965, 1 March 1843, Jefferson County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); History of Morgan County, Illinois (Chicago: Donnelley, Loyd, 1878), 265; For Lincoln’s cases involving Hardin, search Participant, “Hardin, Charles,” 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; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 197; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Jacksonville, Morgan County, IL, 10; Illinois Daily State Journal (Springfield), 6 June 1860, 2:3; 3 February 1863, 3:2; 7 February 1863, 3:3; Gravestone, Jacksonville East Cemetery, Jacksonville, IL.