Herndon, Elliott B.

Born: 1820-08-01 Troy, Illinois

Died: 1895-04-13 Springfield, Illinois

Herndon came to Sangamon County with his family (including his brother William H. Herndon) in 1821. Herndon studied law in Springfield and was admitted to the bar in the winter of 1842-43. He served as the city attorney for Springfield, the attorney for Sangamon County, and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, in addition to forming a law partnership with John A. McClernand. In 1858, he was appointed disbursing agent by the general government for Illinois. Herndon was an active Democrat and edited the Illinois State Democrat newspaper from 1857 to 1860. In the presidential election of 1860, Herndon supported John C. Breckinridge for president, and during the Civil War, he was actively part of the anti-war effort.

David Donald, Lincoln's Herndon (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1948), 136-37, 158; History of Sangamon County (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 106-07; John Palmer, ed., The Bench and Bar of Illinois: Historical and Reminiscent (Chicago: Lewis, 1899), 1:184-85; Springfield Sunday Journal (IL), 14 April 1895, 5:3-4; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 372-73. Illustration courtesy of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Springfield, IL..