Seehorn, Eli

Born: 1808-06-13 Tennessee

Died: 1876-06-28 Adams County, Illinois

Flourished: Adams County, Illinois

Eli Seehorn was a farmer, state legislator, and county government official. Seehorn was among the first white settlers to arrive in what would become Fall Creek Township in Adams County, Illinois. In 1834, he purchased eighty acres of public land in the Fall Creek area southeast of Quincy. He was a member of the Adams County Commissioners' Court in 1841 when the county's residents voted to move the seat of government from Quincy to Columbus, and he worked to keep the county seat in Quincy. In 1850, he was farming and owned real property valued at $4,000. In 1854, he won election, as a Democrat, to the Illinois House of Representatives, serving in that body from January to February 1855. In 1859, he became treasurer for Adams County. By 1860, the value of Seehorn's real property had increased to $24,000, and he had a personal estate of $10,000.

William H. Collins and Cicero F. Perry, Past and Present of the City of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1905), 84, 156, 313, 315; The History of Adams County, Illinois (Chicago: Murray, Williamson & Phelps, 1879), 286-88, 529; Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Adams County, 701:101, 702:198, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Adams County, IL, 86; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Adams County, IL, 100; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 220; List of Members of the Illinois Legislature in 1855; Gravestone, Fall Creek Methodist Protestant Cemetery, Adams County, IL.