Kyes, David

Born: 1820-02-18 Michigan

Died: 1891-12-05 Washington, Illinois

Flourished: Washington, Illinois

Alternate name: Keyes

David Kyes was a brickmaker, county sheriff, grocer, attorney, state representative, judge, and Republican. In January 1846, he married Hannah Maris in Tazewell County, Illinois. The couple eventually had at least eight children together, although only four survived to adulthood. Kyes worked as a brickmaker in Washington, Illinois and, by 1850, owned $1,500 in real estate. In 1852, the voters of Tazewell County elected him sheriff. He served in this position until 1854, then operated a grocery store and studied law. In 1857, he was admitted to the bar. He served as a delegate to the 1858 Republican state convention in Springfield, Illinois that selected Abraham Lincoln as its candidate for U.S. senator. In 1860, voters elected Kyes to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Republican. By that time, he was working as an attorney and owned $3,000 in real and personal property. In 1865, voters elected him county judge, and he held that position until well after the Civil War.

Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Tazewell County, 1 January 1846, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; George L. Maris and Annie M. Maris, The Maris Family in the United States: A Record of the Descendants of George and Alice Maris, 1683-1885 (West Chester, PA: F. S. Hickman, 1885), 46, 115; History of Tazewell County Illinois (Chicago: Chas. C. Chapman, 1879), 390, 713-14; The Weekly Pantagraph (Bloomington, IL), 16 June 1858, 2:2; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 16 June 1858, http://thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1858-06-16; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Washington, Tazewell County, IL, 2; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Washington, Tazewell County, IL, 17; U.S. Census Office, Ninth Census of the United States (1870), Pekin, Tazewell County, IL, 72; Gravestone, Glendale Cemetery, Washington, IL.