Sconce, Lafayette H.

Born: 1834-XX-XX Illinois

Lafayette H. Sconce was a notary public, civil servant, land speculator, and debt collector. In 1850, he lived with his parents and siblings in Danville, Illinois and attended school. He served as a clerk in the U.S. General Land Office in Danville between 1852 and 1856. He engaged heavily in land speculation from 1854 to 1856, purchasing more than 10,000 acres of public land across ten counties in Illinois. In 1859, the Illinois General Assembly approved his July 1858 commission as a notary public for Vermilion County. By 1860, he owned $11,000 in real estate and another $3,000 in personal property. In November 1862, he married Edwilda Fithian. By 1863, he still resided in Danville and worked as a debt collector.

U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Danville, Vermilion, IL, 30; Daniel W. Stowell et al., eds., The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2008), 3:286; For an exhaustive list of Sconce's land purchases, search "Sconce Lafayette," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; Illinois Senate Journal. 1859. 21st G. A., 434; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Macon County, 18 November 1862, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Danville, Vermilion, IL, 28; U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, 1863-1865, Vermilion County (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations, 2010); Illinois, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1772-1999 (Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com, 2015).