Linder, Usher F.

Born: 1809-03-20 Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Died: 1876-06-05 Chicago, Illinois

Flourished: 1835-1860 Coles County, Illinois

In 1835, Linder moved his wife and children to Illinois and settled in Greenup. There he began a law practice and first met Abraham Lincoln, who he often encountered in the circuit courts of Illinois. In 1836, voters elected him to the Illinois House of Representatives, where he served alongside Lincoln, but he resigned before the close of the session to accept the office of Attorney General. He moved with his family to Alton and held that office for eighteen months before resigning and returning to Charleston and the private practice of law. Voters returned Linder to the Illinois General Assembly in 1846 and reelected him in 1850. Originally a Whig, he became a Democrat and in 1860 served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. In 1860, Linder moved to Chicago, where he continued practicing law. In 1860, he owned $15,000 worth of real estate and had a law student, a printer, and two servants in his large household.

Usher F. Linder, Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois (Chicago: The Chicago Legal News, 1879), 21, 35, 37, 395-96; Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Coles County, ed. by Charles Edward Wilson (Chicago: Munsell, 1906), 1:338-39; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Chicago Ward 7, Cook County, IL, 10.