Shaw, J. Henry

Born: 1825-07-25 Boston, Massachusetts

Died: 1885-04-12 Springfield, Illinois

J. Henry Shaw, lawyer and farmer, came to Illinois with his family in 1836. Largely self-educated, Shaw gained admission to the bar in 1850 and opened an law office in Beardstown, Illinois, where he practiced for three decades. In July 1855, he married Amy A. Chandler in Macoupin County. The couple would eventually have at least two children together. In 1860, Shaw was farming in Beardstown and owned $3,000 in real property, with a personal estate of $1,000. Shaw won election to the Illinois House of Representatives, as a Democrat, in 1880 and 1885.

William Henry Perrin, ed., History of Cass County, Illinois (Chicago: O. L. Baskin, 1882), 260-67; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Macoupin County, 5 July 1855, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Beardstown, Cass County, IL, 241; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 240, 244; The Chicago Daily Tribune (IL), 13 April 1885, 1:3; Gravestone, Beardstown City Cemetery, Beardstown, IL.