Moffett, Thomas (Moffitt)

Born: 1797-04-13 Bath County, Kentucky

Died: 1877-06-16 Springfield, Illinois

Alternate name: Moffitt

Thomas Moffett arrived in Springfield in 1826, where he taught school and studied law. Moffett was an orderly sergeant in a Sangamon County company in the Winnebago War in 1827. Moffett was admitted to the bar in 1828 and was the first person in Sangamon County to receive a license to practice law. On January 22, 1829, he married as his first wife, Eliza Ann Gatton, with whom he had eight children. In 1832, he was the captain of a company in the Black Hawk War. Moffett served two years as county commissioner and, in 1843, voters elected him as a probate justice of the peace. After the new Illinois Constitution of 1848 established county courts to handle probate matters, voters elected Moffett as county judge, a position he held for four years. In 1860, Moffett owned real estate worth $1,500 and had a personal estate of $300. In religion, he was a Presbyterian.

History of Sangamon County, Illinois (Chicago: Inter-State, 1881), 78; John Carroll Power and S. A. Power, History of the Early Settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois (Springfield, IL: Edwin A. Wilson, 1876), 528; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Morgan County, 22 January 1829, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Sangamon County, IL, 108; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Sangamon County, IL, 124; Illinois Weekly State Journal (Springfield), 20 June 1877, 3:4.