Meadows, James

Born: 1789-XX-XX

Died: 1871-08-06 Greenview, Illinois

Flourished: Menard County, Illinois

A millwright by trade, Meadows moved from Ohio to the Alton area in 1818. The following year, Meadows and his brother-in-law moved to Sugar Grove, in what is now Menard County. As one the very earliest settlers in that area, Meadows was a prominent citizen. He was involved in constructing the first schoolhouse in the area and the first gristmill, which was horse operated. Prior to the completion of his gristmill, Meadows made several canoe trips down the Sangamon, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers to St. Louis to purchase supplies for his frontier community. In 1842, Abraham Lincoln represented Meadows in a debt-collection suit in the Menard County Circuit Court.

The History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1879), 197-98, 200, 215-16, 350, 357, 363; Cleaveland v. Meadows, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=134976; Gravestone, Sugar Grove Cemetery, Sweet Water, IL.