Knowlton, Lincoln B.

Born: 1810-XX-XX Massachusetts

Died: 1853-06-08 Peoria, Illinois

Flourished: Peoria, Illinois

An intellectually gifted child, Knowlton attended Union College in Schenectady, New York. After graduating, he read law with Governor "Honest John Davis" of Massachusetts. He moved to Peoria, Illinois, in 1839, where he commenced the practice of law. He became one of the most prominent and successful attorneys in the state, known by many as the Henry Clay of the Illinois bar. In 1842, he married Lucretia Wolcott, with whom he had five children. Politically, he embraced the Whig Party. He was a delegate to the Whig National Convention that nominated Henry Clay for president in 1844. In August 1846, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Illinois Senate. In April 1847, Peoria County voters elected Knowlton as a Whig to represent the county at the Illinois Constitutional Convention. As the Whig Party began to disintegrate, Knowlton shifted his allegiance to the Free Soil Party, running unsuccessfully for governor on the Free Soil ticket in 1852.

Sangamo Journal (Springfield, IL), 4 January 1844, 2:1; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 14 June 1853, 2:1; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Peoria County, 2 August 1842; Cook County, 10 August 1842, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Theodore C. Pease, ed., Illinois Election Returns, 1818-1848, vol. 18 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1923), 407, 456; 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), 2:967; James M. Rice, Peoria City and County Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1912), 1:368; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Peoria, Peoria County, IL, 150.