Kercheval, Lewis C.

Born: 1788-XX-XX Kentucky

Died: 1852-12-08 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: Chicago, Illinois

Lewis C. Kercheval was a county commissioner, federal government official, justice of the peace, and pioneer settler of Chicago, Illinois. He moved to Chicago early in the city's history, and in 1832, he served as a county commissioner. From 1839 to 1841, Kercheval held the job of customs inspector in for the Port of Chicago, and in 1841, he received appointment as a justice of the peace. In addition to his civic positions, Kercheval took an active interest in Chicago's social and cultural institutions. In 1843, he served as president of the Chicago chapter of the Washingtonian Temperance Society. Kercheval was a high-ranking member of Lafayette Lodge, No. 18, of the Freemasons, and the first Chicago Mason to be admitted as a representative of the Grand Lodge of Illinois. He died unexpectedly after a severe bout of diarrhea.

A. T. Andreas, History of Chicago (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884), 1:450-51, 507-8, 518; David Ward Wood, ed., Chicago and its Distinguished Citizens, or the Progress of Forty Years (Chicago: Milton George, 1881), 393; A. N. Waterman, Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography (Chicago: Lewis, 1908), 1:253; Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 10 December 1852, 3:1.