Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

Milligan, Thomas

Born: 1828-XX-XX Mahoning County, Ohio

Thomas Milligan was a lawyer, school commissioner, teacher, army soldier, and deserter. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Milligan became one of the first lawyers in Monticello, Illinois, opening a law practice in partnership with Hamilton C. McComas. Milligan encountered Abraham Lincoln in the Piatt County Circuit Court, Sangamon County Circuit Court, and other ventures, opposing Lincoln in at least six cases. Milligan introduced Lincoln when the latter traveled to Monticello for a speech during the 1858 senatorial campaign, and Milligan was among those that Lincoln gave presentation copies of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates published in 1860. In 1860, Milligan was practicing law and owned real property valued at $5,700 and had a personal estate of $1,200. He also served as a school commissioner for Piatt County, and was one of the early teachers in the first school in Monticello Township. Milligan later edited the Monticello Conservative from 1860 to 1862. In August 1862, Milligan enlisted as a private in Company C, 107th Illinois Infantry, mustering in at Springfield in September for three years. He deserted twenty-four days after the date of muster.

Charles McIntosh, Past and Present of Piatt County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1903), 24, 27, 187; Emma C. Piatt, History of Piatt County(Chicago: Shepard & Johnston, [1883]), 146, 148-49, 161, 243; For Lincoln’s legal cases involving Milligan, search Participant, “Milligan, Thomas,” 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), https://lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/; Guy C. Frakker, Lincoln's Ladder to the Presidency: The Eighth Judicial Circuit (Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), 199-200, 223; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Monticello, Piatt County, IL, 102; Franklin William Scott, Newspapers and Periodicals of Illinois, 1814-1879, vol. 6 of Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1910), 246; Illinois Civil War Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Illinois (Springfield: H. W. Rokker, 1901), 6:32.