Holbrook, James C.

Born: 1817-05-27 Massachusetts

Died: 1895-01-10 Chester, Illinois

Flourished: Randolph County, Illinois

James C. Holbrook, attorney, was born in Sherborn, Massachusetts and obtained his early education locally before attending an academy in Brattleboro, Vermont. He relocated to Hamilton, Ohio in 1836 and read law there, then graduated from the Cincinnati Law School (later the University of Cincinnati College of Law) in 1841. Holbrook practiced law in Hamilton until 1845, in Sparta, Illinois, 1845 to 1852, and finally in Chester, Illinois from 1852 onwards. In April 1850, Holbrook was appointed postmaster of the U.S. Post Office in Sparta, a position he held until April 1852. He represented Randolph County in the Illinois House of Representatives, 1855 to 1856, having run as a Whig. In 1860, Holbrook was living in Chester with his family, and he owned $8,000 in real property, with a personal estate valued at $500. In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Holbrook a paymaster and he remained in this position until the end of the Civil War. He married Eliza Isabella McDill in Hamilton, Ohio in 1845, and the pair had seven children. Holbrook was a member of the Presbyterian church.

Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry and Monroe Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical, 1894), 250-51; A List of Graduates of The Cincinnati Law School Law Department of the University of Cincinnati From the Time of its Establishment 1833 to 1904 (n.p.: n.p., [1904]), 12; Ohio, U.S., County Marriage Records, 1774-1993, 15 May 1845, Butler County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2016); U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sparta, Randolph County, IL, 17; Record of Appointment of Postmasters, 1832-1971, NARA Microfilm Publication, M841, 145 rolls, Records of the Post Office Department, RG 28, 1845-1855, Volume 18:164, National Archives Building, Washington, DC; Register of all Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September, 1851 (Washington, DC: Gideon, 1851), *549; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 220; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Chester, Randolph County, IL, 355; Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States of America (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1887), 13:76, 147; Chester Tribune (IL), 17 January 1895, 1:3-4.